Episodi

  • It's the question that's on everyone's lips. We map out the role for brands and brand experience in building a brave new world.
    In this episode:
    We wrap up Season 1 of the Total Experience Podcast a.k.a. 'Brand Experience in the Age of Corona' by looking at what brands can do to shape our uncertain future in a positive way. With Richard Cable.
    A frame of reference
    The hero's journey
    The region of supernatural wonder
    The Spanish Flu of 1918, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the global protests of 1968 all rolled into one
    A world facing economic catastrophe, global pandemic, racial injustice and inequality
    Planning for total victory
    Why it's not ridiculous to talk about brand experience at a time like this.
    Constructive thinking
    Seismic change
    History's horrible precedents
    Shaping the world for good
    The bandwagon is the place to be
    Brands and social progress
    Courageous individuals and grassroots movements - George Floyd and the humiliation of Donald Trump
    The purpose of a brand
    Embracing, normalising and amplify positive change.
    Brand purpose is still bollocks
    Creating bandwagons of our own
    Branded cynicism
    Aligning what you do and what you say
    Revenge spending and the slump to come
    Lockdown easing and rising optimism
    "Revenge spending"
    Government debt and small to medium business meltdown


    Where brands add value
    Enterprise value and powerful brands
    Recklessness of neglecting your brand


    Why brand experience is so important: brand, people, touchpoints and creative
    Brand
    Digital transformation and innovation
    The inherent dangers of short-termism and neglecting your brand
    Adidas as one to watch


    People
    Radically altered customer demographics - new skills, asymmetrical effects, the positive effects of lockdown


    Touchpoints
    Reweighting your brand ecosystem
    The rise of social commerce
    The re-rise of AR and VR
    Only as strong as your weakest touchpoint


    Creative
    Crises and creativity
    Creative red herrings
    Glitz and glamour vs grit and grime
    The birth of the anti-hero
    Smashing shibboleths


    Summary
    The positive role for brands in unfucking the world
    Being on the right side of history
    The engine of recovery




  • Every day, McDonald's makes 40+ million Big Macs worldwide. How does the brand stay coherent in the face of a global pandemic and other enormous challenges?
    In this episode:
    We're joined by George Strakhov, Head of strategy EMEA for DDB, and Steve Griffiths, Chief Digital Officer for DDB Europe, both of whom work with McDonald's across 40+ markets.
    The scale of the McDonald's business
    A dynamic and complex business
    Product and experience
    Diversity of touchpoints
    Geographical diversity
    Menu diversity
    Segment diversity
    Guest counts and sales
    Speed of the feedback loop
    DDB and McDonald's
    From advertising to strategic planning and tactical activation
    Market to market activation
    Digital transformation
    Focus on convenience - experience, accuracy and efficiency
    Optimising process in a process driven company
    Changing consumer tastes and experience
    Artificial intelligence
    Creating interconnected, intelligent touchpoints
    Preference and transactional data
    Loyalty and longitudinal data
    Data driven marketing, analytics and experience design
    Creating a coherent brand experience
    Maximising the interaction
    The balance between delivering the most value for customer and business
    Short term (activation) vs long term drivers (brand)
    Constantly adapting to circumstance - a very responsive business
    McDonald's and the Coronavirus crisis
    Restaurant closures
    Cautious reopening
    Focus on crew
    The perils of getting it wrong
    A return to the foundational elements of the business
    People needing the basics more than ever - Quality, Service, Cleanliness
    The 'bubble of happy'
    Producing 40 million Big Macs all the same
    Switch to drive thru, changes to menu, delivery changes, dark kitchens
    The benefits of being a 'known quantity'
    Creating intergenerational connections
    Happy Meals and birthday parties
    No longer a family mealtime
    Screen distractions
    Matching the brand with the next generation
    Innovation and brand experience
    Entrepreneurship vs innovation
    Bazaars vs cathedrals
    The difficulties of tech mediated brand experience
    A gap that needs closing
    Giving franchisees and restaurant managers the capacity

