Embracing Marketing Mistakes

By Prohibition PR

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Category: Marketing

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Subscribers: 13
Reviews: 0
Episodes: 176

Description

Welcome to Embracing Marketing Mistakes, the world’s leading irreverent podcast for senior marketers who are tired of the polished corporate b*llshit. 

Join Chris Norton and Will Ockenden, founders of the award-winning Prohibition PR, as they sit down with industry leaders to dissect the career-ending f*ck-ups they’d rather forget. The show moves past any pretty vanity metrics to uncover the brutal, honest truths behind marketing disasters, from £30,000 SEO black holes and completely failed companies, to social media crises that went globally viral for all the wrong reasons.

We don't just celebrate the f*ck-ups; we extract the tactical blueprints you need to avoid them yourself. If you are a business owner, or a CMO looking for a competitive advantage that only comes from real-world experience, this is your weekly masterclass in resilience and strategy.

  • Listen for: Raw stories from top brands, ex-McKinsey strategists, and industry disruptors.
  • Learn from: The errors that cost thousands and the recoveries that saved careers.
  • Get ahead by: Turning other people's nasty disasters into your unfair market advantage.


If you have a story to tell and would like to appear on the show, tell us your biggest marketing mistake and drop us a line.



Episode Date
EP 115: The Moment Claude Co-Work Replaced 4 Days of Work in 30 Minutes
Jun 16, 2026
EP 114: We Deepfaked a CEO in 2 Minutes. Here’s What Happened
Jun 09, 2026
The Mistake That Burnt Me Out: Staying Too Long Where I Didn’t Belong
Jun 04, 2026
EP 113: Why Most CMOs Fail at Brand Strategy
Jun 02, 2026
I Took A Team To Paris And Discovered The Brief Was In Spam
May 28, 2026
EP 112: Author of Decoded Explains Why This T‑Mobile Ad Failed in One Sec
May 26, 2026
The Expedia Pitch Mix-Up: When the Wrong Logo Won the Deal
May 21, 2026
EP 111: The Typo That Lucy Woolfenden Made It Onto a 96-Sheet Billboard
May 19, 2026
The Disappearing Pitch: How a Magician Cost Us the Client
May 14, 2026
EP 110: Most Creative Directors Are Never Told What Their Job Is | Mick Mahoney
May 12, 2026
Too Many Topics, Too Few Clients: David's YouTube Marketing Mistake
May 07, 2026
EP 109: The Tweet That Broke Yorkshire Tea with Dom Dwight
May 05, 2026
The Expensive Mistake of Starting a Shop You Don’t Believe In
Apr 30, 2026
EP 108: Why 95% Of Buying Happens On Autopilot
Apr 28, 2026
The Weight We Carry: Authenticity and Mental Wellbeing in Corporate Life
Apr 23, 2026
EP 107: Award-winning ads stopped driving growth says Steve Harrison
Apr 21, 2026
What Losing a £10K Tape Taught This BBC Journalist
Apr 16, 2026
EP 106: Ant Cousins Explains Why Handing Empathy to AI Almost Went Wrong
Apr 10, 2026
The Costly Hiring Habit That Nearly Broke Sarah Clay’s Business
Apr 09, 2026
How My Coca-Cola Site Tour Ended in Disaster - Richard Shotton
Apr 02, 2026
EP 105: The Email That Destroyed 30 Years Of Customer Loyalty - Roger Dooley
Mar 31, 2026
How A PR Exec Survived Lads’ Mags, a Riot, And A Near-Top Gun Airspace Incident
Mar 26, 2026
EP 104: Why Liquid Death and Guinness Highlight Their Flaws with Phill Agnew
