Shows
Champagne StrategyScott Thomas - Hybrid and crowdsourced creative production - S5 Ep11Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10. Dealing with creative fills up a good chunk of any marketing department's time. But do you really have a binary choice between in-house vs agency? Or is there a better way?
We interview co-founder of Creatively Squared, Scott Thomas to talk about the awkward creative production transition many companies are faced with. From one where a high-priced TVC sits at the core of the campaign. To the modern reality that embraces media fragmentation and takes advantage at scale.
If you don't learn something, you haven't been listening.
2024-11-1753 minChampagne StrategySam Redfern - Canva's shift from digital attribution to world-class model - Part 3Brain Hurt Scale = 6/10 - full episode featuring San Redfern from Canva who details how the company transitioned from a digital marketing attribution mindset into something far more world-leading and sophisticated.
Where part 1 of the Digital Marketing Apocalypse series focused on the technical and legal changes that have occurred over time.
And part 2 uncovered the impact this has had on company's marketing.
Part 3 gives us a concrete example of how to successfully transition from the old way of measurement to the new way. Providing a great example of how teams should be measuring and...
2024-08-0829 minChampagne StrategyDaniel McCarthy & Brett Hollenbeck - Digital Marketing Apocalypse - Part 2Brain Hurt Scale = 5/10. Following on from part 1, we explore a paper that studied thousands of online retailers between 2020 and 2022. The findings from this study have massive implications on the digital marketing industry, decision-makers, executives and investors.
They analyzed 100's of billions of digital marketing expenditure and looked at how this affected customer acquisition and growth. Finding that not only have costs increased on average but firms who targeted certain customers and used particular channels realized the greatest drops in yield.
So why are so few in the industry talking about something so momentous? There are...
2024-07-2137 minChampagne StrategyKeaton Garnet - Digital Marketing Apocalypse - Part 1Brain Hurt Scale = 8/10. Why is Apple all about privacy all of a sudden? Why is it so vogue for governments around the world to legislate user data protections?
Take a trip back in time all the way through to the present to understand where it all started and where it's going. From the birth of Google Analytics, the cookie, UTMs through to Meta and Google ads, conversion columns and everything else in between.
Why do we no longer hear the story about the stay-at-home mom who found online retailing success by mastering Facebook or Instagram?
2024-07-1745 minChampagne StrategyMike Taylor - A crash course in AI - S5 Ep7Brain Hurt Scale = 5/10. Want a crash course in AI without the sale pitch? Listen to people who have actually used it for years without the buzzword consulting BS getting in the way.
Listen to this episode and get the perfect grounding in what you need to know. The terms you need to know. The history you need to understand in order to be confident talking about it even if you haven't used it very much.
How did it start?
Where did this new wave come from?
What's an LLM?
...
2024-06-171h 15Champagne StrategyMike Harris - The politics of growth #1 - Turnarounds, hugs and chugs - S5 Ep6Brain Hurt Scale - 2/10 - The first of a world-wide mini-series exposing true life stories behind the number 1 impediment to workplace success - politics.
Mike Harris is an accomplished former executive and consultant with deep personal skills in consulting, sales, marketing, operations and product.
He gives us three examples from a storied career. The first of which is 30mins about a successful turnaround at Phillips.
On the surface all three stories are about political conflict and resolution. But also cover common constraints you'll frequently encounter in the workplace: interdepartmental cooperation, incentive dynamics, culture...
2024-05-1952 minChampagne StrategyBrett Friedman - Applied creative strategy in an AI world - S5 Ep5Brain Hurt Scale = 4/10. Why does ChatGPT provide me with terrible responses. Why does DALL-E give me an image that's terrible?
Learning how to brief creatives is an art form. After all, their job is to create artwork so this probably shouldn't come as a surprise. But if you've never created something yourself, you'll be oblivious as to how it all goes down.
That mismatched perspective can all be fixed by listening to this episode where Brett Friedman goes through start-to-finish the entire process that goes on behind closed doors when you hire an agency.
2024-04-071h 03
Champagne StrategyJohn James - brand first principles. Avoiding the brand scam - Repost from Cognism's podcastBrain Hurt Scale = 6/10. Republished with permission of an interview John James did with Cognism's Jamie Skeels on The Loop podcast.
The Brandingmag articles caused quite a stir and Jamie was keen to dig a little deeper into some of the issues it raised for practitioners.
How do we target people to build brand and sales at the same time?
Which channels should we use?
How do we sell these campaigns (or not) to senior directors and executives?
What are the red flags or reasons not to invest in a...
2024-03-3138 min
Marketing DilemmasChallenging the meaning of brand campaigns with John James, Founder of HybrencyCognism’s Senior DG Manager, Jamie Skeels speaks to John James, Founder of Hybrency about his view on brand marketing - and how lots of people are thinking about it wrong!
2024-03-2643 minChampagne StrategyJohn James - Live SXSW Sydney 2023 interview - repost from Komo Technologies podcastBrain Hurt Scale = 3/10. A live recording of that time I was invited by James Pember to speak at the inaugural SXSW Sydney 2023. Note: this is a repost with permission of an episode of the Own The Moment podcast by Komo Technologies.
James interviews me on-stage in front of 70+people and I try to answer a series of questions completely impromptu.
James is a product leader and host of a podcast run by martech firm Komo Technologies. They have a podcast called 'Own The Moment'.
Reposting here because I think the questions and answers...
2024-03-0426 minChampagne StrategyDale W. Harrison - Exposing the hidden incentives behind B2B purchases. Understanding procurement and buying committee dynamics - S5 Ep2Brain Hurt Scale = 5/10. No one in B2B buys based on value.
Procurement and buying committees don't operate how you think they do. And why do 50%+ of B2B purchases end in a no-decision?
If you want your career to be occupied with creating ads, rely on correlation, work status and manipulate company politics to get ahead. Nothing wrong with that, it's fine. Go for it. You will do well.
But if you actually want to affect revenue and profit, this is an episode you can't miss.
Dale and John reveal some of t...
2024-02-051h 28Champagne StrategyColin Lewis - How to be an effective marketer. Executive director-level thinking - S5 Ep1Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10. Racing car driver, Marketing Week columnist, retail media speaker and coach to marketing directors. Colin Lewis joins us for the first episode of 2024.
While we were supposed to talk about retail media, this was one of those rare chances to tap into someone's mind that's experienced a depth and breadth of experience that's exceedingly rare.
Colin's worked in multiple countries. Reinvented his specialty many times over. Put his money where his mouth is with his own businesses and worked for others to pay the bills. Big and small brands. For decades.
2024-01-301h 08Champagne StrategyUri, Paul, Baiba and John - Four strategists walk into a bar - Ep1 S5Brain Hurt = 3/10. What happens when 4 very experienced advertising and marketing strategy strategists are secretly recorded on a group call? Well, this is the result.
4 insiders put their money where their mouth is to give you a raw expression of what's going on similar to the All-In Podcast. All the behind-the-scenes discussions that don't get talked about.
From learning what an executive producer does to the checkered history of the AIDA model, through to where babies comes from, this recording has a bit of everything for everyone.
Listen to Baiba, Uri, Paul and John...
