The show, episode by episode

Embracing Marketing Mistakes

Prohibition PR

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…

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Embracing Marketing Mistakes

EP 133: Uber Eats&#39; First Marketing Hire On AI Search

You Waited 15 Minutes for a Taxi. Now Seven Feels Rude

EP 132: Why LinkedIn Reach Is Down And What Still Works

My TEDx Talk Got 2,000 Views. Everyone Else Got 30,000

EP 131: How An SEO Intern Got A Mashable Journalist To Cover Her Pitch

I Spent 30 Years Building Everyone Else&#39;s Brand

EP 130: Gerry Hopkinson Sold His Agency, Stayed Five Years, And Became A Cultural Strategist

Six People Trolled Me. It Felt Like Sixty Thousand

Spending £30k on Influencers for Five Signups

EP 129: Unbounce&#39;s VP Of Marketing Explains What Actually Wins AI Search Visibility Now

I Made the Worst Ad in British History

EP 128: Why CFOs Keep Killing Influencer Budgets

One Tweet About Sleeping Beauty Ended in Death Threats

EP 127: Professor Jim Macnamara Says Most Of The PR Industry Is Still Measuring The Wrong Thing

He Asked for Honest Feedback. Then Never Spoke to Me

EP 126: The Emotion Behind Every B2B Purchase Nobody Markets To - Talia Wolf

EP 125: The PR Launch That Cleared The Building

EP 124: He Built His Own AI Company Then Shut It Down

EP 123: Why I Recommended the Man Who Fired Me - John O&#39;Keeffe

EP 122: The Sales Funnel Is a Hundred Years Old and Wrong

EP 121: I Invented a Category, Sold to Diageo, and Almost Lost It All

EP 120: We Fired 30 People and Nothing Changed

EP 119: Moz Founder: &#39;I Was Making $50M a Year and Miserable&#39;

EP 118: This One Habit Cost Me 100 Million YouTube Views

From Petrified Wood to Pints Social Proof Gone Wrong

EP 117: 70% of Teams Are Using AI With Zero Oversight. Here’s What Happened

How a Transparency Slip Sparked a PR Firestorm

EP 116: "SEO Is Dead. It&#39;s an $85 Billion Market and It&#39;s Over"

The Hangover That Landed Us A Major Client

EP 115: The Moment Claude Co-Work Replaced 4 Days of Work in 30 Minutes

EP 114: We Deepfaked a CEO in 2 Minutes. Here’s What Happened

The Mistake That Burnt Me Out: Staying Too Long Where I Didn’t Belong

EP 113: Why Most CMOs Fail at Brand Strategy

I Took A Team To Paris And Discovered The Brief Was In Spam

EP 112: Author of Decoded Explains Why This T‑Mobile Ad Failed in One Sec

The Expedia Pitch Mix-Up: When the Wrong Logo Won the Deal

EP 111: The Typo That Lucy Woolfenden Made It Onto a 96-Sheet Billboard

The Disappearing Pitch: How a Magician Cost Us the Client

EP 110: Most Creative Directors Are Never Told What Their Job Is | Mick Mahoney

Too Many Topics, Too Few Clients: David&#39;s YouTube Marketing Mistake

EP 109: The Tweet That Broke Yorkshire Tea with Dom Dwight

The Expensive Mistake of Starting a Shop You Don’t Believe In

EP 108: Why 95% Of Buying Happens On Autopilot

The Weight We Carry: Authenticity and Mental Wellbeing in Corporate Life

EP 107: Award-winning ads stopped driving growth says Steve Harrison

What Losing a £10K Tape Taught This BBC Journalist

EP 106: Ant Cousins Explains Why Handing Empathy to AI Almost Went Wrong

The Costly Hiring Habit That Nearly Broke Sarah Clay’s Business

How My Coca-Cola Site Tour Ended in Disaster - Richard Shotton

EP 105: The Email That Destroyed 30 Years Of Customer Loyalty - Roger Dooley

How A PR Exec Survived Lads’ Mags, a Riot, And A Near-Top Gun Airspace Incident

EP 104: Why Liquid Death and Guinness Highlight Their Flaws with Phill Agnew

We Printed 50,000 Catalogues... With the Wrong Phone Number.

