Embracing Marketing Mistakes

On this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, I’m joined by Gareth Turner, founder of Big Black Door and former Head of Marketing at Weetabix. Gareth has over 23 years of experience in food and drink, having led marketing for brands like John Smith’s, Bulmers, Lurpak and Arla. From buying a racehorse for John Smith’s to launching Bulmers fruit ciders and leading the viral Beanz on Bix campaign, his career is packed with bold ideas and brilliant lessons.
Gareth opens up about one of his biggest missteps: a bizarre PR stunt involving a coat made of human hair to promote a chocolate milkshake. The idea aimed to poke fun at over-the-top masculinity in advertising but fell flat due to a lack of strategic grounding and a weak link to the product.
• Created a coat from barbershop hair to promote protein chocolate milk
 • Concept satirised extreme masculinity in ads
 • Missed the mark with an unclear product connection
 • Broke a key food marketing rule by undermining appetite appeal
 • Gained international attention, including CNN Japan
 • Might spark social media buzz today, but still fails on brand relevance
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One advert wiped out a supermarket product in six weeks, and Kevin Chesters was right in the middle of it. He saw the disaster coming, ignored the warning signs and watched the whole thing collapse in real time.

Kevin Chesters is a seasoned strategist with more than twenty five years in top flight marketing, including leadership roles as Chief Strategy Officer at Wieden+Kennedy London, Dentsu McGarryBowen and Ogilvy, plus a spell as Head of Strategy at BT. His track record gives him serious authority on how strategy actually gets done inside big organisations.
He now runs his own consultancy, lectures widely and speaks around the world on creativity, storytelling and problem solving. His book The Creative Nudge became an Amazon best seller and helped cement his reputation as someone who can turn complex thinking into practical tools for marketers.
Kevin talks through how a simple brief for a kid's snack turned into a chaotic TV script, a flawed media plan and a campaign he openly calls the worst ad in British history. His honesty shows how experienced strategists can still get caught in groupthink and momentum.
Chris and Will dig into how the Big Cheese Dipper fiasco unfolded, why the agency pushed ahead and how the failure shaped Kevin’s career. The conversation moves from creative misfires to pitch disasters, toxic clients, time pressure and the trouble with rushed workshops.
Kevin also shares what thirty years in agencies have taught him about confidence, collaboration and protecting work from being watered down. His stories are brutal, funny and painfully familiar for anyone who has ever tried to get a brave idea through an organisation.
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I’m joined by Stuart Bruce, who is internationally recognised as the PR Futurist. He is a thinker, strategist and hands-on practitioner in modernised public relations, communications and corporate affairs. Stuart specialises in AI, communication technology (CommTech), measurement and evaluation, and crisis communications. He helps organisations embrace digital transformation and future-proof their communications in a changing world.
In this episode, Stuart tells the story of how he tried to bring Twitter into mainstream political campaigning during Alan Johnson's 2007 Deputy Leadership bid. It was an ambitious and forward-thinking move that nearly made history, but a sudden change by Twitter threw the plan off course.
• Joined Twitter on January 2nd, 2007 when the platform was brand new
 • Nearly became the world's first political campaign to use Twitter with a senior figure, beaten only by John Edwards by two weeks
 • Used Twitter primarily to generate media coverage through innovation, successfully getting a full page in The Guardian
 • Planned to leverage Twitter's SMS functionality to send free text messages to 200,000 Labour Party members
 • Twitter discontinued their SMS service between printing campaign leaflets and their delivery to members
 • Key lesson: don't rely on free services for important campaign communications
 • Few complaints received due to Twitter's limited adoption at the time
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Marketers are fighting on too many fronts. Budgets are tight, algorithms change daily and AI is flooding every feed with low grade content. This episode cuts through the noise and lays out the 2026 social landscape with absolute clarity.
Chris and Will unpack the 12 trends shaping how brands win this year. The conversation covers AI brand bots, the rise of live shopping, the collapse of SEO into AEO, Google Lens changing buying behaviour, micro influencers outperforming big names, and the growing pressure on brands to be authentic rather than everywhere.
Expect blunt truths, practical frameworks and a road map for where to put your time and money.
Key takeaways
• Where social budgets are being wasted.
• Why micro influencers now outperform celebrity campaigns.
• The platforms worth focusing on in 2026.
• Why authenticity and community beat AI slop every single time.
Ideal for marketing directors, social leads and CMOs who want a clear plan for the year ahead.
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Joining the conversation today is Richard Noble, Head of European Public Relations at Audible. With years of experience managing brand reputation and navigating high-pressure PR situations, Richard understands how quickly things can go wrong when communication within a company breaks down. Today, he shares a story that highlights just how chaotic things can get, complete with a touch of Australian absurdity.
A hilarious and cautionary tale about a PR disaster at Samsung Australia when two water buffaloes escaped during an unauthorised photoshoot in Sydney. The local PR team only discovered their company's activities when a journalist called asking about the animals that were now charging through Newtown's busy streets.
 • Samsung's global team arranged a photoshoot with water buffaloes in Sydney without informing the Australian office
 • The PR representative learned about the incident from a journalist while watching helicopter footage of the escape on live TV
 • The crew members reportedly fled the scene in a golf buggy
 • Fire brigade eventually cornered the buffaloes in someone's backyard
 • Despite the chaos, no one was hurt in the incident
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] 👈

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