2024-01-0957 minChampagne StrategyPart 5.3 - Actually Thinking Different about Think Different - Apple's real growth factor revealedBrain Hurt Factor = 4/10. The conclusion and penultimate episode of a 6 part series which explores brand campaigns. Questioning whether Apple's famous Think Different brand campaign was as successful as everyone thinks it is.
This episode starts with a short recap of where we left off in 5.2. Then goes into revealing THE key growth factor behind Apple's explosive growth. Before discussing the genesis story behind this entire brand campaign. A story which was difficult to discover.
Full of snippets of quotes from Steve himself, YouTube videos, experts in the field and other podcasts.
By the...
2023-12-2046 minChampagne StrategyPart 5.2 - Thinking Different about Think Different - What exactly did it do? - S4 E22Brand hurt scale = 6/10. This is a direct follow on from the previous episode 5.1 which continues the story behind Apple's famous Think Different campaign.
Here we go much deeper, analyzing the campaign's impact on Apple financially, both short and long term. Which is hard in audio form because a lot of the visuals are missing. But you'll learn ways you can properly assess any brand campaign and call out brand marketers who think they've delivered value, but haven't. Four expert opinions and three reputable studies are cited which you can use to support your argument either way.
2023-12-0642 minChampagne StrategyPart 5.1 - Thinking Different about Think Different - S4 Ep21Brand hurt scale = 2/10. The episode everyone has been waiting for is here. This is the story behind the famous Apple Think Different campaign. Touted as one of the best brand advertising campaigns in history. But is it?
This is the first of three parts which explores the history of this campaign and analyzes whether it was as successful for the company as everyone makes out.
Deeper analysis will follow in 5.2 before we explore the genesis story and implications from those findings in 5.3.
For more details and helpful visuals, go to the Brandingmag website...
2023-11-3035 minChampagne StrategyPart 4 - What does a brand campaign do? 8 pros and 8 cons - S4 Ep20Brain hurt score = 3/10. If you've been listening to the series so far, you should know what a brand campaign is, where they came from and how advertising and branding works.
So what does a brand campaign do? Or not do?
In part 4 of the Brand Campaign mini-series we explore 8 legitimate reasons for a brand campaign and 8 red-flags you need to be aware of.
By the end of this episode you'll have a very robust filter through which to make an informed decision if you're considering buying into the idea of a brand campaign...
2023-11-141h 05Champagne StrategyPart 2 - Where did brand campaigns came from? The history of advertising agencies, marketing & growth - S4 Ep16Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10. Note - this is the audio version which is an extended yet similar and different version of the written article which includes diagrams and videos. If reading is your thing go here https://www.brandingmag.com/john-james/brand-campaigns-part-2-where-did-they-come-from/ - but this audio version is more story-like so it makes for perfect listening.
Why do some people say 'performance marketing' when all really mean is Google search?
Why do digital marketers have an allergic reaction when they're asked to use an offline channel?
Why do advertising agencies love brand campaigns...
2023-10-2647 minChampagne StrategyGregory Kennedy - Confessions of two fractional CMOs - Trials, tribulations & opportunities - S4 Ep19Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10. Learn all the hot topics, struggles and opportunities in the current environment from the perspective of two fractional CMO's. After shooting the breeze about coffee
(Skip to 4mins in to miss the coffee talk intro) Gregory Kennedy and John sit down to talk about what they're both seeing on the ground right now.
With significant declines in the yields and measurement of various digital media over the years, they discuss different ways to move forward and embrace a revised approach to the marketing function.
What's the difference between West and East coast...
2023-10-2556 minChampagne StrategyPart 3.2 - How does advertising & branding? (2 of 2) - S4 Ep18Brain hurt scale = 6/10. This is the second half of the former episode which will complete the audio version of Part 3's article.
In the former episode we covered in detail the first determinant of effective advertising - reach.
In this one, we explain what is 'brand' and how 'branding' actually works or doesn't work.
Then we explore the third factor which is all about making products 'easy to find and buy'.
Followed by even more myth busting at the end to put everything into a practical context.
This is...
2023-10-2241 minChampagne StrategyPart 3.1 - How does advertising & branding work? (1 of 2) - S4 Ep17Brain hurt scale = 7/10. Isn't it funny how we all think we know how advertising works, but very few of us know about the scientific side. Even fewer have married up science with the practical considerations of what it's like in an applied work setting. Until now!
After learning about what brand campaigns are in part 1 and understanding the etymology. We were then left with a gaping hole. How does brand advertising work?
And to know how brand advertising works, we first need to understand how all advertising works.
What is 'reach'? How do...
2023-10-2035 minChampagne StrategyPart 1 - What is a brand campaign? (Audio Version) - S4 Ep15
Brain Hurt Scale = 4/10. Here's a quick synopsis of the first part of six. An article series that tries to answer a very basic question. What is a brand campaign?
Go to https://www.brandingmag.com/john-james/brand-campaigns-part-1-what-exactly-are-they/ to read the full article which includes a lot of useful diagrams, videos, links and extended explanation that doesn't make it into this quick 18-minute synopsis.
Part 2 is also fresh off the press. So if this perks your interest, follow your nose and read that article also to get the rest of the juicy details.
...
2023-10-0418 minChampagne StrategyPart 1 - What is a brand campaign? (Audio Version) - S4 Ep16The audio version read aloud with some additional backstory.
The first of a 6-part article series was recently published via brandingmag.com.
I get lots of questions from the fans and one of the questions was, 'What is a Brand Campaign?'
I found it was actually a difficult question to answer.
My first attempt was a single article which quickly evolved, organically into a 6 part series.
If you're not fond of reading online, I got you.
Here's the audio version.
2023-10-0324 minChampagne StrategyRaj Nathan - Pitching the power of music - Sonic branding, events and can't sleep content - S4 Ep14We'll spend thousands of dollars a month on ads yet routinely underinvest in the quality of the creative. Even the biggest agencies do it. They cheapen out on the quality of the audio track. But great music can make or break a movie or TV series. It can also be the difference between advertising and promotions that your audience either remembers or doesn't remember.
Raj has recently taken this to the next level. Investing his own money into the production of an entire rap album. I haven't met too many companies who have done...
2023-09-2653 minChampagne StrategyAnthony Garone - Exposing the murky world of Ghostwriting - S4 Ep13You know all those famous authors and people on social media with posts that are wildly successful? You may be surprised to learn, it's probably not them. Most don't even manage their own accounts. But, who's work then are we really reading? Who's DM's are we really slipping into?
Today we're going to delve into the murky world of ghostwriting. And it reminds me of that famous scene from Fight Club - because....
It appears, the first rule of ghostwriting is that you don't talk about ghostwriting.
And while, today's guest is very...
2023-09-0956 minChampagne StrategyMatt Watkinson - Mastering your potential in an uncertain world - S4 Ep12Brain Hurt = 6/10. Do you want your effort to translate into maximum reward without change getting in the way? If so, embracing inherent uncertainty in the world is arguably the best way to go about it.
Matt Watkinson published his third book this year which explores the concept of probabilistic thinking, systems, determinism and more.
We don't really do book reviews, but this one caught the eye of our CEO and needed to be explored.
This is Rory Sutherland-esque. In fact, they are both quite close and Rory gives a glowing...