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  • We talk to Leonard Cheshire's 'Change 100' about enabling more people with disabilities to find careers in marketing, and ask if the lockdown can have a positive long-term impact on the way we work.In this episode:Verity Ayling-Smith, training and consultancy advisor with Leonard Cheshire and the 'Change 100' programme, and Priyanca Desouza, user researcher and former Change 100 intern.What disability isProtected characteristics, diversity and inclusionDisability as a normal and common thingBringing down the barriers in recruitment and the work environmentA wide range of accessibility needsThe visibility of disabilityDisability more prevalent than we realiseThe duty of employers to remove barriersChoosing whether or not to disclose your disabilityEmployers missing out on fantastic talentThe inexplicable employment gap for disabled peopleChange 100 and Leonard CheshireLeonard Cheshire's mission to support disabled peopleChange 100's mission to close the employment gap for disabled graduates and studentsMatching skills to rolesA highly competitive programmeThe popularity of marketing and communicationsThe challenging language of job descriptionsThe value of different life experiencesResilience, creativity and difference by defaultThe danger of the agency bubble and cookie-cutter thinkingActively welcoming and valuing a difference life experienceChampioning inclusive experience designThe 'amplified self'The problem with traditional recruitmentJim Carroll and the amplified selfExcellence vs mediocrityThe positives of the lockdown (for us all)How remoteness has brought colleagues closerA more personalised way of workingIt's not where you work but how - challenging office cultureBusiness investment in agile, remote working and managementA more autonomous, liberated and creative workforce

  • What can one man’s horrendous ordeal at the hands of a Japanese game show teach us about the need for more empathetic brand experiences?
    In this episode:
    January 1998: casting for a new show
    The luck of the draw
    Meet Nasubi
    A secret destination
    'A life out of prizes'
    Naked and alone with only a phone
    The million yen target
    Eggplants and modesty
    The physical impact of isolation
    A starvation diet
    The first roll of toilet paper
    What you own but can't use
    The mental impact of isolation
    Curtailed stimulus
    Compensating for lack of emotional feedback
    Anthropomorphising
    Radical deterioration and mental suffering
    Doubling down on the cruelty
    An unwitting megastar
    Victory - suspended
    Nasubi in Korea
    Nasubi flies home
    The brutal show finale
    We are all Nasubi
    Parallel experiences
    The impact of isolation
    An analogy for brand experience
    More anxious, more cautious, more socially isolated and lonelier
    The practicalities of a post-Covid economy
    Not making isolation worse
    Be more 'Great British Bake Off"
    Enhancing what makes us human
    Brands not just claiming human qualities but exhibiting them

  • The US has always had a special relationship with brands. We ask if we should be looking to the US for leadership, or vice versa?In this episode:Leigh Baker, founder of New York creative brand consultancy we@leighbaker, talks to us about the different approaches US and UK brands have taken to the Coronavirus crisis and what we can learn from both.How the US does brands differently Marketing at scaleImmediate impactThe hard sellWearing your heart on your sleeveThe US special relationship with brandsThe Super BowlClint Eastwood and "It's half time for America"Brands stepping into the breachWeak institutions leaving a vacuumThe 3 different approaches of American brandsBranding the moment - NikeDo something, but what? - American banksGood, honest promotional utility - Burger KingThe US reaction to the crisisWhy American brands don't stopCreative perils of group think Lockdown fatigue and reactive marketingGreen shoots of a new US brand behaviourA shift in tone - the new optimismIt's OK to be funny - GeicoHard times and escapismWhat the US can learn from the UKBrand experience beyond the advertisingGetting your digital act togetherA unified response from strong institutions

  • Strategic research has a vital role to play in navigating us out of the current crisis, so why are brands cutting research projects?
    In this episode:
    Roger McKerr, founder of insight and strategy agency Davies McKerr, and Darren Savage, chief strategy officer at Tribal London and lecturer at the Oxford Business School, discuss the crucial role of research in shaping brand strategy as we emerge from the Covid 19 crisis.
    How the world has changed
    Ever-shifting points of reference
    Doing the unthinkable
    Forget getting back to 'normal'
    Imposed behaviour change and new social norms
    Imposed behaviours
    Forming new rituals and habits
    How crisis exposes differences
    Challenges to strategy
    A much more complex audience profile
    How brands have responded to the crisis
    Shutting down 'non-essential' activity
    The IPA Bellweather Report
    Halting strategic research
    The dangers of strategic short-termism
    Paralysis through lack of analysis
    Brands that are doing well
    Nike's integrated brand experience
    Brands that are doing badly
    Primark's devastating lack of ecommerce
    Insight as an enabler of action
    Building new insight
    Creating confidence
    What brands should do next
    The 5 point plan
    Identifying new consumer needs/preferences
    Getting your tone of voice right
    Reviewing and revising media plans
    Thinking about what your brand stands for
    Combining behaviours and communications
    Positives coming out of the crisis
    Positivity and human nature
    Leveraging our intuitive gifts
    Innovation and experimentation

