The Marketing Meetup

The Marketing Meetup is a really, really nice place for the marketers of the world to come together to listen, learn, meet, and share knowledge. 

Founded in June 2016, the meetup features two talks with actionable insight per meetup and now has a community of over 50,000 people across the globe, running 150+ events per year from London to Tokyo.

At its simplest, it's lovely networking for people who like speaking to other people and learning together.

Join at https://themarketingmeetup.com

Co-Founder

The Marketing Academy

The Marketing Academy's purpose is to turn the marketers of today into the leaders of tomorrow. I was selected as one of 30 marketers from throughout the UK to be part of the class of 2020 scholarship.

Scholar (Class of 2020)

The Keynote Club

Board Member

CoWork Club

The CoWork Club is all about the magic that happens when you bring together freelancers & business owners into a space, once per day, to learn, work, and meet with one another in a positive environment. 

We're starting with our first event in Northampton, but we have big plans to roll out across the world. If you want to get in touch to run your own CoWork Club, host us in your space, or sponsor an event - get in touch :)

Advisor

Empath Marketing

Founding Consultant

Humans Come First

Humans Come First: 

"A podcast for marketers about being more human in your marketing by two marketers passionate about being more human in marketing.

Richard Wood and Joe Glover discuss weekly topics in the world of marketing they find interesting and how they sit within the scope of taking a human approach to marketing.

We're also calling out some shitty marketing practices."

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The Marketing Meetup Podcast

"The Marketing Meetup Podcast is an audio series by marketers, for marketers. Featuring live talk recordings, interviews, and discussions, The Marketing Meetup Podcast is the place for marketers to come to stay in touch, learn, and be inspired."

Co-Host

School of Marketing (SoM)

The School of Marketing was created to solve a growing issue in the industry; to help the next generation of marketers understand how marketing is evolving and to give them the skills needed for a successful career.

I am one of the 'Founding 50' - a group of 50 marketers selected from around the UK under the age of 30 to represent the programme and help bring through the next generation of marketers.

Founding 50 Member

Genie Goals

Genie Goals are a digital marketing agency for great retail brands. We specialise in PPC, Social, Affiliates and Amazon Marketing Services, and I must say... we're pretty blooming good at it. We were named by Google as the most innovative Premier Partner for Google Shopping in EMEA, and have won other awards for our work with clients such as Karl Lagerfeld, Mamas & Papas and many more. 

My role is to lead our marketing efforts - finding new clients, but also making sure opportunities to help existing clients more are being offered. The output of my work at Genie has seen us win a raft of new and impressive clients, being acknowledged for our work on an international scale, rebranded the entire company, and built a legacy for the entire marketing and business development operation to grow from in the future.

Marketing Manager

Business of Software Conference

Business of Software is a world-renowned conference in the software industry. Bringing together the likes of Seth Godin, Joanna Wiebe, DHH, Rand Fishkin, Rory Sutherland and so many more people who eventually became heroes of my own. 

During this time I was the sole marketer in the company, which also happened to be my first proper marketing role. I gained an entrepreneurial attitude and operated independently - teaching myself marketing as I went. 

During this time, I improved the year on year attendance for the main show of the year, Business of Software USA, and consistently delivered on my main metric of increasing email sign-ups. 

I left Business of Software proud of my achievements, having been head-hunted for my next role at Genie Goals.

Bluefin Solutions

My first job was at Bluefin Solutions who were a wonderful company filled with great people. 

I soon realised after joining the company that SAP was not for me, however. I entered the role for the wrong reasons (namely, money) but learned a lot about myself in the process, which inspired my future career choices. It should also be said this time gave me the experience of what it is like to work in large FTSE companies as a consultant. 

My time at Bluefin were some of the most important of my career, and although my time there was short, the lessons learned will last a lifetime.

SAP Consultant

👋  I'm Joe. 

Eight years ago I was the guy who was too shy to speak to people at networking events. Even when I did pluck up the courage, it felt all people valued was my job title or my budget rather than me as a person.

I knew I wanted to meet other marketers and learn about marketing in a safe space, so when I couldn't find it, I made it.

