Embracing Marketing Mistakes

Prohibition PR
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  • Marketing
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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.

  1. 1d ago ·  Video

    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 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. Send us Fan Mail Is your strategy still right in 2026? Book a free 15-min no obligation discovery call with our host: 👉 [Book your call with Chris now] 👈 Subscribe to our newsletter 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter here. 👈  Follow Chris: X, TikTok, LinkedIn Follow Will: LinkedIn Follow The Show: TikTok, YouTube Instagram

    EP 123: Why I Recommended the Man Who Fired Me - John O'Keeffe

  2. Aug 4 ·  Video

    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 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. Send us Fan Mail Is your strategy still right in 2026? Book a free 15-min no obligation discovery call with our host: 👉 [Book your call with Chris now] 👈 Subscribe to our newsletter 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter here. 👈  Follow Chris: X, TikTok, LinkedIn Follow Will: LinkedIn Follow The Show: TikTok, YouTube Instagram

    EP 122: The Sales Funnel Is a Hundred Years Old and Wrong

  3. Jul 28 ·  Video

    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 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. Send us Fan Mail Is your strategy still right in 2026? Book a free 15-min no obligation discovery call with our host: 👉 [Book your call with Chris now] 👈 Subscribe to our newsletter 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter here. 👈  Follow Chris: X, TikTok, LinkedIn Follow Will: LinkedIn Follow The Show: TikTok, YouTube Instagram

    EP 121: I Invented a Category, Sold to Diageo, and Almost Lost It All

  4. Jul 21 ·  Video

    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 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. Send us Fan Mail Is your strategy still right in 2026? Book a free 15-min no obligation discovery call with our host: 👉 [Book your call with Chris now] 👈 Subscribe to our newsletter 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter here. 👈  Follow Chris: X, TikTok, LinkedIn Follow Will: LinkedIn Follow The Show: TikTok, YouTube Instagram

    EP 120: We Fired 30 People and Nothing Changed

  5. Jul 14 ·  Video

    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 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. Send us Fan Mail Is your strategy still right in 2026? Book a free 15-min no obligation discovery call with our host: 👉 [Book your call with Chris now] 👈 Subscribe to our newsletter 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter here. 👈  Follow Chris: X, TikTok, LinkedIn Follow Will: LinkedIn Follow The Show: TikTok, YouTube Instagram

    EP 119: Moz Founder: 'I Was Making $50M a Year and Miserable'

  6. Jul 7 ·  Video

    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 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. Send us Fan Mail Is your strategy still right in 2026? Book a free 15-min no obligation discovery call with our host: 👉 [Book your call with Chris now] 👈 Subscribe to our newsletter 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter here. 👈  Follow Chris: X, TikTok, LinkedIn Follow Will: LinkedIn Follow The Show: TikTok, YouTube Instagram

    EP 118: This One Habit Cost Me 100 Million YouTube Views

  7. Jul 2

    From Petrified Wood to Pints Social Proof Gone Wrong

    Behavioural science meets marketing mishaps back in episode 46 with Phill Agnew. As a specialist in testing what really works in ads, Phill exposes how well intentioned campaigns often push audiences in exactly the wrong direction.  He unpacks the idea of negative social proof, where highlighting how many people binge drink, steal from parks or ignore donation prompts can actually signal that this behaviour is normal and acceptable. Phill shares stories from university alcohol campaigns, an American park full of disappearing petrified wood and even the familiar fundraising banner on Wikipedia to show how this plays out in the real world. He then explains how a small shift in wording, audience framing and local proof can dramatically change response rates.  For marketers who love data but still rely on gut feel when choosing headlines, this conversation offers a smarter way to use social proof without accidentally encouraging the behaviour you are trying to reduce.  Here's the link to the full episode 46. Send us Fan Mail Is your strategy still right in 2026? Book a free 15-min no obligation discovery call with our host: 👉 [Book your call with Chris now] 👈 Subscribe to our newsletter 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter here. 👈  Follow Chris: X, TikTok, LinkedIn Follow Will: LinkedIn Follow The Show: TikTok, YouTube Instagram

    From Petrified Wood to Pints Social Proof Gone Wrong

  8. Jun 30 ·  Video

    EP 117: 70% of Teams Are Using AI With Zero Oversight. Here’s What Happened

    Most companies have bought AI. Hardly any are actually using it properly inside their teams. In this episode, recorded live at the AI for PR conference in London, we break down the real reason AI adoption fails in marketing and communications, and what it takes to make tools like Microsoft Copilot genuinely valuable. Chris Norton is with two experienced voices from the PR and SEO world who share practical use cases, honest frustrations and proven ways to close the gap between AI ambition and execution. Stuart Bruce is a communications and PR consultant who specialises in helping organisations adopt and embed AI into real workflows. He has been working closely with Microsoft Copilot, including early access through its Frontier programme, giving him hands-on experience with how AI performs inside corporate environments. Darryl Sparey is Co-Founder of Hard Numbers, a data-led PR agency focused on measurement, SEO and GEO. He brings a performance-driven perspective on how AI search is evolving, how it links with traditional SEO, and how marketers can prove ROI in an increasingly complex landscape. Together, they unpack: Why most teams are underusing AI tools they already haveThe biggest mistakes marketers make with Copilot and generative AIReal examples of AI automation driving efficiency in PR workflowsHow SEO and GEO now intersect with AI search platformsThe risks of misinformation and manipulation in AI-driven discoveryThis is a candid conversation for marketing leaders who want to move beyond experimentation and start embedding AI into real business impact. Send us Fan Mail Is your strategy still right in 2026? Book a free 15-min no obligation discovery call with our host: 👉 [Book your call with Chris now] 👈 Subscribe to our newsletter 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter here. 👈  Follow Chris: X, TikTok, LinkedIn Follow Will: LinkedIn Follow The Show: TikTok, YouTube Instagram

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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Prohibition PR
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    187
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Embracing Marketing Mistakes
  • Show Website
    Embracing Marketing Mistakes

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