Embracing Marketing Mistakes

Back in episode 99 with Sarah Waddington, we dive into the story of a well-intentioned tweet about a Biff and Chip book image, posted during the height of the Me-Too era. What was meant to be a harmless comment, shared in the midst of the chaos of parenting, quickly spiraled into misreporting by UK tabloids, global backlash, online abuse, and even death threats. As her career and personal life were thrust into the public eye, the turning point came when credible voices stepped in to offer support.

Through it all, the lesson emerged: consistency, values, and resilience matter...

A professor who built his entire career on communication measurement almost couldn't answer the question that started it all. Professor Jim Macnamara joins Embracing Marketing Mistakes to explain why so much of PR and marketing still confuses outputs with outcomes, and what changed after a client rejected his activity report and demanded results instead.

Jim walks through the framework behind AMEC and the Barcelona Principles, a real Volkswagen case study that shifted marketing budget from 5% to 15%, his global evaluation work for the World Health Organization during COVID-19 (including a video series that hit 400 million views), and his...

If you have ever watched a brilliant marketing strategy die in a sign‑off meeting, this episode is for you. We unpack the real reasons ideas fail in the boardroom and what senior marketers can do to read the room, create emotional buy in and keep stakeholders focused on what matters. 

Faris Aranki, founder of Shear Ghetto Consulting and former top‑tier strategy advisor, explains his IQ x EQ x FQ model for success back in episode 96. IQ is the quality of your idea, EQ is your emotional intelligence and stakeholder awareness, and FQ is your focus quoti...

Most B2B brands are interchangeable, and Talia Wolf built a career proving it.

In this episode, Talia Wolf, founder of GetUplift and creator of the emotional targeting framework, explains why most products test identical on every measurable feature, and the two emotional clusters, self-image and social image, that drive buying decisions. She tells the story of the book cover mistake she caught before print, when beta readers including Rand Fishkin and Wil Reynolds told her the professional, generic design was missing her own voice, and how the comic-book redesign became a number one Amazon bestseller in...

A CIPR fellow with nearly six decades in PR says the industry still protects itself from its own scandals.

In this episode, Robert Minton-Taylor, a CIPR fellow recognised at the institute's 70th anniversary and a 24-year PR lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, argues that no PR professional has ever been sanctioned for their industry's complicity in Grenfell, the Post Office Horizon scandal, the infected blood scandal, or the NHS maternity scandal. He tells the story of the former intern who says he failed her over the Hillsborough police statements, then shares four named mistakes from his own...

A toxic hire nearly cost him his agency. Then he made a similar mistake again, this time trying to build his own AI instead of renting one.

In this episode, Roger Hurni, founder and Chief Brand Strategist of Off Madison Ave, whose client roster includes Nike, Wells Fargo, PetSmart, and P.F. Chang's, breaks down the culture-first hiring lesson he learned the hard way, why his team abandoned an in-house AI build for an off-the-shelf tool, and the AI philosophy he wrote for his own staff: expand your options, never let AI replace your judgment. Trained in...

He ran creative for the world's biggest advertising group. Then his own recommendation to the board cost him the job, and he sold every share he owned the same week.

In this episode, John O'Keeffe explains how he took WPP from a "creative desert" to seven straight years as Creative Holding Company of the Decade, why recommending Mark Read to succeed Martin Sorrell as CEO turned out to be his biggest mistake, and what happened when Read undercut him in front of the entire company. He also makes the case for why AI can execute a creative...

KFC and Weetabix both threw away the most famous slogans in their category, and had to fight their way back to them.

In this episode, Tom Roach explains how "Finger Lickin' Good" and "Have You Had Your Weetabix" both got dropped while each brand chased fresher creative, and the research and internal persuasion it took to bring them back. He also breaks down why the standard marketing sales funnel misreads how people actually buy, why the von Restorff effect explains why distinctive brands get remembered, and how a hundred-year-old rule about creative quality (95% of everything has always...

Ben Branson invented an entirely new drinks category from his kitchen. Then a £1 million hole nearly took it all away.

In this episode, Ben explains how Seedlip, the world's first non-alcoholic spirit, grew twice as fast as the industry standard, and how that growth hid a working capital gap that surfaced mid-flight to Australia. He breaks down how the team traded their way out of the crisis in six months through relationships rather than financial engineering, why he launched straight into Selfridges instead of starting small, and why he chose to publicly embrace a review that called h...

A growth lead at a fast-scaling startup admits the truth: his old company cut a 30-person marketing and sales team, and sales didn't change at all.

In this episode, Hector Hughes explains why a year of growth work, SEO, conversion rate optimization, and endless website testing achieved almost nothing, and how that failure led him to build Unplugged, a digital detox retreat business now serving thousands of guests across the UK and Spain. He breaks down why "tracking everything results in tracking nothing," why most companies never answer the one question that matters, and how stepping away...

