That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features real conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Across the episodes, we explore the ideas, decisions and tensions shaping modern marketing: how brands are built, how B2B marketing is changing, how creativity drives effectiveness, how AI is reshaping the profession, and how marketers can earn a stronger role in the business.
The show is for marketers who want more than tactics. It is for people who care about the craft, the evidence, the commercial impact and the human judgement behind great marketing.
If you want marketing conversations with substance, practical insight and a point of view, That’s What I Call Marketing is for you.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Check latest episodes from That's What I Call Marketing podcast
TWICM 221: Make Your Mark Ep 2 with Dee Cunniam of Britvic Ireland
2026/10/21
Dee Cunniam, Head of Brand Marketing and Innovation at Britvic Ireland, joins That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss growing iconic Irish brands, leading through change and building a marketing career that keeps moving forward. How do you adapt a much-loved brand without losing what people love about it? Through her work on MiWadi and Ballygowan, Dee explains how consumer insight, product innovation and commercial judgement come together and why 18 years in one business has meant many different careers.
In this episode, we cover:
– How MiWadi responded when concerns about sugar challenged perceptions of the brand, balancing functional benefits with its emotional connection to families.
– The thinking behind MiWadi’s 0% sugar range and why innovation needs to preserve a brand’s distinctiveness.
– Ballygowan’s expansion into flavoured and functional water, and what an earlier launch taught the team about consumer readiness.
– Moving shopper marketing beyond point-of-sale execution to a more strategic role across brands, customers and commercial teams.
– Building influence by understanding other functions’ priorities and demonstrating marketing’s commercial value.
– Why sideways moves, category experience and continuous learning can help marketers build broader careers.
A useful listen for marketers interested in brand strategy, FMCG marketing, consumer insight, product innovation, marketing leadership and career development.
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
MAKE YOUR MARK — IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE MARKETING INSTITUTE OF IRELAND
This is the final episode in our three-part Make Your Mark series, exploring the different ways marketers develop their expertise, build confidence and make a meaningful contribution to their organisations. The Marketing Institute of Ireland supports marketers through its competency framework, professional assessment, certification, ongoing CPD and a network of peers. Thank you to the Marketing Institute for partnering with That’s What I Call Marketing on this series.
Find out more: https://mii.ie
TIMESTAMPS
02:51 From promotional work to agency life and FMCG
06:41 Britvic Ireland and its portfolio of brands
08:39 Eighteen years in one business, many different roles
09:17 MiWadi: protecting the brand while responding to change
13:00 Functional benefits, 0% sugar and product innovation
15:18 Making the commercial case for brand investment
16:17 Ballygowan: from mineral water to new drinking occasions
17:55 Balancing innovation with the core brand
19:37 How leadership changes as you become more senior
21:23 Giving shopper marketing a more strategic role
23:12 Building influence across the business
24:44 Making time for learning and development
28:53 Squiggly careers, sideways moves and category experience
31:13 What marketing awards mean for the whole team
32:51 The mark Dee still wants to make
34:22 Club Orange, football and having fun along the way
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 220: Make Your Mark Ep 2 with Stephanie Bell of Mercedes Ireland
2026/10/14
Make Your Mark: Stephanie Bell, Head of Marketing for Mercedes-Benz in Ireland joins That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss building commercial credibility, making a global brand relevant locally and earning support for ambitious marketing.
You’ll hear what “speaking the language of the business” actually looks like, how Stephanie secured backing for The Traitors Ireland partnership and why building relationships with future buyers matters alongside delivering sales today.
When sales fall, pausing marketing can seem like the obvious response. Stephanie shares how she challenged that thinking by starting with the revenue target, working back to the number of customers needed and explaining how marketing would help deliver them.
That commercial grounding runs through a career spanning Diageo, Heineken, FMCG, not-for-profit and automotive. It also shaped her approach to The Traitors Ireland: a partnership the business initially turned down, which went on to deliver almost 30 minutes of on-screen car exposure. Stephanie discusses the 40% year-on-year growth in GLC sales that followed, the lessons from the first series and the creation of four locally produced Irish TV ads for the second.
In this episode, we cover:
– What commercial and trade marketing roles taught Stephanie about customers, margins and making a case for investment.
– Working on Orchard Thieves and adapting lessons from Diageo and Heineken to businesses where marketing has to earn its influence.
– Securing local and global approval for The Traitors Ireland, with conviction rather than certainty.
– Why Irish creative and cultural relevance matter, even when you have a globally recognised luxury brand.
– Balancing immediate sales with future demand across Mercedes-Benz and BYD, while responding to electrification and changing buyer behaviour.
– Making professional development part of the working day and helping a team build its skills and confidence.
A useful listen for marketers interested in brand strategy, sponsorship effectiveness, commercial impact, global and local marketing, marketing leadership and career development.
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
MAKE YOUR MARK | IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE MARKETING INSTITUTE OF IRELAND
This is episode two of our three-part Make Your Mark series, created in partnership with the Marketing Institute of Ireland. The series explores different routes through a marketing career and how marketers make their mark through expertise, confidence, continued learning and the impact of their work.
The Marketing Institute of Ireland supports marketers through its competency framework, professional assessment and certification, CPD and training.
