Shiny New Object

As the Interim Head of Ecommerce Middle East for the PUMA group, Roy Wentzel is currently focusing on building the brand's presence in the region, starting in the UAE and working towards launching in Saudi Arabia. Beyond a very long and illustrious career in e-commerce, Roy is an advocate of progress when it comes to the development of websites for brands' shops and consumer experience. His Shiny New Object is headless e-commerce, a new way to design e-commerce beyond the traditional back and front-end connected by a lot of code. Listen to Roy talk about how e-commerce makes websites more flexible, more consumer friendly and easier to find through Google, as well as about the potential downsides of headless e-commerce, on this latest episode of the podcast. 

Currently the Head of Marketing for Weetabix, Gareth Turner has a long and varied experience leading marketing teams for brands such as Arla Foods' butter products and Heineken. He is a firm believer in the importance of client-agency relationships and mutual respect to produce better briefs and, ultimately, better work. This is why his Shiny New Object is honesty in client-agency relationships. Listen to Gareth explain how collaboration will lead to better marketing outputs and hear his top marketing tips in this latest episode of the podcast.

Having started her career as a DJ in Kenya and developed a career working in entertainment, Monali Shah says she ended up in traditional marketing "by fluke". Her first forays into entertainment marketing and events management offered her a valuable base in learning and building onto an entrepreneurial mindset, however, which she sees the benefits of in her work today. Her current role as Head of Integrated Marketing Experiences for Africa at the Coca-Cola Company has her always considering diversity and inclusion as she builds a team that truly represents the complexity of African culture and heritage. This is why her Shiny New Object is culture, and specifically its role in teams and organisations to help them deliver the message they want to get across. Listen why and how, in our latest podcast episode.

As Head of New Business Development at DraftLine South Africa, Amy is proud to be part of a data led organisation that blends creative energy with hard information. Her Shiny New Object is data led creativity, i.e. using the right data that ensures that creative marketing will also deliver on ROI. Listen to Amy describe how DraftLine use social listening, how she's made use of meditation to ground herself, and what her best marketing tips are.

Rob Bullough's career can be considered a kilt or a patchwork of many different interests, each pursued brilliantly. From working at Tower Records to building websites, teaching himself even more programming as well as making music for video games and ultimately becoming a brand manager within EA, he's done it all. Rob's current role as Director of Global Brand Marketing covers upstream and downstream marketing work, from understanding what motivates players to choose EA games to getting developers excited about creating what audiences look for, and eventually building the communication around that. Rob's Shiny New Object is pressure - an abstract look at brand consistency without ever "dropping the ball." Listen to which brands do this well and other top marketing tips from Rob in our latest episode.

In his rich career, Sir Martin Sorrell has been at the helm of some leading advertising agencies, from being CFO at Saatchi's to CEO of WPP for 33 years. He founded S4 Capital 3 years ago to focus on what he calls the new growth area of marketing: the digital universe. Sir Martin's Shiny New Object is the two worlds of advertising, specifically the split between analog and digital. He finds that the difference isn't being made clear enough, with analog having very little or no growth whereas digital has huge growth potential. Listen to Sir Martin talk about the future of digital, how marketers should adapt their model, and his top tips for those just starting out in the industry today.

Kieran Foley heads up the Partnerships and Licensing department at Danone, headquartered in New York and looking after all major programmes the company runs with NBC Universal, Disney, the NFL, but also charities and more. His career covers exciting sports sponsorship programmes as well as the creation of a cricket league called the CPL T20 which is now second in the world. Kieran's Shiny New Object is the growth potential of women's sport, which has shot up after the pandemic and reflects the change in attitudes and interests across both genders in society. Brands have a huge opportunity to be part of a relevant and exciting movement, with stronger touchpoints and interactivity with consumers. Listen to Kieran talk about cricket leagues, learning from local cultures and more in our latest podcast episode.

Having worked at Kellogg's for seven years, Joe Harper looks after the e-commerce function of the company across all of Europe. He previously held roles across social content creation and many more in sport betting, moving from sports to cereal and from digital to e-commerce. Joe's Shiny New Object may not be "shiny" or "new" to some but it's certainly relevant in his business space: user generated content (UGC). Joe believes that big companies still haven't unpacked the full potential of using UGC especially on social channels. The relatability of user content and its relevance for social media audiences helps it have a bigger impact than any glossy campaign created by a brand or their agency. Listen to Joe talk about harnessing the power of UGC, as well as his top marketing tips and advice for students, in this latest episode of the podcast.

In his agency and brand marketing roles, Rory McEntee has continuously built a career around challenger brands, disruptive and unique campaigns.  Now in charge of brand & marketing at Gymbox, Rory continues to put out daring and intriguing ads while searching for the next big thing in the future of marketing. His Shiny New Object is visual search, where users will be able to upload images to search for items to purchase online. Listen to Rory talk about his views on visual search, his favourite marketing books and his advice for making it in marketing, in our newest podcast episode.