2023-09-051h 04Champagne StrategyJohn James & Meqa Smith - Culture, brand, internal marketing and core strategy - S4 Ep11Brain Hurt Level = 2/10. "Great interview...I've often thought someone needed to interview you, put all of that red-pill business and marketing chat into one cohesive conversation. Your definition of marketing should actually be a front-slide of every conversation I have now."
Note: This episode best serves the interests of executives, founders, owners and senior management. But, there's takeaways for everyone, especially if you're leading a team or interested in escaping the adland bubble.
We can use terms every day and assume everyone knows what they mean. But, answering the most basic questions are sometimes the...
2023-09-0136 min
Champagne StrategyShay Howe - Chasing growth in the AI era - Confessions of a tech CMO - S4 Ep10Brain Hurt level = 5/10. Note: this episode is best for those interested in marketing or growth within the SaaS tech sector. Especially if you work in marketing, growth or as a senior marketing leader or founder. And even more so if that's B2B or Martech. But...
With that said, it's rare to find someone who has worked in design, engineering development, product, strategy and marketing. Even rarer again to find someone who's personally managed teams in each of those as well.
Shay Howe is the CMO of a marketing tech company called Active Campaign. Each...
2023-08-271h 10Champagne StrategyBaiba Matisone - Strategists in advertising - How agencies and clients can work better together - S4 Ep9Baiba’s career is varied to say the least. Starting with a bachelor of visual arts at university where she was dissuaded from pursuing a career in this field, to later attempts at breaking the small glass ceiling of male advertising strategists in her native Latvia. After some account management experience at both Ogilvy and Grey group she landed a strategist role at an agency in the Czech Republic, later working at Kantar Millward Brown. During COVID she started a community dedicated to serving fellow strategists around the world - pushing the profession forward.
Now she works mo...
2023-08-131h 06Champagne StrategyJon Evans - Marketing on a shoestring budget. Turning $440 into $940 000 - S4 Ep8A recent article, some skeptical Twitterati and a belated Champagne film scene prompted the two Johns to join forces once again. In this episode, we put some of the doubters at bay. So if Jon Evan's recent Marketing Week article took your fancy, or you don't believe it, then you can hear the extended story of exactly how it all went down right here, right now. Listen and you might be able to pick up some tips on how to extend your budget's runway too.
A lesson in the power of constraints, creativity and Champagne.
...
2023-06-1218 minChampagne StrategyEden Bidani - Messaging Strategy - The forgotten jigsaw piece of product market fit, PLG and growth - S4 Ep7Have you ever found it difficult to brief and agency, a copywriter or a designer and get back the words you were expecting? This is really hard when you don't have a messaging strategy which sits at the top of your workflow. Working alongside your brand voice and tone, your positioning, brand story and strategic narrative.
It's the missing piece that nearly every company fails to invest in and without it, you'll experience a lot of frustration, back and forth communication, and rejected copy.
Failure to work on your messaging strategy especially affects complex, B2...
2023-06-101h 01Champagne StrategyMike Rizzo - Marketing Operations Strategy - ignore at your entire function's own cost - S4 Ep6Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10 There's a famous quote by Kleiner Perkins' OG John Doer, "Ideas are easy. Execution is everything. It takes a team to win".
If you've ever been responsible for bottom line results, you'll agree and nod because you know this quote to be true. Unfortunately, mastering the craft of execution is not politically advantageous.
Instead, most companies reward those who are seen as a big picture thinkers not those fussing with details in the weeds. So we talk about higher-level constructs like brand, strategy, mindset, buzzwords, general approaches etc. And then outsource as...
2023-05-1149 minChampagne StrategyEthan Decker - Busting brand myths. Separating fact from fiction and politics from science - S4 Ep5What is a brand? How do they work? How do you separate the marketing fluff from fact?
If you want to build commercial value from marketing investments this is a mandatory listen.
Listen to Dr Ethan Decker. A former ecologist who is now an applied brand science professional based in Boulder, Colorado.
Nothing more needs to be said.
Skip to the 5-minute mark if you want to skip the intros and Champagne sipping.
2023-05-041h 31Champagne StrategyMike Taylor - Is copying success a good strategy? Or should you be wary of survivorship bias? A debate - S3 Ep4Brain Hurt Scale = 9/10. Seen that survivorship bias image floating around on LinkedIn or Twitter? You know, the one with the plane schematic with red dots showing the points where planes in world war 2 got shot. Followed by some sage remark by someone who goes on to say something about not falling victim to survivorship bias?
Well, blindly believing this is something Mike says to be wary of. In this debate, I'm on one side of the argument and Mike is on the other.
What comes out is not just an intellectual wank. But a conversation...
2023-04-2359 min
Champagne StrategyBrent Annells - Partnership and distribution strategy for services & SaaS - Step-change growth vs failure - S3 Ep26In practice, Brent says over 95% of all partnerships fail. But why? And what can we do to increase the odds of success? Brent Annells is a wealth of deep knowledge in the practicalities of partnerships but also much more, courtesy of his storied career.
Starting his career in PR, grounding in core messaging and positioning strategy, it wasn't long before he was testing his chops at a startup in the early web 1.0 days just before the dot-com crash. Then he moved into the advertising agency world with roles at Cummins&Partners and DDB before reveling in Facebook's h...
2023-04-1648 minChampagne StrategyWhy you don't need a lot of Martech to get the job done - Core Strategy vs Tech Tools - John JamesRepublished with permission from Juan Mendoza, host of the Making Sense of Martech podcast.
"In this episode I’m joined by John James. John is the host of the Champagne Strategy podcast, marketing, and technology consultant, and startup entrepreneur. John started working for global ad agencies then went client side, to government (B2G), B2B, B2C. Worked at digital agencies in Melbourne for half a decade in account manager roles and sales, he then started his own agency and ran that for 7 years. Then moved to live in San Francisco working as a growth manager fo...
2023-04-0344 minChampagne StrategyAndres Glusman - Testing, experimentation and competitive intelligence to craft products that sell - S4 Ep3Brain hurt scale = 3/10. Andres Glusman was experimenting and validating products before the lean startup term was coined. It started in college selling peanuts at baseball games. Progressed to testing ads for the world's first digital agency. He was split testing Winnie the Pooh banner ads manually before ad software existed. Which led to his former agency boss getting him to solve an early traction problem for a startup called Meetup. Lashings of sales hustle and his revolutionary test-and-learn approach helped land Meetup their first round of funding and as they say, the rest is history.
But Andres...
2023-03-121h 33Champagne StrategyBryan Williams - Building partnership ecosystems and communities that drive growth - S4 Ep2Brain-hurt Scale = 5/10. Some marketers believe Apple’s success stems from a series of emotional brand ads. Yet they ignore product strategy, distribution and ecosystems - which I would argue, is the true source of their market power.
Some marketers might know what distribution and the power of physical availability is. They may drop the term in conversations, but rarely are they exposed to it or know how to go about affecting it. Most of us in business will be aware of distribution networks in the physical goods world. Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. But in the service industry, it...
2023-02-231h 16Champagne StrategyPer Davidsson - Empirical entrepreneurship and the pursuit of growth vs profit - S4 Ep1Brain-hurt scale = 4/10. "Don't worry about profit. Just get me more growth. We can always worry about monetization and margins later." This type of statement is quite dominant within Silicon Valley culture and within modern entrepreneurship. But just how valid is this advice? Luckily, Per Davidsson, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Queensland University of Technology can answer that in detail.
