The Marketing Week Podcast

Hosted by Marketing Week

BusinessInterviews guestsExplicit

Website RSS feed

Episodes

179

Latest episode

Sep 2026

Language

About the show

Marketing Week is one of the UK’s most respected business titles and a trusted and authoritative voice on the marketing industry. Listen to our award-winning editorial team discuss key topics with leading industry voices. From exploring what's next in career development and leadership, to the future of B2B, Marketing Week takes listeners behind the scenes of the world's most effective marketing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

September 9, 202631 min

How to grow a viral brand with Stanley 1913's chief brand officer

Stanley 1913 is a brand with more than 100 years of heritage, but it's the last few years which has seen the drinkware business achieve mammoth growth. In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, work and careers editor & podcast lead Molly Innes is joined by Stanley's chief brand officer Kate Ridley to find out how the business is driving growth after achieving mega viral success online. She joined the brand last year as a consultant to build out its global marketing function, before taking on the role on a permanent basis. Before Stanley, Ridley spent more than 20 years at Adidas and in the episode shares the lessons she picked up at the sportswear giant, and how she's carrying them through, as she looks to maintain growth at Stanley. The business is now entering new categories of sports and fashion, eyeing up welcoming new consumers to the brand. Ridley explains Stanley is doing this without alienating its longstanding fans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

September 1, 202644 min

Carwow CMO Ben Carter on tackling marketing's 'confidence crisis'

Carwow's chief marketing officer Ben Carter is a marketer on a mission to help put marketing back at the centre of brands' growth efforts. In the latest episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, host and editor-in-chief Russell Parsons, digs into why Carter believes marketing is in a "confidence crisis" and how the profession can re-route itself to be seen "not as a cost centre" but as a growth engine. Carter began his career as a journalist, reporting on the marketing industry, before making the switch to marketing during the internet boom. Previously CMO at the likes of Dunelm and Purple Bricks, he believes marketing is struggling with confidence because its practitioners are "not able to tell the right story" of what they are doing. In the episode, he also discusses his own career journey, the false divide between brand and performance, how Carwow is building out its content and storytelling and more. His message to marketers? "Never stop learning." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 17, 202650 min

Seedlip founder Ben Branson on overcoming adversity, innovation and neurodivergence

What drives founders forward? For Ben Branson, who launched Seedlip in 2015, it is twofold: a “fear of failure” and “being dissatisfied about something" and wanting to change it. In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, Branson, who sold Seedlip to Diageo in 2019 before launching Pollen Projects - a venture studio dedicated to building non-alcoholic spirit brands - is joined by host editor-in-chief Russell Parsons to lift the lid on what motivates him when it comes to building brands. Branson details how his early struggles with mental health, addiction and anxiety propelled him to “solve problems” and “make things better”. Ultimately, he explains, he doesn’t “want to let good ideas down”. He also shares his journey of an adult diagnosis of ADHD and autism, and how this led him to found The Hidden 20%, a charity, podcast and movement campaigning for neurodiversity. “We need a society that can include all minds now more than ever. We need the creativity, the skills, the innovation, the pattern spotting, all of the great things that can come from working with different brains.” Branson will be speaking at Marketing Week's Festival of Marketing 2026 , taking place on 14 October. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 10, 202636 min

Are marketers stuck in an effectiveness ‘echo chamber’?

Have marketers invented a language to describe performance no one else in the business understands? The latest Language of Effectiveness data reveals over 70% of respondents see a disconnect between the way marketing interprets effectiveness and the rest of the business. In fact, 11% of marketers don’t discuss effectiveness with the wider business at all. Are they missing a trick? To unpick the data, Marketing Week deputy editor and intelligence editor, Charlotte Rogers, is joined by TUI group head of international marketing Rachel Moss and Brian Macreadie, head of marketing at law firm Addleshaw Goddard. We ask whether marketers have lost sight of the metrics that really matter to their boards and if now is the time to urgently address the disconnect. Moss and Macreadie discuss the merits of treating effectiveness as a two-way conversation rooted in trust, exploring the power storytelling has to make these discussions easier. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 3, 202634 min

How Unilever is transforming brand building with creators, social media and AI

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, news editor Niamh Carroll is joined by Unilever's beauty and wellbeing division global vice president of digital, social and AI transformation Selina Sykes. She explains how Unilever's approach to brand building has changed - and what's remained - as well as how to effectively manage a team through constant transformation in a world where how people shop and consume media is rapidly changing. "The fundamentals are exactly the same," says Sykes, who will be sharing more about Unilever's transformation at Festival of Marketing 2026 . "But what we've seen is that how you achieve those things is radically different, and it continues to change." This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. Its LINK AI creator content insights turn influencer ads into predictive insight you can act on. Discover how you can invest with confidence, not guesswork with LINK AI by Kantar . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 27, 202626 min

