Embracing Marketing Mistakes
Welcome to the world's number one podcast on Marketing Mistakes by Prohibition PR. This podcast is specifically for senior marketers determined to grow their brands by learning from real-world screw ups.
Each week, join hosts Chris Norton and Will Ockenden, seasoned PR professionals with over 45 years of combined experience, as they candidly explore the marketing failures most marketers would rather forget. Featuring insightful conversations with industry-leading marketing experts and value-packed solo episodes, the show tries to uncover the valuable lessons from genuine marketing disasters and, crucially, the tips and steps you need to take to avoid them.
Chris and Will bring practical experience from founding the award-winning PR agency Prohibition PR, where they have successfully guided top brands to significant growth through PR strategy, social media, media relations, content marketing, and strategic brand-building.
Tune in to turn f*ck ups into progress, mistakes into lessons, and challenges into real-life competitive advantages. Well, we hope so anyway.
Episodes
100 episodes
From Zero Clients to LinkedIn Success: Sarah Clay’s Lockdown Marketing Fail
For Sarah Clay, that nightmare became her big break. Pre-pandemic, she was running a social media agency for hospitality brands. Then lockdown hit, and in the space of a week her market evaporated.Instead of wallowing, she made a bold pi...
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53:51
Mind Games: Richard Shotton Reveals Marketing's Hidden Secrets
Tired of marketing campaigns that miss the mark? Richard Shotton, bestselling author of "The Choice Factory" and "The Illusion of Choice," reveals why understanding human psychology is the secret sauce behind effective marketing.The gap...
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57:41
PR FAIL: I sent a press release that wasn't approved and made the 10 o'clock news.
Our host, Chris Norton, reveals his biggest career mistake when he joined a new PR agency as an account manager. What started as enthusiasm to impress his new employers quickly descended into a PR disaster when he prematurely distributed a pres...
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4:18
How British Wool Turned 30,000 Farmers into Brand Advocates
What does it take to market an iconic British agricultural product in today's digital world? Graham Clark, Director of Marketing at British Wool, pulls back the curtain on the fascinating journey of promoting this sustainable fiber to modern co...
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43:53
Training FAIL: Media Training Goes Sideways: True Stories from the Trenches
Exploring professional mishaps in the world of media training, our guest expert media trainer, Guy Clapperton, shares candid stories from 20 years of journalism experience that reveal how technical difficulties, difficult clients, and embarrass...
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3:15
The Molly Mae Effect: Salvaging Brand Reputation Through Community Engagement
When a high-profile fashion brand stumbles at launch, how do they rebuild customer trust? This fascinating episode dives into Molly Mae's clothing brand "Maybe" and their clever reputation recovery strategy following a quality control disaster ...
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14:28
Marketing Mistake: Did I Just Break Stock Market Regulations?
Neville Hobson, a former Vice President of Corporate Communications, shares a near career-ending mistake when he accidentally published financial results for a public company 12 hours early by hitting "publish" instead of "schedule." <...
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5:33
Your Marketing Team Just Got Smarter Thanks to AI
What happens when you mix two decades of digital comms experience with a brain wired for analytics, SEO and AI? You get friend of the show Andrew Bruce Smith. He’s the founder of Escherman, a CIPR Fellow, and Chair of the AI in PR ...
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52:59
Marketing Blunder: When 500 Becomes 5K: A Coney Island New Year's Disaster
The podcast explores notable professional mistakes and what can be learned from them. B2B Marketing expert Tom Basgil shares his experience organising a New Year's Eve fireworks event at Coney Island, where instead of the expected 500 attendees...
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3:14
Are You Still Measuring Outputs When You Should Be Measuring Outcomes?
Let’s be honest, the PR world still loves a good-looking coverage book. A glossy spread in the national press, a namecheck in a podcast, a flurry of social mentions. It feels like success. But what’s it actually doing for the business? Not much...
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1:00:04
FAIL: Hops and Dreams: The Beer That Nobody "Cheers'd" To
Rachel Auty, head of marketing at Brew York, discusses the brewery birthday celebration that featured collaborations with international breweries like Lervig and Hidden Springs, creating six beers with a Eurovision tie-in called "Collabivision....
