Rory O'Neill, CMO of Checkout.com, doesn't just solve for payments- he's solving for brand preference in a crowded payments space. And he's doing it by competing on what's different, not what others do better.

That insight changes everything, from how you position payments to how you build a team that can sustain growth as a challenger.

In the latest episode of Scratch, Rory breaks down the playbook that lets Checkout compete with global giants. Brand preference wins 95% of B2B deals before salespeople ever show up- so your marketing owns the invisible 60% of the buyer's journey. Challenger brands win by picking one fight and building culture around it, not chasing everything competitors do. He reveals the three-part formula: focus your core business, build your culture, reinvest profit. Consumer marketing skills-data, insight, action-are B2B's secret superpower. And his rule: if you wouldn't say it at dinner, don't write it in marketing.

The key takeaway:

1. Brand preference wins deals - 95% of the time, the brands on the day-one top-five list are the ones that win. B2B buyers spend 60% of their journey before contacting a salesperson.
2. Define your focus as a challenger - Compete on what's different, not on what competitors do better. Checkout only does digital payments to stay focused while competitors spread across multiple business lines.
3. Three elements beat category norms - Focus on your core business, build the human operating system (culture, people, vision), then reinvest capital in new products.
4. Consumer marketer skills are powerful in B2B - Data, insight, action, brand building, and performance marketing from the consumer world unlock B2B success.
5. Understand stakeholder maps - B2B is complex: CTOs influence CFOs, recommenders influence buyers. Map those relationships to win.
6. Simplify your language - Ditch jargon like "frictionless" and "seamless." Use words you'd use at dinner. Marketing becomes more interesting and understood.
7. Marketing is logic and magic - Be both data-driven and creative. Avoid letting fiefdoms kill integrated work. Join everything together.

Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/chR0mn9Pum0

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he's joined by Rory O'Neill of Checkout.com in this episode.

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn

Find Eric on LinkedIn

Find Rory on LinkedIn

Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we'd love to hear from you.

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024

In this episode of Scratch, Viren sits down with Misbah Uraizee from Nectar Social to dismantle one of marketing's most persistent myths. The truth? Organic and paid media are complementary engines, and brands that still silo them are leaving serious growth on the table.

Misbah breaks down the post-iOS 14 reality and reveals the exact playbooks modern challenger brands are using to scale today.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Post-iOS 14 Reality: Why the entire class of brands built on cheap paid ads simply no longer exists.
• Year-One CPG Playbooks: What the fastest-growing brands actually do in their first year (hint: it has nothing to do with media spend).
• Killing Vanity Metrics: Why follower count is the metric that refuses to die—and what you should be measuring instead.
• TikTok Shop’s True Role: How to properly integrate it into your modern marketing mix.
• Measuring the Unmeasurable: How to spot the "halo effects" that prove social is working before the revenue data catches up.
• The AI Equalizer: Why "taste" is the last true differentiator for marketers in a world where everyone has the same AI tools.

Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/v5lbv-u9bOk

Links & Resources:

🖊️Mentioned in the show:

• MetiCube
• Amp By Rival
• The Rival 50: The Best Challenger Brands of 2025

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn

Find Viren on LinkedIn

Find Misbah on Linkedin

Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we’d love to hear from you.

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Viren Samani, and he’s joined by Misbah Uraizee of Nectar Social in this episode

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024

Pranav breaks down why the way we've always tested products and campaigns is fundamentally broken, how 90% of all decision-making happens in the subconscious, and why asking people what they think is almost completely useless. Neuro Insight's brain-mapping technology cuts through the noise, accessing the hidden drivers of human behaviour that people can't even articulate themselves.

They also get into why marketing didn't just break on its own - culture broke first - and what it's going to take to fix it, from rediscovering the lost craft of storytelling to building the kind of CMO courage that puts real money behind real conviction.

Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/BLXF2kAqoWc

🖊️Mentioned in the show:

• AI Marathon

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Viren Samani, and he’s joined by Pranav Yadev of Neuro Insight in this episode.

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn

Find Viren on LinkedIn

Find Yadev on Linkedin

Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we’d love to hear from you.

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024

Miguel gets into the brand discipline behind the growth. Why Bootlegger turned down trends their own customers were asking for. How a year of navigating aviation regulations put their coffee at 30,000 feet. What drove the decision to strip the brand back to a gold dot. And why consistency, not innovation, is the framework that keeps them relevant while competitors slip.

For CMOs navigating saturated categories and the pressure to chase every trend, Miguel's approach is a useful counterweight. Bootlegger doesn't follow. It holds the line, makes two or three big plays a year, and backs quality at every touchpoint from the roastery to the runway. The result is a brand that's grown faster by doing less.

Sharp, honest, and packed with thinking you can actually use. If you're building a brand in a crowded category and trying to scale without giving ground, this one's for you.

Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube - ▶️: https://youtu.be/MXCBY5Xkgto

🖊️Mentioned in the show:

• Tashers
• Seattle
• Mugg & Bean
• FlySafair
• Black Coffee

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Viren Samani, and he’s joined by Miguel Netto of Bootlegger in this episode.

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn

Find Viren on Linkedin

Find Miguel on Linkedin

Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we’d love to hear from you.

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024

Gyve shares how SURI found its edge by listening closely to real customer frustrations and rethinking the product from the ground up, from design and performance to sustainability. Instead of treating sustainability as the headline, SURI builds products people genuinely want to use first, then makes them better for the planet.

It also dives into how SURI is translating that momentum into retail, competing on shelf through design, clarity, and brand recognition, while continuing to evolve as a work in progress, including early validation from Jony Ive that reinforced their belief in design as a core differentiator.

Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/0n5MyEr06NM

🖊️Mentioned in the show:

• Brands to watch

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Viren Samani, and he’s joined by Gyve Safavi of Suri in this episode

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn.

Find Viren on LinkedIn

Find Gyve on LinkedIn.

Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we’d love to hear from you.

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024

The conversation explores why Navy Federal focuses on being "precious to few, but relevant to many". By prioritizing active duty military and their families, they build a foundation of trust that naturally scales to the broader veteran community.

In a landscape where brands often prioritize efficiency, Navy Federal focuses on authenticity. This philosophy shines through in their "brandformance" strategy, a blend of brand and performance that balances rational product needs with emotional trust.

Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️:https://youtu.be/jlpq3Mzc_hg

Favorite challenger brand: Rocket Mortgages

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Pam Piligian of Navy Federal Credit Union in this episode

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn, Twitter.

Find Eric on LinkedIn

Find Pam Piligian on LinkedIn.

Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we’d love to hear from you.

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024

Instead of following trends, Satisfy chooses to build a brand that’s different. Daniel said it best: “The easiest way to do something quite different is to not look at anything at all.”

In a landscape where brands benchmark competitors and chase fleeting trends, Satisfy focuses on culture. They hire for it before skill, treat customers as guests, and think in decades rather than moments.

This philosophy shines through in the Satisfy Pro Team. It’s not just a sponsorship roster, but a reflection of the brand’s commitment to process and discipline.

The key takeaway: Most brands chase relevance, but Satisfy builds consistency. They react to culture, while Satisfy hires for it. They aim for long-term impact, not short-term hype.

This conversation is a masterclass in long-term brand strategy and the discipline of saying no.

Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/CRUMwdDoj5o

🖊️Mentioned in the show:

• Satisfy Pro Team - https://satisfyrunning.com/pages/satisfy-pro-team

-Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he’s joined by Daniel Groh of SATISFY in this episode

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn

Find Eric on LinkedIn

Find Daniel on Linkedin

Say hi at media@wearerival.com, we’d love to hear from you.

Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗 https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024