Untrended Podcast

The creative brief is the document everyone writes and nobody reads. It's also the first thing blamed when a campaign goes wrong. Ten pages of company background. A solution dressed up as a problem. If you've sent or received a brief like that, you already know the work suffers for it. Anna Broadhead sits down with three Publicis Pro leaders: CEO John Lonsdale, Chief Strategy Officer Martin Harrison and Managing Director Katie Pospischil. You'll come away knowing how to separate the client's problem from the agency's solution and how to turn B2B marketing data into insight a creative team can use. You'll also hear where AI in marketing helps with briefs and where it quietly makes them worse. Expect honest debate on brief ownership, AI-written briefs and the brand strategy shift from "what do we want to tell them" to "what do we want them to remember". This is for B2B marketing leaders who write briefs, sign them off or live with the results. If you want a downloadable template, look elsewhere. ## Key Takeaways - A client brief should state the problem, and the creative brief should state the solution. Martin explains what goes wrong when clients brief the answer. - Never tell a client their brief is wrong. John shares the golden rule from his first job, and Martin explains how to reshape the response so it still answers the brief. - "45% of people think this" is information. Martin's habit of flipping every stat (including the Radio Times readers who don't want to be intellectually challenged) gets you to the why. - John estimates 90% of briefs now arrive AI-influenced. Katie describes the hidden tax that puts on agency teams, and Martin explains why AI can't make the imaginative leap a strategy needs. ## Chapter Markers 00:00 The brief everyone writes and nobody reads 00:58 What a brief is for and who owns it 15:37 Sorting useful detail from noise 17:42 From data points to real insight 24:43 AI briefs, Roger Martin and inspiring a team 29:13 The Guinness pub briefing and memory over messaging 35:36 What B2B briefs should stop doing 38:55 Tudder, the bookies and the £50 brief 43:12 Wrap-up and next episode preview ## Useful Links & Resources - Publicis Pro: https://publicispro.com/ - Playing to Win by Roger Martin (referenced by Martin on data, strategy and the future) - How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp (referenced on single-minded propositions and memory structures) ## Connect With the Show - Website: https://publicispro.com/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/publicisprob2b/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/publicisprob2b/ What's the one thing you wish every B2B creative brief would stop doing? Martin wants fewer job-title audience descriptions. John wants clients to stop handing over the answer. Tell us yours in the comments, and share your best (or worst) briefing story. Subscribe to the UnTrended Podcast and send your questions using the link in the episode description. #UnTrended #B2BMarketing #CreativeBrief #AIinMarketing #BrandStrategy

Being known in this industry isn’t the same as being good at it. In episode two of Untrended, we look at the gap between the two. Jamie Fewery, Creative Director at Publicis Pro, takes over hosting for this season’s first guest episode. He’s joined by Andrew Tindall, Chief Growth Officer at System1, who reaches one to two million people a week on LinkedIn. Andrew started posting daily when he had 200 followers. That makes him well placed to say what turns attention into real authority. They talk about personal branding, B2B thought leadership, AI-written LinkedIn posts and the commercial case for building a profile. Andrew uses System1’s principles of advertising effectiveness to explain how people build brands. He also says why 99% of B2B thought leadership misses, and why your follower count and your reach have stopped moving together. The episode is for marketing leaders who want influence that leads to growth, not just a crowded dashboard. If your LinkedIn strategy is “post something, anything,” this one is for you. Key Takeaways Andrew says the four principles that make advertising work also build personal brands. One of them involves wearing the same suit for eight weeks on national TV.The people with real authority in marketing have two things in common. One is a silly hill to die on. The other is a lot less obvious.Andrew has a blunt rule for AI-written LinkedIn content, and he wants Mark Ritson to hear it.Social media has become algorithmic media, so follower count and reach no longer move together. New research from System1, TikTok and WPP shows how little follower count now matters.Most people who lose their edge stopped doing the actual marketing job somewhere along the way. Chapter Markers 00:00 Jamie takes the host’s chair, with System1’s Andrew Tindall 00:57 Does personal branding deserve the cynicism? 02:07 How what you post shapes your next job 03:16 Why slagging off other people’s work gets you nowhere 04:15 The four principles of brand growth, applied to people 07:19 Posting every day to 200 followers 08:21 Can a personal brand be a liability? Finding your silly hill to die on 09:36 Why 99% of B2B thought leadership misses 11:05 Does any of it move the needle? 13:37 “If you can’t be arsed writing it, I can’t be arsed reading it” 16:10 LinkedIn bots that don’t get the joke 17:11 Andrew’s advice for building a personal brand in 2026 19:17 The commercial case for authority 20:03 Keeping up: Cannes, research cycles and a 7am AI briefing 22:13 Subcultures, cultural branding and Jack Daniel’s 25:29 Where people go wrong, and why you shouldn’t water yourself down 28:10 Reality Check: does follower count still matter? 30:18 Strip it all away: who are the best marketers? 30:44 Wrap-up and next episode: putting the brief on trial Useful Links & Resources Publicis Pro: https://publicispro.com/ System1, home of ad effectiveness testing: https://system1group.com/ Andrew Tindall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-tindall/ The Long and the Short of It by Les Binet and Peter Field (IPA): https://ipa.co.uk/ Connect With the Show LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/publicisprob2b/home/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/publicisprob2b/ Website: https://publicispro.com/ Subscribe to the Untrended Podcast and send your questions using the link in the episode description. #Untrended #B2BMarketing #ThoughtLeadership #PersonalBranding #PublicisPro

