From Mouldy Whoppers to Old Age Cows - Fernando Machado, NotCo CMO

Today I'm joined by one of the most influential and successful CMOs on the planet, Fernando Machado, of legendary Burger King fame. He went on to work at Activision and now is CMO at NotCo.

Fernando is a creative genuis, he's been awarded many, many times I've started to lose count (over 200 Cannes Lions). I wanted to catch up with Fernando and find out what makes a great creative marketer, was that "Mouldy Whopper" campaign actually worth it, and why did they sponsor a low league English football team? We also talk about what is he doing now working for a plant-based company and how AI plays a crucial role for them.

Links

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• Watch UCMO on YouTube

Topics covered:

• What makes an influential CMO
• The culture that leads to award winning work
• The importance of influencing an organisation QUOTE
• The two hidden P’s of the CMO
• The importance of a shared creative ambition
• Why shared values and purposes is so important
• What it takes to create award winning work QUOTE
• Why is takes time to build up the credibility to take risks
• Why huge failures are similar to most campaigns QUOTE
• If your creative isn’t noticed everything else is academic
• Why attracting the best creative talent means committing to bold work
• The more creative work you do the more creative you are likely to get
• When you have a smaller budget you have to get more creative
• Sharing the results for Mouldy Whopper in public to address the critics
• Where the idea for the Mouldy Whopper came from QUOTE
• What Fernando learnt at Activision Blizzard
• The power of networking in finding a perfect role
• The biggest challenge facing NotCo
• Why the best creative work gets done on small budgets
• How AI is accelerating the development of plant based products
• How AI beat the Nike design department
• How AI created the most average Pizza advert
• Why the brief matters when using AI QUOTE
• From curation to creative, why AI is a tool and not a replacement of the marketing function
• Why Notco is advertising old animals
• Think of a colour that doesn’t exist
• The one piece of advice for marketers