A Challenger Brand Workout with Gymbox Brand Director Rory McEntee
Episode 149
Wednesday, August 28, 2024 • Duration 59:34
Regular listeners of the podcast will know how much I love challenger brands, and Gymbox are one of the best examples of a challenger brand really shaping up their industry. Rory McEntee is the Brand and Marketing Director for the challenger Gym brand, and is responsible for some of the most creative campaigns (which have often come along with a side helping of legal letters) that have really put Gymbox on the map.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:45 - Rory’s marketing background 02:27 - Rory’s time at Paddy Power 08:18 - Why Rory joined Gymbox 10:11 - The Gymbox founding story 14:01 - Reframing how people see the gym 16:05 - Using your constraints to your advantage 25:15 - Using every touch point as media 35:11 - Being obsessed with execution 39:27 - Forgiveness not permission with your marketing 46:43 - Dealing with taking risks 48:56 - Why the Gymbox culture is so important 53:44 - How does the business of a challenger gym work
Brand of the year CMO on Innovation, TED talks and what B2B can learn from B2C - Rebecca Hirst
Episode 148
Wednesday, August 21, 2024 • Duration 56:11
Rebecca Hirst is the Chief Marketing Officer of EY UK, a TEDx Speaker and a winner of Campaign's 40 over 40. Before joining EY and making the switch to B2B, Rebecca was Marketing Director at Samsung and working on brands including Coca-Cola, Schweppes, Kellogg’s, Kleenex, Microsoft, IBM, United Airlines, Lufthansa and Star Alliance.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:54 - Winning Campaign’s 40 over 40 04:33 - Being a Ted Talk speaker 08:01 - Rebecca’s time at Samsung 13:08 - Why Jon loves being a challenger brand 17:08 - Working at Coca Cola vs Pepsi 23:00 - How Rebecca transitioned into a B2B role 25:46 - The power of compounding 32:03 - How is B2B marketing different to B2C? 37:36 - How to influence change at a large organisation 46:12 - How EY became UK’s strongest brand 52:14 - Rebecca’s advice to young marketers
How Gymshark built a unicorn with influencers - Noel Mack
Episode 139
Wednesday, June 19, 2024 • Duration 50:21
We're again talking about one of my favourite topics; challenger brands. In this episode we've got one of the most successful challenger brands in the world, Gymshark. They're one of the original influencer and social media creative brands, growing to be Britain's fastest growing Unicorn. I'm joined by their Chief Brand Officer, Noel Mack, to give me the inside scoop on exactly how they did it.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 02:29 - Gymshark Origins 04:49 - How Noel Mack bet Ben Francis 07:59 - What is a Chief Brand Officer? 09:28 - How Gymshark do influencer marketing differently 15:17 - Growing the Gymshark community 20:38 - The benefits of being a newcomer 22:59 - Working at a founder-led company 25:36 - When Ben Francis met the Prime Minister 29:09 - The challenges of scaling up fast 37:21 - Launching the Gymshark flagship store in London 43:22 - What’s it like working with Ben Francis? 46:46 - Career advice from Noel Mack
Tom Goodwin on the metaverse and other marketing nonsense
Episode 49
Monday, May 9, 2022 • Duration 41:03
Tom Goodwin is an author of a quote you might just have heard of: "Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening."
He does other things too, like spending an immense amount of time on LinkedIn and writing some seriously impressive books - two of them in fact - Digital Darwinism 1 and 2 (out now in the UK).
What we covered in this episode:
From architecture to advertising
Coping with job rejection letters
Jon blags himself a job
The terrifying feeling of going solo
Being a Decathlete rather than sprinter
The importance of saying No
How the industry lost its way
Why customer service has been lost
The story behind THAT quote
Potential applications of the insight and its limitations
How we may be coming full circle
Why is better to leverage existing tech rather than gambling on new
The challenge of the Metaverse and how society will reject it
How technology should be making us more human not less
Technology as augmentation rather than replacement
Why nothing new has happened in the past 8 years
The power of Nowism vs Futurism
The biggest barriers to innovation inside larger corporate businesses
It's 40 years since the founding of one of the most famous and iconic advertising agencies; BBH or Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty. Today I speak with founder, Sir John Hegarty to find out what it's been like to be at the helm of one of the world's most successful ad agencies for 4 decades.
We take a look back over a long history of advertising to see what's changed, what we can learn and maybe what new techniques today are worth investing in. We touch on many of the great campaigns that come out to BBH, two of my favourites in particular being Levi's from the early eighties and more recently, Audi, which was in fact, one of their founding clients and spanned the entire 40 year history of the agency. As you would expect an amazing storyteller full of wit and wisdom and lots of great advice.
