Shows
Marketing Room 101Adam Morgan’s dullocalypse: Challenger brand godfather on the extraordinary cost of dull advertising - and why it’s time to stop tolerating itIn this episode, host Ben Norman is joined by the godfather of challenger brands and anti-dullness campaigner, Adam Morgan - who, in 1999, after years as a planner in top agencies (including as Planning Director at TBWA\Chiat\Day) - wrote the international best-selling challenger brand bible Eating the Big Fish and set up the consultancy he still runs today: eatbigfish.Adam and Ben discuss challenger brands and what’s changed for them in the past 25 years, as well as Adam’s recent work with Peter Field and Jon Evans on The Extraordinary Cost of Dull - uncovering the...2025-07-0738 min
The WARC PodcastCannes Day 1: Creative ways to stop burning moneyWe're in Cannes! Expert speakers drop in to discuss unshittifying CX, the 'eye-watering' financial impact of dull media and how to unearth more insightful trends. Guests: Yael Cesarkas, Executive Strategy Director, R/GA; Dr Karen Nelson-Field, Founder, Amplified Intelligence; Adam Morgan, co-founder, eatbigfish; Amy Daroukakis, Founder, Culture Connectors. Hosted by Rica Facundo, Managing Editor - APAC, WARC.2025-06-1636 min
Sleeping Barber - A Marketing PodcastSBP 091: The Cost Of Dull Ads. With Adam Morgan.Welcome to another episode of the Sleeping Barber Podcast!
Join Marc and Vassilis as they dive into the fascinating world of marketing strategy and innovation with a special guest, Adam Morgan. Adam is a pioneer in business and marketing, best known for his book "Eat Big Fish," which has inspired countless brands to adopt a challenger mindset. He’s also authored "The Pirate Inside" and "Overthrow" and hosts the podcast "Let's Make Things More Interesting." In this episode, Adam discusses his latest research with System1 and Peter Field on "The Cost of Dull," exploring the financial impact of...2024-10-031h 15
Talking Media with NineThe Extraordinary Cost of Being DullIn this episode, Liana is joined by Adam Morgan, Founder and Partner of eatbigfish, as they discuss how many brands play it too safe, fail to capture consumer interest, and struggle to differentiate in a crowded marketplace. Hear just how much dull advertising costs a brand — both expensive and ineffective.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.2024-09-2347 minThe WARC PodcastWARC x Cannes Lions: Why brand isn't dead, battling the beige & new ritualsOn day two of Cannes Lions, WARC's Alex Brownsell speaks with e.l.f Beauty CMO Kory Marchisotto and Dr Marcus Collins about why brand isn't dead, Adam Morgan from eatbigfish makes the case against dull and beige ads, and MSQ's Justin Cox shares new research on the power of rituals.2024-06-1840 min
On Strategy ShowcaseAdam Morgan on the cost of dull advertisingTo kick off this year's effectiveness series, we talk with Adam Morgan of eatbigfish about his latest work with Peter Field on the cost to brands of producing dull advertising. We talk about what makes dull dull and how we can make it more effective, for less. Thanks to GALE (the business agency for companies that want to drive growth) for sponsoring this year's effectiveness series. Learn more at www.GALE.agency2024-05-0544 min
Let's Make This More InterestingEpisode 13: Lessons, Frameworks, Power and Sex (a look back at Season 1)In this bonus episode Adam summarises the key themes and learnings across all the guests from the first season, to make it useful and usable for you.He breaks his conclusions into five sections: 1. The Cost of Dull and the Value of Interesting 2. The Four Kinds of Dull3. Finding the right way to be interesting for you4. Common themes and key ideas across all the guests5. How to use it Read the full transcript of the episode at The Challenger Project....2024-02-0629 min
Uncensored CMOReloaded: How to be a successful challenger - Adam Morgan (2020)Today I'm revisiting episode 3, with Adam Morgan, founder of eatbigfish and author of Eating The Big Fish, The Pirate Inside and A Beautiful Constraint to find out what it takes to become a successful challenger. Adam shares his tips for creating a challenger brand, transforming your culture and the power of constraints to driving innovation.In this episode:Why being No.2 is betterHow he turned the anger of his project being shelved into a career-defining opportunityBeing turned down by Phil Knight and where the idea of a Challenger brand came fromThe importance of over-commitment and...2023-12-2756 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 12: Giving up the gold (with Nick Reed)Named ‘one of the most 10 influential Brits in Hollywood’ by The Sunday Times, Nick Reed has been a successful Hollywood agent, won an Oscar for a documentary called ‘The Lady in Number 6’, and co-founded the most successful viral content company in the US.In this episode, Nick discusses with Adam what makes something not just more interesting, but interesting enough to share – along with what it’s like to celebrate winning an Oscar with Bill Murray, how to get cast in a Steven Spielberg film, and how to get a Hollywood studio to buy a writer that nobody wan...2023-12-051h 08Let's Make This More InterestingEpisode 11: The third American art form (with Russell Davies)Powerpoint has become the poster child of Dull – can even this most maligned of mediums really be a tool to be more interesting? Russell Davies not only believes it can, but that it’s the third American art form, along with jazz and hip hop – but only if we think of it and use it in a very different way. It seems such a symbolic flip for the cliché of ‘Death by Powerpoint’, that