Mar 24, 2026
We Printed 50,000 Catalogues... With the Wrong Phone Number.
Mar 19, 2026
EP 103: From Fax Nightmares to AI: Staying Future Ready with Alistair Frost
Mar 17, 2026
What happens when creativity outpaces strategy?
Mar 12, 2026
EP 102: How Kevin Chesters Helped Make Britain’s Worst Ad
Mar 10, 2026
We almost made political history on Twitter, until they pulled the plug
Mar 05, 2026
EP 101: Stop Wasting Social Spend: 12 Social Media Trends That Will Make Or Break 2026
Mar 03, 2026
Hold My Buffalo: Samsung's Aussie Adventure Gone Wrong
Feb 26, 2026
Ep 100: 450,000 Emails and a Waterboarded Exec: The Best of 100 Episodes
Feb 24, 2026
When Exposing Bad Hairdressers Costs Eight Hours of Your Life
Feb 17, 2026
The Secret Spelling Mistake That Cost Six Figures
Feb 12, 2026
EP 99: Why PR Needs a Complete Rethink in 2026: Sarah Waddington
Feb 10, 2026
Even experts fall into their own marketing traps.
Feb 05, 2026
EP 98: Media Training Masterclass: How Leaders Land Messages in a Digital‑First World
Feb 03, 2026
From Office to Remote: A Pandemic Pivot Gone Wrong
Jan 29, 2026
EP 97: Ex-McKinsey Strategist: Why Your Strategy Will Fail - Faris Aranki
Jan 27, 2026
Behind the Skip: How Eight Students Nearly Ruined a VIP Event
Jan 22, 2026
EP 96: Community Isn’t a Campaign: Lessons from Comms Hero Asif Choudry
Jan 20, 2026
The Unlikely Path from Vatican City to Kim Jong-un's Birthday Party
Jan 15, 2026
EP 95: A £7K SEO Disaster to LinkedIn Success Story: Niraj Kapur
Jan 13, 2026
I Forgot to Book the Entire Afternoon Session of my Event.
Jan 08, 2026
EP 94: The Pink Batman Strategy: Finding Your Brand’s Inner Weird - Mark Terry-Lush
Jan 06, 2026
How A Bird, A Lost Bag, And A Typo Taught Me To Safeguard My Marketing Career
Jan 02, 2026
When Twitter Turned On Royal Mail
Dec 23, 2025
I Booked The Billboards For The Wrong Week And Somehow Didn’t Get Fired
Dec 18, 2025
EP 93: How Overinvesting in Performance Ads Cost Adobe's Andy Lambert £30k
Dec 16, 2025
The Craigslist Sandwich Board Stunt That Misfired
Dec 11, 2025
EP 92: What Ken Hughes’ 30-Foot Drop Teaches Brands About Loyalty
Dec 09, 2025
Inside the Haircare CGI Mishap That Stopped a Campaign
Dec 04, 2025
EP 91: How AI Is Transforming SEO: Chris Attewell on Google, Bing and the Future of Search
Dec 02, 2025
I Lost $25,000 On Ads And Learned Exactly What Not To Outsource
Nov 27, 2025
What Happens When Your Influencers Refuse to Use Their Own Names
Nov 25, 2025
EP 90: The Body Shop Line That Haunted Vikki Ross
Nov 18, 2025
From helping DJ Bob Sinclair to almost getting fired.
Nov 13, 2025
EP 89: The Secret Brain Hack Powering the World’s Biggest Brands with Claire Koryczan
Nov 11, 2025
Three PR Nightmares That Cost Brands Millions
Nov 06, 2025
EP 88: How I Built a PR Agency from Zero During COVID - Darryl Sparey
Nov 04, 2025
EP 87: From KFC’s Pricing Error to Expedia’s Deck Disaster: Lessons from Sam Benton on Creative Courage
Oct 28, 2025
She controlled her narrative by revealing her darkest secrets first
Oct 23, 2025
EP 86: When Google’s AI Stole Their Clicks: How Prohibition Turned a Traffic Crisis into GEO Strategy
Oct 21, 2025
Breaking the BBC Homepage: Tales from the Trenches
Oct 16, 2025
EP 85: AI-Written RFP Fail: Why Pitches Collapse
Oct 14, 2025
Knowing When to Fold: A Transatlantic Marketing Lesson
