Shiny New Object

“I make people want burgers” - this quote comes from Fátima Diez International Brand and Comms Manager at Five Guys this week on the Shiny New Object podcast. Fátima tells us that Five Guys’ marketing relies on listening to their audience and serving their needs in store and in social. Besides a PR retainer for their agency to act as a press office they don’t spend money on marketing, paid media or vouchering. In Fatima’s words they “grow genuine love instead of paying people to love us.” This sounds like the utopian vision that social media agencies sold to brands ten years ago but such hippie ideals were lost to an ad-funded facebook who demanded investment for their impressions. ;]Fátima Diez dreamed of becoming a translator in the European parliament but we’re lucky she ended up in marketing instead. As one of The Drum’s '50 under 30' I got the real sense I was talking to a future leader of the industry. She’s articulate, funny and smart and describes herself as “an idea and concept-driven person who has

Jim describes himself as a “professional explainer” and there’s evidence to believe this might be true. He sold personal computers in the 70’s, business computers in the 80’s, championed the internet in the 90’s and set up the Digital Analytics Association in the 00s. And he’s managed to crank out 12 books in that time. His most recent is ‘Artificial Intelligence in Marketing.’ He “wants to be remembered as someone who knew what was coming.” Jim’s current ‘shiny new object’ is SOLID. This is a technology being spearheaded by Tim Berners (via Inrupt.com) that gives users back control of their data. This tech he explains “is not ready for prime time” but when/if it works it will keep all of our own data about our health, location, preferences, passport, insurance and social etc in one place. We will then give different businesses different access to our data at different times. This will provide the foundation for our smart assistants like Alexa to purchase things and organise our lives without our input. This

“It’s ok to fail and not be so hard on yourselves.” This quote comes from Rupa Ganatra Popat the Founder of FUTR Group and Mad World Summit. Rupa has made it her mission to unite innovative startups’ technology and thinking to the brands that need them. The FUTR events pull in around 30K visitors a year as well as growing into a knowledge and inspiration sharing platform. Rupa has created a global community coming together to answer the question “innovation is a must, but where do you begin?” Rupa is a do-er and makes things happen. She’s not one to sit around and build powerpoint decks. She insists innovation thrives on failure and this is why big brands struggle with it. Her view is that larger brands and retailers innovation ambitions are stifled with legacy systems and need a whole new way of looking at innovation. Rupa gives us insight into how she uses mediation to keep her grounded when the stresses of running two massive global events in our “24/7 industry”. Rupa’s Shiny New Object is The Handwriting

Recently The Drum released their Future 50 which is a list of 50 rising stars under 30 in the industry. So I invited some of the brightest onto the Shiny New Object podcast to ask them what their view of the future of marketing was. The first of these interviews is with Helen Saul who is Brand Manager Europe for Lastminute.com Helen’s Shiny New Object is Instagram’s Checkout feature which allows consumers to discover products in their feed and pay for them within Instagram without leaving the app. We debate this double-edged sword for brands. User experience design dictates that the fewer clicks there are the better. However, if a transaction takes place outside of a brand’s website then there’s no chance of an upsell, the user data isn’t collected and Instagram controls the experience and not the brand. Helen tells us that Lastminute.com are likely to experiment with Instagram Checkout for their Dynamic Packages but for some products you’ll need to input your passport info which isn’t supported by Instagram

Subscribe to the Shiny New Object on iTunes here Or listen to it on Spotify Listen to previous episodes here

“Convincing a brand that they are not going to be the centre of attention is a hard thing” this quote comes from Spike Jones the SVP of Strategic Services at Khoros this week on the #ShinyNewObject podcast. Spike is passionate that brands “walk a mile in their customer's shoes” and has some insightful stories to tell that span a varied and impressive career. He’s passionate about how brands should start a movement instead of starting campaigns, because “campaigns have a beginning and an end” and movements carry on. We discuss the practicalities of “working smarter, not longer.” One of Spike’s principles is to not take everything that hits your inbox at face value and that building his own brand has been a great investment. You can see more of this at AskSpike.com and you can read his book here. Khoros (our lovely sponsor) was recently born after the coming together of Spredfast and Lithium. It is a software company that has over fifteen years of leadership in marketing, care, and communities. Spike’s recomme

“The internet is a representation of humanity and advertising funds the internet...so what are we (brands) then funding?” This quote comes from my conversation with Jerry Daykin EMEA Media Director for GSK and Jake Dubbins MD/Co-Founder of Media Bounty and Co-Chair of the Conscious Advertising Network. The podcast discusses the arrival of ‘Conscious Advertising.’ In short, it matters where brands spend their money. There are repercussions for us all, not just for your end of quarter results. Brands need to realise that the money they spend on advertising is an “investment in the internet” - and what kind of internet do they want it to be? Unfortunately for some the days of pumping up media agency spreadsheets with eye-wobbling performance scores with no thought to where those impressions came from are over. Brands can often be inadvertently funding terrorism, child trafficking/porn or far-right politics, not to mention serving ads that can barely be viewed or not even seen at all. The good news is that there