But first, what is entrepreneurship and what is growth for that matter? How do we define and measure them?
Why does the best business advice come from the people farthest away from you?
Why is b...
2023-02-151h 07Champagne StrategyElisa Choy - How to predict the results of elections before they happen - A US mid-terms example - S3 Ep31This is a follow up to a former talk we had with Elisa Choy about market research and predictive AI. We heard she was gearing up to predict the results of the US midterms. This was something I followed closely this time around. Following Elisa's posts and predictions as they manifested leading up to election day.
Here's the story of how she again, got it right. Why she got it right. The major mistakes the Republicans made. And more information on how you could use her method to predict the next election in your own country.
2022-12-0716 minChampagne StrategyAdam Posner - Does loyalty exist? Crafting world-class loyalty programs which provide commercial benefit - S3 Ep30"You're wrong - Byron Sharp says loyalty doesn't exist." said a person on Twitter recently. This statement then started a string of comments as people started to argue who was right. I found this entire argument strange, because obviously that person has not read the book from the author he was referring to.
One of my first jobs was to research all the loyalty programs in the country and figure out how they worked, what their incentive programs offered, the value of points in fiat currency equivalent and lots more. And I discovered a global points-hacking community o...
2022-11-1049 minChampagne StrategyFlavia Barbat - Nuclear content strategy. Branding, publishing and the future of content - S3 Ep29Have you noticed over the past year or so, all social media content is regressing to the mean of bland, sameness? Content which appears useful at face value but isn't. Feeds and blogs full of posts that all look and sound like each other. Most are wildly popular. But when you dig beneath the surface you'll find them as unhelpful as they are helpful.
We've all been tempted to emulate this style. But what’s being lost in this process is something much deeper. A void has been created. This proliferation of generic sameness presents an immense opp...
2022-11-0159 minChampagne StrategyJuan Mendoza - Growing a newsletter from scratch - The Martech Weekly story & applied content strategy - S3 Ep28A simple idea during 2020s lockdown has now led to Juan being invited on stages around the world, working with Scott Brinker, SVP from Hubspot and consulting opportunities galore. But it all started by creating by creating a simple blog and newsletter. A newsletter which is now one of the most trusted in the world on Martech.
And for the first time, ever, you'll hear from the horse's mouth, exactly how he did it. This is the story of Juan Mendoza's rise to fame which has remained untold until now.
Even if content marketing, owned med...
2022-10-291h 10
Champagne StrategyJon Evans - A big and small brand CMO - critical differences and learnings that make for superior marketing - S3 Ep27Brain hurt scale = 4/10. We've all heard examples of a big brand CMO starting their own business or going to work for a smaller company and it usually ends in tears. Exposed naked, without the halo effect of a big brand, including operational processes and agency support, it can be a confronting, reality-check experience at best. And a complete disaster at worst.
So ,any marketers just stick in their lane. If they start in one sector, they tend to stick to it. If they work at a large brand, they tend to continue seeking roles at similar firms. V...
2022-10-151h 24Champagne StrategyMike Taylor - Marketing Measurement Systems in Practice - An all-purpose guide & overview S3 Ep25 (part 6 of 6)Brain hurt scale 7/10. Mike Talor helps us put the last 5 episodes on Marketing Measurement into practical context. Having started a growth agency many years ago and still an active practitioner in the field, there was perhaps no one more appropriate to talk to about this topic.
We've spoke to Elisa Choy about sentiment tracking, Jonathan Rolley about advertising media measurement, Edgar Baum about brand tracking, Michael Kaminsky about MMM and Koen Pauwels about econometrics. But often, what you should do in a perfect world, is very different to the realities of actually implementing these systems within different o...
2022-10-091h 18Champagne StrategyJon Rolley - Advertising Media Measurement - How politics creates unwise choices - S3 Ep24 (part 5 of 6)Brain hurt scale 4/10. Jonathan Rolley is an agency owner who specializes in buying media and executing campaigns for brands who actually want a measured response. Sounds crazy I know. But instead of optimizing for vanity metrics like impressions, reach, brand awareness, brand consideration, brand preference and even salience. He's more concerned about whether it resulted in purchases (the response). Hence his aptly named company, Direct Response Media.
But ironically, because he's concerned about financial outcomes from media spend, most marketing people do not engage him. He deals primarily with CEO's, CFO's and COO's rather than CMOs. Something I...
2022-09-2436 minChampagne StrategyElisa Choy - Predict future behavior - Sentiment tracking & modern market research at scale - S3 Ep23 (part 4 of 6)Brain hurt scale 6/10. Did you know? Elisa and her firm predicted the results of the last Australian federal election weeks before it happened? And this wasn't an isolated incident.
Contrary to popular perception, predicting future market behavior is possible. So why don't more organizations do it? This question and many more about the mysterious new wave of the market research world will be answered.
But it won't be answered by reading this text.
Start listening
2022-09-221h 08Champagne StrategyEdgar Baum - Brand Tracking - How to make wise choices - S3 Ep22 (part 3 of 6)Brain-hurt scale 9/10 - Brand tracking. You just track awareness and some other association or brand dimensions over time and if they all increase relative to your competitors, your brand wins, right?
The famous brand tracking companies that all famous agencies use are all highly reputable, use robust measurement methodologies and wouldn't lie to our faces, would they?
The more brand awareness we get, the healthier our business' bottom line will be right?
Or.. salience and mental availability are the real brand measures we should be tracking if we want the business to earn m...
2022-09-2035 minChampagne StrategyMichael Kaminsky - Modern Marketing Mix Modelling - How to make wise choices - S3 Ep21 (part 2 of 6)Brain-hurt scale 10/10 - Marketing Mix Modelling or MMM for short is, to paraphrase Zoolander, 'So Hot Right Now'. It seems every day I see another firm pop up with an AI, ML-powered MMM product that claims to be the silver bullet that will fix our iOS14-induced digital attribution void and transport us back to measurement nirvana. But, as you'll find out by listening to this episode, Caveat Emptor.
In order to make wise choices in this area, it's first necessary to understand some of the basics of MMM. What it is and how it works. What i...
2022-09-1722 minChampagne StrategyKoen Pauwels - Econometric models & theory vs humans & practice. Mastering measurement and context for marketing success - S3 Ep20 (part 1 of 6)Brain-hurt scale = 9/10. Every day, we hear about new studies in the field of marketing and growth. Industry whitepapers. Academic theories. This law. That law. An industry group finds TV is better than Facebook. The next week, another group finds the exact opposite. Byron vs Binet. Galloway vs Gary V. This study vs that study. It's exhausting, now to sit here and even write about it.
Unfortunately, for the rest of us. Everyone is so busy selling their angle, what gets lost in all this radio ga ga is the truth. Then again, does anyone really care underneath?
2022-08-301h 07Champagne StrategyKaren Nelson-Field - Putting PHD's into Practice - Categories and Entrepreneurship - S3 Ep19Brain-hurt scale = 6/10. If you work in the world of advertising or media, especially in Australia or the UK, I'd be surprised if you haven't heard of Karen Nelson Field.
Fresh from an escapade sipping rose and snacking on caviar on the French Riviera, we’re actually not talking to her about attention & advertising measurement. Sorry to disappoint. But, that's been covered in depth already.
