The Techmap Podcast

In the marketing and advertising worlds, we often hear about the importance of creativity. A great deal has been written about how creativity is a big driver of marketing effectiveness, and it’s hard to argue with the data - see Paul Dyson's work evidencing how greta creative delivers a 12x profitability multiplier in advertising effectiveness, or WARC's Effectiness code. So, what does it take to be creatively excellent? How do you get from good to elite in marketing communications. That's where Neil Quick, my colleague at Oystercatchers and guest in this episode of the show, comes in. Neil has been in advertising for 35+ years, working on brands including, Guiness, Harley Davidson, Co-Op, a whole raft of household icons in the P&G House, and many more. In the show, Neil and I explore why brands should invest in creativity and what it takes to excel. If you work in the world of marketing, advertising and communications, you'll probably learn something new and it will give you a taster for working with us as

Building brand advocacy is at the top of a marketer's to-do list, but we rarely think of internal marketing to achieve it. Maybe we're missing a trick. What if you could use internal marketing to create a tribe of advocates to help grow our brand? In this latest episode of Through the Line, I'm joined by Kerry-Ann Stimpson, the CMO of Jamaican financial services firm JMMB Group and host of the Internal Marketing Podcast. In the show, Kerry-Ann introduces her passion for internal marketing and how it is critical in building her organisation's brand from the inside out.

60% of the World's population is now active on social media. It's probably time we learnt how to sell to them there then. In this latest episode of Through the Line, I'm joined by social selling expert Tim Hughes to explore the new world of sales. No doubt Tim is an expert in this space. Not only does he run an agency that trains and advises clients on how to sell better online, but he's also written THE book on the subject. In the show, Tim shares bucketloads of advice for how sales (and marketing) professionals need to shift their methodology forward to get better sales results. This show is 39 minutes and 34 seconds long. Surely you can invest that sort of time to find the secret sauce to greater sales.

A common challenge for B2B marketers is how to reach a C'Suite audience. After all, they're the decision-makers, right? So we really need to get some content in front of the CMO, CFO, CRO, C whatever O, but they are notoriously hard to reach, let alone influence. Thankfully, the team at copywriting agency RH&Co did a little research into the type of content CxOs want to read, which they pulled together into a handy report for B2B marketers. Rin Hamburgh, the agency head, joined me on this episode of Through the Line to take me through the research. One of their key findings was that marketers underestimate the CxO's desire for things to be simple. They want complexity of thinking presented in a way that is simple and engaging, and tied to the bigger picture. They don't want you to sell to them, nor do they have time for waffle. Click below and listen to the show if you want to find out more about engaging the C'Suite with your marketing.

Have you ever been asked to justify your marketing spending? How about whether your marketing is actually working? I will be amazed if you haven’t. All marketers need to justify their existence at some point; otherwise, we get labelled with derogatory pap like ‘the colouring in department’. Thank goodness for experts like Gabe Hughes. According to Gabe, we should all be able to assign value to our marketing. To do this, there’s a marketing measurement trifecta that includes digital attribution, econometrics, and incrementality or A/B testing. By using these models, marketers can get to grips with the marketing that works at a brand level and also sales performance, including which channels and campaigns are adding value. Gabe is a true expert on marketing measurement. In the show, we cover everything from data being the new oil to the value of different types of attribution models and the pros and cons of GA4. I promise you there is value in this show if you are new to marketing measurement or just want to

Remember social media? Despite being out of the limelight, social media is no less important. In fact, as my guest on this show, Claire Hoang, suggests, it's even more important; many of our audiences are now social media natives. They have never known a world without social, so it's no time to lose our heads and focus on another shiny penny. In this episode of Through the Line, Claire takes me through how brands can utilise social media to engage their audiences and build brands. In a wide-ranging conversation, Claire and I look at everything from the importance of native content, supporting organic with paid social, the importance of attention, brand building rather than pushing product in an always-on world, brand safety and even touch on regulating social media. If you're in any way involved in social media strategy, you'll find some value in this episode.

