Brain Hurt Scale = 3/10. Explore all the pros, cons of in-housing your marketing team vs outsourcing to an agency. Packed with real life examples this discussion is suitable for anyone and everyone in the industry. Including senior non-marketing executives who approve/fund the function through to the most green, juniors. We talk with in-housing consultant Chris Maxwell from Lution. Going deep into the topic - pulling countless examples from both his and John's personal experience across hundreds of firms and thousands of campaigns. You'll learn lots including:The advantages of agenciesAdvantages of in-housingWhy hybrid is increasingly becoming the norm and what that looks likeWhich parts are best kept internal vs outsourcedWhat trends are important to heed so we can all make better career decisionsAnd all the pitfalls we need to be aware ofFull episode 15 season 5 of the Champagne Strategy podcast.

So you could continue shifting everything to an external agency....or.....

Wake up and embrace the future of AI-disrupted marketing operations. Future-proofing your skill set and approach.

The choice is yours.

Brain Hurt Scale = 7/10. Henry Innis, founder of MMM platform Mutinex has caused a stir in APAC and more recently overseas. But with media headlines aside, what was the real growth story behind their success? What are the dynamics of the MMM industry and as we both peer into the future of AI, measurement and marketing in general - how should we be preparing for the future? Full episode Season 5, Episode 14 of the Champagne Strategy Show.This could be a bit businessey/technical for non-business owners and those who aren't involved in product or business models, but all the same it should be an interesting north star episode that reveals where we're all heading in the future regardless.

Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10 - Did you know, one of the biggest growth channels tech companies invest in is community? The same goes for companies outside of SaaS as well.

Companies like Sephora and Nike have massive communities of customers that act as the glue for their entire promotional model.

But how do you create them? What are the do's and don'ts we need to be aware of and what tools should we use?

Luckily Paz Pisarski has created countless communities for some of the biggest companies in the world before evolving her model to teach this method to other community managers and interested entrepreneurs.

During a panel discussion at SXSW Sydney in 2024 Paz Pisarski came into our orbit and we just had to have a chat afterwards, So if you want a crash-course in community building this will get you at least 90% of the way there.

You could leverage the network effects and synergy that comes from building a high-value community.

Or

Continue to be a one-trick pony, cross your fingers and publish that next piece of content which everyone says is "going to go viral". ___________________ Paz Pisarski's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paz-pisarski/

Community Collective https://thecommunitycollective.co/

Brain Hurt Scale = 3/10 - Do you need your advertising to be emotional in order for it to work? Ken Roberts has spent decades researching this with colleagues and is one of the world's authorities on this topic. In this wide-ranging interview we separate fact from fiction about everything from brand tracking, to the creative process, market-share drivers, advertising pre-testing vendors, famous marketing personalities and everything else in between.

And Ken doesn't disappoint. Refuting much of the common wisdom and offering contrarian points of view supported by the practical commercially-focused research he's been personally involved with.

Discover which voices you should be listening to and which you probably shouldn't if you're focused on high-value financial outcomes with your marketing expenditure.

Or you could continue listening to the populist narratives of famous commentators.

The choice is yours.

_____

Links and recommended further reading mentioned in this episode.

Ken Roberts https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-roberts-789b222/ ForeThought - https://www.forethought.com.au/ BrandComms - https://www.brandcomms.ai/ Bendigo Better Bank TVC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx0UkhlcJCM Kmart Australia 1000 Mum's TVC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnHg_RcsWck Brand Health Tracking Course - https://app.vexpower.com/sim/how-to-measure-and-track-brand-accurately-without-a-vendor-filtered-lens/ The Folly of the ‘The Long and the Short of It’ https://www.greenbook.org/insights/gain-retain/the-folly-of-the-the-long-and-the-short-of-it Emotion: the Mandatory of Marketing – Part One: Behavior https://www.greenbook.org/insights/gain-retain/emotion-the-mandatory-of-marketing-8211-part-one-behavior Emotion: the Mandatory of Marketing – Part Two: Measurement https://www.greenbook.org/insights/gain-retain/emotion-the-mandatory-of-marketing-8211-part-two-measurement Emotion: the Mandatory of Marketing Part Three: Application https://www.greenbook.org/insights/gain-retain/emotion-the-mandatory-of-marketing-part-three-application

Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10. Dealing with creative fills up a good chunk of any marketing department's time. But do you really have a binary choice between in-house vs agency? Or is there a better way?

We interview co-founder of Creatively Squared, Scott Thomas to talk about the awkward creative production transition many companies are faced with. From one where a high-priced TVC sits at the core of the campaign. To the modern reality that embraces media fragmentation and takes advantage at scale.

If you don't learn something, you haven't been listening.

Brain Hurt Scale = 6/10 - full episode featuring San Redfern from Canva who details how the company transitioned from a digital marketing attribution mindset into something far more world-leading and sophisticated.

Where part 1 of the Digital Marketing Apocalypse series focused on the technical and legal changes that have occurred over time.

And part 2 uncovered the impact this has had on company's marketing.

Part 3 gives us a concrete example of how to successfully transition from the old way of measurement to the new way. Providing a great example of how teams should be measuring and operating. Including all the politics and subtle considerations you need to be aware of along the way. And yes I realize we all don't work for multi-billion dollar tech companies, but you'll pick up some very practical pointers from this episode which you can apply to any firm along the way.

So if you're thinking of also making the switch from staring at digital marketing dashboards and spreadsheets....have a listen

Brain Hurt Scale = 5/10. Following on from part 1, we explore a paper that studied thousands of online retailers between 2020 and 2022. The findings from this study have massive implications on the digital marketing industry, decision-makers, executives and investors.

They analyzed 100's of billions of digital marketing expenditure and looked at how this affected customer acquisition and growth. Finding that not only have costs increased on average but firms who targeted certain customers and used particular channels realized the greatest drops in yield.

So why are so few in the industry talking about something so momentous? There are a few reasons for that which we discuss near the end.

Brain Hurt Scale = 8/10. Why is Apple all about privacy all of a sudden? Why is it so vogue for governments around the world to legislate user data protections?

Take a trip back in time all the way through to the present to understand where it all started and where it's going. From the birth of Google Analytics, the cookie, UTMs through to Meta and Google ads, conversion columns and everything else in between.

Why do we no longer hear the story about the stay-at-home mom who found online retailing success by mastering Facebook or Instagram?

Why was there a mobile app boom that's since fizzled out?

In the second half we then talk about the implications of the privacy crackdown. What this means for the industry supply chain and all the participants. Especially digital marketing platforms like Google, Meta and programmatic display. Is everyone operating in time that no longer exists and in denial? Why don't they want to change?

Find out answers to all these questions by pressing play