Embracing Marketing Mistakes

Our guest, Guy Utley CEO of Tall Agency, shares a candid story about winning a major pitch despite being severely hungover from celebrating a "Best Creative Agency" award the night before. 

This unexpected success led to a complete transformation in his approach to business presentations, moving away from over-preparation toward more authentic communication.

• Celebrating winning "Best Creative Agency" award led to drinking too much the night before a 9 AM pitch
• Despite being hungover and unable to remember the pitch itself, the presentation was successful
• The partner agency didn't notice anything wrong with the presentation
• They won the account from a major bread company despite the presenter's condition
• The experience transformed his pitching approach from rigid over-preparation to more natural, flexible presentations
• Focusing on knowledge and experience rather than memorised talking points creates more authentic client interactions
• Being too rehearsed can make it difficult to pivot when necessary during presentations
• Main lesson: "If I can win it drunk, then surely I can win it sober"

Don't drink on a school night, even if it's an award celebration. And if you need help planning your diary better, speak to Will Ockenden - he's brilliant at it.

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He handed AI a full marketing project… and it came back finished in 30 minutes.
What used to take 4 days of analysis, reporting, and presentation building was done in a single sitting with better insights included.
In this episode, Andrew Bruce Smith breaks down how tools like Claude Co‑Work are changing the way marketers actually work. This is not about faster copy or better prompts. It is about delegating entire workflows to AI and shifting your role from execution to management.
You will hear how AI can analyse raw marketing data, build reports, create presentations, and even improve on your thinking without being explicitly asked. The implications for agencies, in-house teams, and professional services are immediate.
There is also a clear warning. Most organisations are still treating AI like a tool rather than a system. That gap is where both risk and opportunity now sit.
If you work in marketing, this is already affecting your output, your value, and your role.
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A finance worker joins a Zoom call with their CFO and colleagues.

Everything looks and sounds real. They transfer $25 million. Every person on that call was fake.
AI misinformation has moved from theory to real-world crisis, and brands are already losing control. From deepfake CEOs and fake giveaways to hijacked campaigns and cloned influencer accounts, the speed and scale of risk has changed completely.
In this episode, Will and I break down how AI is reshaping crisis management in 2026 and why most organisations are still underprepared. You’ll hear real examples of deepfake fraud, brand damage, and misinformation spreading faster than teams can respond.
We also walk through a practical framework to help you protect your brand, including how to respond in the first 24 hours, how to monitor AI-driven threats, and how to build a proactive crisis plan that accounts for today’s risks.
If you lead marketing, comms or brand, this is no longer optional. It is operational risk.
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Cory Koryczan opens up about the career mistake that nearly broke her.
Staying too long in a role that no longer fit. She’d built her identity around someone else’s business and clung to safety until it led to burnout. In this episode, Cory talks about the cost of over-loyalty, the fear that kept her stuck, and how she rebuilt her courage to finally walk away. She also shares a second big lesson from returning to work after maternity leave. 
Why confidence doesn’t just snap back and how discomfort became her best teacher. It’s honest, raw, and packed with lessons for anyone who’s ever ignored their gut to “play it safe.” 
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Most marketing fails before a single ad is made. Not because the execution is bad, but because teams leap straight to tactics and skip the strategy underneath. Ben Norman calls the result "busy fools": lots of activity, very little impact.
Ben, Strategy Director at Principles Agency and host of Marketing Room 101, joins Chris and Will to break down what brand strategy actually is, why so many senior marketers get it wrong, and how to do it properly without drowning in 20-page decks and brand "salad bowls".
What you'll learn:
The simplest definition of strategy you'll hear, using Ben's "person and product" model
Why diagnosis comes before strategy, and strategy before tactics (borrowed from the ancient Greeks)
The Three Cs framework: customer, company, competition, and why every problem comes back to them
The "bow tie" method for distilling a mountain of insight down to a single word
Why you should think in alternatives, not competitors (a Snickers competes with doing nothing, not just a KitKat)
The McCafé anti-poncery campaign and what makes it a masterclass in positioning
Why "channel neutrality" matters, and why SEO, GEO and AEO are all just "search"
How strategic thinking applies to everything from cleaning your house to running the country
Plus Ben serves up his now-famous Menu of Mistakes, including the £70k pitch that got away, the food shoot where he forgot to book the art director and styled it out by pretending he was one, and the Wally the Whale mascot meltdown at Wetherby Racecourse that ruined childhoods and lost punters their bets.
The conversation closes with the three things Ben would banish from marketing right now: tiny microphones, people misusing the word "omnichannel", and the damage social media is doing to society.
Chapters:

0:00 Intro 
1:15 Building a podcast with Room 101 
4:35 Mini MBA and marketing basics 
7:40 What strategy really means 
12:35 The Three Cs and the bow tie 
17:55 Listening first and field research 
21:00 Knowing when insight is enough 
24:55 McCafé and anti-poncery positioning 
29:10 Strategy thinking in daily life 
34:45 False binaries and channel neutrality 
39:35 What communications means in practice 
42:25 The menu of marketing mistakes 
46:30 Wally the Whale mascot meltdown 
51:05 The missing art director food shoot 
54:40 Three things to banish now 
57:35 Social media harm and regulation
Connect with Ben Norman on LinkedIn
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