we’ve given it its own short episode. Here Russell shares his very simple rules for really engaging an audience through Powerpoint.Russell's boo...2023-11-2816 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 10: Making the magic more probable (with Russell Davies)One of the most stimulating speakers in brands and communications, Russell has been thinking about what it means to be interesting for over 20 years. In his new book Do Interesting – Notice. Collect. Share. Russell has codified the practice he’s used to make the world more interesting to him, and to make himself better positioned to bring interest to whatever topic he finds himself working on, inside and outside the world of brands. In this episode he shares how we can do it easily, too.https://thedobook.co/products/do-interesting-notice-collect-share_______Connec...2023-11-2044 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 9: Lashing the world with story (with John Yorke)While storytelling isn’t the automatic answer to every kind of ‘dull’, if we’re going to learn how to tell more interesting stories we should learn from the best. John Yorke founded the BBC Studio Writer’s Academy after a career that included being Head of Channel4 Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production, working on and producing some of the world’s most widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama, from EastEnders to Shameless, Life on Mars and Wolf Hall. In this episode, he shares with Adam his learnings about how we can all tell a story that will really e...2023-11-1442 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 8: The interesting Squiggle and the long ‘Aha’ (with Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis)The Squiggly Careers podcast has been hugely influential and useful for anyone interested in Career Development community. In this episode I talk to Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper, the brilliant pair behind the podcast, the two bestselling books that have come out of it – Squiggly Careers and You Coach You – and the company they have founded, Amazing if.We discuss:How, in looking to throw out the old model of the ‘career ladder’, they arrived at that fascinating idea and language of the ‘squiggle’How they’ve found a much more engaging way to talk to...2023-11-0747 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 7: Two thousand years more interesting (with Professor Arlene Holmes-Henderson)In this episode we talk to Professor Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Professor of Classics Education and Public Policy at Durham University, about her fierce belief in the enduring relevance of classical rhetoric to today’s world, and why its value in helping disadvantaged children find their voice in a more engaging way is fundamental to how schools need to develop oracy, alongside literacy and numeracy. And at the end, she gives a 10-minute masterclass in classical rhetoric that we can all use to make a speech more interesting. _____________Arlene's books Forward with Classics and Expanding Clas...2023-10-3150 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 6: How to win a peacock show (with Gemma Parkinson)This is a podcast for people who can’t afford to bore their audience. And in this episode we talk to Gemma Parkinson, a Global Marketing and Business Director at Moet Hennessy, about how to elevate a presentation into an irresistible performance when you really need to carry an audience with you. A fresh, energetic and charismatic thinker, Gemma shares her advice about how to elevate the interest when it really matters.____Connect with Adam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-morgan-3a473a/ Follow eatbigfish on Linkedin and In...2023-10-2457 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 5: On Saturn it’s raining diamonds (with Addison Brown)How can we be interesting enough to stick in our audiences’ long-term memory? In this episode, Adam speaks to Addison Brown, the science teacher who was the star of a recent Department for Education recruitment film. They discuss the four key principles that underpin success in every lesson – from cognitive load to dual coding – and how shorter pupil attention spans and higher expectations have driven a ‘blossoming of imagination within teaching'.'Every Lesson Shapes a Life': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGd_Rrs-qNYBrian Cox asks 'what more do you want?" https://www.youtube...2023-10-1738 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 4: The secret of Elmo’s success (with Norman Stiles)In this episode, Adam talks with Norman Stiles, for 20 years the Head Writer on Sesame Street, about the pioneering pairing of entertainers and educators that changed the educational life of a generation. And how success lay in a very simple ambition that has fascinating implications for us all. Sesame Street made something possible that people thought couldn’t be done. What can it teach us about the audiences we want to really engage?Watch the classic Sesame Street scenes that Norman refers to during the conversation:Grover really wants us to learn near...2023-10-1054 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 3: Who Are You Really? (with Ross Buchanan)In this episode, Adam talks to national radio presenter Ross Buchanan (Absolute Radio, Radio X) about what it takes to be interesting for four hours with an audience you never actually see. How much is it about being more interesting in what you say and do, and how much is it about what you share of yourself? And why shouldn’t you talk about biscuits?