Special episode: From chaos to clarity – the new science of creator effectiveness

Creator marketing is everywhere. But for many CMOs it still feels messy, inconsistent and driven by instinct. Is it just advertising with a friendlier face, or a fundamentally different channel? And can it genuinely build brands while still delivering performance? In the latest episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, sponsored by Kantar, global creative thought leadership director Vera Šídlová joins editor-in-chief Russell Parsons to explore what the data actually says. Drawing on Kantar’s latest creator effectiveness research: The creator game plan – based on large-scale analysis of content across 15,000 pieces of creator content on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram – she separates hype from hard evidence. The conversation focuses on what drives impact and how brands can make sharper, more confident decisions in creator marketing. You’ll hear: Why creator marketing works differently from traditional advertising… and how it actually builds brands How authenticity and brand consistency can reinforce each other, not compete The patterns behind high-performing creator content – and what strong briefs consistently get right How CMOs should measure creator marketing to make better investment decisions at scale Host: Russell Parsons, editor-in-chief, Marketing Week Guest: Věra Šídlová, global creative thought leadership director, Kantar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 20, 202636 min

How can advertising fix its trust problem?

How can the marketing industry build trust in advertising? It’s a perennial issue, but the next phase of the Advertising Association's action plan wants to tackle it head on. In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, editor-in-chief Russell Parsons is joined by Stephen Woodford, CEO of the Advertising Association, and Andria Vidler, CEO of National Lottery operator Allwyn and outgoing Advertising Association president. Public trust in advertising has risen from 30% to 40% in the last four years. However, serious challenges remain, from combating online scam ads to navigating AI’s impact. This episode outlines the state of trust in the UK, from the role AI is playing to the industry’s relationship with the government, to help tackle the question: how can advertising become fundamentally trustworthy to the public? This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. Its LINK AI creator content insights turn influencer ads into predictive insight you can act on. Discover how you can invest with confidence, not guesswork with LINK AI by Kantar . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 14, 202634 min

Professors Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk on influencing CFOs, how (small) brands grow and AI hype

This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is a must for any marketer navigating the industry's enduring and fresh challenges. Professors Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute join editor-in-chief Russell Parsons live from Cannes Lions to cover topics such as influencing finance departments, growth for small brands and AI "hype". "[Marketers] should stop trying to pretend they're amateur CFOs and stealing terms like ROI and things like that, which just make the CFO think the marketers are jerks," says Sharp. "The job of the marketer is to explain to the CFO what they're trying to achieve and put forward some appropriate metrics to be measured on, not promises of huge leaps in market shares and sales." They also discuss why an obsession with some metrics is leading to wasted budget and their opinion on the industry's purpose pushback, as well as interrogating some of marketing's biggest myths. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 7, 202625 min

Oura's chief marketing officer on 'empathetic' advertising, sports sponsorship and building awareness

Oura is one of the fastest growing health wearable brands, with revenues increasing fourfold in the last two years and the business on track to surpass 5 million users. In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, CMO Doug Sweeny joins host Molly Innes, work and careers editor & podcast lead, to explore the brand's approach to marketing, from sports sponsorship to its recent brand repositioning and platform 'Give us the Finger'. Since Sweeny last spoke to Marketing Week in October - when the brand repositioned from fitness tracker to 'holistic' health brand - its brand awareness has jumped from 20% to 30% in the UK. He also discusses his team's relationship with the product function. "We work incredibly tightly with the product team. It's left hand, right hand," he says, noting that the "idea of a baton hand off" to marketing just doesn't cut it. This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. Its LINK AI creator content insights turn influencer ads into predictive insight you can act on. Discover how you can invest with confidence, not guesswork with LINK AI by Kantar . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 29, 202632 min

How can marketers thrive in the second half of 2026?

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, we’re reflecting on the year so far and what it means for marketers going into the second half of 2026. Hosts Lucy Tesseras, managing editor, and Molly Innes, senior reporter, are joined by the Marketing Week editorial team to dig into the big stories of 2026 and the lessons brands should carry through to make a success of the next six months. This episode spans everything from how marketers can find growth in a low-growth environment and influencer marketing transparency, to the evolution of AI search and B2B buying behaviours. The team also discuss the industry’s career progression crisis and how it’s impacting parents, as well as a look at how marketers can improve their martech stacks. This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. Its LINK AI creator content insights turn influencer ads into predictive insight you can act on. Discover how you can invest with confidence, not guesswork with LINK AI by Kantar . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.