Embracing Marketing Mistakes
- Episodes
- 211
- Released
- weekly
- Latest episode
- Nov 12, 2026
About the podcast
Welcome to Embracing Marketing Mistakes, the world’s leading irreverent podcast for senior marketers who are tired of the polished corporate b*llshit.
Join Chris Norton and Will Ockenden, founders of the award-winning Prohibition PR, as they sit down with industry leaders to dissect the career-ending f*ck-ups they’d rather forget. The show moves past any pretty vanity metrics to uncover the brutal, honest truths behind marketing disasters, from £30,000 SEO black holes and completely failed companies, to social media crises that went globally viral for all the wrong reasons.
We don't just celebrate the f*ck-ups; we extract the tactical blueprints you need to avoid them yourself. If you are a business owner, or a CMO looking for a competitive advantage that only comes from real-world experience, this is your weekly masterclass in resilience and strategy.
- Listen for: Raw stories from top brands, ex-McKinsey strategists, and industry disruptors.
- Learn from: The errors that cost thousands and the recoveries that saved careers.
- Get ahead by: Turning other people's nasty disasters into your unfair market advantage.
If you have a story to tell and would like to appear on the show, tell us your biggest marketing mistake and drop us a line.
Contributors
Episodes 211
I Faxed Our Secret Price List to Every Retailer
A single late night fax nearly triggered a multimillion pound crisis. This is the story of a young marketer who accidentally sent confidential national retail pricing to several major UK retailers. The stakes …
Show notes
A single late night fax nearly triggered a multimillion pound crisis. This is the story of a young marketer who accidentally sent confidential national retail pricing to several major UK retailers. The stakes were enormous and the fallout could have ended his career on the spot.
We go back to Episode 103 with Allister Frost as he shares how one misplaced button created a fax CC list, why the mistake was so dangerous and how a quick thinking national account manager scrambled to contain the damage. The tension is real because every retailer suddenly had sight of their competitors pricing.
This conversation breaks down the commercial risk, the emotional shock and the frantic recovery. The lessons still matter for every marketer who handles sensitive data. Tired decisions cost money. Unfamiliar tech creates blind spots. Lone working increases risk.
If you work in FMCG, retail or any role with confidential pricing, this episode is a must listen. It is a rare look at how easily a career defining mistake can happen and what it takes to walk away intact.
Click here to listen to the full episode.Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters (5)
EP 136: The AI Expert Who Still Thinks Too Small
Mike Kaput wrote for English-language magazines in Cairo until the Egyptian Revolution cut his time there short. Back home in Cleveland, Ohio, he moved into agency marketing with Paul Roetzer. He is now Chief …
Show notes
Mike Kaput wrote for English-language magazines in Cairo until the Egyptian Revolution cut his time there short. Back home in Cleveland, Ohio, he moved into agency marketing with Paul Roetzer. He is now Chief Content Officer at SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute, co-hosts The Artificial Intelligence Show with Paul, and co-wrote the 2022 book Marketing Artificial Intelligence with him. In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Mike explains why he thinks the most valuable human work with AI is deciding what to do in the first place, why AI can scale up bad decisions as easily as good ones, and why agencies have a chance to be seen as trusted advisers.
Mike walks through the mistake he says he makes every day: not thinking big enough. While his team was connecting its AI tools to HubSpot, he found himself halfway through a conversation about which reports and dashboards someone should build before asking why they weren't just putting the question to the AI. He also shares why he would start a new agency by asking a frontier model how to build it from scratch, why he would push back on an agency bill charged by the hour, and why marketers who have only used chat tools should try agentic ones such as Claude Cowork before 2027.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters (11)
We Spent £15m and 37 People Downloaded It
Tom Goodwin recounts the campaign that still makes his stomach drop back in episode 48. While leading a Nokia music service launch in 2007, his team secured exclusive rights to a major Kylie Minogue album and …
Show notes
Tom Goodwin recounts the campaign that still makes his stomach drop back in episode 48. While leading a Nokia music service launch in 2007, his team secured exclusive rights to a major Kylie Minogue album and poured around £15 million into media and technology.