Find out more: https://mii.ie
TIMESTAMPS
02:55 Stephanie’s path from commercial roles into marketing
04:47 Learning brand marketing at Diageo and Heineken
06:15 Orchard Thieves and challenging the cider category
07:56 Bringing big-company experience into smaller businesses
10:02 “Sales are down”: making the commercial case for marketing
12:26 Building credibility with commercial stakeholders
13:40 From FMCG and not-for-profit into automotive
15:33 Managing Mercedes-Benz in Ireland: global brand, local market
18:50 The Traitors Ireland: taking the risk and securing support
22:23 Creating Irish TV ads for the second series
23:48 Conviction rather than certainty
25:08 Balancing current sales and future buyers
27:52 Electrification and the better-informed car buyer
28:38 Developing your own skills and supporting your team
32:27 Challenging “we’ve always done it that way”
34:27 Winning Best Entertainment Sponsorship
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 219: Make Your Mark Ep 1 with John Kelly of Musgraves
2026/10/07
Make Your Mark is a three-part series exploring how marketers build their careers and make a difference to their businesses, their customers and the people around them, in partnership with the Marketing Institute of Ireland.
In this opening conversation, John Kelly, Retail Marketing Manager at Musgrave, joins That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss his 20-year career working predominantly with SuperValu, and what it takes to turn customer understanding into commercial results. John’s experience shows how much you can learn by taking on different challenges within one organisation. From checking promotional prices as a marketing assistant to delivering campaigns across a network of independent retailers, he explains how attention to detail, curiosity and doing what you said you would do build the credibility to take your next step.
We also get into the work behind SuperValu’s “Yes You Scan” campaign. Getting TV, radio, social and in-store communications working together is one challenge; getting the entire business, right down to the checkout, moving towards the same outcome is another.
In this episode, we cover:
– How John deliberately built experience across value, local marketing, loyalty, sponsorship and retail marketing.
– The commercial thinking and business-wide coordination behind Real Rewards prices and “Yes You Scan”.
– What independent retailers know about their communities, and how that knowledge complements customer research and sales data.
– Keeping SuperValu distinctive while competing on value and delivering short-term sales.
– What John learned from micromanaging, and how he now uses trust, accountability and regular feedback to develop his team.
– Why the time AI saves should help marketers get closer to customers, alongside the continuing need for creativity and storytelling.
A useful listen for marketers interested in career development, retail marketing, brand building, customer insight, marketing effectiveness and leadership.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Consumer understanding and storytelling
00:23 Introducing the Make Your Mark series
03:08 John Kelly’s route into marketing
04:00 Musgrave and SuperValu’s retailer model
05:00 Different roles, new challenges and career development
06:23 Commercial outcomes and attention to detail
08:19 Why John’s team hears “never assume”
10:21 Building credibility by following through
11:00 Real Rewards prices and “Yes You Scan”
12:12 Getting the whole business behind a campaign
13:11 Competition, pace and brand differentiation
15:34 Customer insight and the say-do gap
16:47 Short-term sales and long-term brand building
18:21 Learning to lead without micromanaging
20:10 Mentoring and finding answers as a leader
22:19 The attitude and skills John looks for when hiring
25:37 Using AI to get closer to customers
27:00 Demonstrating marketing’s business impact
28:12 Recognising marketing talent through awards
30:24 Make Your Mark and continuous learning
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
OUR SERIES PARTNER
Thank you to the Marketing Institute of Ireland for partnering with us on this series as part of their Make Your Mark campaign. The campaign recognises that making your mark happens throughout your career: as you develop your skills, grow in confidence, take responsibility and help others progress. Across three conversations with marketers working in different organisations and at different career stages, we explore what that means in practice. The Marketing Institute of Ireland helps marketers build their expertise and professional credibility through its competency framework, professional assessment, certification and ongoing CPD.
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 218: The Singles: Grindr IRL with Madonna, ON taking On Nike, Walkers Little Moments of Joy
2026/10/05
Bella Harrison and Ed Parkin from Tracksuit join That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss Grindr’s push into real-world experiences, On’s entry into football and Walkers’ growing brand preference, exploring what each story tells marketers about building brands and measuring progress.
Three brands, three different challenges: giving people more reasons to use an app, taking a specialist sports brand to a wider audience, and keeping an established favourite relevant. Conor Byrne, Bella and Ed examine the strategies alongside Tracksuit’s brand health data, discussing what is moving, what remains uncertain and which measures matter.
In this episode, we cover:
– Grindr’s “Global Gayborhood” ambition: how a surprise Madonna performance, events and broader services support its move beyond a hook-up app, and why its younger audience deserves closer attention.
– On’s move into football with Kylian Mbappé and Thierry Henry: building on its running and tennis credentials, competing with Nike and adidas, and the questions facing a premium brand entering the boot market.
– The difference between recognising a brand and thinking of it first, and how expanding into another sport could give On more opportunities to come to mind.
– Walkers’ brand refresh, new flavours and football partnerships with Lionel Messi, David Beckham and Thierry Henry, alongside a rise in preference from 29% to 36%.
– Why flat awareness or usage figures do not tell the whole story, and how audience differences, category context and preference can help marketers make a stronger case for their work.
– “What the Actual?”: the discussion around Sydney Sweeney’s Novig campaign, PNC Bank using the Titanic in its advertising, and why the Laughing Cow has stopped laughing.