The Marketing Meetup is a positively lovely community for marketers. (Basically, we all look after each other and treat one another as people first 😊)

Through good luck and hard work, in the years since, I (as part of a big team effort!) have built a global community of 50,000+ lovely marketers with a social following of 250k+.

Each week, we're lucky to have amazing guest speakers such as Mark Ritson, Rory Sutherland, Seth Godin and many more share time with our community - educating and connecting us all.

You should join one of our webinars, our membership, or the newsletter: I think you'd get a lot from all of them. 

Some places I have spoken/been a guest on include: 

- Festival of Marketing,
- Innocent Smoothies Internal Sessions,
- Everyone Hates Marketers Podcast with Louis Grenier, 
- The Next Web
- Marketing Week Columnist,
- Fiverr Webinar Series, 
- VeryGoodCopy
- GREENHOUSE Jersey
- SocialDay
- Freelancer Magazine,
- Startup Summit, 
- Marketing News Canada,
- Digital DNA, 
- Moneysupermarket internal inspiration event,
- The Marketing Meetup (of course), 
- Durham University guest lecturer, 
- London College of Fashion guest lecturer, 
- Norwich University of the Arts guest lecturer,
- Essex University Incubator guest lecturer 
- Cambridge University Judge Business School panelist, 
- Linkjoy Social Media Summit
- Habitz Podcast with Mike Winnet

And quite a lot of other places/podcasts. By all means get in touch with speaking/podcast ops. Or, just say hello :)

Joe Glover

Yesterday I was invited to attend LinkedIn’s B2Believe event where they showed some of their latest research. Here are the most useful things I learned in five hours - in under two minutes:

(All stats from LinkedIn unless stated otherwise.)

⬆️ Big picture

- B2B is a $20T market (B2C is $6T).

- Average CMO tenure: 4.5 years.

- The average buying group in B2B is 22 people.

- The biggest growth drivers in B2B: being known and being trusted.

- 82% of B2B buyers say creator content influences them.

- Peer video endorsements are 4× more influential than company-made ones.

💰 Getting buyer groups confident to buy

- “Marketing is an unfair game — the brands that spend more, win.”

- Companies are 20× more likely to be chosen when everyone in the buyer group knows them — not just the experts. Think: HR, legal, procurement.

- On a vendor shortlist, buyers have five jobs to be done. Only two relate to product. The top job: “Can I defend this decision?”. Number two: "Felt confident it would do the job"

- Winning the game is moving from being the biggest or cheapest → to being the most liked and recommended.

📈 Measurement

- The typical B2B buying journey is 211 days (Dreamdata).

- 70% of that happens outside the sales pipeline.

- Only 60 days sit inside the sales process.

- Big thing to note: this completely shifts how we think about “sales cycle length.”

🎥 Making video work harder

- Creative quality drives performance.

- 73% of video completions come down to the creative.

- 49% of engagements depend on it.

Five proven levers:

- Cultural coding - shared references that make a brand culturally relevant & instantly relatable - (Pop-culture references: +41% engagement, Memes: +111% engagement)

- Human stories - (Highly emotive creative: +102% CTR, People-led stories: +65% engagement)

- Attention hacking - story structuring to not waste time - (Mobile-first, bold visuals: +15% engagement, Dynamic text: +14% engagement)

- Expert takes (Featuring exec experts: +53% engagement, Experts on stage: +70% engagement)

- Inspiring imagination (31–60s brand films: +67% engagement, Strong inspirational message: +36% engagement)

There was loads more, but this felt like the most useful chunk. Hope it’s helpful.

P.S. Great to bump into Rachael Higgins and Matt Swain too.

Co-Founder of The Marketing Meetup | Co-Host of ‘Your CMO Mentor’ | The Marketing Academy Alumni

LockSmith

At LockSmith we partner with businesses to unlock the potential of their brands and the people behind them, through training, coaching and consulting.  

We design and deliver bespoke training solutions for businesses drawing on our combination of corporate, SME and start up experience. Our programmes cover all aspects of marketing and innovation and are engaging, fun, practical and immediately applicable.  

With our consulting work, we specialise in helping start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs develop powerful growth strategies, brand positioning and innovation pipelines.

What makes us different is that we love to combine consultancy and training, which not only solves your business challenge but upskills your team and sets them up to be self-sufficient for the longer term. 