The problem was simple and devastating. Only 37 people were able to download the app because almost no one owned a compatible Nokia handset. Tom explains how he saw the issue coming, why his warnings were ignored and how rigid corporate business cases can derail common sense. The conversation unpacks what it feels like to face an ROI discussion that makes everyone wince and why marketers sometimes create complexity where none is needed.
Listeners will take away sharper instincts for spotting unrealistic assumptions, understanding organisational blind spots and asking the questions that save teams from expensive embarrassment.
Click here to the full episode 48.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters (7)
EP 135: Steal Your Competitors' LinkedIn Leads
Niall Ratcliffe is the 25-year-old CEO of noticed., the Manchester LinkedIn agency he co-founded with his older brother Morgan. He has about 60,000 followers on LinkedIn and says the agency makes about a …
Show notes
Niall Ratcliffe is the 25-year-old CEO of noticed., the Manchester LinkedIn agency he co-founded with his older brother Morgan. He has about 60,000 followers on LinkedIn and says the agency makes about a million pounds a year in sales through the platform, by far its biggest lead channel. In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Niall explains why he thinks the old marketer looked for attention while the new one looks for competitors' leads, why relevance matters more than personalisation in outreach, and why he treats cold email, direct mail, calls and LinkedIn messages as vehicles for the message.
Niall walks through how his team collects the people engaging with competitors' and influencers' LinkedIn posts, scores them against a client's ideal customer profile and passes them to sales. For a packaging client, the agency layered website visits, content engagement and new Ocado listings, and for an IT company it looked at care homes that had failed the IT section of their CQC checks. He also shares the follower-count rewards that got his own team posting, from an Audible voucher up to a paid week away, and Chris and Will admit to the couple of months they spent trying automated LinkedIn DMs.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
Lexus Asked Fans Their Favourite Steering Wheel
Mat Thomas joined us back in episode 49 as he reveals the surprising social media misstep that held Lexus back for years. He explains how the brand’s social team that's tucked inside the PR department and …
Show notes
Mat Thomas joined us back in episode 49 as he reveals the surprising social media misstep that held Lexus back for years. He explains how the brand’s social team that's tucked inside the PR department and disconnected from strategy, audiences, and brand codes that ended up chasing engagement numbers rather than meaningful impact. From posts about Zodiacs, audiobooks, and even favourite steering wheels, Mat breaks down how the pursuit of “high engagement” pushed Lexus toward light, attention-grabbing content with no commercial value.
He also reflects on the moment when brands rushed to post about the Queen’s death, highlighting how reactive, irrelevant posts exposed a deeper issue in social thinking. Mat shares how Lexus eventually realigned its approach, rebuilt the team, and refocused social content on real brand objectives. Marketers will learn why relevance matters more than reactions and how to avoid the engagement traps that look good online but deliver little in the real world.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 134: The 20-Searches-A-Month Page That Booked Seven Sales Calls
Sam Dunning co-owned an agency with two other founders, has hosted the Breaking B2B podcast since 2020, and now runs Breaking B2B, an AI SEO agency for SaaS brands. In this episode of Embracing Marketing …
Show notes
Sam Dunning co-owned an agency with two other founders, has hosted the Breaking B2B podcast since 2020, and now runs Breaking B2B, an AI SEO agency for SaaS brands. In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Sam explains why a keyword with tiny search volume can be worth more than one with thousands, why he thinks many marketers are stuck in what he calls the top funnel trap, and why AI tools recommend brands on buying-intent searches but not on how-to questions.
Sam walks through a page Breaking B2B built for a YouTube agency that works with SaaS companies, on the best YouTube agencies for SaaS in 2026. He says it gets about 20 searches a month on Ahrefs, yet it brought seven booked calls for 50k ACV deals within a month of publishing and got the agency recommended in ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI Overviews. He also shares his 90 days to revenue playbook, built live around Prohibition, why he recommends the sales book Gap Selling to marketers, and the early mistake where outsourced, unchecked content wiped out his own agency's rankings.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 133: Uber Eats' First Marketing Hire On AI Search
Jenna Hannon was the first marketing hire at Uber Eats, where the team launched the service in roughly a new city every week for about a year and a half. She left in 2020, became a fractional CMO for Series B …
Show notes
Jenna Hannon was the first marketing hire at Uber Eats, where the team launched the service in roughly a new city every week for about a year and a half. She left in 2020, became a fractional CMO for Series B and C startups, and is now co-founder of Hatter, a San Francisco AI search agency and platform she started with Peter Holc, formerly of Microsoft and Deliveroo. Chris Norton has been testing Hatter on Prohibition's own website. In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Jenna explains why she thinks Google is fine despite ChatGPT, why most company websites have too many gaps to show up in AI answers, and why the backlink game is over.