EP 103: From Fax Nightmares to AI: Staying Future Ready with Alistair Frost

What happens when creativity outpaces strategy?

EP 102: How Kevin Chesters Helped Make Britain’s Worst Ad

We almost made political history on Twitter, until they pulled the plug

EP 101: Stop Wasting Social Spend: 12 Social Media Trends That Will Make Or Break 2026

Hold My Buffalo: Samsung&#39;s Aussie Adventure Gone Wrong

Ep 100: 450,000 Emails and a Waterboarded Exec: The Best of 100 Episodes

When Exposing Bad Hairdressers Costs Eight Hours of Your Life

The Secret Spelling Mistake That Cost Six Figures

EP 99: Why PR Needs a Complete Rethink in 2026: Sarah Waddington

Even experts fall into their own marketing traps.

EP 98: Media Training Masterclass: How Leaders Land Messages in a Digital‑First World

From Office to Remote: A Pandemic Pivot Gone Wrong

EP 97: Ex-McKinsey Strategist: Why Your Strategy Will Fail - Faris Aranki

Behind the Skip: How Eight Students Nearly Ruined a VIP Event

EP 96: Community Isn’t a Campaign: Lessons from Comms Hero Asif Choudry

The Unlikely Path from Vatican City to Kim Jong-un&#39;s Birthday Party

EP 95: A £7K SEO Disaster to LinkedIn Success Story: Niraj Kapur

I Forgot to Book the Entire Afternoon Session of my Event.

EP 94: The Pink Batman Strategy: Finding Your Brand’s Inner Weird - Mark Terry-Lush

How A Bird, A Lost Bag, And A Typo Taught Me To Safeguard My Marketing Career

When Twitter Turned On Royal Mail

I Booked The Billboards For The Wrong Week And Somehow Didn’t Get Fired

EP 93: How Overinvesting in Performance Ads Cost Adobe&#39;s Andy Lambert £30k

The Craigslist Sandwich Board Stunt That Misfired

EP 92: What Ken Hughes’ 30-Foot Drop Teaches Brands About Loyalty

EP 133: Uber Eats' First Marketing Hire On AI Search

I Spent 30 Years Building Everyone Else's Brand

EP 129: Unbounce's VP Of Marketing Explains What Actually Wins AI Search Visibility Now

EP 123: Why I Recommended the Man Who Fired Me - John O'Keeffe

EP 119: Moz Founder: 'I Was Making $50M a Year and Miserable'

EP 116: "SEO Is Dead. It's an $85 Billion Market and It's Over"

Too Many Topics, Too Few Clients: David's YouTube Marketing Mistake

Hold My Buffalo: Samsung's Aussie Adventure Gone Wrong

The Unlikely Path from Vatican City to Kim Jong-un's Birthday Party

EP 93: How Overinvesting in Performance Ads Cost Adobe's Andy Lambert £30k

EP 83: Demoted at Deliveroo: Alice Ter Haar's Career-Shaking Failure

Direct Marketing Fuck Up that Taught Me Everything Advertising Couldn't

EP 80: The 1 B2B Thought Leadership Strategy You're NOT Using in 2025

EP 79: Why the BBC's Spencer Kelly Said the iPad Would Fail, Hours Before Its Launch

EP 77: Mind Games: Richard Shotton Reveals Marketing's Hidden Secrets

PR FAIL: I sent a press release that wasn't approved and made the 10 o'clock news.

Marketing Blunder: When 500 Becomes 5K: A Coney Island New Year's Disaster

FAIL: Hops and Dreams: The Beer That Nobody "Cheers'd" To

Marketing Mishap: Using My Name As My Password Wasn't Great

Severance: The Marketing Masterclass Behind Apple TV's Cult Show - Campaign Crunch

EP 64: How a Family Cleaning Brand 'Swept Up' the Competition, with Howard Moss