Finally, we believe that to achieve long term success a business must invest in its people, that’s why Chris and Alex love working with both teams & individuals to unlock their potential and personal growth through coaching and mentoring.  Alex specialises in coaching female founders & women looking to realise their potential.  Chris specialises in growth strategies and mentoring marketing leaders.

International Cat Care

Trustee on the Board of Trustees for this international cat welfare charity.

Member Board of Trustees

Hoxby

Hoxby is a freelance community of around 1,000 talented associates, from over 40 different countries. We’re strategists, creatives, tech-heads. Writing people, numbers people, people people. Thinkers, do-ers, disruptors. All experts in what we do and all led by the same vision of creating a happier, more fulfilled society through a world of work without bias.

We work remotely in a radically different way – our teams use the latest tech to collaborate across disciplines, countries and time zones, as seamlessly as if they were in the same room. Our strength lies in the diversity of our community, allowing us to be truly innovative, insightful and creative. We can deliver against almost any brief in any business discipline thanks to the range of skills and experience we have between us. Imagine having access to a marketing agency, a creative agency, an HR consultancy and more, all in one place. Our areas of expertise include: Futureproofing (consultancy that helps businesses effectively set up remote working and adapt to freelance working models), innovation, marketing, creative, admin, Communications and HR. 

We’ve successfully applied our approach on projects for some of the biggest brands in the world, including AIA, Unilever, Merck, Warner Media, Deloitte, ITV and Asics, to name but a few. 

To brief us or to join our freelance community head to hoxby.com.

Programme and Strategy Director - The Hoxby Way

Managing Director for the Hoxby Marketing business unit, responsible for strategy, growth, P&L and our population of talented freelance marketers.

Hoxby is a freelance community of around 1,000 talented associates, from over 40 different countries. We’re strategists, creatives, tech-heads. Writing people, numbers people, people people. Thinkers, do-ers, disruptors. All experts in what we do and all led by the same vision of creating a happier, more fulfilled society through a world of work without bias.

We work remotely in a radically different way – our teams use the latest tech to collaborate across disciplines, countries and time zones, as seamlessly as if they were in the same room. Our strength lies in the diversity of our community, allowing us to be truly innovative, insightful and creative. We can deliver against almost any brief in any business discipline thanks to the range of skills and experience we have between us. Imagine having access to a marketing agency, a creative agency, an HR consultancy and more, all in one place. Our areas of expertise include: Futureproofing (consultancy that helps businesses effectively set up remote working and adapt to freelance working models), innovation, marketing, creative, admin, Communications and HR. 

We’ve successfully applied our approach on projects for some of the biggest brands in the world, including AIA, Unilever, Merck, Warner Media, Deloitte, ITV and Asics, to name but a few. 

To brief us or to join our freelance community head to hoxby.com.

MD - Hoxby Marketing

Creative Mentor Network

Providing business and marketing mentoring to up and coming people from disadvantaged backgrounds and ethnic minority groups in the creative industry.

Business Mentor

Feelunique.com

Interim CMO role at the ultimate one-stop-shop for all things beauty, providing choices for every taste and budget.

Chief Marketing Officer - Interim

The Collective UK

As European Marketing Director at The Collective, I sit on the UK and Europe Leadership team and am responsible for leading the team in the delivery of our high growth business objectives through game-changing marketing activities.

The Collective was started in New Zealand by two clever entrepreneurial chefs, Angus Allan and Ofer Shenhav. Their quest was simple… create an extraordinary yoghurt with an unbeatable taste…

Being well travelled lads with a couple of successful businesses already notched on their belts, Ofer and Angus were not shy of the hard yakka ahead. Their sheer determination to achieve the unthinkable helped provide the fuel, their passion provided the key, their tenacity and skill delivered the answer.
Kiwis caught on fast and the resulting yoghurt rapidly found new homes across the land. In fact, within 10 months of its conception The Collective was New Zealand’s best-selling gourmet yoghurt…

Now not being ones to keep a good thing to themselves, it soon dawned on Ofer and Angus that actually the whole world deserved The Collective in their fridges so why not make it in the UK too. Really, just how hard could it be? As it turned out darn hard! Until they joined forces with Amelia Harvey and the late Mike Hodgson, a couple of savvy ‘Brits’ who knew a thing or two about the food industry in the UK.
So here we are now, sitting in fridges across the globe, all thanks to the peeps out there that’ve shared The Collective’s vision and helped make us a ‘happening thing’ in your home… no bull!

