The Brandmakers podcast is a series exploring the world’s most innovative brands and the people driving them forward.
Each episode, our editor and host Hannah Bowler will be joined by brand leaders to uncover the strategies and ideas keeping the their brands culturally relevant.
Brandmakers goes beyond origin stories, diving into ongoing culture, design, product and tech decisions that form a brand's long-term success. From bold strategies to breakthrough ideas, we uncover what keeps these brands at the cutting edge.
Season 1 Episodes:
Ep 1. Kea Kleihauer, senior manager global culture and experiential marketing at Jägermeister
In this episode of Brandmakers Hannah is joined by Kea Kleihauer from Jägermeister who talks about how long-term cultural investment builds keeps brands relevant and creates genuine value in scenes where traditional advertising falls flat.
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Ep 2. Ruth Henriquez, head of partnerships and licensing at Mattel
In this episode we hear from Ruth Henriquez, who oversees the IP behind brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels, Uno and Masters of the Universe. She explains how Mattel is shifting from a product-led business to an IP-led one in the post-Barbie movie era.
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Ep 3. Louise Foley, director of marketing, Europe at Pinterest
In this episode we hear from Louise Foley, who is director of marketing, Europe at Pinterest. Louise and Hannah get stuck into the subject of trends and signals, and what marketers need to do to stay on the right side of cultural relevance. She also detailed her own marketing strategy and her push into fun and meaningful experiential events.
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Ep 4. Paul Ridsdale, director of brand & marketing at ITV
Paul Ridsdale has been marketing the British broadcaster ITV for over 17 years, and has been a part of its journey from a TV channel to a streaming service and content creator. In this episode we dig into the rise of the “browsing audience” and what that shift means for how modern viewers discover and connect with content.
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Ep 5. Jeremy Jones, global head of creative at Intuit Mailchimp
In this episode our host Hannah Bowler sits down with Jeremy Jones, global head of creative at Intuit Mailchimp. Jeremy shares his secret to fostering creativity within his in-house team. There's group trips to galleries and museums, arts and crafts sessions and carved out space in the working day to experiment with tools and techniques. And the results are there for all to see.
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Ep 6. Stephanie Legg, director of marketing Uk at Pandora
Stephanie joins Brandmakers after wrapping up a stint as chief marketer at footwear retailer Schuh where she was behind a radical new positioning, and starting a new venture as the UK's director of marketing at jewellery brand Pandora. After a decade at the Arcada Group during its glory years, Stephanie knows what it takes to build strong brands but also understands boardroom tensions and how to fight for investment in upper funnel marketing.
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Ep 7. James Rothwell, SVP marketing UK at Zalando
Zalando’s James Rothwell talks about turning a retailer into a publisher, why content and entertainment sit at the centre of its next chapter, and how a fashion platform becomes a broader lifestyle brand.
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Ep 8. Áine Dundas, head of marketing for EMEA at Notion
For this episode of Brandmakers, Notion’s head of marketing for EMEA, Áine Dundas, beams in from Dublin to share the secrets of Notion’s community-led strategy. Áine, a self-confessed fan of the productivity tool, tells us how Notion turned passionate users into true ambassadors, built guardrails for community-led storytelling and transformed influencer marketing and experiential into its core marketing channel.
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