Instead we're talking about categories and applied marketing/entrepreneurship. All about how she's put theory into practice and the gulf between the two.
As a former academic and researcher at t...
2022-08-2545 minChampagne StrategyPatrick Campbell - From no marketing knowledge and $0 to a $200m exit - The Profitwell growth story - S3 Ep18Brain-hurt scale = 7/10. Patrick Campbell's story is fascinating. From rural Wisconsin to the NSA and then bootstrapping a tech company to a recent $200m sale. Sounds crazy until you learn how his mind works and the sharp business intellect that's feeding success.
In a world of social media influencers and industry commentator journalists, we can easily listen to conflicted advice. The truth isn't a dominant voice, so it gets lost. So today, you can hear first-hand from someone who has grown a business from scratch and all the ways they did it. What worked, what didn't. What is t...
2022-08-2148 minChampagne StrategyBenjamin Dennehy - A crash course in sales - the lost art of prospecting - S3 Ep17Brain-hurt scale = 5/10. When was the last time you saw a startup's GTM strategy include sales prospecting cold calls? Pretty much never. Most early-stage startups and shy businesses skip this crucial step. Instead preferencing an introverted, passive, direct response style approach. Which includes ads on digital channels targeting in-market buyers. In this episode, you'll find out why this is often a big, big mistake.
Unless you've been living under a rock, we've all seen that scene at the end of The Wolf of Wall Street where Jordan Belfort uses the 'sell me this pen' routine to teach people a...
2022-08-1559 minChampagne StrategyJohn James - Marketing for revenue vs cake decoration comms - Tim Beanland interviews via the Experts Blueprint podcast - S3 Ep16Brain-hurt scale = 5/10. The microphone is reversed
John sprawled on a green sofa, which burns your retinas.
They talk and Tim extracts
Viral cat videos on TikTok. Cake decoration. Channel envy. Visual bias. The principal agent problem and agency relationships.
Marketing vs growth vs sales. Content strategies that work. Measurement and metrics. Strategy planning vs execution.
Tim Beanland interviews John James for his Experts Blueprint podcast - uploaded here for your convenience.
If you want your marketing to affect bottom-line growth instead of pumping out endless 'creative' that's 'on...
2022-08-0239 minChampagne StrategyJesse Ouellette - Cold email secrets - generate high-margin revenue from world-class sales outreach - S3 Ep15Brain-hurt scale = 9/10. SEO is dead. Email is dead. Facebook is dead. It's all about inbound not outbound now. If I had a dollar for everyone saying something is dead, I'd be a rich man. Unfortunately, many will follow this advice based on the assumed credibility of the brand saying it. Most of the time, they are just positioning themselves as an alternative to the 'dead' thing, and pushing their own agenda. Smart operators don't fall for this hubris.
Cold email isn't dead. It just needs to be done properly. It has to be done in a particular w...
2022-07-1842 minChampagne StrategyAdam Hamilton - Innovation & New Product Development (NPD) Strategy - S3 Ep14Brain-hurt scale = 7/10. "Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two--and only two--basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business." Peter Drucker.
Innovation always seems to make the list of one of the top priorities for businesses. It's always something management talks about and employees want to attach themselves to, but more often than not, the brutal truth is that they completely suck at it.
Therefore, innovation typically remains an elusive buzzword at be...
2022-07-141h 16Champagne StrategyTed Wright - Revenue success sans advertising - Word of Mouth marketing - S3 Ep13Brain-hurt scale = 5/10. Great products sell themselves and advertising is just the price you pay for a bad product right?
Word of Mouth Marketing or WOM. Is it even a channel? Can you really grow without spending money on advertising? Can you enhance the natural rate of WOM?
The TL:DR answer is Yes. Yes and Yes.
Right now, budgets are getting crimped and the heat is on for high-cash burn marketing channels. And there’s nothing higher cash-burn than advertising.
So how do you grow a brand and sell your product with...
2022-07-071h 15
Champagne StrategyEdan Krolewicz - Data for customer acquisition - The light and the dark side of the global data industry - S3 Ep12Brain-hurt scale = 8/10. We've all heard of the data breach scandals. Cambridge Analytica. Hackers holding customer databases to ransom, demanding Bitcoin payments. Platforms sharing your data with other companies who you weren't even aware of. GDPR privacy crackdowns in Europe. Senate enquiries in the US. Customer lists being stolen by employees and used to start new businesses. Data was once described as 'the new oil. But, in a world awash with data, what data is valuable and what isn't.
So today, we're lifting the lid on the entire industry. Especially what all of this means for people who w...
2022-06-3053 minChampagne StrategyMalcolm Auld - Direct Mail and Marketing first principles - How digital marketing leads us astray from effectiveness - S3 Ep11Brain-hurt scale = 6/10. "I very frequently get the question: 'What's going to change in the next 10 years?' And that is a very interesting question; it's a very common one. I almost never get the question: 'What's not going to change in the next 10 years?' And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two -- because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time." Jess Bezos.
In a rapidly changing marketing landscape it's very easy to get distracted by everything new. It's exciting. I...
2022-06-151h 07Champagne StrategyBryant Graves - How strategy could/should or doesn't apply to your job. The future of business strategy and consulting - S3 Ep10Brain-hurt scale = 8/10. Strategy has become such a buzzword these days. More often, just a prefix added to job titles to make it sound more attractive, not whether the job requires real strategy acumen or not.
Everyone seems to be acting 'strategic'. But what does that even mean?
Who better to unpack all these questions than someone who just finished working for one of the largest companies in the world.
Today we’re talking to Bryant Graves. Ex-senior strategy manager at Walmart, now in charge of Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy at Snowflake.
Back in...
2022-06-101h 06Champagne StrategyRonsley Vaz - Podcast content production frameworks and leveraging owned-media - S3 Ep9Brain-hurt scale = 5/10. Vayner Media, Zac Efron, Paris Hilton, Graeme Turner, Chris Voss - these are the sorts of people that Ronsley works with. And to say that he's learnt a few things or two would be an understatement. He's all about using content strategically - for maximum gain.
And yes, we talk under the guise of podcasting a little, but also far broader. By listening all the way through, you'll be able to absorb the best way to create a strategic content framework which can be applied to any brand. Especially service and SaaS. You'll be able...
2022-06-0344 minChampagne StrategyJosh Butt and Michelle Lomas - Podcast promotion and the future of audio experiences - S3 Ep8Brain-hurt scale = 7/10. Just last week I had 3 different people ask me for advice on podcast promotion. And I came up short on giving them a detailed answer. So you know what this means? I needed to ego-check and delve a bit deeper. So if you've wondered about how to use podcasts in your promotional mix, or how to promote your own podcast so it becomes a valuable asset for your brand - this is an episode you need to listen to.
I came across Josh Butt (Founder and executive) and Michelle Lomas (GM) who operate an independent p...
2022-05-2759 minChampagne StrategyJohn Dwyer - Sales promotions and direct response - Jerry Seinfeld, incentives, CTAs & holidays - S3 Ep7Brain-hurt scale = 4/10. Everything else being equal, the strength of your offer can make or break the effectiveness of any marketing campaign. Boring CTA's like 'buy now' or 'find out more' or 'book a demo' can scuttle sales by a substantial percentage. So consider this situation. You're about to buy a boring, commoditized, financial product. Then an ad comes on TV with Jerry Seinfeld as the spokesperson. He cracks a joke or two about home ownership and says, if you switch loan providers, you'll get a free holiday. Listen to this episode for the full story behind how this entire...