European Marketing Director

Lily's Kitchen Proper Food for Pets

Tasked with spearheading the continued meteoric growth of Lily's Kitchen in close partnership with the Founder / CEO Henrietta Morrison, the CFO and other members of the leadership team.  This role has responsibility for UK and Europe performance and covers the functions of Marketing, Customer Care, eCommerce, Sales, NPD and HR.

General Manager

Leading an audacious marketing agenda to transform the lives of pets and pet parents through Lily's Kitchen.  In addition to core marketing responsibilities (which include the full marketing mix, NPD and management of an in-house design studio), I have also led the development and implementation of a new mobile-first eCommerce platform for Lily's Kitchen.  And as a member of the leadership team I am deeply involved in all aspects business management for the company.

Warming Hearts, Feeding Souls, Enriching Lives. This is our mantra, our vision for the future. Lily’s Kitchen is dedicated to providing proper food for pets, with a commitment to tread carefully on the planet and actively engage with our community.  We seek to transform the quality of the lives of pets and people through innovative, natural, healthy products and phenomenal customer care.
 
At Lily's kitchen we ensure we recruit to our values: Respectful. Responsible. Passionate. Dedicated. Audacious. Our people demonstrate these values in everything they do in and outside of the Lily’s Kitchen office.
 
We are committed to hiring and developing a team of passionate, performance-orientated individuals who love to win and make a positive difference in everything they do.  If you're looking for an exciting growing company who will invest in your development whilst having the opportunity to work in an engaging and rewarding environment, then we want to hear from you.
 
Please email workwithlily@lilyskitchen.co.uk with a covering letter and CV telling us why Lily’s Kitchen and why you?

Marketing & eCommerce Director

Diageo

Responsible and accountable for Innovation performance across Europe.  I lead a team of 15 direct reports, sit on the marketing leadership team and report into the Global Category Director for Innovation.  This role plays a critical part in the performance delivery for Western Europe and Russia & Eastern Europe, combining both the development and delivery of new to world innovation with the extension of our existing trademarks through large scale and sustainable line extensions.

GM - Innovation, Europe

Responsible for all aspects of marketing strategy and execution for Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Gordon's and Tanqueray as well as a number of luxury white spirits brands.  In addition I sit on the Western Europe Marketing Leadership Team which is responsible for portfolio strategy and talent development.

WE Category Marketing Director - Vodka, Rum, Gin and Tequila

Responsible for all aspects of marketing strategy and execution for Baileys, Pimm's, Grand Marnier, Yeni Raki and other portfolio brands. In addition I sit on the Western Europe Marketing Leadership Team which is responsible for portfolio strategy and talent development.

WE Category Marketing Director - Baileys and Portfolio

Responsible for all aspects of marketing strategy and execution for Smirnoff, Gordon's and José Cuervo Tequila in GB. In addition I sat on the GB Marketing Leadership Team, which is responsible for portfolio strategy and talent development.

GB Category Marketing Director -White Spirits

Marketing Director for Europe for the Smirnoff brand, responsible for the development of European marketing strategy and coordination of execution through local market teams.  Additional responsibility for aspects of Global Smirnoff marketing strategy and execution on a project basis.

Smirnoff European Marketing Director

Secondment into the Global Brand Director role to cover an interim period between permanent appointments.  In this role I was required to lead the team as if the position were permanent, meaning not just leading the team through current deliverables but also setting up for success for the future.  In so doing, I successfully managed the team through the delivery of the ground-breaking Nightlife Exchange Project and also set the team up for success for business planning and several global initiatives.

Acting Global Brand Director - Smirnoff

This position has overall responsibility for marketing and P+L for Smirnoff premium spirits in GB (Red, Black, Blue and Nordic Berries), a team of 6 (4 direct reports) and a budget in excess of £15m.  Smirnoff is the no. 1 spirit in the world and second only to Guiness in importance to Diageo.

