The Radical Global Marketing Podcast Brandigo

Andy Smith is the founder and CEO of StrategiQ.
Andy is a hugely driven and insightful marketer with an interesting professional background and journey to becoming the founder and leader of an award-winning agency.
Throughout the conversation, Andy comes across as a logical and analytical thinker with an obvious enthusiasm and vision. He speaks with a lot of objectivity and clearly values accountability within the working environment he has created.
StrategiQ is a UK-based, strategy-first marketing agency founded in 2013. Andy and his team offer clients a truly personalized experience based on their ability to uncover valuable insights and competitor-beating opportunities, defining, and delivering impactful marketing strategies.
In this episode:
Andy chats about his background in retail and sales and the corporate grounding he developed during his early career. His introduction to marketing and advertising sales came from the 12 years he spent at Yellow Pages, the majority of which was working face-to-face with businesses of all sizes.
He talks about maintaining a passion for business challenges, a belief in robust business planning, and developing marketing strategies and tactics that are directly aligned with the business plan.
We discuss leadership in an agency environment and how Andy interprets his role as CEO. We also look at the career progression of his team and the importance of providing opportunities for growth and leadership.
Andy highlights the importance of achieving a balance between brand, technology, and customer experience, and how this has influenced how StrategiQ positions itself as a business.

Sean O'Brien is a seasoned marketing and communications professional with a rich background in both B2C and B2B sectors. Sean currently holds the position of Global Head of Marketing and Communication at Mott Corporation, a company specializing in precision filtration technologies. 
With a career spanning various industries, including sporting goods, safety equipment, and technology innovation, Sean brings a wealth of experience to his role. His journey began in the realm of sporting goods, working with brands like New Balance, and evolved through significant roles at Honeywell and Stanley Black & Decker, before joining Mott Corporation.

In this episode...
Sean's approach to marketing is distinguished by his ability to blend B2C storytelling techniques with B2B marketing strategies, a methodology he's passionately applied across different industries. This unique approach has enabled him to rejuvenate and enhance brand and product strategies, making complex, technical products more relatable and engaging to a broader audience. Sean emphasizes the importance of storytelling and brand building in creating compelling marketing narratives that resonate with both consumers and business clients.


In his current role at Mott Corporation, Sean is involved in multi-channel marketing strategies, including digital marketing, live events, and the development of a customer enablement platform. This platform is designed as an interactive tool to showcase the company's technologies in various applications, enhancing customer engagement and sales processes. 


Sean's efforts aim to amplify Mott Corporation's visibility globally and solidify its position in key industries like green hydrogen production, healthcare, and semiconductors. A significant part of Sean's strategy involves account-based marketing (ABM), targeting and personalizing marketing efforts for major Fortune 100 companies. This approach focuses on delivering tailored messages and solutions to potential clients within these organizations, highlighting Mott Corporation's capabilities and success stories. The objective is to penetrate these large companies more deeply by addressing specific needs and projects, thereby fostering closer partnerships and driving sales.


Lastly, Sean touches on the evolving landscape of marketing, emphasizing the critical role of AI in enhancing marketing strategies without overshadowing the need for personalized, human-centric content. He advocates for a balance between leveraging AI for efficiency and maintaining authentic, engaging storytelling that connects with the audience on a personal level. Through his leadership and innovative approaches, Sean continues to drive Mott Corporation's marketing forward, adapting to the changing market dynamics and embracing new technologies to stay competitive.

Cheryl Caudill is the Vice President of Global Marketing Communications for Greif, a leading supplier of industrial packaging products. 
In this episode, she shares her extensive marketing experience, including how her journey in marketing began with a major in journalism and advertising. 

In this episode:

Cheryl emphasizes the evolution of marketing over the years, particularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced companies to embrace digital strategies, tech talks, webinars, and other digital marketing initiatives. She highlights the increasing importance of AI and chatbots in the sales funnel, facilitating quicker customer interactions and engagement.

Cheryl also acknowledges the significance of mentorship in her career. She expresses her pride in her team's accomplishments, particularly their successful management of a massive event at Interpack in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Regarding B2B marketing, Cheryl emphasizes the value of trade shows and exhibitions in fostering personal connections. She shares her excitement about Greif's upcoming 150th anniversary and its plans for celebrating this milestone.

