Rare Beauty is a brand built on the inclusive approach to beauty set by their celebrity founder, Selena Gomez. They've taken the US market by storm and so I'm speaking to their CMO, Katie Welch, about how they've done it. From strong positioning and making a difference in mental health across their customer base to growing a strong presence on social media (with a little help from their founder with over 400m Instagram followers), Rare Beauty is a wonderful success story of a challenger brand.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Katie’s career background
07:46 - How Katie joined Rare Beauty
11:09 - The challenges of launching a startup beauty brand
14:19 - The positioning of Rare Beauty
16:21 - New guest host interruption
16:58 - Being true to the brand positioning
19:48 - Being a purpose led brand
22:47 - Addressing the pressures of social media
26:27 - Building the Rare Beauty brand on social media
28:22 - How involved does Selena Gomez get in the Rare Beauty brand
29:57 - The secret to a successful product launch for Rare Beauty
33:00 - Dealing with the growth challenges of a scale up
40:36 - Evolving the Rare Beauty community
42:24 - What’s next for the Rare Beauty brand?
42:47 - Being an entreprenuer in a startup
45:09 - Katie growing her own social accounts

This episode is a QSR masterclass. Ken Muench is the CMO of Yum! brands, who own Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut. I speak to Ken about how he started the agency that got acquired by Yum! (The Collider Lab) and his journey to being the CMO of such a large group of brands. We also talk about how all CMOs within Yum! are encouraged to swing big to make impactful campaigns and drive innovation within their brands. Ken is also the co-author of "R.E.D Marketing: The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands" which breaks down why Relevance, Ease and Distinctiveness are essential for QSR brands.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 - Intro
• 01:07 - Ken’s career background
• 03:44 - In-house vs agency creative
• 06:39 - Taking bigger swings
• 07:46 - The secret to the success of The Collider Lab
• 12:06 - Food is fuel vs experience
• 14:42 - Why Ken wrote the book: R.E.D Marketing
• 17:29 - The R.E.D framework
• 20:51 - How brands grow
• 23:58 - Why “ease” is an untapped opportunity for marketers
• 28:26 - The power of distinctive assets
• 30:31 - Changing the Taco Bell strapline to Live Mas!
• 32:52 - How Yum! brands approach innovation
• 37:14 - How Yum! brands innovation scored
• 41:29 - What happens when innovation goes wrong
• 44:10 - Saucy by KFC
• 47:47 - The innovators dilemma
• 49:44 - Taking chances: KFC FCK campaign
• 51:48 - Ken’s favourite moments as Yum! CMO
• 53:01 - How to be a successful CMO at such a large brand
• 55:44 - What makes a great CMO

Marcel Marcondes is the CMO of AB InBev, who run the largest portfolio of beer brands in the world. Stella Artois, Corona, Michelob Ultra and Budwieser are all under the marketing leadership of Marcel. Through creativity and consistency, AB InBev have produced some of the most effective campaigns of the past few years, often topping out the System1 charts. This has led to Marcel and his team to win some incredible awards, including WFA marketer of the year (Marcel) and most effective marketer of the year by the Effies (AB InBev).

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
00:48 - Marcel’s journey to running the biggest portfolio in the world
03:51 - The global beer brands Marcel oversees
04:27 - How to manage such a large portfolio of brands
07:04 - Being the most effective marketing team for the past 3 years
09:39 - The Olympics partnership
13:08 - How important is creativity to deliver effectiveness
16:35 - How to demonstrate the power of marketing internally
18:10 - Why campaign consistency is so important for AB InBev
21:25 - The most effective ad by AB InBev
22:39 - Having 4 brands with Super Bowl ads
24:53 - Stella Artois 2025 Super Bowl ad with David Beckham
30:20 - Michelob Ultra at Super Bowl
33:29 - Executing a campaign across platforms
36:18 - The relationship with creative agencies
40:07 - Marcel’s advice to CMOs