The scope of the role covers all aspects of marketing strategy and execution including through the line marketing plans, packaging, promotions, pricing strategy, customer and trade marketing, PR, strong focus on new digital and RM marketing initiatives etc.  There is also signficant team management and development, including playing a key role in the development and implementation of graduate training schemes and marketing skills enhacement.

Smirnoff Marketing Manager

The Coca-Cola Company

This role was responsible for Fanta, Sprite, Lilt and Dr. Pepper, accounting for over 15% of total business for Coca-Cola GB.  Line management responsibility for 2 and a budget of c. £5m.  The role was very heavily focused on consumer marketing strategy and execution, with trade marketing executed by the local bottling partner CCE.

Marketing Manager - Teen brands

Camelot

The Scratchcards business manager had responsibility for a team of 5 direct reports and a budget in excess of £10m.  The scratchcards business is worth over £850m per annum.  The role comprised all aspects of marketing (strategy, NPD, media, creative development etc), P+L management and close liasion with supply and commercial teams to ensure delivery of plans.

Scratchcards Business Manager

Unlocking Potential in Brands and The People Behind Them. Collaborative, Practical & Fun Marketing and Innovation Training, Coaching and Consultancy. Co-Founder @ LockSmith.

MEET CHRIS ► I’m an experienced marketing and innovation director.  I’ve worked for multinationals like Diageo and Coca-Cola and for start-ups and scale-ups like Lily’s Kitchen, The Collective and Feel Unique.  My career has given me experience in every aspect of the marketing mix, with teams and budgets of all sizes, in the UK, Europe and Global.  In 2020 I co-founded LockSmith and now specialise in delivering capability training to develop marketing teams into the best they can be.  And I also enjoy the occasional consultancy project working on marketing and innovation strategy.

WHY LOCKSMITH? ► Savvy marketing leaders know that business performance is driven by the calibre of their marketing team. Our clients come to us to improve both functional marketing skills (the what) and leadership & teamworking skills (the how). We're here to unlock the potential in your brand by growing the people behind it. We love nothing more than solving your marketing and innovation challenges, training your team and providing coaching.

TRAINING COURSES ► We offer a full suite of blended learning solutions including live and / or virtual workshops, e-learning options, webinars & 1 to 1 follow-ups. Whatever you choose you can guarantee our courses are always practical, fun and immersive.

COACHING & MENTORING► Coaching & mentoring are beneficial for anyone wanting help to make a change in their personal or professional lives. Coaching helps us understand what makes us tick, what matters to us and who we are when we’re at our best. It helps us find our own solutions to problems.  Mentoring is more ‘hands on’  and as mentors we offer practical advice and ideas for how to overcome the challenges you face. We offer both 1:1 and group programmes.

CONSULTANCY ► With nearly 50 years’ experience between us, we’re passionate about building brands. Our experience spans all elements of the marketing mix, delivered both locally and globally with budgets and teams of all sizes. We love immersing ourselves in your brand’s world and then collaborating with you to solve your marketing and innovation challenges.

LET’S TALK ► Message me on LinkedIn, email chris@locksmith.works, call +44 7876 643919, or book on https://calendly.com/teamlocksmith.

SPECIALITIES ► Marketing Director, CMO, Innovation Director, Marketing, Innovation, Training, Trainer, Personal development, Capability training, Consultant.

OUTSIDE OF WORK ► I like to stay active through running and swimming, and socialising with friends and family. I also love to travel, and actively get involved with my local community.

Chris Lock

We’re thrilled to be partnering with the brilliant team at Bacardi to raise the bar for innovation across their global community.

Across three virtual workshops, we’re training hundreds of Bacardi colleagues (not just marketers, but supply chain, commercial, and cross-functional leaders) in the skills and behaviours needed to deliver game-changing innovation.

💻 The challenge?
Bringing a project planning tool to life and reaching 50+ people at a time, across functions and time zones, virtually. All while staying true to our signature style: playful, hands-on and highly interactive!!