A useful listen for marketers interested in brand strategy, customer insight, experiential marketing, sports marketing, brand building, marketing effectiveness and commercial impact.
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
THE SINGLES — IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TRACKSUIT
The Singles is our monthly look at the marketing stories getting people talking, using Tracksuit’s brand tracking data to bring evidence and context to the conversation.
A huge thanks to Tracksuit for supporting the series, and to Bella Harrison and Ed Parkin for helping us understand the brand performance behind the headlines.
Explore Tracksuit’s always-on, affordable brand tracking platform: https://www.gotracksuit.com
TIMESTAMPS
01:50 Grindr: real-world events and the “Global Gayborhood”
02:58 Madonna, community and experiences people share
04:08 What the brand data shows for Grindr
05:33 Reaching younger audiences in a changing dating category
06:41 Putting audience and category data into context
07:37 Giving people reasons to use Grindr beyond dating
09:14 On enters football with Kylian Mbappé
10:08 Building on running and tennis
10:53 Premium positioning and the realities of buying football boots
13:06 On’s brand growth and the opportunity to come to mind more often
14:36 Thierry Henry joins On as Director of Football
15:16 Thierry Henry and Ireland’s long football memory
16:10 Walkers: refreshing an iconic brand
17:45 Why Walkers’ seven-point preference gain matters
19:46 Competing across the wider snacking category
21:25 Familiarity, trust and choosing a brand
22:05 Using brand metrics in budget conversations
23:27 What the Actual? Sydney Sweeney and Novig
25:10 PNC Bank’s Titanic advertising
26:08 The Laughing Cow stops laughing: one to watch
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 217: Rich Silverstein Co-Founder of Goodby Silverstein & Partners on 40 Years in Advertising
2026/09/29
On the day he retires from Goodby Silverstein & Partners, co-founder Rich Silverstein joins That’s What I Call Marketing to reflect on 40 years in advertising, the making of ‘Got Milk?’ and what makes an idea last. Rich takes us back to the early days of the agency, when a project for Electronic Arts helped turn a group of creatives who wanted to do things their own way into a business. We get into the thinking behind ‘Got Milk?’, the E*TRADE monkey ad and the lizards, and ask whether work made for a different media era could be even more powerful today. Rich is candid about the role of craft, humour and client confidence, as well as his concern that AI could make it easier to settle for work that is merely good enough.
In this episode, we cover:
– How Rich, Jeff Goodby and Andy Berlin started the agency, and what they took from their time with Hal Riney
– The simple truth behind ‘Got Milk?’ and how its words and distinctive look came together
– Why the best campaigns build a brand over time, rather than end with one commercial
– What it takes to sell an unusual idea when more people want a say in the work
– Rich’s mixed feelings about AI, and how he is using it to develop a musical
– Why he tells young creatives to study the world and the people in it
A useful listen for marketers interested in brand building, creative effectiveness, advertising craft, agency relationships and AI in marketing.
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
Timestamps
00:00 – Rich Silverstein and 40 years in advertising
10:01 – Hal Riney, Electronic Arts and starting Goodby Silverstein & Partners
14:28 – Bringing design, journalism and craft together
15:25 – Why Rich skips most advertising
16:31 – AI and the danger of “good enough”
21:46 – What editorial design and Rolling Stone taught him
24:05 – Why great work should still hold up years later
24:26 – The story behind ‘Got Milk?’
26:00 – The E*TRADE monkey ad
28:37 – Creative constraints and the need for confident clients
30:36 – The lizards and building a brand over time
33:15 – Using humour to make an idea last
36:32 – Selling ambitious work and working with clients
37:39 – Research, planning and creative collaboration
40:37 – The ideas Rich loved but could not sell
41:59 – 13 Days, his musical project, and using AI to make it
46:47 – Advice for creatives starting an agency today
49:19 – Why the ideas come faster, but selling them remains hard
51:51 – The advertising Rich still admires
52:46 – Mentors, observation and studying the world
Thanks to Tracksuit for partnering with That’s What I Call Marketing. Find out more about its always-on brand tracking platform at https://www.gotracksuit.com.
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 216: Scribd CMO Gemma Craven on the Path to becoming CMO, Building Range, Reputation & Impact
2026/09/21
Gemma Craven, Chief Marketing Officer at Scribd, Inc., joins That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss her path to becoming a CMO, the value of building experience across different areas of marketing and what it takes to reshape brands, teams and reputations.
This episode explores how a varied career across PR, social media, technology, agencies, consultancy and in-house leadership gave Gemma the range required to lead marketing across Scribd, Everand, Fable and SlideShare. It is an honest conversation about career choices that did not always make immediate sense to other people.