Jenna walks through the fractional CMO mistake that led to Hatter: a startup doing about 10 million in revenue that relied mostly on ads, until investors pulled out at the last minute, the ad spend stopped and revenue dried up overnight. She also shares why 90 percent of the AI search traffic Hatter sees still comes from ChatGPT, why content needs commercial intent and regular updates more than volume, why niche and trade press now carry more weight, and the car journey to the Sahara with OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who turned down her offer to invest.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
You Waited 15 Minutes for a Taxi. Now Seven Feels Rude
We return to consumer behaviouralist and CX expert Ken Hughes, first featured in episode 92, to revisit the moment that transformed how he believes brands should approach the customer. Ken explains how he spent …
Show notes
We return to consumer behaviouralist and CX expert Ken Hughes, first featured in episode 92, to revisit the moment that transformed how he believes brands should approach the customer. Ken explains how he spent the early part of his speaking career delivering stock, product first keynotes before realising that audiences and clients were focused on their own business challenges, not his rehearsed narrative.
He introduces his blue dot consumer idea and shows how it reshapes everything, highlighting how customers now expect brands to move toward them in the same effortless way Uber and Lyft bring the car to you and Uber Eats or Deliveroo bring the restaurant to your door.
Ken also explores how impatience, high speed connectivity and a world far removed from Commodore 64 loading screens have reset expectations. If you want your brand to stay relevant in an age of Gen Alpha, Gen Z and one tap convenience, this conversation will sharpen how you think about customer centricity.
Click here for the full episode 92.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 132: Why LinkedIn Reach Is Down And What Still Works
John Espirian, the self-styled relentlessly helpful LinkedIn guy, joins Chris Norton and Will Ockenden on Embracing Marketing Mistakes to explain why LinkedIn reach is down for almost everyone and what still …
Show notes
John Espirian, the self-styled relentlessly helpful LinkedIn guy, joins Chris Norton and Will Ockenden on Embracing Marketing Mistakes to explain why LinkedIn reach is down for almost everyone and what still works. John is an independent LinkedIn consultant and author, runs the Espresso Plus community, and organises the UpLift Live conference.
John covers why direct messages avoid the algorithm, why you should comment ten times for every post, how LinkedIn newsletters feed search and AI tools, which content formats to test, and why most people do not need Premium. He also shares his own mistakes, including the year he stopped marketing and had his worst financial year, and why he now reserves 20 percent of his work time for marketing.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
My TEDx Talk Got 2,000 Views. Everyone Else Got 30,000
What happens when you pour your heart into a TEDx talk, expect it to skyrocket, and… nothing? We are joined with Niraj Kapoor back in episode 95, and dive into a brutally honest story of resilience …
Show notes
What happens when you pour your heart into a TEDx talk, expect it to skyrocket, and… nothing? We are joined with Niraj Kapoor back in episode 95, and dive into a brutally honest story of resilience, reinvention, and why failure isn’t fatal. Our guest shares how he went from a thriving career in London to losing everything, job, income, marriage, before clawing his way back through vulnerability and persistence.
We talk about the reality behind those glossy success stories, why some talks go viral while others barely register, and the lessons learned when life forces you to start over. If you’ve ever felt crushed by a setback or wondered why your big moment didn’t land, this conversation will give you perspective, hope, and a few laughs along the way.