🎮 Our solution?
We created Live the Launch, a simulation game where teams tackle real-world innovation scenarios, navigate disruptions and play outside their day jobs. From marketers stepping into supply chain, to commercial leads taking on brand roles it’s a chance to see the process from another perspective and face the trade-offs they’d encounter back in the office

The result? Super dynamic sessions packed with activities, games, breakout discussions & role play.

And it’s landing, with 100% of delegates so far saying they’d recommend the experience. Because unlocking innovation excellence isn’t just about knowing the process, it’s about living it. And the best way to learn is to dive in, play and practise it together.

Thanks to the brilliant Bacardi team Kate Watabiki Amy Underwood Kari Bishop  Joanne Kellard Stephanie Herbst 

#Innovation
#MarketingTraining
#MarketingCapability

Helping marketing leaders unlock the potential in their teams | Bespoke course design and delivery | Coaching | ex-Diageo, Coca-Cola, Lily's Kitchen | Practical & fun learning that sticks.

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Surely creative development has to be one of the best parts of the job for marketers.  After all, isn't it one of the reasons many of us got into marketing in the first place? 😀

As much as creative development is fun, it's also a skill that needs to be developed and honed.  That's why the pladis Global marketing team asked us to spend a day with them last week, enhancing their creative development skills.

As you've come to expect from LockSmith, it was a highly immersive and interactive session featuring:

🏆 Award winning case studies
🧱LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® builds
💬Voxpops
📊Mentimeter live polls
👥 Role play
🖼️ Posters
🗣️ And lots of great discussions

We covered a focused range of topics to give the team practical skills they can use every day:

✅ The evidence-based criteria for what makes good creative
✅ The importance of Ideas vs. Executions
✅ How to judge creative, objectively
✅ How to give constructive feedback on creative
✅ How to nurture creative work

And it was a big hit!  Feedback was outstanding.  Everyone got a lot out of the day AND had a lot of fun at the same time.

Thank you to Aslı Özen Turhan, Annabelle Williams and Benazir Barlet-Batada for bringing us in, and also for taking the brave an important step of involving some of your agencies in the training.  Thank you to Alex O'Rourke (nee Smith) and Sophie Cobley from the LockSmith team for designing such an awesome session, and also to Johnny Corbett for joining us to help brilliantly facilitate this large group of marketers. 🙏🙏🙏

We love all of the capability builds that we deliver.  But creative development is definitely a favourite.  If your team needs a boost in this area, you know where to find us.

#creativedevelopment #marketingcapability

Using Mentimeter to run live and interactive polls

Using posters to break the monotony of powerpoint slides

Just like in the classic 1980s TV quiz show Blockbusters, Alex O'Rourke (nee Smith)  and I are firm believers that two heads are better than one. 

We set up LockSmith in partnership. And it makes a huge difference. We stretch and challenge each other. We celebrate together. We support each other. We divide and conquer where needed. And we bring different perspectives to our work. 

It’s the same when we’re delivering training. It’s so much more interesting for delegates to have two people deliver. It breaks monotony. Brings different perspectives or anecdotes. And it means we can each spend time with the groups. 

We’ve known each other a long time and we work really well together. But it’s not just that. We think two heads are always better than one because the diversity improves the outcome. 

My advice?  Always find a partner in crime.

If you’re not passionate about your brand, why on earth should anyone else care about it? 🤷

Why should Sales care about building the brand, when they could just trade it?

Why should Supply care about ingredients, when they could save money?

Why should Finance care about investing, when they could increase profit?

Why should consumers choose your brand, when they’ve plenty of other good options?

And why on earth do you spend so much of your life working on it if you don’t care about it?

Don’t fall into the trap of just working on a brand. You need to feel something for it. You need to care. It rubs off on others. It fuels the quality of your work. And it’s a source of energy and resilience for you personally. 

So if your business isn’t already doing this, you need to bring back regular brand passion sessions. This is where you gather everyone who’ll listen and share the history of the brand, test the product versus the competition, play the ad reel, bring the consumer to life and talk about the exciting future ahead. 

Booze brands are great at this. Your brand can be too. You owe it to yourself, your colleagues and your consumers.

taplio

The Battle

Joe Glover

Chris Lock

Followers

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taplio

The Battle

Joe Glover

Chris Lock

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Joe Glover's LinkedIn Performance

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