Rand Fishkin built Moz into the biggest name in SEO. Then he raised $30 million in venture capital and watched it nearly break him.

In this episode, Rand explains why raising venture capital was his biggest mistake, how it led to a battle with depression and his resignation as CEO, and why he is happier, healthier, and making more money today running SparkToro, a company a twentieth the size of Moz. He also breaks down why traffic has always been a vanity metric, how to build a new analytics framework for the AI and zero-click era, and why...

A top YouTube strategist just revealed the single habit that cost him over 100 million views and then live-critiqued our own channel's titles on air.

Leroy te Braak works with creators and brands doing hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. In this episode, he breaks down why most businesses get YouTube wrong, reveals his IDEAL framework (Idea, Data, Execution, Analysis, Longevity), and explains exactly how a 70-year-old soil-products founder grew from 30,000 to 100,000 subscribers with revenue up 60% month-over-month in just a few months.

Chris and Will discuss why "packaging" (title + thumbnail) matters more than the video...

Behavioural science meets marketing mishaps back in episode 46 with Phill Agnew. As a specialist in testing what really works in ads, Phill exposes how well intentioned campaigns often push audiences in exactly the wrong direction. 

He unpacks the idea of negative social proof, where highlighting how many people binge drink, steal from parks or ignore donation prompts can actually signal that this behaviour is normal and acceptable. Phill shares stories from university alcohol campaigns, an American park full of disappearing petrified wood and even the familiar fundraising banner on Wikipedia to show how this plays out in t...

Most companies have bought AI. Hardly any are actually using it properly inside their teams.

In this episode, recorded live at the AI for PR conference in London, we break down the real reason AI adoption fails in marketing and communications, and what it takes to make tools like Microsoft Copilot genuinely valuable.

Chris Norton is with two experienced voices from the PR and SEO world who share practical use cases, honest frustrations and proven ways to close the gap between AI ambition and execution.

Stuart Bruce is a communications and PR consultant...

In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Chris Pharo CEO from 72 Point talks through the controversy that erupted after critics on social media challenged the term guaranteed coverage. 

What began as a few confused comments quickly grew into a public discussion about ethics, transparency and how PR teams work behind the scenes. Chris explains how two members of his team were unexpectedly named online, why the situation became so stressful for everyone involved, and how a lack of clarity around their processes helped fuel the reaction. He also shares the steps 72 Point took in response, including bringing i...

Everyone is talking about AI transformation. Almost no one is thinking about whether their brand shows up when customers ask AI what to buy.

This episode breaks down the biggest mistake in modern marketing and why PR is quietly becoming the most powerful driver of visibility inside generative search.

Recorded live at the AI for PR conference in London, this episode features Andrew Bruce Smith, Johnny Bentwood, and James Crawford. Each brings a different lens, from strategic AI adoption to data-driven marketing and PR measurement.

Together, they...

Our guest, Guy Utley CEO of Tall Agency, shares a candid story about winning a major pitch despite being severely hungover from celebrating a "Best Creative Agency" award the night before. 

This unexpected success led to a complete transformation in his approach to business presentations, moving away from over-preparation toward more authentic communication.

• Celebrating winning "Best Creative Agency" award led to drinking too much the night before a 9 AM pitch
• Despite being hungover and unable to remember the pitch itself, the presentation was successful
• The partner agency didn't notice anything wrong with the present...

He handed AI a full marketing project… and it came back finished in 30 minutes.

What used to take 4 days of analysis, reporting, and presentation building was done in a single sitting with better insights included.

In this episode, Andrew Bruce Smith breaks down how tools like Claude Co‑Work are changing the way marketers actually work. This is not about faster copy or better prompts. It is about delegating entire workflows to AI and shifting your role from execution to management.

You will hear how AI can analyse raw marketing data, build reports, crea...

A finance worker joins a Zoom call with their CFO and colleagues.

Everything looks and sounds real. They transfer $25 million. Every person on that call was fake.

AI misinformation has moved from theory to real-world crisis, and brands are already losing control. From deepfake CEOs and fake giveaways to hijacked campaigns and cloned influencer accounts, the speed and scale of risk has changed completely.

In this episode, Will and I break down how AI is reshaping crisis management in 2026 and why most organisations are still underprepared. You’ll hear real examples of deepfake fr...

Cory Koryczan opens up about the career mistake that nearly broke her.

Staying too long in a role that no longer fit. She’d built her identity around someone else’s business and clung to safety until it led to burnout. In this episode, Cory talks about the cost of over-loyalty, the fear that kept her stuck, and how she rebuilt her courage to finally walk away. She also shares a second big lesson from returning to work after maternity leave. 