In his role as Director of Strategy & Operations at Google UK & Ireland, Craig Fenton designs and manages how the company operates in these two countries. But he also has a number of "side hustles" that include social purpose driven initiatives like a record company and a film production house that put forward talented individuals from less privileged backgrounds.  This work has taught him the importance of feeling what it's like to be a customer. Craig's Shiny New Object, however, is more abstract: quantum AI and how it can be used to crunch the data in marketing. Listen to Craig talk about using quantum physics principles in data analysis, the benefits for studying human behaviour, and his tips about mindfulness, in this new episode of the Shiny New Object podcast.

The Head of Marketing at Aunt Bessie's, Sam Dolan has an illustrious career in the food industry, having worked with brands like Lurpak and Cravendale previously. Her Shiny New Object is direct mail and the way it can be used to target consumers and combine with other channels to create new and interesting campaigns with a different level of engagement.  Listen to Sam talk about her plans for using direct response advertising as well as her top marketing tips for new marketers, her best purchases for work, and her favourite books as well. 

Jerry Daykin is the Senior Media Director for EMEA and LatAm at GSK, where he looks after brands that help consumers live slightly better and healthier lives. After a roller coaster year during he COVID pandemic, Jerry has discovered more than ever the importance of staying active deliberately. One of his new behaviours is hopping on his Peloton bike every morning. His Shiny New Object is the 6 Ps of digital transformation, a new take on the 4 Ps of marketing looking at the importance of people and passion, measuring performance and running pilots. Listen to Jerry talk about all this and more on this latest Shiny New Object podcast episode.

David Byrne is the Brand Marketing Lead at Aviva, where he is responsible for above the line campaigns. In his career, he's worked for the likes of Diageo, BT, the BBC, start-ups and his own photography studio. David's Shiny New Object is Non Fungible Tokens aka NFTs, for their ability to keep you learning and refreshing the brain, and thus marketers' way of thinking. We talk about favourite marketing books, dealing with overwhelm, and staying curious to keep progressing in this brand new episode.

Bringing together all Havas creative agencies under one umbrella, Paul Ward works to make great ideas happen creatively, efficiently and effectively.  His Shiny New Object is leveraging the village: identifying and using each individual's specific skills across all the various Havas brands, to get the best results for clients. In a data-driven world, he's investigating how this can apply to data experts specifically. Listen to Paul talk about his career mistakes, marketing advice, and the future of leveraging the village, in this latest episode. 

Seb talks about balancing curiosity in new marketing tech whilst honing the skill of being a marketer. He tells us how we should stay focussed on the big picture and how Unilever employs a 80/15/5 model when it comes to Shiny New Objects. The discussion looks in detail at the world of D2C and how brands can win or get started in this space.

In our latest podcast episode, we meet Reckitt's Cicero Hennemann. As the company's Marketing Technology Lead for Western Europe, Cicero focuses on the benefits of technology and how it can drive effective marketing and results. However, he warns about not doing tech for tech's sake! Cicero's Shiny New Object is mobile - maybe not so new, but definitely ever changing. He's interested in how the rise of mobile apps and mobile marketing have had the potential for facilitating our lives and for enabling closer interaction between consumers and brands. Listen to Cicero's thoughts on the future of marketing and his best marketing tips in the full episode.

In our latest podcast episode, we interview Adam Palmer, the Director of Creative Production Ops at GoDaddy. Having worked at Viacom for MTV and VH1, Adam has a lot of experience being creative and working to challenge the status quo. He believes in always changing and evolving the way things are done. This is why his Shiny New Object is Loom - the visual platform where users can record themselves sharing their screens with audio and video messages.  Saving people time and boosting productivity is what using Loom is all about for Adam. Listen to him talk about his top marketing tips and favourite books, as well as the future of marketing, in the full episode.

Experian Marketing Services North America's VP for Strategy & Partnerships, Aimee Irwin works with brands to help them leverage technology to better enable their marketing efforts. In our latest episode, she talks about her Shiny New Object: the future state of identity in the marketing landscape. How can brands leverage multiple consumer identities to build a 360-degree view of customers and deliver them the best experience? Listen to the episode to find out Aimee's views.

On the latest episode of the Shiny New Object podcast, we speak to Shruti Samant, who is Digital Marketing Specialist at Procter & Gamble Health. Shruti's career has come together as a result of following her passion and combining her love of art with technology and engineering. She finds this to have prepared her the best for creating content, which is at the heart of digital marketing. Her top marketing tip is to follow the latest, be different and stay relevant. And Shruti's Shiny New Object is all about sonic branding and creating memorable audio content with the customer in mind. Listen to her tips and advice in the full episode. 

This week on the podcast, we cover Benni Lickfett's career from day 1 at a start-up to Global Head of Digital Innovation at Diageo. Benni's top marketing tips include focusing on the essentials, taking a look at the big picture and having empathy in advertising. His Shiny New Object is the unfulfilled promise of crowd wisdom and crowdsourcing. Listen to the full episode to find out why that's the case and what brands can do to tap into the hive mind resource.