BEYOND THE BRAND

Sampl
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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. How to make sceptics your growth engine | Max Henderson | Co-founder & CEO | Hotpod Yoga

    6d ago

    How to make sceptics your growth engine | Max Henderson | Co-founder & CEO | Hotpod Yoga

    Max Henderson started Hotpod Yoga in 2013 with his childhood friend Nick, despite neither of them being yoga people at the time. Today, Hotpod Yoga is Europe's largest yoga business in 3 countries with over 500,000 customers. Most of those customers arrived sceptical about yoga, or were put off by it altogether. So Hotpod stopped leading with yoga and started selling the experience around it: the pod, the heat, the scent, the music, a space that shuts the outside world out. The yoga happens once you're already in the room. In this episode, Max and Adam get into how he built a brand that looks nothing like its category, why looking radically different did the heavy lifting on changing perception, how referrals turn sceptical first-timers into regulars, and what he learned from a 4-year rebrand and 18 months of barely trading through COVID. There's also a sharp section on using partnerships to stay culturally relevant. If you're trying to win customers who've already decided your category isn't for them, this one's worth your time.

    42 min
  2. From social to shelf without a pitch | Hannah Samano | Founder and CEO | Unfabled

    May 27

    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.

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

    May 7

    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.

    40 min
  4. The content engine that keeps Heinz in every conversation | Karen Owen, Kraft Heinz

    Apr 20

    The content engine that keeps Heinz in every conversation | Karen Owen, Kraft Heinz

    85% of Heinz's in-house content hits or beats the engagement rates their external agencies deliver. Karen Owen, Chief Growth Officer for Europe and Pacific at Kraft Heinz, built the team behind that. In this episode, she talks through the architecture of The Kitchen, Heinz's content studio now running across 4 continents, how it operates alongside external agencies rather than replacing them, and what it takes to keep a brand that has existed for 157 years part of cultural conversations while they're still happening. Karen Owen on LinkedIn

    33 min
  5. How to build a brand universe worth belonging to with Michael Edelmann, 111SKIN Ex. Dr. Barbara Sturm, Business of Fashion

    Mar 30

    How to build a brand universe worth belonging to with Michael Edelmann, 111SKIN Ex. Dr. Barbara Sturm, Business of Fashion

    In this episode, luxury marketing expert Michael Edelmann (CMO, 111SKIN. Ex. Dr. Barbara Sturm, Business of Fashion, Gucci) talks about what it takes to build a brand universe that people genuinely want to belong to, and why that matters for anyone managing a brand in FMCG. He explains how 111SKIN rebuilt its loyalty programme around belonging after realising that points and discounts were driving repeat purchases without creating any real community. That shift shaped everything from how they approach partnerships to how they think about influence. Michael walks through the Repairs Van activation, which landed because it was tied to a story, and how they amplified it digitally to reach customers who were nowhere near London. He also talks about why founder-led storytelling works when the founder has genuine, daily authority in their field. If you're a brand manager sitting between quarterly performance targets and long-term brand building, this episode gives you a practical framework for making the case that community compounds. Michael Edelmann on LinkedIn

    44 min
  6. How Headspace built a brand bulletproof enough for Disney and Netflix with Caroline Pay (Ex. Headspace, Mother, BBH, Grey)

    Mar 17

    How Headspace built a brand bulletproof enough for Disney and Netflix with Caroline Pay (Ex. Headspace, Mother, BBH, Grey)

    In this episode, Caroline Pay (Ex. Headspace, Mother, BBH, Grey) discusses the creative layer that sits between a brief and the work that comes back, and why, in her experience, it is almost always missing. The brief lands with a designer. The thinking that should happen in between — the strategic and conceptual work that turns a problem into something distinctive — gets skipped. The result is work that looks like everything else, teams that can't move fast without losing quality, and brands that never quite compound. Caroline spent 20 years at agencies including Mother and BBH before becoming CCO at Headspace, where she built a brand system tight enough to hold its own against Disney, Netflix, Nike, and Spotify. She draws on that experience to explain what the missing layer is, how to build it, and why hiring a designer and calling it a creative team isn't the same. This episode is for every senior marketer who suspects their creative process is the problem but hasn't been able to name why. Caroline Pay on LinkedIn

    46 min
  7. From “Good old Boots” to 10 quarters of market share growth with Peter Markey (Ex. Boots, TSB, Aviva, Post Office)

    Mar 3

    From “Good old Boots” to 10 quarters of market share growth with Peter Markey (Ex. Boots, TSB, Aviva, Post Office)

    In this episode, Peter Markey talks about life as a CMO of a heritage brand and the need to adapt. Consumers change, categories mature, and competitors want to take your hard-earned market share. At the same time, your brand only grows if it stands for something clear and consistent. Pete draws on his time leading marketing at Boots, TSB, Aviva and the Post Office to explain how to manage that in large organisations. He shares how strong marketing leaders can take advantage of all that heritage, but also build for the future. They make deliberate choices about what stays constant and what genuinely needs to evolve. A fascinating episode for anyone interested in peering into the mind of one of the best marketers in modern retail. Peter Markey on LinkedIn

    42 min
  8. 84% of marketers feel like imposters. Prof. Laura Chamberlain explains why. (Warwick Business School)

    Feb 16

    84% of marketers feel like imposters. Prof. Laura Chamberlain explains why. (Warwick Business School)

    84% of marketers report experiencing imposter syndrome. It reflects the reality of working in a discipline built on ambiguity. In this conversation, Professor Laura Chamberlain explains why marketing operates in shades of grey, while teams are still expected to deliver clear ROI narratives and confident answers. When your work depends on context, judgement and human behaviour, doubt isn’t a defect. It’s a signal that the problem is complex. In this conversation, Laura and Adam explore: → why more knowledge doesn’t automatically resolve self doubt→ why resilience is built through everyday practices, not crisis moments→ why marketing still works on human beings, not algorithms→ how frameworks help you think more clearly when certainty isn’t available If you’ve ever had to defend a budget, justify a decision, or speak with confidence when the data tells an incomplete story, this episode will feel familiar. It offers a steadier way to think under pressure and a more realistic understanding of what professional confidence requires.

    49 min
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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Sampl
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Sampl
  • Show Website
    BEYOND THE BRAND