WFA's Better Marketing Pod with David Wheldon

Hosted by WFA President David Wheldon, WFA's Better Marketing Pod in partnership with Meta looks at the marketing industry’s biggest stories and speaks to some of the industry’s most interesting characters who are shaping those stories.

WFA's Better Marketing Pod with David Wheldon is a business podcast hosted by World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), with 52 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) hosts WFA's Better Marketing Pod with David Wheldon, a business show with 52 episodes published.

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  Episode #51

  EP 52: Andrew Tindall on defining creativity and why emotion matters for effectiveness

  Aug 18, 202626 minS1

  Advertising is getting pricier, yet the results many marketers care about most are shrinking. Brand effects like awareness, trust and differentiation are dropping across award-winning case studies, even as budgets climb, and that should worry anyone responsible for growth. David talks with Andrew Tindall from System1 about what sits underneath that decline and how to fix it without hiding behind vanity metrics. Andrew unpacks why emotional response is not a “nice to have”, but one of the most dependable predictors of effectiveness we have, especially when paired with clear brand recognition. From there we dig into the Creative Dividend, a model that blends global Effie Awards effectiveness data with System1’s large-scale creative testing to show something many teams miss: creativity and media only make sense together. A strong ad with no reach is wasted. Heavy reach behind a weak ad is inefficient. You will also hear a practical planning idea you can take back to your next budget meeting: Excess Share of Creativity (ESOC). Alongside Excess Share of Voice, it reframes the job as building genuine creative advantage and then backing it with the right weight of quality reach. We cover the four outputs that make creativity accessible in plain language, the real cost of dull campaigns, and why chasing lower CPM can push teams into low-attention media that drags ROI down. If you want clearer creative reviews, smarter media planning and stronger marketing effectiveness, subscribe, listen and share this with a colleague. Subscribe to the WFA #BetterMarketing podcast on your preferred platform: https://bit.ly/41ZwqkF.

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  Episode #51

  Ep 51: Opella's Alberto Hernandez on the commercial payback from curiosity, courage and purpose

  Jul 1, 202633 minS1

  Half the health information people see on social media is incomplete or wrong, and the result is bigger than a fact-checking problem. It’s a confidence problem. When four out of five people don’t feel comfortable making self-care choices, treatable issues get ignored and brands lose the chance to help. David speaks with Alberto Hernandez, Chief Growth Officer at Opella, about what consumer healthcare marketing should do next: guide people towards clearer, safer decisions while still earning attention in a crowded digital world. They get into the culture behind that shift. Alberto explains Opella’s challenger mindset, why curiosity has to lead to action, and how he benchmarks outside the category to raise the bar on content, media, innovation, and services. They also broaden the definition of creativity beyond advertising. Creativity becomes a way of thinking that solves business problems, unlocks new go-to-market routes, and captures the emotional reality of health, from allergies to anxiety and everyday discomfort. Then they go practical: P&L accountability, the lessons from building a shared “repeatable model of growth”, and how B Corp certification creates purpose and productive discomfort. Finally, Alberto shares how Opella uses AI to produce far more content without losing rigour, using a simple guardrail: human first, human last. If you care about brand building, growth marketing, AI content at scale, and trust in regulated categories, you’ll take away frameworks you can use immediately. Subscribe, listen, and share this with a marketing leader who needs it. Subscribe to the WFA #BetterMarketing podcast on your preferred platform: https://bit.ly/41ZwqkF.

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  Episode #50

  Ep 50: 50 episodes in David Wheldon reflects on conversations with the world’s top marketing minds

  Jun 8, 202622 minS1

  Fifty episodes in, one lesson keeps getting louder: marketing is still a person-to-person craft, even when the world feels dominated by platforms, dashboards, and AI. Recording from Stockholm during Global Marketer Week, in this episode David Wheldon reflects on what he has learned from CMOs and top marketing thinkers and why the energy of human contact makes ideas sharper, braver, and more useful. We dig into leadership under pressure, starting with a principle that sounds simple and turns out to be non-negotiable: if you lead others, you have to take care of yourself first. Antonio Lucio explains why it starts with the body, how uncertainty drains teams, and why self-care is not selfish when your job is to show up centred for your people. From there we move to a phrase we keep coming back to: creativity with precision. Great work needs measurement and proof, not to tame creativity, but to earn trust, defend brand investment, and scale what is driving real business results. The episode also tackles evidence-based marketing and the danger of untested myths. We explore why organisations often already have the data they need yet still fail to challenge assumptions, then zoom out to creativity, strategy, and technology: Sir John Hegarty’s case for creative effectiveness, Seth Godin’s view of strategy as a “philosophy of becoming”, and a clear stance on AI as augmentation rather than an enemy. If capability is expanding fast, the real question becomes uncomfortable and motivating: are our ideas good enough? Subscribe to the WFA #BetterMarketing podcast on your preferred platform: https://bit.ly/41ZwqkF.

