BEYOND THE BRAND

Sampl

Beyond the Brand takes you inside the minds of today’s top marketing leaders to uncover the strategies, insights, and challenges shaping the future of brands. Hosted by Matt Huntly and Adam Wright, each episode features candid conversations with experts across retail, media, e-commerce, and consumer goods. From digital transformation to first-party data and retail media to product innovation, we explore what’s really driving success in modern marketing. Produced by Sampl. Precision product sampling that puts your product in the hands of real buyers. Visit www.sampltech.com for more info.

  1. vor 1 Tag

    The product proof your competitors can't copy | Sarah Booth | Ancient + Brave

    Any competitor can cite the same ingredient study you cite. Looking credible has gotten cheap, and the science page, the citations, and the claims that used to set a brand apart are now within reach of anyone with a product and a browser. What's left is the evidence you own about your own finished product, and that's what Sarah Booth has built Ancient + Brave around. Sarah is Chief Brand and Creative Officer at Ancient + Brave, the wellness brand that grew more than 1,400% in 2 years and holds the highest B Corp score of any UK supplement company. Before this, she led brand strategy at ASOS and ran brand and marketing at Ovo Energy. She started in zoology, which turns out to matter for how she runs a wellness brand. Sarah and Adam get into the difference between evidence about an ingredient, which everyone in your category can point to, and evidence about your product, which only you hold. In the episode: → Why nobody outside your business will ever fund a study on your actual product → The Nike test for whether the evidence you're citing is really yours → How Ancient + Brave's clinical trial surfaced a benefit they weren't looking for → What open customer feedback tells you that lab testing can't → Why owned evidence gets more valuable as your category fills with new entrants If you've watched a newer brand launch with claims that sound just like yours, this one's about what you can build that they can't lift. Beyond the Brand is brought to you by Sampl—smarter product trials, measurable from request to review to sale.

    The product proof your competitors can't copy | Sarah Booth | Ancient + Brave
  2. 27. Mai

    From social to shelf without a pitch | Hannah Samano | Founder and CEO | Unfabled

    From social to shelf without a pitch Hannah Samano left Unilever at the height of the direct-to-consumer boom to build something from nothing. She's now founder and CEO of Unfabled, a women's health and supplements brand that has gone from a pure D2C launch to 730+ Boots stores, Holland & Barrett online and 61 Sainsbury's stores, without ever pitching for that first retail deal. In this episode Hannah tells Adam how Boots messaged them a month after their first supplement line went live, why she's grown revenue 10x in two years with six full-time people, and how a D2C-native brand ends up with an advantage on a supermarket shelf that bigger players don't have. It's a practical conversation for anyone in FMCG weighing up the crossover between digital and retail. What actually transfers, what doesn't, and why Hannah reckons retail "feels less rickety" than D2C. In this episode Why she walked away from Unilever's D2C push, and what from that playbook still earns its keepTaking a six-person team to 10x revenue, and the communication maths behind staying leanWhat Unfabled keeps in-house (growth, IP, product development) versus what it briefs out"Retail chose us": the Boots Ignite story and the jump from 50 to 737 storesUsing community data to win on shelf, and bringing personalisation to the shelf edgeRepositioning creatine for women, away from the gym-bro association it has carried for decadesSelling everyday health next to the bread and milk, and building trust in two secondsWhat has shifted in women's health, and the $1 trillion number that changed the funding conversationChapters01:36 . Hannah's path: Unilever, Nairobi and a focus on female health03:31 . Leaving Unilever at the peak of the D2C bubble06:37 . What transfers from a corporate playbook to a startup12:17 . The case for a deliberately lean team15:41 . Building the systems that let a small team move fast16:39 . What stays in-house and what gets briefed out18:54 . "Retail chose us": the Boots Ignite story23:17 . Unfabled Labs, community data and the shelf-edge advantage26:14 . Repositioning creatine for women29:17 . Winning trust in two seconds on a Sainsbury's shelf32:38 . D2C versus retail, and why retail feels less rickety35:29 . South by Southwest, and momentum as a startup's currency37:14 . What's changed in women's health, and the $1 trillion shift39:13 . Where to find Hannah and Unfabled About Hannah and UnfabledHannah Samano is the founder and CEO of Unfabled, a women's health and supplements brand she started in 2021 after struggling to find products that worked for her own hormonal health. Before that she spent several years at Unilever, including a spell at Unilever Ventures and on the team that built its first in-house D2C personal care brand. Unfabled: unfabled.co, and on Instagram and TikTokHannah: Hannah Samano on LinkedIn Listen and subscribeBeyond The Brand is a bi-weekly podcast and newsletter for marketers learning from the people shaping the future of brands. New episodes on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Substack and LinkedIn.

    From social to shelf without a pitch | Hannah Samano | Founder and CEO | Unfabled
  3. 7. Mai

    How to transform a brand people already love | Michele Ricci | Head of Global Marketing | Nestlé Pure Life and local brands

    You can get water from a tap for free. So why does anyone pay for a bottle? And why do some people pay more for one bottle over another? Michele Ricci is Head of Global Marketing for Nestlé Pure Life and local brands. He has spent 15 years working on Nesquik, San Pellegrino, and Buxton, in some of the most commoditised categories on the shelf. In this episode, Michele talks through how he moved Nesquik from a sugary kids' powder into a lower-sugar, fortified breakfast brand, and why Nestlé retargeted parents instead of doubling down on children. He explains the renaming of San Pellegrino's range from "sparkling fruit beverages" to "Italian sparkling drinks", and how that single naming decision opened up new opportunities, a more premium shelf, and a stronger Italian story. He also covers the Buxton x Mind "Sweat and Tears" platform, the London Marathon takeover, and the launch of Inspired by Buxton Peak, a new functional water now rolling out in UK retailers. In this episode: Why premium is a language and an experience, with price doing less of the work than people assumeHow to shift a 30-year brand perception without losing the loyal baseWhy low-funnel experience and sampling now belong at the centre of brand buildingHow a brand purpose only sticks when it connects to a real human tensionA useful listen for any marketer working with a brand in a category where the customer sees the product as interchangeable.

    How to transform a brand people already love | Michele Ricci | Head of Global Marketing | Nestlé Pure Life and local brands

Info

Beyond the Brand takes you inside the minds of today’s top marketing leaders to uncover the strategies, insights, and challenges shaping the future of brands. Hosted by Matt Huntly and Adam Wright, each episode features candid conversations with experts across retail, media, e-commerce, and consumer goods. From digital transformation to first-party data and retail media to product innovation, we explore what’s really driving success in modern marketing. Produced by Sampl. Precision product sampling that puts your product in the hands of real buyers. Visit www.sampltech.com for more info.