In this episode of the Through the Line podcast, Kate and I explore how to use Artificial intelligence (AI)I to grow internationally. The obvious avenue is with translation, but there's so much more for marketers to think about; everything from market testing to CX, getting the right skills in your marketing team, and of course, asset creation. There's a lot to think about, and Kate explores them in practical, easy-to-understand terms. If you're wondering what to do with all the AI hype, you'll enjoy our conversation.

In this episode of Through the Line, I explore brand transformation with Dr Emmanual Probst, who has just published his book called Assemblage - the Art and Science of Brand Transformation. The book is a real treasure chest of ideas for brand managers looking to create better relationships with their customers. I recommend it to anyone looking for some fresh ideas and inspiration. In this episode, we explore a range of branding topics, from purpose to the creator / re-mix economy, the impact of climate change and the need for brands to be more sustainable and going direct to consumer. We barely scratch the surface of his book, but it will give you a flavour of what's to come.

Every man and his dog has seen the potential of building a personal brand, from leading CEOs to start-up founders, copywriters and agency bosses. But, not everyone has got it mastered. Not yet, anyway. Rajen Mistry from specialist consultancy Founder Story joins me on Through the Line to unearth what it takes to build a personal brand and why you should. Rajen shares generously, and there are lots of takeaways, tips and ideas about what to do and how to measure results. Enjoy the show.

How important is your website? I'm going to hazard a guess that the answer is very. Since the advent of the internet, websites have moved on at quite a pace. Where once we had simple brochure sites, we now have complex sites with lots of content and many opportunities for a browser to convert into a sales funnel. It could be starting a trial for a SaaS product, donating money to a charity or buying a new watch on a DTC-branded e-com site. They generally all have one thing in common: conversion. Want to find out about some fresh ideas for optimising your website using neuroscience? Listen in to the show.

In the 20+ years I have worked in marketing, there's been one constant: change. The marketing industry is pretty fast-paced, whichever discipline or side of the client-agency world you occupy. This is partly what makes it a great space to build a career. But it can also be a challenge. Not everyone is comfortable with change or able to manage it well. How, then, do you build a resilient marketing team? List to my conversation with Jo Twiselton of Twist Consultants as we explore everything from communication, leadership and the impact of the pandemic to emotional agility and whether or not office-based workers should go back to five days a week in the office.

How do you put a price on ideas or creativity? It’s a perennial challenge faced by marketing, advertising and PR agency owners. You know you can make a massive difference to your client’s brand challenges, yet you’re often stuck simply selling time. But not any more. Not if you listen to Alastair Dryburgh, that is, anyway. Alastair is an advocate of agencies charging based on the value they create rather than the time it takes to deliver it. If you're currently selling time for money, you will enjoy Alastair's thinking.

Running an agency can be a mixed bag of emotions. One minute you're full of elation at winning an award for a successful campaign. The next, you're dealing with a crisis of confidence or trying every trick in the book to win some new business. But there is another way. It's called the self-running agency, and Rob Da Costa has calculated a formula that works for all types of agencies: vision + marketing plan + systems and process + succession planning = happy agency owner. Listen to the show to find out more.

Hiring agencies is a critical task in most marketing roles. In the modern world of marketing, there are so many expert disciplines that it's tough, if not impossible, to do everything in-house. That's where the agency world comes in. Need an expert to increase your web traffic? Think search marketing. Want someone to design an impactful brand campaign? Look for an ad agency. And so on and so on. But how do you find the right agency? What is the process for getting from a marketing challenge to an agency solution? That's where procurement maestro Tina Fegent comes in. Tina is a true expert in buying marketing agency services, with years of experience in client, agency and consultancy roles. What Tina doesn't know about procuring agency services simply isn't worth knowing. Good job she agreed to come on the podcast to share some of that expertise then isn't it? Enjoy the show.

In this podcast, I explore what neurodiversity and neurodivergent traits are with Nathan Whitbread, an expert who works with employers to help them build neuro-inclusive workplaces. We look at what neurodiversity is, why it seems to be more commonplace, and what brands can/should do to enable individuals to be themselves at work. The goal is to create opportunities for brands to find economic and innovative advantages by allowing people to play to their strengths, whatever they are.

