François Bazini, CMO of Suntory Beverage & Food Europe is one of the most thoughtful brand CMOs in global FMCG

François shares a rare, inside view of what it really means to be a brand steward in organisations like Danone, BCG, PepsiCo and Suntory. From resisting short-term zig-zagging, to building brands that can withstand private label pressure, this conversation goes deep on the realities of modern brand leadership. We explore why marketers must act as brand CEOs, how tension with CFOs can be productive rather than problematic, and why targeting older audiences is one of the most under-exploited growth opportunities in marketing today. François also unpacks the Ribena turnaround, Schweppes’ response to Fever-Tree, and why most advertising testing is misunderstood. This is a wide-ranging, honest discussion about judgment, evidence, culture, and the long game in brand building.

Topics include: Brand stewardship vs short-termism, marketing ROI, working with finance, global vs local marketing roles, age targeting myths, private label competition, creative testing, and why some brands endure while others drift.

03:25 – Career path: from Danone to consulting and global brand roles

04:55 – What BCG teaches marketers about being fact-based

07:00 – Brand stewardship and avoiding strategic zig-zagging

09:30 – Timeless vs timely brand decisions

11:00 – Marketing ROI beyond short-term sales

12:30 – Marketers as brand CEOs

13:45 – Working with CFOs and productive tension

16:00 – Global vs local marketing roles

20:00 – Ribena: brand decline and recovery

22:30 – Going back to a brand’s peak moment

26:00 – The myth of always targeting youth

29:00 – Schweppes, Fever-Tree and category disruption

31:45 – Targeting over-45s unapologetically

34:00 – Media thresholds and focus over fragmentation

35:45 – Moving beyond marketing mix modelling

38:15 – The limits of advertising testing

41:00 – When great ads fail tests but succeed commercially

42:20 – Competing with private label

43:00 – DAQV: desirability, affordability, quality, visibility

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What happens when a radio comedian, a senior drinks marketer, and a 2,000-year-old Roman hydration recipe collide?

In this episode of That’s What I Call Marketing, Conor Byrne sits down with Merrick Watts and Ed Stening, co-founders of Posca Hydrate — a sugar-free, hypertonic hydration drink inspired by ancient Roman Posca.

Posca isn’t a nostalgia play. It’s a sugar-free, hypertonic drink inspired by a Roman solution to unsafe water — rebuilt for modern life, modern habits, and modern expectations. That means confronting everything from flavour and formulation to packaging, positioning, and retail resistance.

Along the way, Merrick and Ed unpack a set of ideas that matter far beyond drinks:

Why liquid still matters more than marketing.

Why category creation is harder than brand building.

Why refusing “me-too” formats can slow growth — but protect belief.

And why brands should aim for humour, not jokes.

Merrick explains why jokes age quickly, but a sense of humour travels across audiences, occasions, and time and how that thinking shapes Posca’s tone, creative decisions, and internal culture. It’s not about being funny. It’s about not taking yourself seriously while taking the product seriously.

They also discuss building brand in-house rather than outsourcing belief, measuring brand as a startup using Tracksuit, balancing mental and physical availability, and what it really takes to scale a challenger brand globally without losing the story that made it matter in the first place.

This is a conversation about founders, flavour, brand discipline, and the uncomfortable decisions that come with doing something genuinely different.

3:50 – From radio comedy to drinks founder

5:50 – Why the liquid comes first

7:50 – The Roman origin of Posca

10:50 – Turning history into a brand story

14:50 – Ancient wisdom meets modern science

16:20 – Building brand from the inside out

19:50 – Tone, humour, and taking the product seriously

23:50 – Building a category, not fitting one

29:50 – Brand vs physical availability

32:50 – Measuring

34:50 – Global expansion strategy

38:50 – The hypertonic breakthrough moment

44:50 – Risk and belief

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Kit Kats Global Head of Marketing Shares what it really takes to build and protect an iconic global brand?

In this season opener for Season 5 of That’s What I Call Marketing, Conor Byrne is joined by Wael Jabi, KitKats Global Head of Marketing at Nestlé, for a deep conversation about brand judgement, consistency, partnerships, and the decisions that quietly shape long-term growth.

Wael’s career spans Leo Burnett, Procter & Gamble, and Nestlé, and the discussion moves well beyond surface-level case studies. Together, they explore what KitKat teaches us about resisting reinvention, diagnosing the right marketing problems under pressure, and how major cultural platforms like Formula 1 can be used to express brand meaning rather than dilute it.

This is a practical, reflective conversation for CMOs, brand leaders, and senior marketers who care about building brands that last not just chasing short-term performance.

Topics covered include:

• Why most brands don’t need reinvention they need restraint
• The marketing failure that taught Wael when price becomes the wrong answer
• What KitKat gets right about consistency and memory structures
• How to think about F1 and major sponsorships without losing brand meaning
• Brand vs performance decisions under pressure
• Why judgement matters more than tactics at senior levels

01:55 – Wael’s career path: agency to P&G

05:50 – Why advertising isn’t the most important thing

09:40 – A pricing decision that went wrong

14:20 – Diagnosing the wrong marketing problem

18:40 – KitKat and brand consistency

23:15 – “Breaks are broken” insight

26:50 – Making iconic work at global scale

30:20 – Formula 1 and partnerships

34:50 – Showing up in your world vs theirs

38:20 – Judgement under pressure

41:00 – What’s next for KitKat

Thanks to Tracksuit for their partnership with this episode, check out https://www.gotracksuit.com to find out more about the always on brand tracking platform

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