2022-05-1456 minChampagne StrategyRoss Sergeant - Applied Media Strategy - inside the world of a practicing global head of media & brand at Asahi - S3 Ep6Brain-hurt scale = 8/10. Just days earlier, Ross Sergeant, global head of media and touchpoints at Asahi, spoke to a conference where he debunked the 40/60 rule advocated by Binet and Field. Most marketing scientists, and savvy marketers in the crowd were not surprised. But so alluring and well-crafted are some of these 'laws', many in the UK, Australia and beyond, are still convinced a reliable path to growth relies heavily upon mass-reach broadcast media. There's a belief that this type of media should form a large percentage of the marketing budget.
But as you'll find out, this is not t...
2022-05-0549 minChampagne StrategyMarcus Willis - Social Media Strategy - Keys to social growth and the things which will never change - S3 Ep4Brain-hurt scale = 6/10. Parents only use Facebook, teens only use TikTok, Instagram is dying, Twitter is already dead, and YouTube is just for video.
Out of all the media that brands can use, perhaps Social is one of the most misunderstood, and it's a victim of it's own accessibility. The more everyone can use a medium, the more everyone thinks they know how to use it and how it works underneath. But, the opposite is usually true.
So we had to talk with a social media expert about social media strategy. First of all, is Social Me...
2022-04-2953 minChampagne StrategyBlake Hutchison - Putting the A in M&A - Acquiring digital assets for sustained growth - Acquisition Strategy - S3 Ep5Brain-hurt scale = 6/10. A long time ago, back in the good ol’ days of the Google internet, I learnt the power of affiliate marketing first hand. Affiliate strategies let you take advantage of an assumed message source separation. This is where the customer assumes the source of the message is not the advertiser. Example, you pay the owner of a blog site within your niche, for the privilege of tapping into this pool of visitors in various ways. Prospects trust this more, because the message isn't coming from you the brand, but from a trusted source. So it will have a f...
2022-04-2547 minChampagne StrategyPeter Li - Inside the secretive world of corporate Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) - Why they don't work as a growth lever - S3 Ep3"I am going to love doing this podcast. Because I don't expect to ever be hired into an investment bank or in-house M&A team ever again, I can be brutally honest." We talked further, but he had me at 'brutally honest'. That was the moment I knew we needed to interview Peter and uncover this murky world.
An overlooked way to quickly grow a business is to simply acquire customers. Customers which belong to another business. This tactic is overlooked because it's traditionally been the exclusive domain of investment bankers and management consultants who only deal...
2022-03-2459 minChampagne StrategyWillem Paling - Data, Segmentation & Targeting Strategy - How to slice and dice your market scientifically - S3 Ep2“It’s easy to make bad decisions with data” he said straight off the bat. In today’s tech infected world, it can seem vogue to tout the fact that you’re data-driven. Kind of like it’s a badge of honor that provides an air of superiority over the other ill-informed business heathens. But what is data? What isn’t data? Are the people who call themselves data-driven, actually data-driven underneath? This is something we had to get to the bottom of.
I came across Willem Paling after I saw a presentation he published on how cutting brand...
2022-03-211h 15Champagne StrategyJason Andrew - Bridging the gap between Accounting, Finance and the Marketing function - S3 Ep1Don't fear - this isn't an episode about accounting but rather how understanding some financial fundamentals can make you a far better marketer or growth professional. This is the point where marketing professional's career otherwise plateaus. If you've ever had trouble getting initiatives or projects approved, often it's not political. It's just that the business case is weak. So I thought that if we can understand how accountants and finance think - marketing and growth professionals will be able to get more projects they know are valuable to the business, approved. And as you'll find out, both camps think...
2022-03-051h 16Champagne StrategyMatthew Hammon - Life in the day of an elite B2B marketer - Tales from an active practitioner - S2 Ep11In between the strategy and channel episodes, we feature some interviews with active practitioners. After the Robin Daniels (ex WeWork CMO) episode and two other entrepreneur interviews, it was time for another.
So today we’re talking with Matthew Hammon, Australian ex-pat who now lives in New York. He’s earned his stripes over the years, leaning on an early entrepreneurial journey which started at the ripe old age of 12 in Melbourne, Australia. Having founded and run his own businesses over the years, completing numerous degrees from Marketing, to a Masters in Intellectual Property law to a soon...
2022-01-0158 minChampagne StrategyKimberley Haley - Pricing Strategy - Package product offerings into bundles of optimized value - S2 Ep14This is our second episode on the topic of pricing strategy - the first of which was Jon Manning in Season 1 which we also recommend you to listen to first.
We could only cover so much in the last episode so in this episode we cover some of the other areas to round-out our understanding of how to use pricing strategy as a growth-driver.
Any growth strategist worth their salt knows that pricing strategy can’t really be isolated from the larger business machine - product, packaging, sales, marketing etc. In particular, pricing and the pro...
2021-12-221h 17Champagne StrategyCharmaine Moldrich - Outdoor Advertising - The past the present and the future - S2 Ep13Some of the first forms of recorded advertising was the SPQR insignia that Roman soldiers displayed on the Standards they carried into battle - Similar inscriptions are, to this day, still visible on the tops of manholes around Rome.
Signage and other forms of outdoor advertising are perhaps THE original form of advertising. This topic is Charmaine's area of expertise and we start this discussion talking about the history of outdoor advertising which goes back millennia.
Currently, she's the CEO of two organizations: The Outdoor Media Association, and Move (an audience measurement tech company).
2021-12-221h 19Champagne StrategyKimberly A. Whitler - Positioning Strategy - How to position brands and products for strategic advantage - S2 Ep12If you think positioning strategy is a bunch of fluffy brand-purpose-laden statements mixed with a few dual-axis, positioning maps, you’re in for a rude awakening. Because as you'll soon discover, that's not what professional positioning strategists do.
Kimberly A. Whitler is perhaps most famous for her book on this topic, and positioning strategy is what we initially aim to talk about, but what comes out in the wash during this discussion are lashings of strategic wisdom any senior leader, serious about growth would be interested in. She has a wealth of experience spent working with brands lik...
2021-12-201h 14Champagne StrategySean Ellis - Growth, growth hacking, marketing, and the future of the growth movement - S2 Ep 10Sean Ellis, the OG who coined the term 'growth hacking' explains the key determinants to growth for both SaaS and traditional businesses. In under one hour, you'll find out the macro version of why this approach to growing any business is so effective. I really don't need to write any more here. If you are a founder, a business owner, a growth professional, product manager or marketer and you're interested in the non-BS side of the growth discipline - you need to press play.
Over and out.
2021-11-1959 minChampagne StrategyRich Mironov - Core fundamentals of Product Strategy and Product Management that won't change - S2 Ep9Why does Rich Mironov disagree with Elon Musk regarding his statements about product? Is PLG a real thing or just another cult-buzzword? What are the secrets behind creating successful products which sell themselves?
Rich Mironov is one of the OG's of the product strategy and management world. He started working for tech companies before tech was cool. Before Product Management was even a term. And his experience over the years has spanned decades. He worked on AI in the 70s. He was arguably the first to sell web.sql software and has one of the original blogs o...
