How I created the most successful agency of the 90’s - Rupert Howell, HHCL & Partners

In a career that's spanned selling Tea to the British as Marketing Director at Twinings, to now CMO at the largest e-commerce business in Latin America, Sean Summers knows a thing or two about marketing (at all levels). I catch up with him at Cannes to discuss his career, what it's like scaling a business from $300m to $10b in revenue and what he thinks of the latest trends like AI.Timestamps00:00 - Intro01:04 - Why is Sean in Cannes?02:25 - What creates an award winning campaign?03:21 - How to make the most out of your agency06:41 - What is being a CMO actually like?10:01 - Marketing language / business jargon11:35 - The awful 360 campaign14:10 - Sean’s biggest failure20:16 - A tough time: running marketing teams in the UK23:25 - What is Mercardo Libre?26:08 - From $300m to $10b28:49 - Marketing for Mercado Libre31:36 - Working with very constrained budgets34:46 - Managing a multi-faceted company39:57 - Becoming a media owner42:08 - Learnings from running a media business44:19 - The importance of building an online brand offline46:16 - How the pandemic helped them48:06 - Sean’s thoughts on AI

12 Juli 202355min

Allessandra Bellini is the Chief Customer Officer at Tesco, the largest supermarket in the UK. Previously she's held roles at agencies, before 21 years at Unilever rising up through the ranks to some very senior positions. Tesco are a huge household brand to represent in the UK, and Allessandra and her team have created some exceptional work over the years, including the well received "Food Love Stories" campaign. We talk all about those campaigns, how they scored on the System1 database and what it takes to run such a large brand.LinksFollow JonWatch UCMO on YouTubeTimestamps:00:00 - Intro01:13 - Starting out in advertising03:18 - From creative agency to joining corporate Unilever05:24 - What do you learn in 21 years at Unilever?06:32 - Most challenging and most proud moment at Unilever08:16 - The secret behind uncomfortable conversations10:06 - What is Allessandra most proud of from her time at Unilever?11:26 - From Unilever to Tesco13:28 - How to get close to the customer in such a large organisation15:51 - What are the changed18:15 - Downtrading and uptrading20:44 - The power of Clubcard Data24:57 - Cost of living crisis: every little helps, right?27:47 - How to communicate price30:35 - How much to spend on brand vs activation32:14 - Doing both long and short term advertising33:41 - Food love stories41:11 - Ad 1: Food Love Stories: Eid Mubarak45:31 - Ad 2: Sue’s Crispy Pork Noodles49:43 - Ad 3: Helen’s Homecoming Lamb51:45 - Ad 4: Barbecue54:40 - Being president of the Ad Association

5 Juli 202358min

Tom Rainsford has been named as one of the Top 50 creative minds in the country.  After a surprising start to his career (that still stands him in great creative stead even now), Tom has grown a challenger brand into a household name and now leads the Marketing at one of the coolest brands on the planet – Beavertown Brewery.What does Tom see as the magic ingredients for successful brand growth, why does he believe culture and fact-based emotion are they key and how is he going to top his show stopping MadFest opener from last yearDancing your way to a top job in marketingShould you do a marketing degree?The first kickstarter brand? David to Goliath on Giff Gaff: 10 years building a genuinely different business model - how to outsmart the big boysAre great brands emotional or rational?The problems with tech marketing are…..Watch your internal language doesn’t end up in your communicationsWhy Tom believes in In-housing: how to nurture creativity within a companyWhy creativity is not valued in business.The important questions businesses need to ask themselves about why their creative is wrongThe importance of Culture: Does pizza on a Wednesday help?Was COVID a blessing for marketeers?Art and advertising reflecting culture: A discussion about Orlando Wood’s Look OutWhy pubs can be the answer the growth.Beavertown Neck Oil: Jon and Tom drink at 11am!Has craft beer jumped the shark?Is consistency important in marketing after all?Why Logan (Robert Plants son) founded Beavertown and what’s it like working in Founder led businesses.Why Beavertown innovation works (according to System1)Why Tom wants you to steal his pint glasses.What makes Beavertown stand out?The importance of a stonking productShifting to Heineken ownership - have things changed?Ensuring innovation succeeds within a titan mothershipMadfest: How Tom is planning to top his mobile phone/trust gigHow culture delivers brand trust and helps brands ride the stormCan you learn to do what Derren Brown diss in a month?Why being a CMO can be a lonely affair.The importance of making more noise in bad timesDo people do good work when they are knackered?Marketing artists vs marketing scientistsThe biggest failure in Tom’s career (and what he learnt)The reward of messing upWhy the more senior you get the less you know.“To do” lists vs “to think” listsWhat everyone’s next big business question needs to be……