Oct 09, 2025
EP 84: Cracking the YouTube Algorithm: Lessons from Raw Data, Not Hype
Oct 07, 2025
The Gap Year that Almost Became a Career Gap
Oct 02, 2025
EP 83: Demoted at Deliveroo: Alice Ter Haar's Career-Shaking Failure
Sep 30, 2025
Webinar FAIL: That Time I Forgot to Record Our Huge Influencer Webinar
Sep 25, 2025
EP 82: Mastering LinkedIn Visibility: Four Steps to Turn Followers into Clients
Sep 23, 2025
Direct Marketing Fuck Up that Taught Me Everything Advertising Couldn't
Sep 18, 2025
EP 81: How a Prestige Client Nearly Cost Alexandra Galviz Her Authentic Brand
Sep 09, 2025
Food Marketing Gaffe: My Culinary Embarrassment with Meena Patak
Sep 04, 2025
EP 80: The 1 B2B Thought Leadership Strategy You're NOT Using in 2025
Sep 02, 2025
Sadie Straw’s Inbox Fail and the Wellness Campaign That Asked Too Much
Aug 27, 2025
EP 79: Why the BBC's Spencer Kelly Said the iPad Would Fail, Hours Before Its Launch
Aug 19, 2025
EP 78: From Zero Clients to LinkedIn Success: Sarah Clay’s Lockdown Marketing Fail
Aug 12, 2025
EP 77: Mind Games: Richard Shotton Reveals Marketing's Hidden Secrets
Jul 22, 2025
PR FAIL: I sent a press release that wasn't approved and made the 10 o'clock news.
Jul 17, 2025
EP 76: How British Wool Turned 30,000 Farmers into Brand Advocates
Jul 16, 2025
Media Training Error: The Constructive Dismissal Quip That Sparked a Training Fuck Up
Jul 10, 2025
The Molly Mae Effect: Salvaging Brand Reputation Through Community Engagement
Jul 09, 2025
Marketing Mistake: Did I Just Break Stock Market Regulations?
Jul 03, 2025
EP 75: Your Marketing Team Just Got Smarter Thanks to AI
Jul 01, 2025
Marketing Blunder: When 500 Becomes 5K: A Coney Island New Year's Disaster
Jun 26, 2025
EP 74: Are You Still Measuring Outputs When You Should Be Measuring Outcomes?
Jun 24, 2025
FAIL: Hops and Dreams: The Beer That Nobody "Cheers'd" To
Jun 19, 2025
EP 73: The Art of Authentic Brand Storytelling: Rachel Massey on Breaking Through B2B Blandness
Jun 17, 2025
Marketing Mishap: Using My Name As My Password Wasn't Great
Jun 12, 2025
FAIL: When your business feels like your baby, you take the losses personally
Jun 05, 2025
FAIL: "I Started an Online Wine Business Right Before Lockdown"
May 29, 2025
Oinking Outside the Box: Marketing Lessons from a Cartoon Pregnancy
May 27, 2025
FAIL: I was almost printed on the front page of a national newspaper
May 22, 2025
EP 72: Why Lazy Content Will Kill Your Brand
May 20, 2025
Marketing FAIL: How I made 120,000 Anglers Angry
May 15, 2025
EP 71: The Future of Chocolate Is Hidden in Volcanic Soil
May 13, 2025
The Art of Global Content with Shaheen Samavati
May 06, 2025
EP 70: "Getting Fired Was the Best Career Move I Ever Made"
Apr 29, 2025
Severance: The Marketing Masterclass Behind Apple TV's Cult Show - Campaign Crunch
Apr 23, 2025
EP 69: The Fake Follower Epidemic: Stop Vanity Metrics Killing Your Brand - Marketing Room 101 Special
Apr 15, 2025
EP 68: AI, Reddit, and Micro-Virality: Our Social Media Trends for 2025
Apr 08, 2025
EP 67: "I Didn’t Pay Myself for 3 Years" - How Agorapulse Built a Thriving Business
Mar 31, 2025
EP 66: YouTube Dominance: Why Most Brands Fail at Video Marketing
Mar 25, 2025
EP 65: How to turn passionate fans into your most powerful marketing channel, with Paul Archer