Click here to listen to the full episode 95.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 131: How An SEO Intern Got A Mashable Journalist To Cover Her Pitch
Britt Klontz started her career as an SEO agency intern, got a Mashable journalist to cover an infographic by following the journalist's own pitching guide, and now runs Vada Communications as a solo …
Show notes
Britt Klontz started her career as an SEO agency intern, got a Mashable journalist to cover an infographic by following the journalist's own pitching guide, and now runs Vada Communications as a solo digital PR consultant. In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Britt explains why so many PR pitches fail, why that is rarely the journalist's fault, and why a rejection can be the most useful reply you get.
Britt walks through her own mistake, leading a pitch to an editor at Metal Construction News with too many stats, and how his reply turned into a template she now uses for every outlet. She also shares her 2026 coverage tips, from proprietary data and journalist-run Substacks to contributor columns that feed AI search, plus the tools she uses to track results.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
I Spent 30 Years Building Everyone Else's Brand
We had Mark Terry-Lush back in episode 94 started his career in the glory days of magazines when Vogue was the size of a phone book and PR was full of big personalities. He worked with some of the most iconic …
Show notes
We had Mark Terry-Lush back in episode 94 started his career in the glory days of magazines when Vogue was the size of a phone book and PR was full of big personalities. He worked with some of the most iconic names in the industry and learned how to tell and sell a story. But after 30 years, he realised his biggest mistake: confusing adaptability with focus.
In this episode, Mark shares why chasing every opportunity can leave you feeling lost, what happens when you spend decades building everyone else’s brand instead of your own, and how to find clarity in a noisy world.
Click here to listen to the full episode 94.Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 130: Gerry Hopkinson Sold His Agency, Stayed Five Years, And Became A Cultural Strategist
A 20-year agency founder built his reputation turning Pizza Express back into a cult favourite, then years later made the mistake he now calls his biggest regret. Gerry Hopkinson, founder of Unity and now a …
Show notes
A 20-year agency founder built his reputation turning Pizza Express back into a cult favourite, then years later made the mistake he now calls his biggest regret. Gerry Hopkinson, founder of Unity and now a cultural strategist, joins Embracing Marketing Mistakes to explain how he sold his agency, why he stayed on for five more years, and the commercial decision that cost him a loyal client.
Gerry walks through the Pizza Express "living lab," a real restaurant handed over to customers, chefs, designers, and even an acoustics professor to redesign together, and the customer-psychology insight that made it work. Then he tells the story of Absinthe, the Pernod Ricard brand his agency grew by 300% through a platform called Think Work Play, before admitting he dropped the client to chase a bigger, more famous brand, and regretted it immediately.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
Six People Trolled Me. It Felt Like Sixty Thousand
Social media can feel like the best networking tool in the world, until it throws you a curveball. We were joined by Asif Choudry back in episode 96. We talk about the early days of Twitter when it felt like a …
Show notes
Social media can feel like the best networking tool in the world, until it throws you a curveball. We were joined by Asif Choudry back in episode 96. We talk about the early days of Twitter when it felt like a friendly space for real conversations, and how one superhero-themed event turned into a lesson in handling criticism. From swag bags to unexpected backlash, this is a story about resilience and why staying visible matters even when things get uncomfortable.
We also dive into the reality of trolling, online pile-ons, and why ignoring negativity is often the smartest move. If you’ve ever had that sinking feeling after a public misstep or worried about what people might say, this conversation will give you practical advice and a reminder that mistakes don’t define you, they shape you.
Click here to listen to the full episode 96.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
Spending £30k on Influencers for Five Signups
We revisit Andy Lambert back in episode 93 to unpack the influencer marketing moment that changed how he thinks about influence in B2B. Andy explains how his team approached creators like a media buy, treating …
Show notes
We revisit Andy Lambert back in episode 93 to unpack the influencer marketing moment that changed how he thinks about influence in B2B. Andy explains how his team approached creators like a media buy, treating the partnership as a quick transaction and expecting one post to shift perception and drive signups.
He shares the campaign that made the lesson unavoidable. They spent £30,000 on a Facebook Live with a North American influencer, stayed late to watch the registrations roll in, and saw almost nothing. The mistake was not the talent. It was confusing awareness with intent, and expecting demand capture from activity that was really demand creation.