In this episode, we cover:
– How moving between countries, disciplines and organisations shaped Gemma’s approach to marketing leadership
– Building Social@Ogilvy New York when many people still believed social media would not last
– Why Gemma deliberately moved beyond being known solely as a social media specialist
– How working with CMOs at McCann helped her see CMO leadership as a possible destination
– Why becoming a fractional CMO was initially viewed as a failure by some people
– Restructuring Scribd’s marketing organisation around its products, audiences and areas of expertise
– Managing a portfolio that includes Scribd, Everand, Fable and SlideShare
– Why brands must actively manage their reputations rather than leave customers, reviews and online communities to define them
– Connecting brand strategy more closely with product, engineering, design and customer experience
– The thinking behind Scribd’s “Connect the Docs” campaign and the enduring human satisfaction of figuring something out for yourself
Gemma Craven has more than 25 years of experience building and positioning global brands. Before joining Scribd, Inc., she led marketing at Melissa & Doug, advised senior leaders at companies including Spotify, Nike, Fiverr and Ford, and led digital brand strategy at McCann New York, where she helped make Fearless Girl a global phenomenon. She also built Social@Ogilvy New York into an award-winning, multi-practice division. A useful listen for marketers interested in marketing leadership, career development, brand strategy, organisational design, reputation management, customer experience and the path to becoming a CMO.
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Tracksuit, the always-on brand-tracking platform that helps marketers monitor brand health and bring a clear, shared view of brand performance into the boardroom. Tracksuit tracks brands across more than 25 markets, making ongoing brand measurement more accessible, visible and useful for marketing teams and senior leaders. Find out more at: https://www.gotracksuit.com
The Big Marketing MeetUp Belfast, takes place at ICC Belfast on 5 November 2026, book tickets at: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/bmmubelfast/1935249
Chapters
04:15 – A career shaped by curiosity and working across cultures
06:30 – Moving from London to New York and experiencing culture shock
09:41 – Building Social@Ogilvy New York
16:42 – Why Gemma moved from agency life into technology
19:24 – When becoming a CMO started to feel possible
20:49 – Why varied experience creates better marketing leaders
23:13 – Too ambitious to work for Mick Jagger
24:01 – Choosing the fractional CMO path
28:11 – Restructuring marketing around products and audiences
29:17 – What happens when a brand leaves its story untold
29:48 – Leading teams through organisational change
32:16 – Refreshing the Scribd and SlideShare brands
32:24 – The strategy behind “Connect the Dots”
36:26 – Resisting the pressure to launch a campaign too quickly
38:06 – How brand discovery and reputation are changing
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 215: The Singles: Monzo’s Get Busy Living, Heinz x Heineken & is Meta X Ray‑Ban creepy?
2026/09/14
Conor Byrne hosts another “Singles” episode with Bella and Ed from Tracksuit, using brand tracking data to unpack the biggest marketing stories of the moment—what’s genuinely driving brand growth, what’s just noise, and where brands are taking real risks. From Monzo’s bold “Get Busy Living” brand campaign in a fiercely competitive banking market, to the clever Heinz x Heineken collaboration built for summer BBQ culture, they explore how creativity and brand equity show up in the metrics. They also break down quick-fire eclipse “culture-jacking” wins from brands like Starbucks, Netflix and Mastercard, before debating the backlash and brand danger around Meta-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses. Finally, they launch “What the Actual?”—spotlighting recent brand missteps from Target and a Callaway/Good Good promo—and invite listeners to submit their own.
02:05 Monzo Brand Campaign
13:02 Heinz Heineken Collab
18:37 Solar Eclipse Marketing
22:55 Meta Ray Ban Glasses
27:28 What The Actual Fails
Check out tracksuit https://www.gotracksuit.com/
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
Connect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/
If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations.
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 214: James Hurman Future Demand, Making the Commercial Case for Brand Investment
2026/09/07
James Hurman, author of Future Demand and co-founder of Tracksuit, joins That’s What I Call Marketing to explain how brand building creates future demand, how performance marketing converts current demand and why marketers need both to drive sustainable growth. This episode offers a practical way to understand how advertising really works, how to build the internal case for brand investment and how marketers can move an organisation beyond a performance-only mindset without betting everything on one dramatic change.
In this episode, we cover:
– Why James Hurman rewrote Future Demand specifically for marketers
– The relationship between brand building, future demand and performance marketing
– Why advertising rarely causes an immediate sale but can help a brand win a greater share of future sales
– How Instacart CMO Laura Jones “marched up the funnel” from measurable performance activity to the Olympics and the Super Bowl
– How Telstra tested a 50:50 brand and performance split in Adelaide and recorded a 14% improvement against the rest of Australia
– How marketers can use experiments, geographic holdouts and better measurement to demonstrate incrementality
– Why CEOs, CFOs and marketers often want the same commercial outcome but describe marketing investment in very different language
– What AI, agentic shopping, AEO and GEO could change — and why the fundamentals of markets, brands and human decision-making still matter
James challenges the traditional idea that advertising works by persuading somebody to buy immediately. Instead, he describes a two-stage process: brand advertising creates familiarity and positive bias among people who are not yet in the market, while performance activity helps convert that existing bias when they are ready to buy.
He also shares practical examples of how marketers can earn confidence gradually, measure brand investment more rigorously and communicate its commercial value to non-marketing stakeholders.
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
CHAPTERS
03:47 Exploring what a marketing book can be
05:40 Why James rewrote Future Demand
07:39 Creating future demand and converting current demand
08:29 Laura Jones and Instacart’s four-year brand journey
11:03 How Instacart “marched up the funnel”
12:00 Telstra’s geographic holdout test in Adelaide
14:16 Making marketing science easier to understand
16:11 The wrong mental model for advertising
17:44 How advertising creates and converts demand
19:06 Is advertising really a weak force?