“Women having kids is a problem in the industry” - this quote comes from Maria Cadbury founder of We Are Spring this week on the Shiny New Object podcast. By her own admission, her “biggest work f*ck up” has been to have three children. Her employers have not been “as reasonable as they needed to be.” Each time she had a child she’s had to “fight to get the train back on the rails.” Maria’s story of grit and determination in the face of unsupportive bosses is important listening for employers and employees alike. Maria’s Shiny New Object is Influencer Marketing. It was a relief not to hear the word ‘authentic’ mentioned once and to get an inside view of how she marries technology and influencers. She tells us how she uses tech to asses the right fit of an influencer (and their followers) for a brand. And the code doesn’t stop there. Maria’s team use a fraud calculator to report on the likely amount of bot activity in the engagement a post receives. With 94% of CMOs saying influencer fraud is an issue - it’s g

Jon Mew CEO IAB UK ‘We jump five steps ahead when it comes to tech - instead of using the basics’ this quote comes from Jon Mew CEO at IAB UK this week on the Shiny New Object Podcast. Jon is a progressive and brave leader who isn’t afraid to experiment with new ways of leading his organisation. He makes the interesting point that businesses talk about collaboration, freedom and choice yet we tell employees where to sit, which computer and even which pen to use. This says to people ‘you are stupid’. He shares his views on investing in training, coaching and counselling, believing that the most effective leaders have a focus on this. It’s reassuring that the IAB is doing this. After all it has a responsibility to lead the industry and if it’s own leaders aren’t on top form - what hope do we have? When people join the IAB he insists that they ‘don’t go native’ - he hires people because of their different views - not because he wants them to adopt the IAB’s. However, he concedes that “getting the culture right i

“We’re on a path to tech slavery” this quote comes from my conversation with Toby Daniels Co-founder & CEO at Crowdcentric Founder & Executive Director at Social Media Week.   https://automatedcreative.net/podcasts/

Recorded Live at 'Is Creativity Dead?' at the IPA for Directory Magazine. This episode is sponsored by Khoros.com Khoros was very recently born after the coming together of Spredfast and Lithium. Khoros is a  technology software company that has over 15 years of leadership in marketing, care, and communities. And Khoros now offers one platform that unites marketing and care and helps brands create customers for life

Ben Scott-Robinson is an advertising refugee. He has held big creative director jobs at big agencies, been brand side and is now aiming to revolutionise food production. Obvs. We talk about how autonomous robot tech is at maturity but the way we interact with the robots is in its infancy. Barking at Alexa to put on an egg timer isn't a poor start to human-robot symbiosis. If you'd like to meet the man Ben is running a creative hack session at the Small Robot Company on the 22nd/23rd of March.

In this conversation we discuss the role of prayer in the creative process and how advertising should look to solve problems not just create beautiful campaigns. Uma is frank about how she left advertising disenchanted and how writing about technology has been her salvation. Then it gets weird as we talk about how the answer to world hunger is a 3D printed 2 calorie burger that you print in your kitchen. And begin to answer the question - could home cooked meals become illegal?

Graham Brown knows about podcasting. He's thought about it more than most and this conversation helps make sense of podcasting's role in marketing but also in contemporary culture. 

“NBCUniversal are a household name no one has ever heard of” this quote comes from Paul Rushforth their director of Advanced Technology - this week on the #ShinyNewObject podcast. Paul talks with passion about useless tech he can’t say ‘no’ to and how he’s happy to fail because it’s the best way to learn. His mission is to help people understand complex technology so that they can apply it in their roles and he’s got the scars to prove it. We take a stroll around a Voice Tech led utopia where talking fridges solve all first world problems. Paul is a gent and an entertaining one at that.   NBCUniversal / Paul Rushforth Director of Advanced Technology / Voice Tech

Imagine if someone could tell you in detail about how consumers use digital in any market all over the world - well Simon Kemp is your man. Each year he produces the Global Digital Overview which brings together 10s of 1000s of datapoints into 5000 slides. This podcast is a top level overview of the most exciting insights from a truly unique piece of work. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2019-global-digital-overview @mrtomollerton

In this interview we talk about how brands need to not get seduced by all the shiny new objects and focus on making their existing channels and consumer touchpoints work more effectively together. Wendy talks about how educating people is one of the most important ways of making technology work - and that includes the CEO. There’s advice for managing up, thinking big and acting small. Here's a link to the IAB report Wendy mentions.. https://www.iab.com/insights/the-rise-of-the-21st-century-brand-economy/

“We romanticise burnout - we live in a culture of busy” this quote comes from Vilkki Willimott Global Head of Content + Publishing at Hill+Knowlton Strategies this week on the #shinynewobject podcast. In this interview we talk about Vikki’s view on how brands can get value from micro/nano influencers who may not have huge reach but have the passion to create great content. We touch on how getting coaching has been transformative for Vikki and how she has maps her values against her career path. We also dig into what she learned from her recent brief stint at Condé Nast. It’s a little tricky to hear my voice on this recording but that’s no bad thing because you can hear Vikki perfectly and you wouldn’t want to miss a word of her wisdom.

Meet Will, Diageo's new Digital Innovation Manager who talks about how a Nintendo Switch, networking and going for a walk as being the making of him. Will is the definition of a successful adland innovator. He cut his teeth at Ogilvy with (previous guest) Nicole Yershon and was until recently the innovation lead at VCCP. But more importantly he is also a Director @InnovationSocial and has a gift for you. He has given SNO listeners discount code for the landmark 'Innovation Stories' event. Here you go. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/innovation-stories-ces-round-up-the-future-of-voice-and-sound-vrlo-tickets-50875395678?discount=Shinynewobject Don't mention it.

This interview with Richard Bowden is a provocative call to the industry to get Voice Tech to live up to its potential.