The Marketing Week Podcast

What drives founders forward? For Ben Branson, who launched Seedlip in 2015, it is twofold: a “fear of failure” and “being dissatisfied about something" and wanting to change it.

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, Branson, who sold Seedlip to Diageo in 2019 before launching Pollen Projects - a venture studio dedicated to building non-alcoholic spirit brands - is joined by host editor-in-chief Russell Parsons to lift the lid on what motivates him when it comes to building brands.

Branson details how his early struggles with mental health, addiction and anxiety propelled him to “solve problems” and “make things better”. Ultimately, he explains, he doesn’t “want to let good ideas down”.

He also shares his journey of an adult diagnosis of ADHD and autism, and how this led him to found The Hidden 20%, a charity, podcast and movement campaigning for neurodiversity.

“We need a society that can include all minds now more than ever. We need the creativity, the skills, the innovation, the pattern spotting, all of the great things that can come from working with different brains.”

Branson will be speaking at Marketing Week's Festival of Marketing 2026, taking place on 14 October.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have marketers invented a language to describe performance no one else in the business understands?

The latest Language of Effectiveness data reveals over 70% of respondents see a disconnect between the way marketing interprets effectiveness and the rest of the business. In fact, 11% of marketers don’t discuss effectiveness with the wider business at all. Are they missing a trick?

To unpick the data, Marketing Week deputy editor and intelligence editor, Charlotte Rogers, is joined by TUI group head of international marketing Rachel Moss and Brian Macreadie, head of marketing at law firm Addleshaw Goddard.

We ask whether marketers have lost sight of the metrics that really matter to their boards and if now is the time to urgently address the disconnect.

Moss and Macreadie discuss the merits of treating effectiveness as a two-way conversation rooted in trust, exploring the power storytelling has to make these discussions easier.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, news editor Niamh Carroll is joined by Unilever's beauty and wellbeing division global vice president of digital, social and AI transformation Selina Sykes.

She explains how Unilever's approach to brand building has changed - and what's remained - as well as how to effectively manage a team through constant transformation in a world where how people shop and consume media is rapidly changing.

"The fundamentals are exactly the same," says Sykes, who will be sharing more about Unilever's transformation at Festival of Marketing 2026. "But what we've seen is that how you achieve those things is radically different, and it continues to change."

This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. Its LINK AI creator content insights turn influencer ads into predictive insight you can act on. Discover how you can invest with confidence, not guesswork with LINK AI by Kantar.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Creator marketing is everywhere. But for many CMOs it still feels messy, inconsistent and driven by instinct. Is it just advertising with a friendlier face, or a fundamentally different channel? And can it genuinely build brands while still delivering performance?

In the latest episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, sponsored by Kantar, global creative thought leadership director Vera Šídlová joins editor-in-chief Russell Parsons to explore what the data actually says.

Drawing on Kantar’s latest creator effectiveness research: The creator game plan – based on large-scale analysis of content across 15,000 pieces of creator content on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram – she separates hype from hard evidence.

The conversation focuses on what drives impact and how brands can make sharper, more confident decisions in creator marketing.
You’ll hear:

Why creator marketing works differently from traditional advertising… and how it actually builds brands
How authenticity and brand consistency can reinforce each other, not compete
The patterns behind high-performing creator content – and what strong briefs consistently get right
How CMOs should measure creator marketing to make better investment decisions at scale

Host: Russell Parsons, editor-in-chief, Marketing Week
Guest: Věra Šídlová, global creative thought leadership director, Kantar
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can the marketing industry build trust in advertising? It’s a perennial issue, but the next phase of the Advertising Association's action plan wants to tackle it head on.

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, editor-in-chief Russell Parsons is joined by Stephen Woodford, CEO of the Advertising Association, and Andria Vidler, CEO of National Lottery operator Allwyn and outgoing Advertising Association president.

Public trust in advertising has risen from 30% to 40% in the last four years. However, serious challenges remain, from combating online scam ads to navigating AI’s impact.

This episode outlines the state of trust in the UK, from the role AI is playing to the industry’s relationship with the government, to help tackle the question: how can advertising become fundamentally trustworthy to the public?

This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. Its LINK AI creator content insights turn influencer ads into predictive insight you can act on. Discover how you can invest with confidence, not guesswork with LINK AI by Kantar.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.