20:07 Why the evidence has not changed every organisation
21:43 Winning support from non-marketing stakeholders
23:38 Creating a shared language with CFOs
25:18 Why James remains invested in solving this problem
26:56 How marketing cultures differ across markets
29:53 Better marketing measurement and experimentation
31:27 Using AI to learn and improve marketing capability
34:14 How AI is affecting businesses and marketing
37:21 Will agentic shopping change consumer behaviour?
39:58 Familiarity, emotion and why people choose brands
40:58 What McDonald’s “brand love” metric predicts
42:19 Tracksuit University and the language of the boardroom
44:25 Where to find Future Demand
ABOUT JAMES HURMAN
James Hurman is the author of Future Demand and The Case for Creativity. He is a co-founder of Tracksuit and founding partner of innovation studio Previously Unavailable. His work focuses on marketing effectiveness, creativity, brand building and helping businesses understand how marketing contributes to long-term commercial growth.
Explore Future Demand: https://future-demand.com
Learn more about Tracksuit: https://www.gotracksuit.com
Visit Tracksuit University: https://university.gotracksuit.com
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 213: Mark Kingsley on Brands in the Age of AI
2026/08/31
Mark Kingsley, brand strategist, designer, author and founder of Malcontent, joins That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss his book "Brands in the Age of AI" and why marketers need to think much more deeply about artificial intelligence than prompts, productivity and tools.
Mark’s central argument is that AI is not simply a tool, it is a condition, an environment that is already changing how we work, create, build brands and relate to one another. This conversation explores what that means for brand strategy, creativity, marketing careers and the relationship between companies and customers.
Rather than offering another AI how-to guide that could be outdated within months, Mark draws on history, philosophy, psychology, design and technology to understand where AI fits into a much longer story of technological change.
In this episode, we cover:
– What the Jacquard loom, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing and even *Frankenstein* can teach us about today’s AI debate
– AI-driven job losses, automation and the continued commoditisation of creative and knowledge work
– Why removing junior-level “donkey work” could create a serious skills and judgement problem for agencies, marketers and professional services
– Brian Eno’s idea of “scenius” and why creativity is rarely the product of a lone genius
– Agentic AI, B2A2C commerce and what happens when AI agents begin making purchasing decisions
– Why brands could use AI to move beyond transactions towards deeper relationships with people
– Why human discernment could become more valuable as AI becomes more capable
– The danger of treating AI primarily as another system for extracting efficiency and profit
– How AI might instead be used to support human flourishing
One of the most important questions running through the conversation is what happens to expertise when AI starts doing the work through which people traditionally learned their craft.
We also explore what AI means for brands themselves. If brands genuinely want relationships rather than simply transactions, Mark argues AI could help companies recognise people as individuals and members of communities rather than merely customers to extract value from.
A useful listen for marketers interested in AI in marketing, brand strategy, creativity, marketing leadership, agentic AI, synthetic research, the future of work, customer experience and the changing role of human judgement.
02:32 Why this is not another AI how-to book
04:36 “AI is not a tool, it’s a condition”
05:43 Technology, Heidegger and what technology reveals
07:38 Is AI already changing society at scale?
08:01 Alan Turing and the history of machine intelligence
09:02 Jacquard looms, the Luddites and automation
11:04 AI layoffs and the economics of replacing people
13:36 AI infrastructure and removing barriers
19:13 Photography, creativity and resistance to new technology
20:18 Why great photographers and creatives still matter
21:24 Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies
25:18 Agentic AI and B2A2C commerce
26:00 AI personas and purchasing agents
27:02 Tokenisation and the “semiotic gap” between humans and agents
30:48 Why Mark is disappointed by the adversarial AI debate
34:13 What *Brands in the Age of AI* ultimately asks brands to reconsider
This episode is brought to you by Tracksuit the always-on brand tracking platform for clients and agencies.
Find out more: https://www.gotracksuit.com
More from That’s What I Call Marketing
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 212: Canva B2B CMO on B2B Marketing, Enterprise Growth and Building Demand
2026/08/24
Meghan Gendelman, CMO, B2B at Canva, joins That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss B2B marketing, enterprise growth, building demand and how Canva is taking a hugely successful product-led business further into the enterprise. This conversation gets into what building a B2B growth engine actually requires: understanding customers, combining product-led and sales-led growth, building brand before buyers enter the market, using data properly and working out where AI genuinely adds value.
In this episode, we cover:
– Why Meghan believes B2B marketing is anything but boring, particularly when you are dealing with complex buying committees, long consideration periods and multiple decision-makers
– Why customer insight still matters more than tools, including Meghan’s experience of using AI to scale content for GEO and discovering that faster content without anything new or useful simply didn’t work
– How brand, customer entry points and buying signals help marketers influence customers long before they reach a website or speak to sales
– Why Meghan believes every good marketer needs to become comfortable with data, pipeline and the commercial numbers behind the business
– How Canva is thinking about AI, LLMs, design, brand governance and integrations with platforms including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini
– What Meghan learned from more than a decade at Salesforce, her time at DocuSign and the process that led her to become Canva’s first B2B CMO
– How she leads global marketing teams through clear values, trust, vulnerability and knowing the difference between “smoke” and “fire”
We also discuss the changing B2B buying journey, why much of the decision can happen before a buyer identifies themselves, the role of brand in demand generation and why B2B and B2C marketing are becoming less distinct than marketers sometimes assume.