Why confidence doesn’t just snap back and how discomfort became her best teacher. It’s ho...

Most marketing fails before a single ad is made. Not because the execution is bad, but because teams leap straight to tactics and skip the strategy underneath. Ben Norman calls the result "busy fools": lots of activity, very little impact.

Ben, Strategy Director at Principles Agency and host of Marketing Room 101, joins Chris and Will to break down what brand strategy actually is, why so many senior marketers get it wrong, and how to do it properly without drowning in 20-page decks and brand "salad bowls".

What you'll learn:

A missed brief. A room full of decision-makers. A team fresh off the Eurostar waiting to present a tailored proposal that never existed—because the client’s detailed instructions were quietly filed in spam. We tell the whole story with candour, including the costs, the embarrassment, and the uncomfortable gap between personal brand and reality when a simple system failure derails a big moment.

We dig into what professionalism really looks like in sales and agency life: not bravado at the pitch, but the boring brilliance of process. You’ll hear why “creds plus” only works at the right...

Phil Barden, Author of Decoded once led a European brand relaunch that cost millions. The problem was not the strategy, the budget or the agency. The human brain rejected the advert in seconds.

In this episode, Phil explains the T‑Mobile campaign that quietly failed and why the creative meant something very different to audiences than it did in the boardroom.

That mistake changed his career. It took him from senior brand roles into behavioural science, neuroscience and decision science, and eventually to writing Decoded, one of the most cited books in modern marketing.

...

In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Sam Benton, co-founder of Mad Masters, joins Chris Norton and Will Ockenden to revisit one of his most unforgettable marketing moments. Early in his career, Sam walked into a major pitch for Expedia only to realise that Experian’s logo was proudly displayed on every single slide. What could have been a career-ending blunder turned into a long-standing client relationship and a story that still gets a laugh today.

The team reflects on the lesson behind the mishap. Sa...

Growth looks exciting from the outside. Inside, it is usually chaotic, opinion-led and full of avoidable mistakes.

In this episode, we sit down with Lucy Woolfenden, a former Skype marketer turned fractional CMO who now helps B2B and fintech scale-ups turn messy growth into focused, repeatable momentum.

Lucy Woolfenden is a growth-focused fractional CMO and founder of The Scale-Up Collective, with senior marketing experience at Skype, Starling Bank and high-growth fintech scale-ups.

She shares what really happens between product-market fit and the next funding round. From billboard typos that made it to...

When James Thomlinson decided to “bring some magic” to a high-stakes pitch for InterContinental Hotels Group, he meant it, literally. 

The plan? A magician disguised as a team member, ready to wow the client with a “reappearing newspaper” trick. The result? Cringe, confusion, and a fast lesson in what not to do when pitching creative ideas. 

In this hilarious and humbling episode, James shares how a failed attempt at showmanship turned into one of his biggest professional lessons and how he eventually won the client with a smarter, more authentic approach.

 If you’ve e...

Most creative directors are never told what their job actually is.

That confusion leads to imposter syndrome, burnout and years of silent mistakes at the top of agencies.

In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, we sit down with Mick Mahoney, one of the most experienced creative leaders in advertising. Mick spent over 25 years as a Creative Director, Executive Creative Director and Chief Creative Officer at agencies including Ogilvy and BBH.

He has led award-winning teams, topped creative rankings and worked alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. Despite that success...

David thought his YouTube channel was flying tens of thousands of views, rapid growth, big smiles all round. But behind the buzz was a costly mistake. By turning his finance channel into a jumble of lifestyle, language and fitness videos, he confused his audience and killed his conversions. 

In this episode, David joins Chris Norton and Will Ockenden to share how he turned his “carnival channel” fail into a business lesson every marketer needs to hear. Discover why more views don’t mean more clients and how clarity beats clicks every time.

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Dom Dwight joins Embracing Marketing Mistakes to share the reality of building a challenger brand that people genuinely care about.

Across 18 years at Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, Dom helped turn Yorkshire Tea into one of the UK’s most loved brands by backing creative risk, trusting people and stripping out layers of sign-off. In this episode, he talks candidly about the resistance that comes with brave marketing decisions, the value of long-term agency relationships and why safe ideas often create the biggest risk.

The conversation also goes deep on social media mistakes, political pile-ons an...

What happens when you pour your heart and money into a business you’re not truly passionate about? In this episode, we hear the candid story of Louise, who launched a bricks-and-mortar craft shop while juggling three kids and a career in IT project management.

She opens up about:

Most marketers believe customers think carefully before they buy. Behavioural science shows that 95% of buying happens on autopilot, driven by subconscious shortcuts rather than logic.

