The Push

Jack Ferguson
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  • MARKETING
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The Push is a podcast for senior marketers eager to hear honest perspectives from peers who tell it like it is. We speak directly to your day-to-day reality and don't bother with superfluous tactics you don't need. We understand that senior marketing is uniquely frustrating.   You have to sell the 'why' more than any other department.You're held accountable for results beyond your control. You're forever dealing with non-marketers who 'know better than you'.Stakeholder politics, opinions, and “gut feelings” constantly get in the way.You're so busy dealing with stakeholders, there's little time left to conceptualise new strategies and hone your craft.  We bring together senior marketers to candidly share stories, analogies, strategies, and mental models they've used.  You can use these conversations to: Explain complex concepts to non-marketers.Get more client buy-in.Explore new strategy ideas.Better articulate your existing knowledge.Explain the 'why' behind your strategy.Keep your own team engaged.Better navigate marketing politics (which are inevitable). Remember that you're not alone in your experiences. No empty buzzwords. No listicles. No generic advice.  Whether you’re in-house, agency-side, or a consultant, you’ll leave feeling empowered to speak up and lead with confidence. The Push is hosted by Jack Ferguson, a Brand Strategist with 15 years of marketing and brand experience across 20+ industries. 

  1. 6D AGO

    S3 E63: How 150 Brands Achieved Disproportionate Growth, Making Bluetooth a Household Name, and The Category Fallacy

    In this episode, Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson hosts Strategic Growth Architect Mats Georgson, former Global Brand Director at Sony Ericsson, to discuss how brands achieve large, sustained growth and how most category-based thinking caps it. Mats was the first marketer to work on Bluetooth, giving him deep, practical insight into rapid global adoption, and years later completed a research project analysing how 150 brands achieved disproportionate growth. Together, Jack and Mats explore why some brands defy gravity, while others struggle to break free of their category constraints. Jack and Mats discuss: - How brands grow via Demand Point Constellations - How the iPhone leveraged demand points to grow - Launching Bluetooth and the story behind its overwhelming success - How Mats saw a client quickly jump 20% in revenue without advertising - Uber’s Demand Point Constellation - How to escape the gravitational pull of a category - Why innovation is hard for marketers and what can be done about it - Why few brands grow primarily through gaining market share - The problem with comms and advertising being asked to do things they can’t do - Why marketers need to think like detectives Helpful Links: Mats’ Demand Point Constellation Thesis Links to Jack: Jack's LinkedIn Profile Jack's Website Links to Mats: Mats’ LinkedIn Profile Mats’ Website Links to The Push: The Push LinkedIn Page The Push on TikTok The Push on Instagram The Push on YouTube Music The Push Website Referenced in Episode: Blue Ocean Strategy Ehrenberg Bass Institute Apple losing its App Store trademark case Category Entry Point Jobs to be Done Framework

    1h 5m

  2. JAN 13

    S3 E62: Play-Doh’s former VP of Marketing, Leigh Anne Capello, on the brand’s distinctive scent, future thinking, and sensory branding

    In this episode, Jack Ferguson hosts Leigh Anne Cappello, former VP of Marketing for Play-Doh and one of the leaders during its 50th anniversary period, to discuss how scent, memory, and brand DNA combined to create one of the most recognisable brands. From the Play-Doh perfume release to prescience calendars to the penetration of the brand's scent, this episode is an exploration of what it takes for a brand to stick. In this episode Leigh Anne discusses: Why the Play-Doh perfume product was createdThe considerations that went into Play-Dohs 50th AnniversaryThe numbers behind Play Doh’s distinctive smell penetrationA product that didn’t have the desired commercial impact because Brand DNA wasn't consideredHow marketers can use prescience calendars for stronger cultural relevance Moments of failure are often the strongest opportunities to build lasting customer relationships. Design Thinking and its benefits to marketersHow Play Doh started off as an accidental innovationHow to utilise Brand DNA and Brand Essence to improve commercial outcomesHow large organisations can create safe spaces for real innovation (without betting the company)Why prototyping, learning in public, and “getting it wrong” often leads to better brand outcomesHer unique business model and why she operates that wayLinks to Leigh Anne and Jack: - Leigh Anne's Blog - Leigh Anne's LinkedIn Profile - Jack's LinkedIn Profile - Jack's Website Links to The Push: - LinkedIn Page - Website - YouTube Page - Instagram Page - TikTok Page Referenced in this Episode: - Brand Sense by Martin Lindstrom - Watts Wacker - Georgina Melone - Gary Serby