-Connect with Adam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-morgan-3a473a/ Follow eatbigfish on Linkedin and Instagram See what’s com...2023-10-0336 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 2: Why Your Dog is a Better Producer Than You (with Maz Farrelly)In this episode, Adam speaks to reality TV producer Maz Farrelly. Maz has made some of the biggest shows on 3 continents, including Britain’s Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars, Big Brother and Celebrity Apprentice – interviewing 12,000 hopefuls along the way. She now works with businesses to help them make themselves more interesting. Maz shares her learnings on what it takes to really engage an audience, the three secrets of great content, and how to be interesting enough to get cast in one of her shows. Along the way, we discuss:Why, if you’re ambitious, you have...2023-09-2643 minLet's Make This More InterestingEpisode 1: The Cost of Dull in Business (with Peter Field)In this opening episode, Adam discusses a new analysis that reveals the real financial cost to a business of being dull with Marketing Effectiveness expert Peter Field. Exactly how much more expensive is it to run dull communications than engaging ones? And what can we learn from people who can’t afford to bore their audiences? Adam and Peter's conversation explores: Why we should be much more intolerant of dull external and internal communication than we areA simple test: ‘The six slide rule’How we can make dull itself more interesting to those we need to change...2023-09-2625 minLet's Make This More InterestingTrailer: Let's Make This More Interesting** EPISODES 1 & 2 - TUESDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER **Do you have moments in your business or personal life when you simply can’t afford to bore your audience? What can we do to hold their undivided attention when it really matters? To find out, Adam Morgan, founder of eatbigfish, speaks to fascinating people who excel at engaging their audience – be they distracted social scrollers, bored schoolchildren or cynical CEOs – and learns from them how we can all be much more interesting.See what's coming up at: https://thechallengerproject.com/lets-make-this-more-interesting Hosted on Acast. See acas...2023-09-1801 min
Speakeasy with Dheeraj SinhaHow To Build Challenger Brands ft. Adam MorganWhat’s the deal with challenger brands? Apparently, they’re a lot more than pure disruption. In the third episode of Speakeasy, Dheeraj Sinha digs deep, with Adam Morgan, Founder & Partner-eatbigfish. From the science of disruption to capturing deteriorating attention spans, there’s a whole lot more to challenger brands than just challenging marketing leaders. Who better to explain it all than the men who challenge everything—brands, ideas, habits and formulas? Find Adam on Social Media:Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn Find Dheeraj Sinha on Social Media:Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn Check out our...2021-07-081h 03
One More QuestionAdam Morgan: What Tom Ford, Nike, and monsters can teach us about brand buildingHighlights from the conversation:Most of my clients didn't embrace collaboration in a deep way, there was shallow collaboration. But that wasn't really about genuine collaboration.Working with your competitors is going to get you there faster,Brand owners have misunderstood the degree to which people care or don't care about themThat ambition is too important for me to suppress. I need to step back and reconsider how I'm going to deliver that ambition under that constraintConstraints seem to spur them on. They're more open to braver...2020-12-0943 min
OutsideVoices with Mark BidwellBeautiful, Transformative Constraints, and Why They Are Core to Innovation with Adam MorganAdam Morgan founded the company eatbigfish, which challenges the status quo and creates an environment of challenger thinking and behavior. In this episode, Adam discusses his book "A Beautiful Constraint," and talks on how intrapreneurs can leverage their limits to come up with creative solutions. What Is Covered 03:55 - Why did Adam write a book about constraints? 06:30 - Although constraints may have a bad rep, most of us understand on a basic level, that constraints are a good thing. 10:05 - There are three types of stages everybody goes through when they are faced with a difficult c...2020-07-2852 min
How Brands Are BuiltMini episode: Career adviceThis is the first of several "mini episodes" of How Brands Are Built. Hopefully, you saw this mentioned on social media or in the newsletter: between now and the next season (TBA), I'll release a few short episodes on a range of topics—no consistent through-line, just some interesting, snack-sized branding content. I reached out on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook asking for feedback on which mini episodes would be most interesting or useful. If you’re one of the many people who weighed in, thank you! And now that the results are in, I'm happy to share...2020-03-0913 min
Dive Into a Story With the Power of Full AudiobookStop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody Audiobook by Michael J. FanueleListen to this audiobook in full for free onhttps://hotaudiobook.com/freeID: 500133
Title: Stop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody
Author: Michael J. Fanuele
Narrator: Michael J. Fanuele
Format: Unabridged
Length: 09:17:00
Language: English
Release date: 02-04-20
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Genres: Business & Economics, Self Development, Negotiation & Communication, Management & Leadership, Health & Wellness
Summary:
There are a million books that can inspire you.