Follower counts, Campaign quotes, Cannes Lions. Season three of Untrended opens by asking whether any of it actually means anything. You post on LinkedIn, log off and feel worse about your career. Or you don't post at all and wonder if your work is quietly going unnoticed. This seasons host Anna Broadhead puts professional status on trial with Publicis Pro's Jamie Fewery, Lucy Gilman and new Chief Strategy Officer Martin Harrison. You'll get a sharper way to judge what counts as success in B2B marketing. You'll also hear a clear case for why awareness beats lead volume, and why the people who look most successful online often aren't. The conversation covers the visibility economy, personal branding, meaningless metrics and the B2B industry's habit of applauding itself. It's for marketing leaders who care about brand strategy and marketing trends more than vanity numbers. If you're building a personal brand purely to chase clout, prepare to feel called out. Key Takeaways - Martin argues that building campaigns around leads means optimising for a rare and unusual human behaviour. His alternative mission statement for brands is simple, and harder to hit than it sounds. - A Pangram Labs report claims 41% of LinkedIn posts are now fully AI generated. The panel explains why that has made the platform feel even more like noise. - The collapse of X pushed a whole generation of opinionated marketers onto LinkedIn by default. That migration explains a lot about how the feed looks now. - Craving awards and validation makes sense in an industry where your work gets rejected daily in tissue sessions.  Chapter Markers 00:00 Season three opens with a new host 02:33 Professional peacocking: who has really made it? 04:05 What success looks like to a strategist 05:44 LinkedIn and the visibility economy 09:18 Why LinkedIn makes everyone anxious 11:43 41% of LinkedIn posts are AI generated 13:43 Personal brands: clout or contribution? 15:21 The Toyota Prius blog comment that ended Martin's posting 18:37 New segment: Reality Check with audience answers 22:15 Why MQLs are the unhelpful metric 25:46 When does being known beat being good? 28:30 Ads for the lads and internal clout 30:52 Three Cannes Lions hidden under a desk 33:24 LinkedIn dies overnight: where do we peacock next? 37:24 Wrap-up and next episode with System1 Useful Links & Resources - Publicis Pro: https://publicispro.com/ - The Long and the Short of It by Les Binet and Peter Field (IPA): https://ipa.co.uk/ - System1, home of ad effectiveness testing: https://system1group.com/ - IPA Effectiveness Awards: https://ipa.co.uk/ - Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/ - Substack: https://substack.com/ - The Athletic: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/ Connect With the Show - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/publicisprob2b/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/publicisprob2b/ - X: https://x.com/PublicisProB2B - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@publicispro - Website: https://publicispro.com/ What's the most overrated status symbol in B2B marketing right now? Follower counts, AI visibility scores, award shelves or something worse? Tell us in the comments, and watch our LinkedIn page for each week's Reality Check question. And if LinkedIn vanished tomorrow, where would you go to show off? Subscribe to the Untrended Podcast and send your questions using the link in the episode description. #Untrended #B2BMarketing #PersonalBranding #BrandStrategy #PublicisPro