Andy then breaks down what he changed next. He focused on niche operators like agency owners, insisted partners genuinely use the product, and invested in relationships that build trust over time. If you are planning influencer spend in B2B, this episode will sharpen how you judge impact and choose the right value exchange.
Click here for the full episode 93.Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 129: Unbounce's VP Of Marketing Explains What Actually Wins AI Search Visibility Now
A VP of Marketing running two brands at once shares what's working in AI search visibility right now, and admits to one of the messiest direct mail campaigns a B2B marketer has confessed to on this show …
Show notes
A VP of Marketing running two brands at once shares what's working in AI search visibility right now, and admits to one of the messiest direct mail campaigns a B2B marketer has confessed to on this show.
Val Riley, VP of Marketing and Strategy at Unbounce and Insightly CRM, joins Embracing Marketing Mistakes to explain why she pays a dedicated contractor to represent her brand on Reddit, how a 2.5-billion-conversion research report drives both PR pickup and AI citations, and why removing one line from a signup form quadrupled trial signups overnight.Then Val takes us back to the "growth at all costs" era of SaaS marketing, when her team shipped root beer float kits that leaked in the office lobby, a money tree that dumped potting soil across a prospect's desk, and agency logos printed on glass that arrived in pieces. Despite the chaos, the company sold for many millions of dollars, and Val explains what she'd keep from that era of marketing and what she wouldn't touch again.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
I Made the Worst Ad in British History
Kevin Chesters reveals the painful truth behind what he calls the worst advert ever made in British history. This is a forensic breakdown of ego, bad process and the lessons every marketer needs to hear.Back in …
Show notes
Kevin Chesters reveals the painful truth behind what he calls the worst advert ever made in British history. This is a forensic breakdown of ego, bad process and the lessons every marketer needs to hear.
Back in episode 102 of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Kevin walks us through the infamous Big Cheese Dipper campaign. From ignoring clear strategic signals to forcing a flawed creative idea onto TV, this is a masterclass in how good teams end up making terrible work.If you’ve ever wondered how to stop bad advertising before it happens, this conversation is essential listening.
Listen to the full episode 102 here.Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 128: Why CFOs Keep Killing Influencer Budgets
Influencer spend hit $32.55 billion in 2025, and most brands still can't prove it works. In this Prohibition PR webinar, Chris Norton and Will Ockenden break down why influencer marketing keeps losing …
Show notes
Influencer spend hit $32.55 billion in 2025, and most brands still can't prove it works. In this Prohibition PR webinar, Chris Norton and Will Ockenden break down why influencer marketing keeps losing boardroom arguments, the mistake that turned a Brit Awards influencer activation into a creator revolt, and the six-part framework that turns influencer spend into a revenue channel instead of an awareness line item.
Chris covers the boardroom case for influencer marketing, the Mastercard Brit Awards story, and how HelloFresh beat its own paid acquisition costs on TikTok using creators like Mindy Kaling. Will then walks through a practical framework: choosing influencers for persuasion rather than reach, building long-term partnerships (including Burgess pet food's ongoing deal with Ronnie the Mini Lop), mapping creators to the full buyer journey, feeding top-performing organic content into paid media, using influencers to win AI and social search discovery, and measuring outcomes instead of vanity metrics.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
One Tweet About Sleeping Beauty Ended in Death Threats
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 …
Show notes
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 far more than any momentary outrage. We explore how professionals who have experienced public shame are uniquely positioned to guide others through similar challenges, reminding us that clarity of purpose and standing by your principles can help weather the storm.
Tune in for an insightful conversation about the power of maintaining your values in a world quick to judge, and the strength that comes from embracing the lessons learned in adversity.
Click here to listen to the full episode 99.Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 127: Professor Jim Macnamara Says Most Of The PR Industry Is Still Measuring The Wrong Thing
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 …
Show notes
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 skeptical read on whether AI and large language models are handing PR a golden age or a new set of unproven metrics to hide behind.
Listen to the full conversation now and learn what measurement stands out in the marketing world.Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
He Asked for Honest Feedback. Then Never Spoke to Me
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 …
Show notes
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 quotient, the ability to prioritise and resist shiny‑object distractions. Miss any one pillar and your strategy stays on the hard drive.