2021-11-191h 11Champagne StrategyKatie Dally and Paul Swann - Creative Strategy and the modern marketing agency dynamic - S2 Ep8What is creative strategy? What is the secret behind award-winning agency, Thinkerbell and their ability to consistently push out creative that works. How do you keep a creative machine humming throughout the ups and downs of business?
We speak with the two most senior MD's from Thinkerbell, Katie Dally and Paul Swann to find out.
Katie has over 18 years of international experience across Sydney, London and Cape Town. Currently she's the GM of Thinkerbell, Sydney which has seen 67% headcount growth in under 12 months, and just recently landed the lucrative Lion account. Past gigs have included a...
2021-10-171h 20Champagne StrategyAnita Toth - Churn and Retention Strategy - To keep or acquire? That is the question - S2 Ep7Is the best path to growth dependent on retaining the customers you already have, or by acquiring new ones? This is a major bane of contention depending on who you talk to, but today we're exploring Anita's side of the argument which is all about churn reduction strategy (a.k.a retention).
But in doing so, we talk about so much more, including the pivotal role the sales process plays into this whole debate, as well as customer success, support, brand and marketing.
If you are bleeding customers, this is a must-listen.
If yo...
2021-10-041h 13Champagne StrategyKarim Zuhri - Strategic planning vs tactical execution - How to connecting both phases and avoid bad strategy - S2 Ep6One of the main reasons companies don't grow and stagnate is because they fail to execute on their planning phase.
There's many reasons why. This is an area we'll cover exclusively in this episode.
It’s always nice when you stumble across people in strategy who have interesting backgrounds. The more diverse and strange the background, the better the strategist in my book. These people tend to be a wealth of wisdom and have a certain perspective that only comes off the back of diversity of thought which in turn stems from a diversity of life...
2021-09-2355 minChampagne StrategyJennifer Harrison - Earned Media Strategy - the secret to high-value PR and publicity - S2 Ep5 - Part 2Part 2 of 2. A continuation of the interview with Jennifer Harrison. Listen to Part 1 first.
2021-08-2938 minChampagne StrategyJennifer Harrison - Earned Media Strategy - the secret to high-value PR and publicity - S2 Ep5 - Part 1Part 1 of 2. How can companies like Tesla spend $0 on paid advertising and still sell billions of dollars of product? Well...they are very good at getting publicity and using owned media channels to their advantage. While this isn't possible for all brands, today we're talking to Jennifer Harrison to learn more about the power of PR and earned media strategy. Too much of what growth or marketing people are exposed to concerns, advertising or owned media. But the world of PR is often a powerful, subtle, underrated growth-driver that works silently in the background. It's the key to a l...
2021-08-2939 minChampagne StrategyJonathan Rolley - Media Strategy and the dirty laundry of the media planning world - S2 Ep4Everyone client-side wants to know which channels or mediums they should be investing in. Because they want the ones which get the most ‘results’ for the lowest cost. Some will trust their vendor or agency to answer this question. But, if they want to know the real answer in a nutshell...well it depends. It depends on many factors. Factors which this episode will reveal - in detail.
Jonathan Rolley from Direct Response Media, specializes in a branch of scientific media planning which focuses on customer outcomes (the response). In this interview we’ll uncover the mistakes many b...
2021-08-1159 minChampagne StrategyPeter Bray and Ayaan Mohamud - Partnership Strategy - The hidden path to revenue growth many ignore - S2 Ep3Everyone thinks the easiest way to grow a company is advertising or marketing campaigns. But, forging partnerships and creating distribution networks can be an exponentially more powerful revenue-driver. Why pay to temporarily leverage another entity's audience when you can do it permanently and share both the risk and the upside?
Partnerships are the less-talked-about growth driver that every business, small and large can do better. Find out why companies like Nike, Canva, Disney, Pizza Hut, Booktopia and more...use partnership technology stacks to create a customer acquisition machine that provides win-win outcomes for everyone involved.
A...
2021-08-1157 minChampagne StrategyYaniv Bernstein - Operational Strategy - How getting the right things done, is a growth driver - S2 Ep2Over the years, I've noticed the potential for teams and companies to grow, is often hampered by none other than a lack of operational hygiene.
Most business coaches and mentors will simply give advice that largely boils down to perspective, mental fortitude and operational discipline.
Often our perspective when working inside a business and industry can become warped. We're inside the institution. We're part of the organization's culture. We're indoctrinated by norms and specific standard processes. But, where are the checks and balances? Who is asking whether that's the right way to do things? Are the...
2021-08-0959 minChampagne StrategyDaniel McCarthy - The Unit Economics of Customer Acquisition, Growth and Company Value - S2 Ep1It’s rare to come across a finance expert who has such a deep understanding of true customer value and all the complexity that goes along with it. But, Professor Daniel McCarthy has joined forces with Pete Fader Professor of Marketing from Wharton and Rob Markey, Partner at Bain New York, to spread the word about their Customer Based Corporation Valuation method (CBCV). Pundits in Silicon Valley as well as many other modern firms have already taken notice.
So we wanted to look deeper into this valuation method and see if there were any takeaways for investors an...
2021-07-091h 09Champagne StrategyKeaton Hulme-Jones - The mysterious world of programmatic display advertising unraveled - S1 Ep12Programmatic display, video pre-roll, banner ads, skyscrapers, home page takeovers, leaderboards, MRECs, what the hell does it all mean?
If you’re not advertising on search, social, content or digital audio, you’re most likely spending money on display advertising. Display advertising goes by many names, as we’ll find out in a minute, but this complex, murky world is a mysterious black box for many.
In this industry, there was first talk of systemic ad fraud. Then the conversation shifted to brand safety and more recently, customer data protection with GDPR and CCPA. Things have a...
2020-10-201h 07Champagne StrategyDr Alison Macintyre - How to create motivated, high-performance teams in a modern, remote world - S1 Ep14Hire slow, fire fast and blitzscale is often the mantra in Silicon Valley. From personal experience, Alison believes in only one part of that statement. So we were intrigued to find more about her contrarian views regarding the management of global, remote, successful teams.
She's a self-described, "globetrotting multi-passionate pracademic", but also a genuine, loveable person underneath. This is rare in the cut-throat world of tech. Her approach to staff and team dynamics is unorthodox, yet extremely effective. The last company she worked for and her first job as a Chief of Staff, ended up in a su...
2020-10-1457 minChampagne StrategyAndrew Roper - Rockstar royalty, entrepreneurship and the secrets of the wine world - S1 Ep15You will never find real entrepreneurs doing laps of the motivational speaking circuits and flogging a bunch of online courses to the masses on social media. They are very busy people, with high demands for their time. Which is why you're in for a treat with this episode where we uncover someone who keeps a low profile within the wine and business world.
Supplier of wine and trusted beverage consultant to many of the elite rock-stars, actors and celebrities around the world. The likes of Richard Branson, Billy Joel, Benji Madden, Cameron Diaz, Paul Stanley and many m...
2020-10-111h 06Champagne StrategyJon Manning - modern pricing strategies and tactics - create value by getting pricing right - S1 Ep13Pricing is one of the 4 P's of marketing. Before the bean-counters and financial analysts took over this domain, pricing sat firmly in the remit of the marketing department. Then the great purge happened and each of the other P's peeled off from marketing, fragmenting the critical strategic marketing discipline. There only so much that can be done by looking at spreadsheets and creating economic models. What was lost, was an understanding of how customer value manifests itself - the irrationality - the art.