  • It's been said that after a nuclear war, all that will be left are cockroaches and a production team making a film about them. How ever-resilient production is adapting to the lockdown.
    In this episode:
    Producers Flo Clive and Paris Palmer talk about how to keep making great work despite the lockdown.
    How hard has production been hit?
    The agency view
    The freelancer view
    What are the lockdown regulations for producers?
    Government regulations
    Agency policy
    Safety first
    What type of work is getting done?
    Adaptations and reworking
    Home studios
    Post production's defining moment
    Pro bono
    The future is documentary style shooting
    UGC
    Self shooting
    Remote directing
    The importance of continuing to invest in marketing through a crisis
    Helping clients get back on the horse
    The need for contingency and understanding
    Good work that's getting made
    Tesco Food Love Stories
    Ohio Department Of Health PSA
    Lucozade and Anthony Joshua
    Joe Wicks' PE Lesson feat. George Ezra
    How brands should react to the crisis
    Deeds not words
    Can-do attitude
    Power of the people
    Quality vs quantity
    Don't be silent
    Do good things

  • The Coronavirus crisis has forced massive changes on the way we work. What can lockdown working teach us about building a better brand experience?
    This episode:
    Why is the colleague experience so important?
    An introduction to the three components of great brand experience.
    1) Customer experience
    2) Colleague experience
    3) Operational enablers - the tools to do the job.
    A cautionary tale about poor colleague experience.
    A much-loved heritage cheese brand neglects its colleague experience with devastating results.
    What the Coronavirus can teach us about the colleague experience.
    1) Distance. Do we need to be in the office?The modern office is a product of the Industrial Revolution, and doesn't reflect the changing nature of work and “the declining cost of distance”. Do we need to be in the office?
    2) Decompression. The emergency brakes have just been slammed on our just-in-time 21st century lives, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. How slowing down and allowing ourselves time to think will improve our quality of life and produce better work.
    3) Dispensing with the digital distinction. In the modern workplace there shouldn't be a distinction between colleague experience (physical) and colleague experience (digital). They just need the right tools to do their jobs. Why the lockdown is the ultimate acid test for how future proof your business is.
    A persuasive tale about good colleague experience.
    A much-loved heritage cheese brand creates a best in class colleague experience that sees them through the greatest crisis of their 450 years of history.

  • Did you know there is such a thing as disease branding? Well there is, and it plays a hugely important role in how we respond to outbreaks and pandemics.
    This episode:
    Why diseases need branding - and rebranding.
    A short but sordid history of 19th century 'freak shows'
    Stigmatising names we still use today
    Gay Related Immunodeficiency (GRID) - a masterclass in the worst possible brand you can give a disease
    The pharma business and 'disease awareness' campaigns.
    Why they exist
    Pros and cons
    The tricky business of naming a disease that's new to science.
    Naming the pathogens vs naming the disease
    The World Health Organisation's new guidance on what you can and can't call a disease
    Novel diseases and how often they occur
    How Coronavirus got its name.
    SARS-CoV-2
    COVID 19
    Coronavirus
    What happens to a brand when it shares a name with a disease.
    Corona beer versus Coronavirus
    Can panic-buyers tell the difference?

  • How we experience brands has undergone radical change during the Coronavirus crisis. What have we learned about surviving these turbulent times?In this episode:Why the distinction between your physical and digital brand is dead.The three key questions that dictate how heavily a brand is being impacted by the Coronavirus crisis.Why the crisis is a hugely valuable learning experience from a brand experience point of view.Why your brand can't afford to shut down marketing activity during the crisis.The scientific consensus against reducing investment in marketing.Marketing effectiveness guru Peter Field's 4 key lessons about the benefits of continuing to invest in marketing during an economic downturn: 1) Cutting marketing budget in a downturn only helps defend profits in the very short term; 2) If you do choose to cut budgets, your brand will emerge from the downturn in a weaker and much less profitable position; 3) During a downturn, you should aim to maintain your share of voice, at or above your share of market during a downturn. Evidence shows that this delivers a longer-term improvement in profitability that outweighs any benefit gained from short-term reduction of investment; 4) If your competitors are cutting budgets during a crisis, the benefit of maintaining your investment in marketing expenditure will be even greater. In short, if your competitors go quiet, it’s easier to make yourself heard.Why you need to make use of your entire marketing mix - the '4Ps' - Product, Price, Promotion and Place. Why Promotion (Communications) may not be the right play.The power of Product, Price and Place, with examples.The 5th P - 'People' - and how it can make or break your brand.Doing the right thing by your people.We're all in this together and brands need to act like it.