A useful listen for marketers interested in B2B marketing, enterprise marketing, product-led growth, demand generation, brand building, AI in marketing, customer insight, sales and marketing, marketing leadership and commercial growth.
02:12 Meghan’s career across Salesforce, DocuSign and Canva
03:03 Why everything starts with the customer
05:44 The AI and GEO content experiment that failed
07:18 Why B2B marketing is not boring
10:30 Leading global marketing teams through values and trust
11:41 Smoke, fire and knowing when leaders need to get involved
12:47 Why Meghan joined Canva
14:46 Canva’s 30–40 hour B2B marketing interview challenge
16:15 Taking Canva from product-led growth into enterprise
17:04 Product-led growth versus sales-led growth
19:47 How B2B buying decisions are changing
22:08 Why every marketer needs to understand data
23:13 Meghan’s Monday morning pipeline ritual
24:21 Learning from other marketing leaders
25:00 Remote work, offices and building global teams
27:39 Why EMEA is not one market
28:40 Keeping Canva simple as the platform expands
29:11 Canva as an AI-powered design platform
30:27 Canva, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and the LLM ecosystem
31:47 Building Canva’s B2B and enterprise brand
About Meghan GendelmanB2B at Canva, leading its B2B marketing strategy as Canva continues to grow its enterprise business. Before Canva, Meghan held senior marketing roles at DocuSign and spent more than 12 years at Salesforce across areas including customer success, product marketing, growth marketing, field marketing, demand generation and regional marketing leadership.
This episode was recorded as part of the That’s What I Call Marketing Cannes Sessions and produced in partnership with The Digital Voice.
The Digital Voice: https://www.thedigitalvoice.co.uk/
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at:
https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 211: Jellyfish's Natasha Wallace On How Marketers Win with Humans & AI Without Flattening Their Brands
2026/08/17
Natasha Wallace, Chief Solutions Officer for Strategy, Planning and AI at Jellyfish, joins That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss how brands can become more visible and understandable to AI without sacrificing creativity, emotion or distinctiveness.
This episode explains how marketers should approach the growing challenge of serving two audiences at once: humans, who respond to stories, feelings and ideas, and AI models, which rely on clear signals, context, trust and specificity.
In this episode, we cover:
– Why Jellyfish’s research found almost no correlation between how humans and AI models judge creative work
– What “brand flattening” means and why marketers should resist making everything rational and functional
– How to make a brand legible to large language models without weakening its creativity
– Why brand trust, distinctive assets and consumer consensus still influence AI recommendations
– The role of YouTube, Reddit, creators, ecommerce and digital PR in shaping model perception
– Why paid, owned and earned media need to work together in an AI-led discovery environment
Natasha also explains Jellyfish’s concept of the “brand echo”: the conversation, reaction and community created around a brand, even when the original activity is not directly visible to an AI model.
The practical message is not that marketers need to abandon the fundamentals. It is that audience strategy, brand positioning, content, media and measurement need to work together more closely. The brands most likely to succeed will be clear enough for machines to understand and interesting enough for people to care about.
A useful listen for marketers interested in AI in marketing, GEO, brand strategy, creativity, content strategy, advertising effectiveness and the future of search and discovery.
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
**Timestamps**
00:00 Why marketers must not flatten their brands for AI
00:39 Introducing Natasha Wallace of Jellyfish
02:04 Natasha’s career across digital, media and emerging technology
03:35 Why AI feels different from previous industry shifts
05:23 Working globally with Heineken and major sports properties
07:05 Why Natasha joined Jellyfish
09:00 Bringing media, content, creative and AI strategy together
12:32 What humans and AI models see in award-winning advertising
15:31 The danger of brand flattening
16:36 How the “brand echo” influences AI models
17:35 Why brand trust and distinctive assets still matter
20:21 Why YouTube is frequently cited by large language models
22:28 How marketers should prioritise their AI and GEO activity
24:46 Leading and lagging indicators for AI visibility
26:01 The platforms and voices that shape model perception
27:27 Borrowed credibility, belonging and long-term brand associations
30:05 Testing creative work without making it formulaic
32:25 Why AI should strengthen human thinking, not replace it
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
This Cannes Sessions episode is produced in partnership with The Digital Voice.
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 210: The Human Cost: How Fear-Based Wellness Advertising Makes People Feel
2026/08/11
Sarah Booth, Chief Brand and Creative Officer at Ancient + Brave, and Leanne Tomasevic, Partnerships and Strategy Director at Electric Twin, examine fear-based wellness advertising, synthetic audience research and the human consequences of marketing built around insecurity. Using the Electric Twin platform live during the conversation, we test real wellness advertisements with synthetic audiences and explore how people respond to messages about ageing, attractiveness, sleep, cellulite and female confidence. The results raise an important question for marketers: are we measuring the commercial value of a sale while ignoring what the advertising costs the person on the other side?
