In this episode, host Ben Norman is joined by a strategist, a speaker, a trainer, an author and a lecturer, which all happen to be the same person.

Yes, Kevin Chesters has had some of the most important strategy jobs in the country, like Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at Ogilvy and dentsu mcgarrybowen, plus senior roles at W+K and Saatchi & Saatchi and client-side strategy stint at BT.

On top of that he wrote The Creative Nudge with business partner and good mate Mick Mahoney, as well as lecturing across several universities, training organisations across the country and fitting in the odd keynote or TEDx talk.

In this episode Kevin and Ben discuss -

• Creativity, and why it’s often misunderstood
• Positivity, and why marketing needs more of it
• Tyre kicking, and why we need to get rid of it Briefing, and how to get better at it
• Autism, and getting diagnosed with it

Plus, Kev moans about moaners, reveals the answer to happiness and quotes a Korean proverb.

In this episode, host Ben Norman is joined in Marketing Room 101 by Gillian Clarke, a marketer with over 25 years experience working with some of the UK’s most loved FMCG brands, from Fox’s to Wham, Kit-Kat to Quality Street, and most recently Honey Monster cereal.

In 2022, Gillian set up strategic consultancy Brave North which promises straight to the point marketing that works in the real world for brands large and small.

Gillian and Ben discuss the importance of all the 4 Ps and why marketing can’t just be about the ‘promotional P’, Gillian makes the case for putting emotion back into advertising and the need to balance statistical rigour with gut instinct.

The Honey Monster is also compared to a Georgian town house and takes down Tony the Tiger.

In this episode, host Ben Norman is joined in Marketing Room 101 by Laura Jordan Bambach.

Perhaps one of the busiest people in the marketing world, Laura is Founder and Chief Creative Officer at ⁠Uncharted⁠, Founder of ⁠SheSays⁠ & ⁠Oko⁠, plus a speaker, author & artist.

As one of very few female Chief Creative Officers Laura has bagged almost every award and accolade going, including being named one of Britain’s most influential people in the Debrett’s 500, as well as leading teams at Grey and Mr President to endless creative and effectiveness awards at the highest level.

Further proving her boundless creative energy, Laura is also co-founder of SheSays, the global network supporting women in the creative industries as well as OKO and The Great British Diversity Experiment.

Laura and Ben discuss setting up an all female creative agency, the power of creative community and the danger of confusing the easiest metrics to analyse, with the metrics that actually matter.

They also discuss the comparisons between the dawn of AI and the birth of the world wide web, and Laura also decides she wants to be an axolotl with bat wings.