The Total Experience Podcast

It's the question that's on everyone's lips. We map out the role for brands and brand experience in building a brave new world. In this episode: We wrap up Season 1 of the Total Experience Podcast a.k.a. 'Brand Experience in the Age of Corona' by looking at what brands can do to shape our uncertain future in a positive way. With Richard Cable. A frame of reference * The hero's journey * The region of supernatural wonder * The Spanish Flu of 1918, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the global protests of 1968 all rolled into one * A world facing economic catastrophe, global pandemic, racial injustice and inequality Planning for total victory * Why it's not ridiculous to talk about brand experience at a time like this. * Constructive thinking * Seismic change * History's horrible precedents * Shaping the world for good The bandwagon is the place to be * Brands and social progress * Courageous individuals and grassroots movements - George Floyd and the humiliation of Donald Trump * The purpose of a brand * Embracing, normalising and amplify positive change. * Brand purpose is still bollocks * Creating bandwagons of our own * Branded cynicism * Aligning what you do and what you say Revenge spending and the slump to come * Lockdown easing and rising optimism * "Revenge spending" * Government debt and small to medium business meltdown Where brands add value * Enterprise value and powerful brands * Recklessness of neglecting your brand Why brand experience is so important: brand, people, touchpoints and creative Brand * Digital transformation and innovation * The inherent dangers of short-termism and neglecting your brand * Adidas as one to watch People * Radically altered customer demographics - new skills, asymmetrical effects, the positive effects of lockdown Touchpoints * Reweighting your brand ecosystem * The rise of social commerce * The re-rise of AR and VR * Only as strong as your weakest touchpoint Creative * Crises and creativity * Creative red herrings * Glitz and glamour vs grit and grime * The birth of the anti-hero * Smashing shibboleths Summary * The positive role for brands in unfucking the world * Being on the right side of history * The engine of recovery

Every day, McDonald's makes 40+ million Big Macs worldwide. How does the brand stay coherent in the face of a global pandemic and other enormous challenges? In this episode: We're joined by George Strakhov, Head of strategy EMEA for DDB, and Steve Griffiths, Chief Digital Officer for DDB Europe, both of whom work with McDonald's across 40+ markets. The scale of the McDonald's business * A dynamic and complex business * Product and experience * Diversity of touchpoints * Geographical diversity * Menu diversity * Segment diversity * Guest counts and sales * Speed of the feedback loop DDB and McDonald's * From advertising to strategic planning and tactical activation * Market to market activation * Digital transformation * Focus on convenience - experience, accuracy and efficiency * Optimising process in a process driven company * Changing consumer tastes and experience * Artificial intelligence * Creating interconnected, intelligent touchpoints * Preference and transactional data * Loyalty and longitudinal data * Data driven marketing, analytics and experience design * Creating a coherent brand experience Maximising the interaction * The balance between delivering the most value for customer and business * Short term (activation) vs long term drivers (brand) * Constantly adapting to circumstance - a very responsive business McDonald's and the Coronavirus crisis * Restaurant closures * Cautious reopening * Focus on crew * The perils of getting it wrong * A return to the foundational elements of the business * People needing the basics more than ever - Quality, Service, Cleanliness * The 'bubble of happy' * Producing 40 million Big Macs all the same * Switch to drive thru, changes to menu, delivery changes, dark kitchens * The benefits of being a 'known quantity' Creating intergenerational connections * Happy Meals and birthday parties * No longer a family mealtime * Screen distractions * Matching the brand with the next generation Innovation and brand experience * Entrepreneurship vs innovation * Bazaars vs cathedrals * The difficulties of tech mediated brand experience * A gap that needs closing * Giving franchisees and restaurant managers the capacity

We talk to Leonard Cheshire's 'Change 100' about enabling more people with disabilities to find careers in marketing, and ask if the lockdown can have a positive long-term impact on the way we work. In this episode: Verity Ayling-Smith, training and consultancy advisor with Leonard Cheshire and the 'Change 100' programme, and Priyanca Desouza, user researcher and former Change 100 intern. What disability is * Protected characteristics, diversity and inclusion * Disability as a normal and common thing * Bringing down the barriers in recruitment and the work environment * A wide range of accessibility needs The visibility of disability * Disability more prevalent than we realise * The duty of employers to remove barriers * Choosing whether or not to disclose your disability * Employers missing out on fantastic talent * The inexplicable employment gap for disabled people Change 100 and Leonard Cheshire * Leonard Cheshire's mission to support disabled people * Change 100's mission to close the employment gap for disabled graduates and students * Matching skills to roles * A highly competitive programme * The popularity of marketing and communications * The challenging language of job descriptions The value of different life experiences * Resilience, creativity and difference by default * The danger of the agency bubble and cookie-cutter thinking * Actively welcoming and valuing a difference life experience * Championing inclusive experience design The 'amplified self' * The problem with traditional recruitment * Jim Carroll and the amplified self * Excellence vs mediocrity The positives of the lockdown (for us all) * How remoteness has brought colleagues closer * A more personalised way of working * It's not where you work but how - challenging office culture * Business investment in agile, remote working and management * A more autonomous, liberated and creative workforce

What can one man’s horrendous ordeal at the hands of a Japanese game show teach us about the need for more empathetic brand experiences? In this episode: January 1998: casting for a new show * The luck of the draw * Meet Nasubi * A secret destination 'A life out of prizes' * Naked and alone with only a phone * The million yen target * Eggplants and modesty The physical impact of isolation * A starvation diet * The first roll of toilet paper * What you own but can't use The mental impact of isolation * Curtailed stimulus * Compensating for lack of emotional feedback * Anthropomorphising * Radical deterioration and mental suffering Doubling down on the cruelty * An unwitting megastar * Victory - suspended * Nasubi in Korea * Nasubi flies home * The brutal show finale We are all Nasubi * Parallel experiences * The impact of isolation An analogy for brand experience * More anxious, more cautious, more socially isolated and lonelier * The practicalities of a post-Covid economy * Not making isolation worse * Be more 'Great British Bake Off" * Enhancing what makes us human * Brands not just claiming human qualities but exhibiting them

The US has always had a special relationship with brands. We ask if we should be looking to the US for leadership, or vice versa? In this episode: Leigh Baker, founder of New York creative brand consultancy we@leighbaker, talks to us about the different approaches US and UK brands have taken to the Coronavirus crisis and what we can learn from both. How the US does brands differently * Marketing at scale * Immediate impact * The hard sell * Wearing your heart on your sleeve The US special relationship with brands * The Super Bowl * Clint Eastwood and "It's half time for America" Brands stepping into the breach * Weak institutions leaving a vacuum The 3 different approaches of American brands * Branding the moment - Nike * Do something, but what? - American banks * Good, honest promotional utility - Burger King The US reaction to the crisis * Why American brands don't stop * Creative perils of group think * Lockdown fatigue and reactive marketing Green shoots of a new US brand behaviour * A shift in tone - the new optimism * It's OK to be funny - Geico * Hard times and escapism What the US can learn from the UK * Brand experience beyond the advertising * Getting your digital act together * A unified response from strong institutions