Here's what we covered:
How Sir John got into advertising
What advice he would give after 5 decades in Advertising
Why you should entertain rather than inform
How advertising followed cultural trends
Why advertising appears to be making worse creative but expect better results
The lack of evidence for brand building via social media
How BBH turned Levi’s around and inspired their own agency positioning
The making of Levi’s iconic Laundrette advert
Why the model ended up wearing Boxer shorts
How Levi’s ad revitalised famous music tracks
The longest running BBH client
How the ‘factory visit’ inspired one of the most famous taglines
Why being illogical can be the right thing to do
Being defined by your work
The importance of creative people at the top of the company
How creativity helps solve business problems
Advice to clients for how to get the best out of their agency
How the audience ended up coming last in our priorities
Why we are all making creative decisions and how to be more creative
The importance of being Fearless and not being afraid to fail
Advice for selling in creative ideas to clients
The one piece of creative work John is most proud of
Why purpose gets you on the pitch but doesn’t win you the game
How Pip & Nut went from kitchen table to multi-million pound business - Pip Murray, Pip & Nut
Episode 47
Monday, April 11, 2022 • Duration 58:16
Pip Murray is the founder of Pip & Nut, which she launched in 2015 and it's now stocked in over 3,000 stores around the UK. It's the fastest growing nut butter brand around, and it's clear to see why. Pip is full of stories and insights in journey building the company, from humble beginnings in her kitchen and at craft fairs to becoming a staple brand on the shelves of all major supermarkets.
What we covered in this episode:
Why Pip started a nut butter business
From kitchen table to full scale production
The constant trial and error to find the perfect recipe
The confidence that comes from being close to your customer
The importance of the right manufacturing partner and selling them the dream
The challenge of minimum production run when you get started
Pip&Nut’s first customer and the importance of focussing on it
What to do when you have no marketing budget
Bootstrapping and crowdfunding to cover the first couple of years
The pro’s and con’s of starting a business when you are young
How easy it is to convince yourself our of an idea and the power of intelligent naivety
How the biggest doubts come in as you scale and stakes get bigger
The opportunity cost of doing too much
Betting big on brand identity from the start
Inspiration from the B&B studios portfolio and finding the right chemistry
The 3 things every Private Equity company does when they acquire a brand
Finding the right design and why Pip used her name in the brand identity
The challenge and opportunity of a national retailer listing
The trade off between focussed distribution and full scale distribution
Why keeping it tight is so important
What we can learn from the best soft drink launches
The advantage of playing in the niche to begin with
Cash flow challenges of a scale up
Sources of funding for growth and finding the right people to invest
The messy nature of startups and the power of empathy from an experienced investor
What the hardest moment of Pip’s journey taught her
Why we should all give a s**t about B2B - Jon Lombardo and Peter Weinberg, LinkedIn B2B Institute
Episode 46
Wednesday, March 23, 2022 • Duration 52:28
Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo are the heads of research and development at the B2B Institute, a think tank at LinkedIn that studies the laws of growth in B2B. You can follow Peter and Jon on LinkedIn.
What we covered in this episode:
Introducing the youngest B2B marketers on the planet
Jon & Peters favourite Super Bowl ads
The very low hurdle of writing a B2B article
How half the economy is in fact B2B
Is B2B really different to B2C
Sales vs Product led B2B companies
The Product Delusion and why it damages marketing
How B2B ads compare to B2C on long term brand building
What everyone can learn from Salesforce
How brand advertising is good for sales and talent
The power of cuddly furry animals
Publicity vs Persuasion in Advertising
Plug for ‘Why does the Pedlar Sing’ by Paul Feldwick
Introducing the 95:5 rule
The best search engine is the one in your head
The importance of aligning marketing with finance
Sponsoring the first ever B2B Cannes Lion
Advertising is the tax for having a bad product
Their least successful Marketing Week article
Liberty Mutual and the power of sound
What we can learn from Boston beers Super Bowl winning Ad
How emotion regulates what we pay attention to
Why characters are the most underused tactic in advertising
Wear in vs Wear out and why incentives for agency and client aren’t aligned
The Originality Delusion and the power of old ideas
Bitcoin maximalism and the power of blending something old and new
Confidence, Creativity & Catching Big Ideas - Andrew Robertson, CEO BBDO
Episode 45
Wednesday, March 2, 2022 • Duration 45:04
Andrew Robertson has been President and Chief Executive Officer of BBDO Worldwide since June 2004, and has worked with major clients including AT&T, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Ford, GE, Mars Inc, PepsiCo, SAP and Visa.
It has been named Network of the Year at Cannes a record-setting seven times and the world's most awarded agency network according to The Gunn Report/World Advertising Research Center for thirteen years in a row. Since 2005, BBDO has been honoured as Global Agency of the Year in Ad Age, Adweek (three times) and Campaign (five times). BBDO Worldwide was also recognized as the Most Effective Network in the world by the Global Effies in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2017.
Andrew first came to BBDO in the UK in 1995, joining Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO where he subsequently served as Chief Executive. In 2001, he moved to BBDO North America to serve as President and CEO.
He began his advertising career at Ogilvy & Mather, London as a Media Planner. He switched to Account Management and was appointed to the Board of Ogilvy & Mather in 1986. In 1989, he joined J. Walter Thompson and in November 1990, was appointed Chief Executive of WCRS.
Andrew has a degree in Economics from City of London University. He currently serves on the Boards of Autism Speaks and Hope Funds for Cancer Research. He is a past Chairman of The Advertising Council.