    36 min

  3. 12/30/2025

    S3 E61: Evolved Brand Building: The Case for Immersion as the Multiplier

    This episode explores disproportionate leverage and how it shows up when immersion is treated as critical brand building work, not a nice-to-have.  Rather than chasing deliverables or premature answers, your hosts examine immersion as a diagnostic imperative, the strength required to defend it, and the consequences of bypassing it. This episode is co-hosted by Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson and Brand Identity Designer Tutai Marongere. In this episode, you’ll hear: Why Tutai deliberately told a client the work would take “as long as it takes” How Tutai did three months of immersion without producing a single output, but then created an output that ended all debate instantly How Jack sees immersion as a way of articulating the unsaid How Tutai believes dreaming about a brand became his signal that the work was finally ready to be done How Tutai sketched a concept on a fogged-up shower screen as the result of immersion, not inspiration How Jack uses recorded customer interviews to reveal truths that transcripts and summaries consistently miss Why both Tutai and Jack believe that “when you know, you know” is a real diagnostic threshold, not a creative cliché Why both Tutai and Jack believe the brand work that lasts is always found in the detailsHelpful Links: - Find Jack on LinkedIn here - Find Tutai on LinkedIn here - Visit Jack’s personal website here - Follow The Push on LinkedIn here - Follow The Push on YouTube here - Follow The Push on TikTok here - Follow The Push on Instagram here - Visit The Push website here

    24 min

  4. 12/23/2025

    S3 E60: Christmas’ Brand Heritage: Ritualistic Architecture and How Brands Culturally Embed

    Christmas is often thought of as a seasonal moment. In reality, it’s one of the strongest examples of brand heritage and cultural embedding ever built. This episode analyses Christmas as a brand system. It examines how it formed, how it survived bans, wars, secularisation, and media fragmentation, and why its relevance continues to compound without central ownership, governance, or constant persuasion.  For senior marketers, this offers an opportunity to examine endurance at the system level and understand how meaning persists when channels change, attention fragments, and authority disappears. This episode breaks down the ritualistic architecture underneath Christmas. It explores the structures that organise behaviour, repetition, and memory over time. More importantly, it shows why brands do not need to invent architecture of this magnitude themselves. They can identify, attach to, and strengthen existing cultural architectures to gain leverage, relevance, and resilience without relying on perpetual novelty or escalating spend. This episode was hosted by Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson. In this episode, Jack discusses: A clearer way to think about brand heritage as a system, not a story or origin mythHow Coca-Cola strengthened Christmas’ ritualistic architecture for sustained commercial advantageHow changing rituals in the West create new points of cultural leverage for brandsThe language and structure that recognises and explains cultural embeddingRitualistic architecture and how it creates repetition, memory, and defence over timeHow brands can attach to existing cultural systems rather than manufacturing meaning from scratchIdentifying where your brand could embed, even without scale, ownership, or permissionHelpful Links: - Find Jack on LinkedIn here - Follow The Push on LinkedIn here - Follow The Push on YouTube here - Follow The Push on TikTok here - Follow The Push on Instagram here - Visit The Push website here - Visit Jack’s personal website here References: https://www.marketingweek.com/mcdonalds-bigger-than-jesus-christ/ https://yougov.co.uk/topics/consumer/explore/brand/Coca_Cola https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ Saturnalia Sol Invictus Kalends of January Feast of Fools Feast of the Ass Washington Irving Charles Dickens Coca-Cola AI Christmas Ad Haddon Sundblom The Party Barrel Origin Story fo

    33 min

  5. 12/16/2025

    S3 E59: Positive Wastage: The Brand Growth You Didn’t Intentionally Create

    Most brands try to eliminate waste. This episode explains how this approach is limiting. We break down Positive Wastage, how it shows up in practice, and why it repeatedly drives brand growth, marketing outcomes, and long-term relationships, even when not intentionally planned for. Your co-hosts are: - Brand Strategist - Jack Ferguson. - Brand Identity Designer - Tutai Marongere. In this episode: Jack shares how positive wastage shows up when you build things without forcing outcomes including meetups that weren’t profitable, and being truly social on social media.Tutai shares how attending a rain-soaked business event trying to sell logos led to a complete reframe on his entire business creating far greater value than the original goal.Jack shares how brand growth often comes from indirect exposure rather than being directly engaged with, using examples like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtracks, Play-Doh’s smell, and default system sounds to explain how salience is driven.Tutai shares how a two-minute human interaction on his first day at a job turned into years of client work and ultimately introduced him to Jack.Jack and Tutai discuss how being overly outcome-focused kills upside, and how openness and participation creates brand growth that cannot be planned but can be allowed for.Helpful Links: - Find Jack on LinkedIn here - Find Tutai on LinkedIn here - Visit Jack’s personal website here - Follow The Push on LinkedIn here - Find The Push on YouTube here - Follow The Push on TikTok here  - Follow The Push on Instagram here - Visit The Push website here

    25 min

  6. 12/09/2025

    S3 E58: Building Your Personal Brand as a Marketer: Job Proofing Yourself and Navigating a Tactic-Obsessed Marketplace