In this episode, we cover:
– How wellness brands use fear of ageing, shame and insecurity to attract attention
– What women and men really think about fear-based wellness advertising
– How synthetic audiences allow marketers to test advertising reactions in seconds
– Why scientific language can make weak or misleading claims feel more credible
– How performance algorithms can reward increasingly negative advertising
– The tension between short-term conversion and long-term brand integrity
– Why marketers should consider the cultural and emotional impact of their work
Advertising that sells through fear can leave vulnerable consumers feeling worse, even when it produces a conversion. Leanne demonstrates how Electric Twin creates digital replicas of real audiences, allowing marketers to run surveys, discussions and message testing with a reported average accuracy of 92%. As brands produce hundreds or even thousands of digital assets, marketers can become focused on feeding the algorithm rather than considering how each message affects the person seeing it. A critical listen for marketers interested in brand strategy, wellness marketing, synthetic research, AI in marketing, advertising ethics, consumer insight, marketing effectiveness, performance marketing and responsible brand building.
Timestamps
00:43 Modern wellness advertising and real consumer reactions
03:17 How Electric Twin’s synthetic audience platform works
04:58 Sarah Booth on Ancient + Brave and female confidence
06:25 Leanne Vic explains synthetic audiences
08:17 Why wellness advertising increasingly sells through fear
09:45 Testing a “fear of getting old” advertisement
13:14 How fear-based advertising makes women feel
14:49 Testing the “science of beauty sleep”
18:19 Would consumers actually click on the advertisement?
19:31 The regulatory challenge of digital wellness advertising
21:17 How algorithms create an advertising arms race
22:36 What marketers need to understand about cultural influence
24:00 Why designers think differently about human impact
25:00 Which brands represent female bravery?
27:12 What would make women feel braver?
29:00 Testing cellulite advertising with men
32:00 Can better evidence rescue a damaging advertisement?
34:22 What men think about the way women are marketed to
35:00 Testing a long-form menopause supplement advertisement
36:10 “Dangling hope in front of someone in pain”
36:37 Can platforms make their algorithms more positive?
37:00 Competing without using fear or shame
39:17 The responsibility marketers have for their work
This episode is in partnership with Electric Twin. Electric Twin is a synthetic audience platform that helps brands, marketers, product teams and insight professionals understand audiences, test ideas and explore consumer reactions in seconds.
Find out more at: https://www.electrictwin.com
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 209: The Singles: If Carlsberg Did Podcasts, Did Sydney Sweeney work, Norway winning the World Cup and the AI Brand Wars
2026/08/03
In this episode of The Singles on That’s What I Call Marketing, Conor Byrne is joined by Bella and Ed from Tracksuit to unpack the biggest marketing stories right now using brand tracking data. They dive into the AI brand wars between ChatGPT/OpenAI and Claude/Anthropic, including how Super Bowl advertising impacted awareness and consideration, and discuss how people use each tool for work vs personal life. The team shares Tracksuit’s acquisition of Hall, a Sydney startup that measures how brands show up in AI answers, helping marketers understand AI discoverability and sentiment. They also revisit American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney campaign one year on (awareness gains vs declines in consideration and investigation), break down Norwegian Air’s playful British Airways newsjacking around Norway’s World Cup momentum, and explore Carlsberg’s revival of the “If Carlsberg Did…” platform and what it could mean for brand funnel performance.
01:05 Today’s Marketing Hot Topics
02:11 AI Brand Wars Data
05:27 Who Uses Claude vs ChatGPT
07:52 AI Use Cases and Model Fatigue
12:54 Tracking AI Visibility
17:31 American Eagle One Year Later
21:44 BA vs Norwegian Newsjacking
26:44 Carlsberg Revives Classic Platform
Check out tracksuit
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 208: System 1's Andrew Tindall & Vanessa Chin: Feels Vs Deals - the real battle for Q4
2026/07/27
What should marketers take from Cannes Lions once the presentations are over and the real work of planning for Q4 begins?
In this special crossover episode of That’s What I Call Marketing and The Sleeping Barber Podcast, System1’s Andrew Tindall and Vanessa Chin join Conor Byrne, Marc Binkley and V to explore what the latest marketing thinking means in practice for brands, agencies and creative teams.
The conversation begins with Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp’s Cannes debate, looking at where they agree, where important differences remain and why marketers need to go beyond familiar headlines on penetration, distinctiveness, consistency and brand purpose. Andrew and Vanessa discuss whether distinctiveness alone can drive growth, why differentiation still matters and how the search for “new news” can lead brands to abandon creative assets before they have built recognition.
The episode also examines how AI is changing advertising. Rather than removing people from the process, AI is becoming part of production, helping brands adapt and localise ideas more efficiently. The group considers Coca-Cola’s AI Christmas advertising, PepsiCo adapting Lay’s creative for Walkers in the UK, and why human judgement still matters. There are practical lessons on creator marketing, brand characters, fluent devices and staying consistent. Andrew explains why creators should be treated as creative partners who understand their platforms, not as interchangeable media assets.
The discussion then turns to audio and radio advertising. System1 research suggests campaigns using audio can produce stronger business effects, support profit and penetration, and reduce price sensitivity. The group explores sonic branding, jingles and why radio should not be treated only as a short-term performance channel.
Attention matters, but it is not the end goal. Andrew explains why marketers need to move from impressions, to attention, and ultimately to the brand memories advertising creates.