Mar 19, 2025
EP 64: How a Family Cleaning Brand 'Swept Up' the Competition, with Howard Moss
Mar 11, 2025
EP 63: Crisis Control 2025: What to Do When It All Goes Wrong
Mar 04, 2025
EP 62: Why Comms Teams Are Wasting £10K a Month (And How to Fix It)
Feb 25, 2025
EP 61: The Powerful Role of Psychology in Business and Marketing with Abby Dixon
Feb 18, 2025
EP 60: How to Avoid the Dirty Tricks from the Media with Helen Nugent
Feb 11, 2025
EP 59: Why Your PR ROI is Failing – And How to Fix It
Feb 04, 2025
EP 58: It’s Better to Belong: The Art of Building Customer Loyalty in Competitive Markets
Jan 28, 2025
EP 57: The £400 Billboard That Made Headlines: Mark Rofe’s Love-Seeking PR Stunt
Jan 21, 2025
EP 56: From Zero to 110K Downloads: Master Podcasting in 2025 to Transform Your Brand
Jan 14, 2025
EP 55: How Gap Leveraged TikTok Trends for a Bold Fashion Move
Jan 07, 2025
EP 54: Failing Forward: Brian Keane’s Road From Broke to Bestseller
Dec 03, 2024
EP 53: The Report That Scared CMOs: AI, Backlash, and Budget Squeezes
Nov 26, 2024
EP 52: Unlocking 40% Profit Margins: The Secret to Agency Pricing Success
Nov 19, 2024
EP 51: Why 80% of New Grocery Products Fail: Lessons from the Food & Beverage Sectors
Nov 12, 2024
EP 50: 450K Emails in One Hour?! How a HubSpot Blunder Turned into a Nightmare
Nov 05, 2024
EP 49: How to Build a Premium Brand: Insights from Lexus - Mat Thomas
Oct 29, 2024
EP 48: £15M and 37 Downloads: Inside the Kylie Minogue Campaign That Went Horribly Wrong - Tom Goodwin
Oct 15, 2024
EP 47: How Can You Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking? Jayne Constantinis
Oct 08, 2024
EP 46: Why My Generosity Flopped: The Reciprocity Lesson Marketers Need - Phill Agnew Nudge
Oct 01, 2024
EP 45: Is Guaranteed Coverage Really Just Paid Media in Disguise? Chris Pharo Explains
Sep 24, 2024
EP 44: How Top Marketers Avoid Vanity Metrics and Focus on Real Growth
Sep 17, 2024
EP 43: How to Master Strategic Copywriting and Boost Freelance Success with Sarah Townsend
Sep 10, 2024
EP 42: Falling Over, Failed Funnels, and Facebook Ad Fiascos: 50 Episodes of Mistakes
Sep 03, 2024
EP 41: How Class Diversity Can Be the Secret to Your Marketing Strategy with Lisa Thompson
Aug 27, 2024
EP 40: Can a Government Campaign Change the World? Lessons from COVID and COP26 - Anil Manji
Aug 20, 2024
EP 39: Why Weird Works: The Secret to Guerrilla Marketing Success with Peter Freedman
Aug 13, 2024
EP 38: How your brand can get the most out of Pinterest - Meagan Williamson
Aug 06, 2024
EP 37: How the Wrong AI Approach Is Costing Brands Big: Lessons for Smarter Implementation - Andrew Bruce Smith
Jul 30, 2024
EP 36: Can AR Technology Transform Brand Advertising or Is It Just Hype?
Jul 23, 2024
EP 35: The Hairy Fail: Gareth Turner’s PR Nightmare with a Human Hair Coat
Jul 16, 2024
How brands can learn from the Saka x Nando's collaboration - Campaign Crunch
Jul 09, 2024
EP 34: How a Twitter Fail Sparked Stuart Bruce’s AI Journey in PR
Jul 02, 2024
EP 33: When Marketing Stunts Backfire: Lessons from Paddy Power’s Oscar Pistorius Ad Fail
Jun 25, 2024
EP 32: What Crisis Management Secrets Can Save Your Brand from Scandal? Ann Wright
Jun 18, 2024
Embracing Marketing Mistakes Podcast Trailer
Jun 13, 2024
EP 31: How Does Audible Mix Audiobook Success with Marketing Challenges? Richard Noble