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  Episode #49

  Ep 49: Google's VP Global Ads Dan Taylor: "AI is more of a leadership than a technology challenge"

  May 6, 202632 minS1

  Real people do not move neatly from awareness to consideration to purchase, they jump between searching, streaming, scrolling and shopping, sometimes all at once. That messy middle is where brands win or disappear, and it is exactly where AI-powered advertising and modern measurement start to matter according to the next guest on the WFA Better Marketing Podcast Dan Taylor, VP of Global Ads at Google. On this episode Dan speaks to David Wheldon to unpack what has changed over two decades of digital advertising and what is changing right now. They talk about how first-party data, CRM signals, and outcome-based optimisation help AI steer towards real business value instead of proxy metrics. Dan shares why the best marketers treat attribution, incrementality testing, and marketing mix modelling as a connected system that supports smarter budget decisions and clearer conversations with the CFO. The episode also get into the practical side of AI and creativity. Automation can shrink weeks of execution into hours, but it does not replace the need for sharp strategy and a strong idea. From faster asset production to new search behaviours like longer conversational queries, visual search, and experiences such as AI Overviews, it explores how discovery is expanding and how ads can become relevant through context, not just keywords. If you want a grounded view of what to modernise now and what happens if you wait, this one is for you. If you found this useful, subscribe to Better Marketing and share it with a colleague. Subscribe to the WFA #BetterMarketing podcast on your preferred platform: https://bit.ly/41ZwqkF.

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  Episode #48

  Ep 48: Judy Smith on why "be who you say you are" is the only crisis playbook that matters

  Apr 1, 202630 minS1

  In this episode David Wheldon talks with Judy Smith, crisis management expert and former White House advisor, about what protects reputation when risk is everywhere and scrutiny is constant. We come back to one hard rule for leaders and brands: be who you say you are, even when the story is moving faster than your playbook. In this episode David and Judy cover: • Being who you say you are as the foundation of trust, values and reputation • Managing brand reputation as both technology and AI reshape what gets said about companies • Reducing silos so marketing, comms, legal and policy act as one team • Why crisis playbooks struggle when culture and reaction are unpredictable • Using the risk barometer to prepare, adjust plans and measure intangible assets • Making intangibles financially meaningful through protection and long-term value • What leaders do in the first 90 days of a turnaround, beyond story polishing • When to respond to volatility and when silence avoids a damaging slug fest • How to think about fake news based on real reputational impact • The unexpected story behind Scandal and a former president’s sense of humour About Judy Smith For more than 25 years, Ms. Smith has counseled presidents and world leaders through global crises, advised Fortune 50 CEOs through complex challenges, and helped manage the reputations of some of the world’s highest-profile individuals. She founded Smith & Company, a strategic advisory firm considered to be one of the top crisis firms in the world, that has offices in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, New York and London. In addition to her work as a communications advisor during high profile moments, Ms. Smith is a long-time counselor to some of the world’s largest and most influential companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Panera, Lowes, Sony, Kaiser, United Healthcare, and Walmart. She provides her clients with strategic advice on a variety of corporate communications issues such as mergers and acquisitions, product recalls, intellectual property litigation, corporate positioning, and other corporate, investor and public relations matters. A former federal prosecutor, Ms. Smith worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia where she handled high-profile investigations. She also served as Deputy Press Secretary to President George H.W. Bush, during which time she worked on a host of domestic and international issues. As a result of her wide ranging and ground-breaking career, Ms. Smith inspired the hit TV series, Scandal and served as Co- Executive Producer of the project. Ms. Smith’s advice and counsel have been valuable to corporate boardrooms, and she currently serves on the board of Ariel Investments and as Chair for The Intangibles, the transformation consultancy for the intangible world. She also previously served on the boards of Global Citizen, Save the Children, Washington National Cathedral and Carbon Health. Subscribe to the WFA #BetterMarketing podcast on your preferred platform: https://bit.ly/41ZwqkF.

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