Cheryl also touches on the challenges and opportunities of marketing in a B2B context, where the focus is on customer service and execution. She emphasizes that even in industries that may not seem inherently exciting, success comes from delivering on promises and executing marketing tactics effectively.

Adam Clark is the Director of Integrated Marketing, Asia for Hasbro, one of the largest toy and game manufacturers in the world. 
 
Based in Hong Kong for over 10 years, Adam is an incredibly experienced marketer with a unique background. 
 
He has previously been part of Accenture working on significant marketing operations projects, project managing CRM implementations, and process design initiatives, as well as gaining brand management experience with Nestle USA before making the move to Asia.
In this episode
Adam talks about his early career at Accenture working on significant marketing operations projects and CRM implementations, and the valuable experience this helped him gain in process design.
He talks about his move into brand marketing with Nestle USA, learning essential campaign planning, budget management and marketing promotion skills, before shifting focus to Nesquik and building digital campaigns, as well as partnering with agencies.
After relocating to Asia and working with Cathay Pacific on a significant CRM project, Adam shares his experience working for Hasbro in Asia and describes some of the territory variations, such as channels, e-commerce platforms, and messaging strategies that international marketers need to understand to be successful in the region.
Adam shares some of his thoughts on what a successful agency partner looks like.
Finally, he offers his opinion on some of the key issues marketers face in the future including the challenges digital marketers face from an increasingly cookie-less ecosystem.

Sylvia Zanetti is the Managing Director and Lead Strategist for Stratitude, a strategic integrated marketing agency headquartered in South Africa that is part of the PLP Group. Sylvia leads her award-winning team in campaigns that focus on enabling their clients to build rewarding relationships with their target audiences.
Sylvia leads her award-winning team with an infectious passion and enthusiasm, which is also clearly evident in her other role as a member of the EMEA board for AMIN, and an international network of independent agencies that supports partnerships and collaboration.

Previously, Sylvia has had the role of Head of Commercial for PLP Group, and as Client Services Director for Magna Carter, a South African reputation management consultancy. 
In this episode:
We discuss the value of agency professionals spending time client side and how this can help develop a greater understanding of the corporate side of the relationship.
Sylvia chats about the challenges and opportunities of working in Africa. We talk about some of the unique characteristics of successful marketing in the region. Sylvia cites the example of the importance of informal networks and community groups in South African marketing strategy.
We talk through the constant balancing act of channel identification, messaging, and localization that all international marketers manage on a daily basis and the importance of quality research in maintaining a successful balance.
We also discuss how marketing is becoming increasingly borderless. Sylvia uses her own example of her agency in South Africa working for a Danish client on a campaign in Nigeria.
Finally, we discuss the advantages of fully integrated agencies for clients, including how not having multiple specialist agencies competing for budget and client resources can maximize value and return on investment.

Susie Lee-Kilgariff is the Group Head of Marketing for Stellarmann and William Alexander, both part of the Wellcombe Group. Stellarmann is a consulting business that helps companies develop highly skilled teams and deliver successful technology and change programmes. William Alexander is a recruitment agency.
Susie herself is a hugely passionate, driven, and successful marketing leader with a unique career journey. She has a wealth of experience working both agency and client side, as well as running her own consultancy.
She is an advocate for the power and importance of data analytics and measurement and has led teams in award-winning rebrands, tone of voice development, and campaign effectiveness.
In this episode:
Susie talks us through her marketing career journey, her unique vocational career path, and what sparked her passion for marketing.
We discuss some of the innovative and creative rebrand projects she has executed and talk about the importance of tone of voice. Susie references Nick Parker, a tone of voice specialist who has developed the hugely effective Voicebox methodology and toolkit.
As part of a discussion on marketing personalization and the challenges around data acquisition and management coupled with target audience attention, Susie advocates for a focus on inbound leads and providing smaller, better quality data pools for sales teams. Steven and Susie reference a previous campaign Susie led developed by UPP B2B.
Susie discusses some of her career inspirations, including the work of Adrian Rowe of Rec C.