Had a lot of fun being interviewed by James Hamlin of The CMO Circle*, for a quick tempo “Inside the Circle”.
See the video for the 90 second version but read on for the 3 minute version!
What’s the best piece of marketing advice you’ve ever received?
“Talk to customers every single week.” A veteran product-marketer drilled it into me years ago. Every great brief, campaign, and metric starts with a recent conversation, not a dashboard.
What marketing mistake taught you the most?
Early in my career I tried to build a gold-plated, multi-touch attribution model that impressed everyone - except the sales team. It was accurate but utterly unusable. Lesson: clarity beats precision. If a metric can’t guide today’s decisions, simplify it until it can.
What’s the most underrated marketing channel in 2025?
Communities. Reddit is king here, but also YouTube, Wikipedia and Quora. They happen to dominate LLM search results, but they’re also, the new word-of-mouth: hard to measure, impossible to fake, and packed with buying intent.
What are you most proud of in your marketing career?
Leading the EMEA marketing team that helped Adobe move from box software to SaaS. We shipped less swag and more ARR - and proved marketing deserves a revenue target.
AI in marketing: threat or opportunity?
Both! The threat is treating it like autopilot, the opportunity is as co-pilot. Teams that pair human insight with AI speed will lap everybody else.
What’s something in marketing you’ve changed your mind on?
Events. I once believed physical events were dying. Post-pandemic, I’ve seen the opposite: fewer events, but deeper, high-intent gatherings that generate pipeline faster than any webinar ever did.
What tool can’t you live without?
ChatGPT. It’s my strategist, copy-editor, and research intern.
What traditional marketing tactic is due for a comeback?
Direct mail - but stitched to digital. A personalised package that triggers an AI-built microsite or calendar link still stops a CFO in her tracks.
What’s your go-to productivity hack?
No meetings before 10am. Calendar blocked, phone on airplane mode, espresso within reach. Meetings can wait until 10am; creativity doesn’t.
What’s one thing marketers focus on that customers don’t care about?
Your funnel stage labels. Buyers don’t wake up thinking, “I’m in consideration.” They just want a faster path to value.
What makes a great event?
Curated audience, problem-first agenda, zero queueing, one clear next step. If attendees leave with momentum instead of swag, you nailed it.
What’s one marketing truth no one wants to hear?
No one cares about (or notices) your marketing as much as you do. So don’t get hung up on constantly creating new ideas - be consistent in market. Build momentum.
Top tip for those wanting to move into marketing leadership?
Spend 20 % of your week with customers and 10 % with sales. If you can’t speak revenue fluently, you’re managing campaigns, not leading marketing.
Favourite business book or podcast?
What will you do differently in 2025 vs. 2024?
AI, of course! Turn the AI experiments of 2024 into standard operating procedures - from content generation to predictive spend allocation. The goal: a proprietary flywheel that compounds results (and keeps me ahead of the curve).
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* If you’re looking for a UK-focussed marketing network, then I can highly recommend The CMO Circle. Senior membership (B2B & B2C), IRL events and dinners, regular webinars on strategy, execution and AI, priority access to industry events plus super-active WhatsApp groups. Oh, and its completely FREE to join! Contact James for more information.