Dubai: A Destination Brand Bouncing Back

Coca-Cola has launched a loyalty programme. But does one of the world's most iconic brands really need to bribe consumers with points to keep them coming back? Jasmine Montgomery and Piers Guilar debate whether The Club is a clever move into first-party data and consumer engagement, or an expensive solution to a problem Coca-Cola doesn't have. Jasmine thinks it’s a great idea. Piers does not. Who wins?

A $50 million bra. 4,410 diamonds. Kylie Jenner. And a global cost-of-living crisis. Spectacularly tone-deaf? Or Brilliant marketing? 

In this episode Jasmine throws a fit about being gaslit by a giant Emirati telco. Etisalat, the brand name is back. But Etisalat would have you believe that it never left. Four years after rebranding as e&, the Emirati telecom giant has returned to the Etisalat name. So what happened to the bold transformation from “telco to techco”, the mysterious ampersand, and the claim that keeping one letter somehow retained decades of brand equity? In this podcast Jasmine explores the e& reversal in the context of some other famous rebrand reversals. Do you remember U turns by brands such as HBO, The Royal Mail, Weight Watchers and Netflix? Plus: why we definitely did not hallucinate the ampersand!

Have you ever accidentally created an ad that looked like it was for a famous fascist organisation? No? Neither have I. But Converse did just that last week. In this episode Jasmine explores how this Nike-owned company put the "converse" into "controversy" and how brands can prevent this kind of thing happening to them.

Culture wars lightening rod Sydney Sweeney has done another ad. And no one commented on it or shared it. OK, that is not strictly true. Everyone is talking about it. In this podcast Jasmine is talking about it. But she has to wonder… is she contributing to the cultural commentary, joining in the protest, or is she part of something much darker… an unwitting part of a dastardly campaign cleverly designed to turn us all into unpaid influencers. Listen and decide on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts 

Did you notice that Instagram refreshed their brand recently? Jasmine and Hannah debate the redesign and attempt to answer the question “does every rebrand have to break the internet?”

What can a video game leak teach us about the future of marketing? We explore the GTA VI and CyberLeek story, from scarcity and psychology to meme coins, Netflix and the extraordinary role of audiences in amplifying a story. And Piers comes up with a conspiracy theory that Jasmine fears will get them both sued. 

Yes yes, Spain won, England lost. I know, don’t rub it in. But who were the marketing winners and losers from this World Cup? Which sponsor brands scored big and which ones hit the proverbial post? In this episode Jasmine and Hannah explore the winners and losers of the World Cup in terms of the advertisers, the sponsors, the brands FIFA tried to cover up, the celebrities and those two biggest of all sports marketing rivals… you know who we mean. 

When disaster strikes, what happens to a destination's brand? From tsunamis to nuclear meltdowns to war, Jasmine and Piers ask how cities and countries recover. This week: Dubai, fresh from their own visits, and how the Gulf conflict is reshaping one of the world's most ambitious city brands.

"People buy people" on social media. And among the many flavours that influencers come in is the CEO variety. If you are the head of a business in this age of social media, you are an influencer. So how should CEOs build their brands on the channel was built for tycoons of all sizes: LinkedIn? In this episode Jasmine and Piers take a peek at the accounts of inspiring leaders and attempt to steal their secrets.