This week we’re joined by Chris Kelly, Head of Marketing at John D Wood & Co., the man who went from marketing Pizza Express’s American Hot… to shaping one of London’s most respected prime property brands. If that doesn’t qualify as range, nothing does.

Chris has spent three years in post, brought in to boost brand awareness, grow the business, and put marketing back where it belongs: as a driver of profitability, not an overhead.

Today, he oversees a seven-strong marketing team, supporting London, country, and an international footprint with the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea forming the crown jewel of their market. Average sale price? £1.5m. In other words: serious prime.

What we cover in this episode:

• Why effectiveness is Chris’s mantra and the metric every marketing team should be judged by

• His career path: agencies, pizza, clothing… and now prime London property

• How to actually understand your customer and build campaigns that resonate

• Working agency-side across M&S, Disney, Santander and Travelodge all speaking the same marketing language

• The brands under the John D Wood umbrella and how he differentiates their personalities

• Why agents can run their own social channels… but the brand itself must stay curated

• How JDW use AI in marketing execution, visuals and copy, and why in some cases it replaces the need for a creative agency

• The brutal truth: 50% of applicants come from Rightmove

• The bigger truth: ChatGPT will become a key property search tool

• The biggest truth: 26 December is the most pointless day to “launch your sale”….Santa isn’t the biggest lie at Christmas… the Boxing Day Rightmove rush is.

• 2026 predictions: a split market, challenges at the top end, huge opportunity for those who get the basics right because “it’s an agent’s market”.

And we also learn why Chris believes JDW owe him £100k for his Jeeves & Wooster idea. (We’ll let him explain that one…)

A brilliant brand. A brilliant conversation. Another one in the can by The Two Russells