The episode closes with a practical Q4 playbook for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas. “Salesmanship” may deliver immediate conversion, but emotional “showmanship” builds memories, demand and pricing power. The lesson: focus on the feels, not only the deals.
CHAPTERS
03:24 Ritson and Sharp at Cannes
04:45 Distinctiveness versus differentiation
06:00 Is brand purpose outdated?
08:00 Why marketers struggle with consistency
11:05 Turning theory into growth
13:09 AI, creativity and human judgement
16:10 How PepsiCo uses AI in advertising
19:05 Why AI was quieter at Cannes
19:55 AI avatars and brand characters
22:01 Why marketers need to stay the course
22:54 When did a campaign become a media flight?
24:45 Turning Cannes insights into a Q4 plan
25:22 The “Double Double” audio research
28:04 Why audio matters
30:13 What makes an effective radio ad?
32:29 Why radio is more than a performance channel
34:00 Storytelling and creating an audio world
36:50 Should creators work across every channel?
38:00 What System1’s creator research found
40:54 Is Q4 the right time for a fluent device?
42:06 Moving from attention to brand memory
46:36 Can brands be built through Meta and TikTok?
48:49 Why brands need to appear early
50:02 The Q4 marketing playbook
50:43 Make people feel something
51:52 Black Friday: deals versus feels
52:23 Salesmanship, showmanship and short-term optimisation
54:48 What marketers can learn from Amazon
56:26 Feels, not deals
57:01 Why brands should re-air effective Christmas ads
58:00 Consumers do not get bored of good advertising
This episode was created in partnership with System1. Find out more at system1group.com.
Subscribe to That’s What I Call Marketing for more conversations on brand growth, marketing effectiveness and creative strategy.
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TWICM 207: Samsung Ads’ Matt Butts on Marketing Science and the Rigour Behind Better Decisions
2026/07/20
Matt Butts, Head of Marketing Science at Samsung Ads Europe, joins That’s What I Call Marketing to discuss marketing science, incrementality, connected TV measurement and why rigorous testing matters more than a positive result. This episode explains how marketers can move beyond convenient metrics, design better experiments and connect advertising activity to meaningful business outcomes. Matt also explores how changing television behaviours are reshaping media planning, audience measurement and the role of connected TV.
In this episode, we cover:
– Why marketers often measure metrics without questioning whether they matter
– The difference between basic A/B testing and genuine incrementality testing
– Why the quality of the test matters more than whether the result is positive
– How marketing scientists translate complex analysis into commercial decisions
– How Samsung Ads measures viewing across linear television, streaming and gaming
– Why reported reach can hide significant audience duplication
– How incremental reach can reduce media waste and identify missed audiences
– The role of connected TV data in advertising planning and measurement
– Why marketers need to communicate measurement differently to CMOs, CFOs and media teams
– How rigorous measurement helped one advertiser move from zero investment to a seven-figure commitment
Matt argues that marketing science should not simply validate decisions that have already been made. Its role is to challenge assumptions, identify what would have happened without the advertising and give marketers evidence they can confidently use to make better investment decisions.
A useful listen for marketers interested in marketing science, advertising effectiveness, connected TV, incrementality, media measurement, experimentation and commercial impact.
Timestamps
01:16 How Matt found his way into marketing science
02:19 How advertising measurement has changed
03:27 Are marketers measuring things without knowing why?
04:27 Why measurement assumptions must be tested continually
05:02 Do marketers know how to test properly?
06:00 The limitations of basic A/B testing
06:17 Why incrementality is the missing part of marketing testing
07:18 The importance of statisticians, data scientists and translation
08:13 Matt’s journey to Samsung Ads
08:18 What Samsung Ads does
09:00 How television viewing behaviour has changed
10:18 Balancing audience precision, relevance and scale
11:02 Relevance without intrusive personalisation
12:19 Samsung Ads’ Total View measurement capability
12:36 Audience duplication, incremental reach and missed audiences
13:40 Why platform reach figures can be misleading
14:06 What a Head of Marketing Science actually does
14:40 Building advertiser-specific measurement playbooks
15:16 Using measurement to improve future advertising investment
15:23 How to explain incrementality to senior business leaders
15:41 Why marketers need to understand marketing science
17:00 How measurement feeds into marketing mix models
17:33 A real example of fixing incomplete advertising data
19:00 How a geo test led to a seven-figure investment
19:43 Why negative test results should not frighten marketers
20:40 Combining scientific rigour with commercial thinking
21:51 What comes next for connected TV measurement
22:00 Connecting television and mobile data
23:30 Why marketing measurement must keep pace with human behaviour
That’s What I Call Marketing is the podcast for marketers who care about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Follow the show for more conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, professors, authors, thinkers and practitioners.
Find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
Thanks to the Digital Voice for their partnership https://www.thedigitalvoice.co.uk/
That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.
Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.
Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.comConnect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Podcast reviews
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★★★★★
margaretmolloy 2026/07/13
Conor prepares
Conor puts a lot of effort into preparing for every episode and it shows. Great guests. Great rapport. Great insights. 5 stars!
★★★★★
P-Sqiggles 2024/07/16
I know I am biased but…
That’s what I call marketing - Brilliant! Smart, intelligent conversations with thought leaders, including Conor himself. Witty conversations. Thought...