29 Juni 20231h 7min

Live from Cannes, third time returning guest Rory Sutherland gives us his views on just how good this year’s Festival of Creativity is, what should be awarded, AI vs AI, what we should be looking for as marketeers in current trends and the value that behavioural science brings to creativity.He also talks about what he is looking forward to on the road to another great festival – Madfest, and why he is doing his Mad Masters course.What we covered in this episode:Why Rory thinks this Cannes Lions Festival is the most wonderful ever.The backbone that Rory thinks System1 and WARC bringThe Campaign for a new Behavioural Science AwardFestival of creativity or advertising?The brilliance of ABInbev brewers for bread campaignRory on re-writing the advertising rulesJon’s 5 most creative momentsWhat excites Rory about behavioural scienceRory’s definition of creativityThe story at the heart of Crocs growthShould there be a Cannes Lion for zero budget campaigns?Fashions in psychologyThe problem with chat GPT is……Outlier vs average impact on creativityThe value Artificial Inquisitiveness and Interestingly wrongPeople’s value in business vs automationSystem1’s learnings on AI creativity and innovationWhy brand partnerships should be awarded.Encouraging people to think more widely about what they should be testing.Does Rory think the world needs Apple Vision?Should Google have persisted with Google Glass?Why all Europeans report to distain automatic cars.Rory’s ideas for the tech world innovationWhen are people happy being happy cut off from fellow men?The most important economic thing about Zoom meetings.How Rory is plotting to get more cash for creative peopleWhy Rory keeps coming back on The Uncensored CMOThe value of “crap creativity” – why the obvious solution could sometimes be betterRory’s Road to Madfest  - what he is looking forward to and why he is doing Mad MastersLinksFollow JonWatch UCMO on YouTube

27 Juni 202341min

In this episode I'm joined by three more effectiveness titans in my Cannes special coverage. Karen Nelson-Field, Rob Brittain and fan favourite Orlando Wood join me to talk about the triple opportunity of attention.

23 Juni 202323min

Following on from the IPA EffWorks and WARC session on the Terrace Stage in Cannes, I speak to effectiveness legends, Les Binet, Grace Kite and Tom roach to outline the big shifts in advertising effectiveness in the digital era, suggesting that we’re leaving the trough of disillusionment and moving onto the plateau of productivity.Register for the IPA webinar: https://ipa.co.uk/events-listing/the-3rd-age-of-effectivenessDigital once promised so much in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, tracking, and accountability. But the reality didn’t live up to the hype. And now we’re entering a new era - one where the best understanding about things have always worked are being blended with new ways of doing things, and the evidence suggests things are beginning to work better as a result.  They challenge the narrative that creativity is declining and digital is the culprit. On the contrary, analysis of the ARC database shows effectiveness is improving in some places, (less so in others). It will also shine a light on brand-building in the platform world, specifically, creativity within the platforms. Tom talks about how clients, agencies and creators are getting to grips with the new environment, showcasing examples of effective creativity from around the world.

21 Juni 202324min

Lex Bradshaw-Zanger is the Chief Marketing & Digital Officer for L’Oréal South Asia Pacific, Middle East & North Africa Region. Prior to this role, Lex was the CMO for the UK & Ireland, held roles in the Western Europe Zone and was Chief Digital Officer for the L’Oréal Middle East and Africa Region. Prior to L’Oréal, Lex was with McDonald’s and Facebook. He is a recovered ad-man having spent over 10 years in the agency world, with both WPP and Publicis – his last role was Regional Director for Digital Strategy & Innovation for Leo Burnett MENA.

14 Juni 202351min

Work is fundamentally important to the quality of our lives and we are surrounded by more change and choice than ever before. Our careers have become far less predictable and increasingly 'squiggly'. In this episode I have a chat with Helen Tupper, co-founder of Amazing If and co-author of "The Squiggly Career: Ditch the Ladder, Discover Opportunity, Design Your Career".Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube ->Find out more about Helen:The Squiggly Career BookSquiggly Careers PodcastAmazing IfHelen's LinkedInWhat we covered in this episode:How Helen and Sarah started their business on napkinWhy the career ladder is not necessarily the path to success5 years of experimentation to develop the Squiggly businessHow Helen and Sarah went from starting The Squiggly Careers Podcast to 330 episodesHow to create a growth flywheel for your brand or business - making content more usefulWhy creating something of huge value for free is the key to B2B growth - remaining relevantTrusting in reciprocity - why helping people authentically is so important for growthWhy you shouldn't worry about your weaknessesThe Squiggly Careers Book - The 5 Key Skills you needThe importance of deliberately choosing what you want to be known forYour 2 week energy audit - How to discover your core skills and valuesJon and Helen's 12 month career high and why it matteredBuilding high trust teams and emotional safetyLess budget =  happy teamsConfidence Gremlins and limiting beliefsTeaching yourself to draw on the positiveLearning how to fail.... and that this means for successThe pressure pedestal - we are not all Simon Sinek!Jon's advice on presentation skillsNetworking Events - how to reframe the fearFired? Redundant? How to get back into employment....fast!Why you should only share what you really care aboutHow curious career conversations will set you up well in you next jobCreating a constant flow of future job opportunitiesHow to use your mobile phone contacts to find the perfect roleRedefining the definition of progressionHelen shares whom Squiggly Careers is for and whom it can helpHelen's advice on crafting your best career storyFollow Jon:LinkedInTwitter

7 Juni 202355min