Click here to listen to the full episode.Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 126: The Emotion Behind Every B2B Purchase Nobody Markets To - Talia Wolf
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 …
Show notes
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 its category. She also explains why she won't let AI write client copy or synthesize research, and why conversion optimization now has to happen everywhere a buyer forms an opinion, not only on a company's own website.
You will learn the real reason people buy from you, why hypothesis-free A-B testing wastes budget, and why authenticity beats polish once your market looks the same.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 125: The PR Launch That Cleared The Building
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 …
Show notes
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 agency career: a grunge band that cleared a client event with a power drill, a hotel bar that served the wrong soft drink to a client, a spelling mistake that nearly cost him his job at one of the world's biggest PR agencies, and a pitch document typo he still gets asked about.
You will learn why the PR industry still has an accountability problem, and the specific checks he says every account handler needs before anything goes out the door.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 124: He Built His Own AI Company Then Shut It Down
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 …
Show notes
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 behavior design under Stanford's BJ Fogg and the author of Outthink, Outperform, he also explains why he believes 90% of LinkedIn is now AI-generated content, and the test he runs on every new hire to separate real thinkers from people who copy and paste AI output.
You will learn why culture fit can matter more than raw talent, when renting beats building with a new technology, and how to use AI without letting it think for you.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 123: Why I Recommended the Man Who Fired Me - John O'Keeffe
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 …
Show notes
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 idea at any scale but cannot originate one, using Compare the Market's meerkat campaign as proof, and reflects on the campaigns he's most proud of, including Keep Walking for Johnnie Walker and an Audi ad voted best in the world.
You will learn why creative leaders sometimes cost themselves their own jobs through the people they vouch for, what AI can and cannot do in marketing right now, and why standing for a specific idea beats chasing every trend.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 122: The Sales Funnel Is a Hundred Years Old and Wrong
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 …
Show notes
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 been rubbish) applies directly to the AI content panic gripping the industry today.
You will learn how to audit your own brand's forgotten assets, why B2B brands default to sameness and how to break out of it, and why "share of model" is becoming the new battleground for brand visibility in an AI-driven search world.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 121: I Invented a Category, Sold to Diageo, and Almost Lost It All
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 …
Show notes
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 his product "witch's piss."
You will learn how to spot the hidden financial risk behind fast growth, why polarizing feedback beats indifference when you're creating a new category, and why genuine relationships with customers and suppliers are the real safety net in a crisis.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 120: We Fired 30 People and Nothing Changed
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 …
Show notes
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 from constant distraction became the foundation of his marketing philosophy.
You will learn how trackable tactics replace the harder work of positioning without anyone noticing, what happens to your mind and body after three days offline, and why authenticity beats competing on someone else's terms.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 119: Moz Founder: 'I Was Making $50M a Year and Miserable'
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 …
Show notes
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 your boss is wrong to give Google credit for your branded search traffic.
If you're interested on how to track marketing influence beyond click-based analytics, why website traffic is dropping while revenue holds steady for many businesses, and why brand and positioning remain the most durable marketing assets in the AI era, then this episode is for you.
Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
EP 118: This One Habit Cost Me 100 Million YouTube Views
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 …
Show notes
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 itself, why CTR and average view duration are misleading metrics, how to test thumbnails without wasting your best ideas, and why even videos with 100 million views still get revisited and improved.Do you have a F*ck up to share?
Your competitors are being named by AI. Are you? One of our clients went from being named in 4 of 50 buyer prompts to 19 in 90 days. Book your free AI visibility check with Chris here. 👉 [Book free AI Visibility Check] 👈
Subscribe to our newsletter
The mistakes we see marketers make, every fortnight. 👉 [Subscribe here] 👈
Follow Chris:
X, TikTok, LinkedIn
Follow Will:
LinkedIn
Follow The Show:
TikTok, YouTubeChapters
Loading chapters …
These are the latest 40 of 211 episodes. You’ll find older episodes in the podcast’s feed.
Similar podcasts
More Business podcasts
Is this your podcast?
Confirm it with an entry in your feed: you get a code here, add it as podcast:txt to the channel of your feed, and we check it. Your podcast is then shown as “verified” on SoundNode.