Last year, I sat down with Jaguar MD Rawdon Glover to unpack one of the most controversial rebrands in automotive history. Now, the car is real and I got a chance to ride around the test track in it.

Joined by Rory Sutherland, we travelled to Jaguar’s HQ to experience the new car in prototype form. What followed was a conversation on whether this radical reinvention is genius or madness.

We dive into the thinking behind the design, the disappearing trade-offs between performance and comfort, and why Jaguar is deliberately challenging convention. Rory brings his trademark perspective on behaviour and perception, including how to rethink “range anxiety” and what makes a product feel truly desirable.

This is a rare look inside a brand attempting one of the boldest transformations in modern automotive history.

Timestamps

00:00 - Start
01:10 - What has gone into creating the new Jaguar?
04:00 - Balancing performance and comfort
05:43 - The power of choosing conflicting goals
07:51 - Why the new Jaguar is being tested on ice?
10:32 - How close is the concept car to the production car?
12:54 - Who is the target audience for the new Jaguar?
14:30 - The design process of the new Jaguar
18:41 - The Spirit of Jaguar Campaign
20:46 - Why the metrics for electric cars need to change
22:13 - Why the new Jaguar is a bargain at £130,000
25:34 - Will petrolheads like this car?
26:37 - Why electrification changes the paradigm of what’s possible
30:47 - Rory’s pitch for removing battery anxiety
33:08 - Why Ferrari and Lamborghini took different approaches to EVs
35:21 - Will the new Jaguar be a Waymo?
36:27 - How are Jaguar predicting demand for this car?
36:41 - How will Jaguar predict demand for the car?
37:57 - The marketing plan for the new Jaguar
40:57 - Is the residual value of electric cars a worry?
42:12 - Customisation options for the new Jaguar
46:03 - What would Rory do if he was in charge of Jaguar
49:26 - The decision behind the bold car colours

Getting fired is one of the most humbling experiences in business, and one of the most instructive. In this episode, Kory and Jon get candid about the times they've been let go, what went wrong, and the hard-won lessons that followed. Jon in particular has a story or two to share (including getting fired twice in 18 months), and between them they unpack what it really takes to survive and thrive in high-stakes leadership roles.

Get Uncensored Renegades every week:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/uncensored-renegades/id1868870960
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7qnkqq0XSpgif9A5ZNgSpX?si=f181c3a0e9af480c

Timestamps

00:00 - Start
01:22 - What Jon learned from being fired twice
03:35 - How not to get fired
08:20 - How to understand your boss (so you don’t get fired)
10:50 - Align yourself with the company, not just personal goals
13:11 - How Jon got fired for the second time in 18 months
16:12 - Are you the right person to work for a high growth company?
17:50 - Be careful where you get hired

It’s not often you meet a CMO who helped build a unicorn from the ground up while creating an entirely new category. Steve Beckett, CMO of Zwift, joined as employee number five and played a key role in turning Zwift into the global sporting powerhouse it now is.

In this episode, Steve shares how Zwift balanced performance marketing with brand building, deeply understanding the acquisition metrics while making bold brand bets, including becoming the founding sponsor of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. We also explore how the business scaled through COVID, the bold move to launch their own hardware, and the role brand played in raising capital.

This is a conversation about what it really takes to build a category-defining company and why the best CMOs understand both the metrics and the magic.

Sign up to our live event, The Calling, on April 21st here:
https://event.uncensoredcmo.com/events/uncensoredcmo/2044861

Subscribe to our newsletter, The One Thing:
https://newsletter.uncensoredcmo.com/

Listen to our new podcast, Uncensored Renegades:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/uncensored-renegades/id1868870960
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7qnkqq0XSpgif9A5ZNgSpX?si=f181c3a0e9af480c

Timestamps

00:00 - Start
02:51 - Steve’s work with team Sky
05:05 - Learning about success inside Team Sky
07:09 - From Sky to employee number 5 at Zwift
08:36 - How Zwift invented the indoor training category
13:37 - The behavioural science behind Zwift
14:51 - Has anyone turned pro from riding on Zwift?
17:18 - How Covid impacted Zwift
23:11 - Growing at all costs vs profitability
27:28 - Whats it like working for a founder led startup
29:50 - How brand helped Zwift raise money
32:06 - From selling software to selling hardware
34:14 - Why Zwift sponsor the women’s Tour De France
38:09 - Advice on how to create a unicorn business