    Building your own personal brand as a marketer matters more than ever. It helps you stay respected, protect your career options, and operate with more authority in workplaces that often default to tactics over strategy. In this episode, brand strategist Jack Ferguson breaks down how to build a personal profile that strengthens your positioning in the job market. Jack shares: • The meeting where he’d finally had enough: The moment his internal positioning collapsed and why it pushed him to build his own brand as a marketer. • How marketing differs from finance, ops and accounting: Closed systems vs open systems, and why marketers navigate entropy, culture shifts and demand cycles instead of neat levers. • How to shut down “does this tactic work?” questions: Reframes that stop you accepting a frame that undermines your expertise. • How to position yourself within a company: Building internal buy-in, establishing standards, and preventing others from treating you like an order-taker. • How to job-proof your career: How to grow your profile and make your personal brand a market signal. • How the informal job market works: Why 70–80% of roles never hit Seek or LinkedIn, why senior roles are usually filled long before they’re advertised, and what this means for you. • Why great marketers don’t apply for jobs: How to build yourself into someone who gets the tap on the shoulder. Helpful Links: - Find Jack on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackfergusonmymm - Follow The Push on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thepush - Follow The Push on TikTok here: thepushmedialab (@thepushmedialab) | TikTok - Follow The Push on Instagram here: Instagram - Visit The Push website here: For Senior Marketers...By Senior Marketers | The Push - Visit Jack’s personal website here: Brand Strategist + Marketing Consultant — Jack Ferguson

    15 min

  7. 12/02/2025

    S3 E57: One Brand, 28 Retail Stores Launched: Marketing Tactics Are Overrated; What Really Drives Growth

    In this episode, host Jack Ferguson breaks down the real drivers of revenue growth by going back to first principles. No tactics worship, just the underlying forces that move product. He talks about: - How 28 retail launches helped him isolate the true impact of tactics - You can grow revenue and still lose market share, and why many brands mistake this for promotional success. - The danger of trying to compensate for weak demand with better creative or more advertising. - What marketers should obsess over first, and why understanding category growth is upstream of every promotional conversation. About Your Host: Jack Ferguson is an evidence-based brand strategist with 15 years experience in marketing across 25 industries. Helpful Links: Find Jack on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackfergusonmymm/Follow The Push on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thepushFollow The Push on TikTok here: thepushmedialab (@thepushmedialab) | TikTokFollow The Push on Instagram here: InstagramVisit The Push website here: For Senior Marketers...By Senior Marketers | The PushVisit Jack’s personal website here: Brand Strategist + Marketing Consultant — Jack Ferguson

    10 min

  8. 11/25/2025

    S3 E56: How Marketers Are Made: The Origin Story of Two Professionals Who Didn’t Plan This

    Two marketers who never planned to be marketers break down exactly how they fell into the industry. One came through science. One came through life coaching. Both arrived here by accident. Jack Ferguson and Ben Reeves are this episode's co-hosts. Listen in to hear: How and why Jack lost money on his very first client How a podcaster launched Ben’s marketing career How different Jack found the automatic respect given to marketer's vs those with a scientific background The story behind Ben’s first client and why that business never scaled The moment Jack realised he was a marketer before he understood what it was How Ben ended up in marketing despite having no career plan to do so The challenges Jack faced shifting from scientific, evidence-based thinking to an opinion driven industry Why Ben walked away from hospitality to try life coaching before becoming a marketer How scientific thinking still shapes Jack’s brand strategy work today How a decade across agencies, tech and brand has shaped Ben’s entire marketing worldviewThis episode pulls back the curtain on how Ben and Jack both got started in marketing. About your co-hosts: Jack Ferguson is an evidence-based brand strategist Ben Reeves is an experienced ecommerce strategist Helpful Links: Find Jack on LinkedIn here: Jack Ferguson | LinkedIn Find Ben on LinkedIn here: Ben Reeves | LinkedIn Follow The Push on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thepush Follow The Push on TikTok here: thepushmedialab (@thepushmedialab) | TikTok Follow The Push on Instagram here: Instagram Visit The Push website here: https://bethepush.com/ Visit Jack’s personal website here: https://jackferguson.co/ Visit Ben’s website here: https://benreeves.co/

    34 min
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About

The Push is a podcast for senior marketers eager to hear honest perspectives from peers who tell it like it is. We speak directly to your day-to-day reality and don't bother with superfluous tactics you don't need. We understand that senior marketing is uniquely frustrating.   You have to sell the 'why' more than any other department.You're held accountable for results beyond your control. You're forever dealing with non-marketers who 'know better than you'.Stakeholder politics, opinions, and “gut feelings” constantly get in the way.You're so busy dealing with stakeholders, there's little time left to conceptualise new strategies and hone your craft.  We bring together senior marketers to candidly share stories, analogies, strategies, and mental models they've used.  You can use these conversations to: Explain complex concepts to non-marketers.Get more client buy-in.Explore new strategy ideas.Better articulate your existing knowledge.Explain the 'why' behind your strategy.Keep your own team engaged.Better navigate marketing politics (which are inevitable). Remember that you're not alone in your experiences. No empty buzzwords. No listicles. No generic advice.  Whether you’re in-house, agency-side, or a consultant, you’ll leave feeling empowered to speak up and lead with confidence. The Push is hosted by Jack Ferguson, a Brand Strategist with 15 years of marketing and brand experience across 20+ industries. 

Information

  • Creator
    Jack Ferguson
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    116
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Push
  • Show Website
    The Push