James Langan

A Bloody Mary in a can?! Sounds like a bloody match made in heaven.This week on Behaviour Changing Ideas podcast Neil is joined by Bloody Mary enthusiast Will Best, who’s idea behind Bloody Drinks started with his and his mate’s frustration that you can never find a decent Bloody Mary in a pub. Neil and Will discuss the many more elements that go into a good Bloody Mary than your standard Pornstar Martini, the difficulties and challenges of working on a start-up, and how an investor defrauding the Danish Government led him to co-found Bloody Drinks. The canned drinks market is constantly growing in popularity, and Will spent over 2 years ensuring his Bloody Mary was the best out there. Bloody Drinks are now available at many top supermarkets, have won the Great Taste Award 2021, and proved that a Bloody Mary is suitable at any time of the day, and anywhere on the go.Discover more behaviour changing ideas and subscribe to The HeyHuman Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

10 years. That’s how long Oliver Steeds thinks we have left to halt the irreversible damage to our oceans.Speaking with Oliver, Chief Executive and Mission Director for Nekton Foundation, our CEO Neil learnt how changing our perception of what is “free” and the power of scarcity might just hold the answer to saving the planet.Are the solutions staring us right in the face? What more we could all be doing if the pace of political change is so worryingly slow? Does it start with smaller, individual behaviour changes? Should we all be going for a trip to the seaside?! At times, it’s unclear who is interviewing who…The latest episode of our Behaviour Changing Ideas podcast is essential listening. Scary, provocative, and inspiring. (Oliver is also great company.)Oliver is a critically acclaimed investigative journalist and broadcaster. His films, reports and series have been broadcast by @NBC, @ABC, @Al Jazeera, @Channel 4 and @Discovery Channels. 

We’ve all been busy bees and #dryjanuary is finally over which means we’re talking BEER. Specifically, honey beer.  This week on the Behaviour Changing Ideas podcast Neil is #buzzing to be joined by fellow beekeeper, friend of the agency, and beer enthusiast, Hannah Rhodes, founder of Hiver Beer. Neil and Hannah discuss the fast-paced, saturated market of craft beers (and their steep rise in popularity over recent years), the importance of building human connection with your audience, and what would the podcast be without touching on surviving through a global pandemic? Hannah has been chosen in Management Today & the Sunday Times '35 under 35 to watch' and was Winner of 'Britain's Next Top Supplier 2014'. Check out the Hiver Beer taproom in Bermondsey for a brewery and hive tour! 

What better way to kick off the new year than with a brand-new episode of our Behaviour Changing Ideas podcast?!This week Neil is joined by the staggering brain and close friend of the agency, Paul Skinner, Founder of MarketingKind and Agency of the Future.Set up in the early stages of the pandemic, MarketingKind brings together marketers and business leaders to lend their creative and problem-solving skills to finding tangible solutions to real world problems. Boldly kicking off by asking the question ‘What if marketing wasn’t selfish?’ the growing community has gone on to tackle issues ranging from climate change to social inequality.It’s marketing, but not as we know it.Neil and Paul talk about the charity’s unusual and audacious launch campaign (including auctioning Rory Sutherland on eBay), its successes so far, and its grand ambitions to keep on delivering positive change in the future. 

Embarking on a 1000 mile pilgrimage across Africa to reset before then deciding you’ll build a plant-based snack food brand, that will also tackle modern slavery and human trafficking?Sure. We’ve all been there, right? Wednesdays!We are excited to be joined on this week's  ‘Behaviour Changing Ideas’ podcast by the brilliant Rob Martineau, co-founder of TRIBE. Just a few weeks ago, TRIBE celebrated having raised £1m since their inception. Neil and Rob chat about the birth and growth of the TRIBE community, ‘The Plant Revolution’, and how (and why) he walked away from corporate law and then 1000 miles across Africa.

Pets are for life, not just for pandemics. 3.2 MILLION households in the UK got a new pet during CV19. That’s an awful lot of new mouths to feed, and an awful lot of poo bags needed. For pet care brands, an awful lot of logistics to fulfil.CV19 (and the trend of Brand Dispersion it accelerated) has had a massive impact on businesses and the way we shop. For some it brought new growth opportunities- most notably those already ‘oven ready’ for their products to be bought, shipped, delivered, (and then bought again)- online, which in turn helped to keep our high street stores alive and our pampered pets pampered.Fittingly then, in a year when Nature’s Menu celebrates its 40th birthday, Neil is joined by Managing Director, James Langan, to see how they managed to achieve such success over such a turbulent time. They chat about furry friends, ‘human leadership’, and why being agile has, and always will be, so crucial. Not just at Crufts.

As the world returns to IRL and we return to WFH/WFO, we’re delighted to be back with the second series of The HeyHuman Podcast! We’ve been catching up with some industry friends and all-round brilliant humans to discuss life after lockdowns, electric scooters, falling in love, walking over a thousand miles across Africa and as ever, behaviour-changing ideas.  To kick off our first episode of the new series, Neil meets Emily Brooke MBE, the brains behind the ‘Boris Bike’ lights and much more. Neil and Emily look into her light bulb (or laser beam bulb) moment that helped tackle the problem of cyclist safety to produce one of the most iconic symbols in transport – the Beryl Laserlight.

A lot has changed since 1998. A time before smartphones, social media, fintech, Uber, Google, Amazon, Spotify or kale. The ways in which we choose to communicate, travel, work, bank, socialise and shop are all radically different to when we were partying like it was actually 1999. Throw in population shifts, recessions, Donald Trump and a global pandemic, and it’s amazing to think how anything could still be the same now, let alone an advertising campaign. How then, have Mandarin Oriental managed to keep their iconic ‘Fan’ campaign so consistent and so relevant for over 20 years? Neil is joined by Pip Landers, Head of Advertising and Brand Research at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, to understand the secret behind its longevity and its success. They discuss the strategy behind the ‘category busting creative’ and how it has flexed to meet the ever-changing behaviours of its audience. For marketers, this is a rare and fascinating look into a campaign that eschewed the conventions of its competitors to help punch above its weight and unlock growth on a global scale. Discover more behaviour changing ideas and subscribe to The HeyHuman Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

SlimFast has been on quite a journey. It was sold by Unilever in 2014 and then delisted in one of its major retailers in the UK. SlimFast had to modernise its products and brand image in a category that had been transformed by new diets, brands, and personalities. Today it’s a healthy international brand and business thanks to changing its image, its products, and its performance. Neil and Hannah discuss SlimFast’s recent campaign, One Step At A Time, fronted by legendary model and Heart radio mainstay Kelly Brook. Tune in to find out how they launched a successful TV and paid social campaign in the middle of a third lockdown.

How important are insights in triggering great creative ideas? Neil, our CEO and ‘semi-retired planner’, speaks to Carl Jones, an award-winning creative director, about the role insights play in behaviour changing ideas. Consumer insights come from a more people-focused model of marketing and advertising and have the potential to change behaviours for mutual benefit. Tune in to find out how brands and businesses can avoid vanilla insights, and top tips on insights that make a difference.