What we covered in this episode:
Falling into advertising after starting out in civil engineering
Why Andrew learnt selling insurance and gambling through the night
The late night conversation that led Andrew to advertising
18 years at the helm of a global adverting business
Why getting the people right is the most important task of any CEO
The importance of time spent with customers
Learning to love problems and embrace them as opportunities
Loving what your business creates
Where the trophies of ‘The most awarded network agency in the world’ are kept
Why ‘meaning it’ is the secret to staying on top of your creative game
Building a strong network bottom up with strong local creative agencies
The secret to winning the best Super Bowl Ad - Lesya Lysyj, CMO Boston Beer
Episode 44
Wednesday, February 23, 2022 • Duration 44:37
Jon chats with CMO of Boston Beer, Lesya Lysyj, who has nearly 30 years of marketing experience in the food and beverage industry. Prior to joining Boston Beer, she served as President U.S. (Sales and Marketing) for Welch’s Foods.
The winning Super ad of 2022 and no it wasn’t a set up
Inventing ‘Your cousin from Boston’ and why it works
The power of sticking to the same creative idea
Why we get bored of our own ads before our customer does
The case for releasing a Super Bowl ad early
Creating 2 billion PR impressions from the campaign
The power of Your Cousin From Boston lock up
Taking a big swing with the company dollars
Why a CMO can’t enjoy the Super Bowl when they are advertising
The actual robot dogs that protect Boston Dynamics
How Boston Beer approach testing advertising
Why the idea you like is not always the best idea
Founder Jim and his famous post it notes
How to get payback from a Super Bowl ad
Lesya’s top 3 tips for making a winning Super Bowl ad
Why the CFO is such a fan of System1
How do you top a winning Super Bowl ad
How Brands Grow - Byron Sharp, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute
Episode 43
Thursday, February 3, 2022 • Duration 01:06:37
Byron Sharp is a Professor of Marketing Science and Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute – the world’s largest centre for research into marketing.
His first book How Brands Grow: what marketers don’t know has been called one of the most influential marketing books of the past decade (Warc, 2015) and was voted marketing book of the year by AdAge readers. In 2015 he published the follow-up How Brands Grow Part 2 with Professor Jenni Romaniuk. He has also written a textbook Marketing: Theory, Evidence, Practice which reflects modern knowledge about marketing and evidence-based thinking. The revised 2nd editionof the textbook was published in 2017.
Byron has co-hosted, with Professor Jerry Wind, two conferences at the Wharton Business School on the laws of advertising, and is on the editorial board of five journals.
What we covered in this episode:
Being turned down for a publishing deal for How Brands Grow
Why experts are terrible at predicting the future
Marketers getting distracted by Purpose with little empirical support for it
The ethical reason we should be focussed on the best return on marketing
Byron responds to Peter Field’s Purpose research
The top marketing myths exposed by How Brands Grow
The No.1 surprise in How Brands Grow
Why your customers are mostly the same as your competitors
The law of Double Jeopardy and why we are over exposed to our own brands heavy buyers
The paradox of very small brands having a larger customer base than expected
Divesting yourself and learning to delegate to the team
The nerve wracking moment of going on TV for the first time
The importance of B-Corp status and making a sustainable brand
How Pip would define success
The energy you gain from a crisis
Why the best way to learn is doing
Pip’s advice for her 24 year old self
Attracting a limited pool of truly exceptional people
Why emotion is the most effective thing you can do
The power of platform ideas
Don’t understand the value of craft
Calculating the downside risk to help you take the leaps that lead to upside
The pursuit of certainty leads to the norm
How the snickers creative idea was ‘caught’ in a line of copy
Why all great ideas are obvious after their invention
The power of a new way of seeing an old idea
Why Andrew’s favourite ad was one that delivered bad news
The benefits of sleeping with a homeless guy
It’s hard not to buy from someone who makes you smile
How confidence in the team beats the silver bullet when it comes to pitching
The expectation of agencies to deliver effortlessly seamless and connected communication at every tough point
Half my advertising is wasted but it’s gets a lot worse in digital
How similar the top brands look vs ten years ago
Lucozade sugar tax backlash and how that proved the laws of marketing
The surprising importance of light and very light buyers
Why a lot of your sales come from people who haven’t bought you for at least a year
The importance of not changing your design
Whether the laws vary depending on category
Why market research is designed to highlight difference rather than similarity
The importance of distinctiveness and being remembered
What Levitt, Kotler and Akker got wrong about differentiation
Why even bankers can’t tell their banks apart
The power of pink concrete mixers
Asking an 8 year old to tell you what’s different about your brand
The real role of advertising for your brand
How search works just like point of sale to catch people as they fall
How the laws remain the same in B2B
Why Apple isn’t your typical brand when it comes to selling product differentiation
Why Ehrenberg Bass has just own distinctive asset
Why fruit doesn’t need packaging
The biggest unanswered question in marketing
Plans for Ehrenberg Bass to make training available to marketers
What Byron missed out in How Brands Grow
The importance of marketing the research and highlighting the implications
Describing Mark Ritson as the best business journalist in the world
What Byron thinks about the environment and the role of marketing in it
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