In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Nancy Harhut explains why framing, anchoring and presentation matter more than information. She shares real examples where small changes doubled results without changing the product.

Nancy is the author of Using Behavioural Science in Marketing and founder of HBT Marketing. She has spent decades helping brands apply psychology and neuroscience to real campaigns, translating academic research into practical tactics that increase...

Mental health neglect emerges as the most impactful career mistake, affecting happiness, security, and stability in both personal and professional realms. Many people recognise mental health issues too late, silently carrying burdens that significantly impact their relationships and performance.

Authentic Alex shares her story.
• Tendency to ignore mental health concerns until they become impossible to dismiss
• Personal anecdote about a friend struggling silently despite having a busy career
• Started writing about therapy experiences seven years ago, and grief on LinkedIn five years ago
• Corporate conversations about mental health have transformed dramatically in recent years

Steve Harrison has spent over 40 years in advertising. He rose to Creative Director at Ogilvy, then founded Harrison Troughton Wunderman, building one of the most awarded direct marketing agencies in the world and winning 18 Cannes Lions.

In this episode, Steve argues the industry lost effectiveness when it stopped focusing on selling and started chasing societal impact. He explains why award-winning work stopped delivering commercial results and why purpose messaging rarely stuck with consumers.

Steve also shares a personal leadership mistake. After selling his agency, he took a global role that cost him day-to-day control and...

Veteran tech journalist Spencer doesn’t hold back in this refreshingly honest episode filled with media mishaps and marketing missteps. From confidently predicting the iPad would never take off to losing £10,000 worth of BBC footage in a single stairwell accident, Spencer shares the kind of hard-earned lessons that come from real-world chaos. It’s a funny, cringe-worthy, and surprisingly relatable look at how fast things can go wrong behind the scenes.

You’ll hear what really happens when promised access on international press trips disappears on arrival, why having your PR contact on the same flight matters more th...

In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes features Ant Cousins unpacking a moment where trusting AI with empathy nearly caused real harm.

Ant Cousins is Vice President of Product at Meltwater and has spent over 25 years working across defence, public safety and AI. He previously advised the UK Ministry of Defence in Iraq and Afghanistan, worked in counterterrorism and strategic communications, and later led AI efforts to combat misinformation.

Broadcasted live, the conversation captures the unfiltered reality of how AI decisions play out under pressure. Ant draws on experience from defence, counterterrorism and modern AI...

Ever hired someone just because you clicked with them? You are not alone. In this candid episode, our guest admits to recruiting based on personality instead of business needs. The result was duplicate roles, major skill gaps, and tough decisions that still sting years later.

From letting go of an “amazing assistant” before the pandemic, a decision they still regret, to realizing the need for complementary skills over similar personalities, this is an honest look at one of entrepreneurship’s most common and costly mistakes.

The turning point came when they recognized the problem and invest...

Marketing mistakes happen to everyone, even the so-called experts. We’ve seen everything from press releases that accidentally went viral for the wrong reasons to brand names so complicated even the CEO couldn’t spell them. But there’s something weirdly therapeutic about sharing these messes. One guest summed it up perfectly. If you’re only testing stuff you already know will work, you’re not really testing. The risk is tiny when something flops. The reward if it works is huge. So why are so many marketers still playing it safe?

Of course, we also got the juicy...

One email rewrote “lifetime” loyalty and turned Carnival’s most devoted customers against the brand.

In this episode, neuromarketing pioneer Roger Dooley breaks down the background to that decision, the Royal Caribbean photo-op disaster, and how AI could have stopped both.

For twenty years, Roger has been inside the rooms where these calls are made, teaching companies how real human brains work in marketing, loyalty and crisis communication. He shares how, until recently, only big brands with behavioural science teams and neuromarketing labs could afford this level of insight, and why generative AI has blown that w...

What happens when the person paid to pitch stories decides to live them instead? We pull back the curtain on 90s Soho PR, where relationships were built over ringing landlines, long lunches, and last-minute invitations, and where the distance between press release and personal risk got uncomfortably thin. From beer brands and lads’ mags to editors who wanted proof you’d done the crazy thing you pitched, we trace how a career at the edges turned into a catalogue of hard-won lessons.

The ride starts with hedonistic newsroom camaraderie, then swerves into a series of commissions that dema...

Behavioural tactics collapse more often than marketers admit. Phill Agnew joins us again to expose the shortcuts that fail, the ones that hold up under pressure, and the science senior marketers can actually trust.

Phill is the creator and host of Nudge, one of the most respected behavioural science podcasts in marketing. He is known for turning academic research into practical tools used by senior marketers, founders and brand leaders. His work blends storytelling with evidence, backed by real experiments he runs on his own content to see what genuinely moves behaviour.

This episode digs...