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2:30
The Art of Authentic Brand Storytelling: Rachel Massey on Breaking Through B2B Blandness
Rachel Massey, Director of Marketing at Huthwaite International, is a brilliant B2B marketing manager with deep experience in leading marketing operations and running fully integrated campaigns that actually deliver on business objectives. She’...
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31:31
Marketing Mishap: Using My Name As My Password Wasn't Great
Moving fast in business means making quick decisions that can sometimes lead to significant mistakes, as Jack Sutcliffe, CEO of Powersheds, found out when their website was hacked due to an overly simplistic password.• Rapid decision-ma...
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2:45
FAIL: When your business feels like your baby, you take the losses personally
Chris Simmance, Founder of OMG Centre, opens up about the hard leadership lessons learned through emotional reactions to business setbacks and poor financial management in agency life.• Letting emotional responses to client departures n...
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3:24
FAIL: "I Started an Online Wine Business Right Before Lockdown"
Josh Lachovic, ex-startup founder turned growth agency founder, shares his journey from digital marketing roots to founding a wine startup that experienced meteoric growth during the pandemic, only to face the harsh reality when lockdown behavi...
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9:12
Oinking Outside the Box: Marketing Lessons from a Cartoon Pregnancy
Welcome to another Campaign Crunch episode where we take a look at trending campaigns, what they did and the results they gained. This podcast (presented by one of our Account Managers, Becca Quinlan) delves into one of the most fascinating PR ...
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14:25
FAIL: I was almost printed on the front page of a national newspaper
This clip explores career mistakes and what people learn from them. Andrew shares a memorable blunder from his early journalism career when he nearly became part of the printing machinery at the historic launch of the Today newspaper in 1986.
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3:53
Why Lazy Content Will Kill Your Brand
Guy Utley from Tall Agency shares his journey from recognising his creative talents at school to founding a digital agency working with global brands like Lego and Shark Ninja, focusing on the critical importance of specialisation in marketing....
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53:20
FAIL: How I made 120,000 Anglers Angry
Andy Green shares his biggest professional mistake from his time as deputy head of PR at Yorkshire Water, when he inadvertently angered 120,000 anglers by running a competition featuring a photo that violated pike fishing ethics. 😱• Ang...
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2:46
The Future of Chocolate Is Hidden in Volcanic Soil
Ever wondered what makes truly exceptional chocolate? The secret might be sitting right beneath its roots - volcanic soil.Tamsin Daniel, Head of Marketing at Firetree Chocolate, takes us on a fascinating journey through the world of prem...
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49:59
The Art of Global Content with Shaheen Samavati
Marketing across borders goes far beyond simple translation - it requires genuine cultural understanding and strategic adaptation. In this eye-opening conversation with Shaheen Samavati, co-founder and CEO of Vera Content, we explore the intric...
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15:29
"Getting Fired Was the Best Career Move I Ever Made"
Getting fired can be devastating to your career - or it can be the catalyst for something greater. For Patrick Collister, being unceremoniously dismissed from a French-owned direct marketing agency where he was billed at £1000 per hour became a...
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1:04:08
Severance: The Marketing Masterclass Behind Apple TV's Cult Show - Campaign Crunch
Marketing a TV show in today's crowded streaming world requires more than just trailers and billboards - it demands innovative thinking that captures attention and builds genuine connection. That's exactly what we explore in this fascinating co...
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22:12
The Fake Follower Epidemic: Stop Vanity Metrics Killing Your Brand - Marketing Room 101 Special
In this special episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Chris and Will take a seat on the guest side as they're invited onto the Marketing Room 101 podcast, hosted by Ben Norman. The theme? Banishing their marketing bugbears forev...
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35:09
AI, Reddit, and Micro-Virality: Our Social Media Trends for 2025
Following on from our most popular episode last year where we looked at social media trends for 2024, we have our 2025 prediction list.Social media continues to evolve rapidly, with new platforms emerging and established ones ...
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50:17