Jon Manning is here to restore that connection, as he leverages his deep knowledge o...
2020-09-221h 22
Champagne StrategyJon Manning on modern pricing strategy, value and how to get pricing right - Episode 13Pricing is one of the 4 P's of marketing. Before the bean-counters and financial analysts took over this domain, pricing sat firmly in the remit of the marketing department. Then the great purge happened and each of the other P's peeled off from marketing, fragmenting the critical strategic marketing discipline. There only so much that can be done by looking at spreadsheets and creating economic models. What was lost, was an understanding of how customer value manifests itself - the irrationality - the art.
Jon Manning is here to restore that connection, as he leverages his deep...
2020-09-171h 30Champagne StrategyChris Walker - Demand generation which actually works in B2B SaaS is often counterintuitive - S1 Ep11You’ve probably heard him on LinkedIn or from his popular podcast, but today the microphone is reversed and we get to probe a little further into the world of Chris Walker. We ask him all the questions that he doesn't normally get asked.
If you’ve listened to him online, he shoots from the sales & marketing hip as much as a Texan ranger, but underneath this tell-it-like-it-is personality lies a nuanced, pragmatic professional, completely unbound by convention.
It’s clear, early on that he is privy to the wisdom that only comes from being on the...
2020-09-051h 17Champagne StrategyMatt Watkinson - Customer Experience Strategy - the part that isn't a buzzword - S1 Ep9Matt Watkinson was talking about customer experience even before it became a boardroom buzzword. In fact by 2012, he'd already written a famous book on the topic. As a successful author and practitioner in the field of CX for over a decade, he’s someone who looks at the discipline from a much wider perspective than most. This multi-disciplinary approach to his craft makes him deadly effective when it comes to solving business problems. Similar to me, he doesn't focus on the CX that just sounds good, but the type that helps improve commercial performance.
He's well-read and hig...
2020-09-011h 27Champagne StrategyVikki Ross - Words that sell - the overlooked value of great copywriting - S1 Ep10Vikki Ross is one of the UK and Europe's most famous copywriters which is why I hope she doesn't critique my terrible writing right here.
Very early on in her career, Vikki decided that copywriting was what she wanted to do. Her unwavering commitment and mastery of the craft is awe inspiring.
She’s worked as a copywriter for both large and small brands. From in-house work for brands such as The Body Shop, Hotels.com, and Virgin Media to her more recent consulting work for brands like Disney, Harry Potter, Sky News, Formula 1, Durex, Tes...
2020-08-2742 min
Champagne StrategyKathryn Rutkowski - The brutal reality of customer experience strategy that works - S1 Ep5Customer experience aka CX. Is it just another buzzword or new name for customer support? Well it's neither. Kathryn lays down the truth bombs hard in this episode, cutting right through the fluff surrounding this mysterious discipline. Her multi-disciplinary experience working for firms both large and small, has meant her perspective on customer experience is extremely valuable. Naturally, we wanted to ask her everything and she didn't disappoint.
We discuss everything from CX metrics, to the hallmarks of junior vs senior teams. We talk about the 70% silent complainer majority, the processes and strategies she implements and much, m...
2020-08-261h 15Champagne StrategyConfessions of a tech CMO - Robin Daniels - S1 Ep8How do you do marketing for a tech company? Well we asked someone who's been there since the first tech bubble pop in 2001. We learn how marketing in the tech world has changed over the past 20 years. What's stayed the same and what's changed. What's the latest and greatest and everything else in between. Robin Daniels is the current CMO of Matterport and ex-CMO of WeWork, and he's held senior positions at Box, Vera, Salesforce and more prior. He's experienced the whole gambit of the SaaS world and stems from a solid product marketing background. So we had to...
2020-07-271h 01Champagne StrategyMeasuring a brand's contribution to revenue with mathematical accuracy - Edgar Baum - S1 Ep 7There's brand marketers on one side and Edgar Baum on the other. He has mathematically proven the complex relationship between brand and revenue. Edgar is even called as an expert witness in court cases, and has developed an ISO valuation standard, such is the depth and integrity of his knowledge regarding the evaluation of intangible assets.
Why is Tesla so valuable? Why are CPG/FMCG brands under attack? Is a brand more than a logo or your brand design guideline document? How does a brand work and why do people buy?
If you've a fan...
2020-07-051h 36Champagne StrategyAdvisory boards - the secret ingredient of high growth companies - Louise Broekman - S1 Ep6There's nothing worse than acting on poor advice. Sometimes it can be better to do nothing at all in retrospect. As a business owner, how to you ensure that you're receiving the best quality advice at the time? What are the different options out there and what are their pros and cons?
Louise is the founder of The Advisory Board Center, the world's only global body for formalized advisory boards. In this interview she explains why it can be so effective to leverage world-class, independent advisers who work collaboratively to solve complex business problems.
Every...
2020-07-021h 10Champagne StrategyThe future of retail is mass customized and personalized - DTC to C2M - Shadi Taleb - S1 Ep4Post COVID the online economy is booming but which retailers are being left behind? What new technology is out there to help retailers replicate the in-store experience online? What does retail look like in the future as traditional, globalised production networks are put pressure by economic lock-downs. Shadi Taleb gives us a detailed glimpse into this future. He tells us about the most lucrative new marketing channel that exists but which few marketers are familiar with - mass personalization. His team has created tech which makes this process cost effective, even for the smallest brands in the market. We...
2020-06-281h 25Champagne StrategyPositioning strategy - pivot your way to success in competitive markets - Anton Buchner - S1 Ep3We’ve all heard, how you say something is sometimes more important than what you say, but few realize this maxim can be true in business also. Sometimes it's not your product or what you’re selling that’s important, but how you sell it to the market that makes all the difference. Positioning is one of the most misunderstood and jargon-ridden areas of marketing strategy. We've all seen a positioning strategy dominated by a litany of perceptual maps, competitive matrices and a boatload of ethereal brand jargon. This is why we needed to speak to Anton to help cut th...
2020-06-281h 14Champagne StrategyPodcasting as a marketing medium - The basics you need to know - Tim Beanland - S1 Ep2By tapping into Tim’s first hand knowledge we provide you with many juicy details which you can take away and either start or manage a successful podcast. This is one of our 'expert guide' episodes where we delve into one particular marketing channel in depth and provide you with a comprehensive guide.
We cover all the basics from picking a theme, to finding your niche, to getting famous guests, preparation, equipment, software, music, distribution and promotion.
We talk about both general approaches and specific tactics in each of these areas, even the names of dif...
2020-06-2554 minChampagne StrategyHow growth mindsets can lead to multi-million dollar success - Andrew Walker - S1 Ep1We've brought Andrew Walker back into the spotlight by convincing him to do his first podcast interview in years.
He's modest and usually keeps a low profile but he's one of the best examples of how powerful the growth mindset can be on someone's life.
There was a pivotal moment which forced him to change for the better. Learn why he gave up a pretigious, high-paying job in consulting to pursue a different trajectory which ultimately led him towards business success and the recent sale of his company for ten's of millions of dollars.
...
2020-06-051h 40