This one will make you inspiring.
In this fun and provocative page-turner, Michael Fanuele, one of the world’s most successful marketing strategists, shares The Six Skills of Inspiration. With insights from music, politics, business, neuroscience, and a re...2020-02-049h 17
Explore the Latest Free Audiobooks in Self-Improvement, Communication SkillsStop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody by Michael J. FanuelePlease visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/500133 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Stop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody Author: Michael J. Fanuele Narrator: Michael J. Fanuele Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 17 minutes Release date: February 4, 2020 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1 Genres: Communication Skills Publisher's Summary: There are a million books that can inspire you. This one will make you inspiring. In this fun and provocative page-turner, Michael Fanuele, one of the world’s most successful marketing strategists, shares The Six Skills of Inspiration. With insights from music, politics, business, neuroscience, and a recipe for radishes, Stop Making Se...2020-02-0403 min
Explore the Latest Full Audiobooks in Self-Improvement, Communication SkillsStop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody by Michael J. FanuelePlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/500133to listen full audiobooks.
Title: Stop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody
Author: Michael J. Fanuele
Narrator: Michael J. Fanuele
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 9 hours 17 minutes
Release date: February 4, 2020
Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1
Genres: Communication Skills
Publisher's Summary:
There are a million books that can inspire you. This one will make you inspiring. In this fun and provocative page-turner, Michael Fanuele, one of the world’s most successful marketing strategists, shares The Six Skills of Inspiration. With insights from music, politics, business, neuroscience, and a recipe for radishes, Stop Making Sense sh...2020-02-049h 17Get New Full Audiobooks in Business & Economics, Management & LeadershipStop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody by Michael J. FanuelePlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/500133to listen full audiobooks.
Title: Stop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody
Author: Michael J. Fanuele
Narrator: Michael J. Fanuele
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 9 hours 17 minutes
Release date: February 4, 2020
Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1
Genres: Management & Leadership
Publisher's Summary:
There are a million books that can inspire you. This one will make you inspiring. In this fun and provocative page-turner, Michael Fanuele, one of the world’s most successful marketing strategists, shares The Six Skills of Inspiration. With insights from music, politics, business, neuroscience, and a recipe for radishes, Stop Making Sense sh...2020-02-049h 17Uncensored CMOHow to be a successful challenger - Adam MorganAdam is the founder of the eatbigfish consultancy and author of Eating The Big Fish which reached the Top100 books in the Amazon charts inspiring a whole generation of challenger brands in the process. Adam is a popular speaker and consults with brands all over the world on how to be a challenger. He has also written The Pirate Inside about building a challenger culture within your organisation and A Beautiful Constraint how to turn your limitations into advantages.In this episode:Why being No.2 is betterHow he turned the anger of his project being shelved...2019-12-1656 min
How Brands Are BuiltAdam Morgan asks clients what they hate most about their categoryWhen Adam Morgan wrote Eating the Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders in 1999, he introduced a new term to the marketing, advertising, and branding worlds: "challenger brand." Avis, with their "When you're only No. 2, you try harder" campaign from the 60s, is the most commonly cited example of this concept. But Adam, also the founder of a brand consultancy named eatbigfish, is quick to point out challenger brands need not be No. 2 in their category. Instead, he defines a challenger brand as "about mindset and attitude…Do you have business ambitions that are bigger than your...2018-11-0534 min
SuperceptionEp. 26 - Adam Morgan, Inventor Of The Challenger Brand Concept, And Founder & Partner Of EatbigfishTopic: Challenger brands.
Adam Morgan discusses his life journey, the creation and development of the eatbigfish consultancy, the concepts of Challenger Brand and Lighthouse Identity, the notion of intelligent naivety, the history of the mother of all challenger brands (Avis), current examples of challenger brands, the marketing strategies that challenger brands should adopt to succeed, the ways for leading brands to think as challengers, and the launch of an online cultural diagnostic and development tool.2018-03-1146 min