One of the primary tasks of a marketer is to understand people and to put them at the centre of your thinking. More often than not, that's your customers or prospective customers. What do they genuinely care about? What makes them choose Coca-cola over Pepsi cola, or why do they shop at Waitrose and not Tesco? The problem is only some marketers do this; instead, we often have a more inward-looking orientation. We put the brand at the centre of our universe when that's rarely the case with our customers. As Mark Ritson might say, people don't give a shit about our brands. Human-centred marketing is different. It's our approach to understanding the human condition and connecting people to our brands through an iterative process of empathising, defining, ideating, prototyping and testing. At least, that's Richard Hewitt's approach, founded on anthropology and the research discipline of ethnography. In a world where marketers rely heavily on realms of data to make decisions, wouldn't it be nice actually to study

In marketing, you have two big career choices: work for a brand or work at an agency. The two sides of the marketing coin work closely together as partners. Well, that's what you'd believe if you read almost any agency website. The truth is often rather different. Client-side and agency-side marketers look at the world through very different lenses, and it's useful for both to understand the others' perspectives. Welcome, Dan Ince. Dan was a big brand buy, including spells as a brand custodian at Heinz, Jordan's, Cadbury, Mr Kipling, Ambrosia...the list goes on. He's a smart guy. But a few years ago, Dan turned his back on corporate life and jumped over to the agency side via a few consultancy gigs, setting up his own shop, Brand Works Social. So I asked Dan to explore the differences between the two sides on the podcast. This show explores the topic of agency briefs, proposals and pitching, personal branding, and networking, amongst other topics.

Great client service and successful agencies go hand in hand. In my opinion (and I'm a client service guy), you can't run a successful agency without knowing how to handle clients. It's that simple. The problem is not every agency leader understands this and even fewer invest in training their account teams. So I invited Jenny Plant from Account Management Skills to join me and explore what it takes to be great at account management. Or, in a nutshell, how do you retain and grow client accounts? Jenny explores how the role of account management has evolved over the last decade. We unpack the key ingredients of good client handling, how account management and project management are becoming separate roles, what it takes to build tight client relationships and what to look out for in the people you hire to fill this critical role in agency life. If you're looking for some insight into the world of first-class account management, then you're in the right place.

What does the agency of the future look like? That's what I wanted to know from John Bottom, an experienced agency pro and a very nice chap to boot. Shortly after the credit crunch in 2008, I had the idea of launching a marketing agency built on a network model. Like many agency professionals, I had worked for a large holding group agency and saw an opportunity to strike out on my own. But I didn't want all of the overhead attached to growing a brick-and-mortar "full-service agency". So I banded together all of the other ex-big agency marketers I knew, liked and trusted to create a networked agency. It worked well for a time, with my core team of marketing managers pulling in expertise for client challenges as and when required. Fast forward a decade, and I no longer run an agency this way. But there's still an appetite for it, as John Bottom argues, in how to run an agency fit for the 21st century. There's space at the table for agile, transparent agency teams structured around where the talent is and no

Last summer, I met up with a talented and intelligent agency owner – let’s call her Susie. I have known and respected Susie for quite a few years, and she runs a mid-size agency in the B2B space. We were catching up on the state of her business, what was working, and what wasn’t; the usual stuff I love to talk about with agency owners. It turns out an area causing Susie some issues is imposter syndrome. That feeling of not being confident or the self-doubt that creeps in now and then. After a couple of years in lockdown, it turns out that getting out and about, networking, and meeting prospects was not that simple. Much less comfortable than it used to be. Agency owners aren’t known for lacking in confidence. In fact, quite the opposite. To learn more about imposter syndrome and how to handle it, I invited Thor A Rain, founder of the Helpful Clinic, to come on the show and explore it in more detail. What could Susie do to overcome her challenges and get back out there, plying her trade? What could other agen