Jun 04, 2024
EP 30: How to Master Your Social Media Strategy
May 28, 2024
Revving Up Equality: Ford's Empowering Campaign with Sydney Sweeney - Campaign Crunch
May 21, 2024
EP 29: How to "suck less" at public speaking at conferences - Rich Mulholland
May 14, 2024
What Can We Learn from Olaplex's Battle Against Imitators?
May 07, 2024
EP 28: Walmarting Across America Failure and other hot influencer marketing lessons with former Ogilvy CEO Marshall Manson
Apr 30, 2024
What Made Stanley’s Rebrand a Perfect Fit for Gen Z?
Apr 23, 2024
EP 27: How Did a Data-Driven Algorithm Almost Derail a Marketing Project at Hillary’s?
Apr 16, 2024
What Made Dunkin’s Campaign with Ben Affleck a Cultural Phenomenon?
Apr 09, 2024
EP 26: The Perils of Auto-Reminders: What I Learned from Sending Hundreds of People the Wrong Date
Apr 02, 2024
How Did Norwich City FC and Samaritans Create a Viral Mental Health Campaign?
Mar 26, 2024
EP 25: The Santa Claus Crisis: Greg Matusky’s Most Unbelievable PR Fail
Mar 19, 2024
EP 24: How to perfect your pitch with Lord Sugar's PR Guru - Andrew Bloch
Mar 12, 2024
EP 23: How to Navigate SEO and Online Reputation Management with Gerry White
Feb 27, 2024
EP 22: Threads, AI, and the LinkedIn Boom: Social Media Trends 2024
Feb 20, 2024
EP 21: Barbenheimer, Bud Light, and Social Media Fails: Top Marketing Lessons of 2023
Feb 13, 2024
EP 20: Are Your Surveys Falling Flat? How to Ask the Right Questions for Better Results
Jan 30, 2024
EP 19: How to maintain performance and culture in a remote working world.
Jan 25, 2024
EP 18: How to Protect Your Brand Against Misinformation with Ant Cousins
Jan 16, 2024
EP 17: Is Your Employer Brand Driving Away Top Talent? Melanie Parker
Jan 02, 2024
EP 16: Is Twitter Worth the Risk? Examining Brand Safety in the Elon Musk Era
Dec 18, 2023
EP 15: How to maximise the use of AI in PR and Marketing Campaigns
Dec 12, 2023
EP 14: Is Your Message Getting Lost in Boring Interviews? Here’s How to Fix It
Dec 04, 2023
EP 13: How did customer complaints fuel a business revolution?
Nov 21, 2023
EP 12: Navigating the Freelance Landscape: Insights, Challenges, and the Power of Podcasting - Paul Sutton
Nov 07, 2023
EP 11: Is AI the Ultimate Disruptor in PR? Wadds on the Future of Misinformation
Oct 24, 2023
EP 10: Are Craft Beers Really Crafty? The Truth Behind Big Beer Marketing Tactics - Rachel Auty
Oct 10, 2023
Socially Unacceptable - Podcast Show Trailer
Oct 06, 2023
EP 9: Can TikTok Really Work for B2B? Here’s What You Need to Know - Tom Basgil
Sep 26, 2023
EP 8: How I Lost Six Figures and My First Business - Josh Lachkovic
Sep 11, 2023
EP 7: The Death of the ‘Kardashian Effect’: Why Influencer Marketing Needs a Makeover
Sep 04, 2023
EP 6: Top Red Flags in Client Pitches and How to Avoid Bad Deals - Chris Simmons
Aug 29, 2023
EP 5: How a Secret Admirer’s Harsh Critique Transformed My Career - Cassie Moyse
Aug 15, 2023
EP 4: Will ChatGPT or Gemini Transform Marketing Departments or Threaten Their Future? - Andrew Bruce Smith
Aug 01, 2023
EP 3: Why Should Marketers Dig Deep Into Their Values? Uncovering Personal and Brand Purpose with Andy Green
Jul 17, 2023
EP 2: How to Measure Marketing Campaigns Properly
Jul 04, 2023
EP 1: The Future of Video on Social Media Explained
Jun 16, 2023