Business confidence might be low, but for young people trying to enter the workforce right now, the challenge runs far deeper. In this episode of UnTrended, Nicole Jones is joined by Jon Lonsdale, Billy Hamilton-Stent, and Aditi Kulkarni to unpack the realities of breaking into the creative industry and why access, not just ability, is often the biggest barrier. From the brutal experience of “spray and pray” job applications and algorithmic rejections to the rising cost of living and shrinking entry-level opportunities, the panel explores what it actually feels like to start a career in 2025. They also dig into the hidden rules of the workplace, from unspoken expectations to cultural norms, and why these can disproportionately exclude those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The conversation moves beyond the problem to explore solutions: the role of work experience, the importance of mentorship and belief, and why businesses need to be more intentional about nurturing early talent. There’s also a candid discussion on social mobility, personal journeys, and whether the UK’s “meritocracy” really exists in practice. Later, Nicole speaks with Jenni Anderson, CEO of The Talent Foundry, to explore how businesses can take meaningful action. From building confidence and skills in the classroom to creating real pathways into employment, Jenny shares how employers can help unlock opportunity for the next generation and why small interventions can have life-changing impact. If you care about the future of talent, diversity in the creative industries, or simply want to understand what it takes to get a foot in the door today, this episode is for you. Subscribe to The UnTrended Podcast wherever you get your podcasts and never miss an episode. Chapter Markers (03:00) Entering the Workforce in 2025 Why applying for jobs feels like a numbers game and often a losing one. (10:00) The Experience Gap What happened to work experience and why it matters more than ever. (15:00) Social Mobility: Myth vs Reality Who really gets access to opportunities and why background still matters. (22:00) The Hidden Rules of Work The unspoken expectations that can make or break early careers. (28:00) Confidence, Networks, and “Seeing It to Be It” Why belief and exposure are just as important as skills. (34:00) How Businesses Can Make a Difference (Talent Foundry) Practical ways organisations can support young people and build future talent pipelines. Useful Links Get to know Jenni Anderson on LinkedIn For more information on how you can help support be sure to visit the Talent Foundry website Follow Nicole Jones on LinkedIn Touch base with Jon Lonsdale on LinkedIn Connect with Billy Hamilton-Stent Learn more from Aditi Kulkarni For more information visit the Publicis Pro website

Business confidence is at record lows, but what does that actually mean, and who (or what) is really responsible? In this episode of UnTrended, Nicole Jones is joined by Publicis Pro’s Jon Lonsdale, Billy Hamilton-Stent, and Jamie Fewery to unpack why so many business leaders feel uncertain right now and what confidence really looks like in practice. From the psychology of leadership and decision-making under pressure to the role of culture, storytelling, and momentum inside organisations, the panel explores how confidence is built (and lost) at an individual level, not just a macroeconomic one. The conversation also digs into the impact of AI disruption, the LinkedIn “doom loop,” and why long-form thinking may be the antidote to perpetual crisis thinking. Later, world-class performance coach and psychologist Jamil Qureshi joins Nicole to break down the science of confidence, purpose-driven leadership, and how organisations can mobilise belief at scale, even in times of uncertainty. If you’ve ever wondered how leaders are supposed to stay confident when the world feels like it’s constantly shifting, this episode is for you. Subscribe to The UnTrended Podcast wherever you get your podcasts and never miss an episode. Chapter Markers: (03:00) What Does “Business Confidence” Even Mean? Is confidence a measurable business metric or something far more human? (10:30) Innovation, AI, and the Pace-of-Change Paradox When everything is moving fast and nothing feels controllable. (19:00) Personal Confidence Rituals for Leaders What the panel actually does to stay confident when things feel wobbly. (26:00) Long-Form Thinking as an Antidote Why depth, context, and perspective matter more than hot takes. (32:00) Purpose vs Targets Why focusing on what you can be matters more than what you can have. (42:00) One Thing Leaders Can Do Tomorrow A practical mindset shift for staying confident amid uncertainty. Useful Links: Get to know Jamil Qureshi on LinkedIn Follow Nicole Jones on LinkedIn Touch base with Jon Lonsdale on LinkedIn Connect with Billy Hamilton-Stent Learn more from Jamie Fewery For more information visit the Publicis Pro Website