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The CMO Podcast - Episode Summary
Episode Title
Calum Laming (British Airways) | Brand-Building at 35,000 Feet
Podcast Overview Host: Jim Stengel Guest: Calum Laming, Chief Customer Officer of British Airways Setting: Recorded live at the Brand Innovators LVMH Villa during the 2025 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
The episode explores the unique challenges and strategies in brand-building for British Airways, particularly focusing on the replatforming of the airline as a "British Original". Laming shares insights from his extensive career in aviation and marketing, including his tenure at Procter & Gamble, Virgin Atlantic, and Etihad Airways.
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Key Discussion Points
- Creative Replatforming of British Airways
- British Original Campaign: Celebrates the airline's identity as a British institution.
- Awards: The campaign won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival.
- Team Collaboration: Emphasis on teamwork with creative agency Uncommon and media agency MGOMD to execute the campaign effectively.
- Calum Laming's Career Path
- Background in Aviation: Started in a call center and progressed through various roles in the airline industry, including cabin crew and management.
- Influence of P&G: Attributes early career success to the foundational marketing training received at Procter & Gamble.
- Passion for Travel: Expresses a lifelong passion for the aviation industry, which informs his leadership style and decision-making.
- Customer-Centric Approach
- Understanding Customers: Highlights the importance of knowing both external customers (passengers) and internal customers (employees).
- Retention of Talent: Focuses on using internal staff as brand ambassadors in advertisements and communications.
- Employee Engagement: Notes that engagement within the workforce has significantly increased during his tenure.
- Challenges and Strategic Decisions
- Post-COVID Landscape: Discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the airline industry and how British Airways redefined its brand strategy to adapt.
- Creative Risk-Taking: Encourages open-mindedness in evaluating creative ideas, even if they challenge traditional norms.
- Emotional Connection: Stresses the importance of connecting emotionally with customers to enhance brand loyalty.
- The Role of Creativity in Marketing
- Innovation in Advertising: Challenges his team to continuously innovate and adapt the brand message while also maintaining consistency.
- Use of Humor and Quirkiness: The campaign effectively combines British humor and quirkiness to resonate with consumers.
- Holistic Brand Experience: Integrates marketing strategies across multiple consumer touchpoints, including in-flight experience and lounge services.
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Key Takeaways
- Importance of Brand Identity: A strong brand identity can resonate well with both domestic and international customers, enhancing loyalty and recognition.
- Collaboration Across Teams: Successful campaigns result from effective collaboration between marketing, creative, and media teams; a culture of trust and openness enhances results.
- Empathy and Humanity in Branding: Understanding the human aspect of marketing—both the consumer's and the employee's perspective—creates more authentic connections with the brand.
- Continuous Learning from Feedback: Adapting strategies based on consumer and internal feedback is critical for brand evolution and relevance.
- Creativity as a Fundamental Value: Encouraging creativity and out-of-the-box thinking leads to unique advertising solutions that stand out in a competitive market.
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Conclusion In this episode, Jim Stengel and Calum Laming delve into the complex world of marketing within the aviation industry, emphasizing the need for creativity, collaboration, and a deep understanding of customers. The insights shared serve as valuable lessons for marketers striving to elevate their brand's presence and performance in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
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Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00What if the smartest marketing play is not to move forward, but to zoom out? Deloitte believes the most powerful move a CMO can make is to look beyond the next step and see the broader perspective. That's what the Deloitte CMO program is for, a place to gain fresh perspective and connect with leaders who've stood where you stand. Together, Deloitte will help you see the bigger picture so your next move isn't just fast, but right. Learn more about the CMO program at cmo.deloitte.com. Hey, it's Jim. I'm here with Matt Spiegel, EVP of True Audience Growth Strategy at TransUnion. That's quite a job title, Matt.
0:34Yes. Welcome. Thank you. So tell me about your company and why it matters for our audience CMOs. Well, listen, Jim, the challenge of the day is that there's so much information about consumers out there and the challenge is most companies don't have all that information. You have some purchase history, you maybe have some web history, but you don't have a full picture of customers. We're working really hard across on a suite of identity products, of audience products, and measurement products to bring a holistic view of customers to marketers. So when CMOs work with you, what light bulbs go off for them?
1:03So, Jim, we help brands bring clarity from chaos. We help them understand a picture of their customers with a 360-degree view in order for marketers to make bigger, more strategic bets. Well said, Matt. Learn more at transunion.com slash clarity. That's transunion.com slash clarity. Hi, it's Jim. Joining me is Matt Spiegel, EVP of True Audience Growth Strategy at TransUnion. Matt, we talk a lot on this show about building brands that people love, but that starts with understanding them, right? Jim, absolutely. Every customer ultimately has a story, but most brands are only going to see part of it.
1:36At TransUnion, we really focus on helping marketers connect those dots across devices, across channels, across platforms, with the goal of helping marketers see a full person behind the data. That clarity is gold. That is special. So how do you do it? Ultimately, we put together the pieces of information that help you predict behavior, help you personalize messages, prove the impact of every marketing decision at the end of the day. And our marketing solution suite gives brands the visibility and confidence to invest smarter and ultimately grow faster. So if you want to turn data into understanding and understanding into growth, visit transunion.com slash clarity.
2:10What's the first brand you remember making an impact on you as a young boy? I know, my parents are going to kill me. Guinness. I'm so proud of my Celtic heritage, but to have a brand that was so ubiquitous, so tied to the country, it's the same symbol on a can of guinness as on the front of my passport you know it's the only country in the world to have a musical instrument i i think as it's a national symbol and to have a brand that has been throughout my life it still gives me inspiration today hi i'm jim stengel i've helped hundreds of major brands discover and activate their purpose because when a brand's purpose is clear, compelling, and authentic, profit naturally follows.
2:52Each week, I welcome the CMOs, the chief marketing officers of your favorite brands, to speak to how their job is so much more than marketing. These leaders share their inspiration and challenges, along with how they try to build a full, healthy, and happy life in and out of the office. And it's that energy that reaches everyone they touch. And we're glad you're here to feel that energy and to learn from these remarkable leaders. So here we go. My guest today on the CMO podcast is a British original. He's Callum Lamming, the chief customer officer of British Airways. He and his team are responsible for a creative replatforming of British Airways, celebrating the airline as a British original.
3:32For their remarkable creative work, Callum and team won the highest honor last year at the Cannes Lions Festival, the coveted Grand Prix. Callum has been at British Airways for about three years, but he has had a lifelong passion for the airline business, which we'll talk about. He has worked for five other airlines in his career, including Virgin and Etihad Airlines. Yet like me, Callum began his career at Procter & Gamble, and he attributes Procter & Gamble to his foundations in marketing. This is my in-person conversation with British original Callum Lamming at the 2025 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
4:05Put your mobile devices on airline mode and listen up. Here's Callum. So welcome to the CMO podcast. Finally, Callum, we've been trying to do this for years. Thanks for inviting me to your holiday home. You would not do it virtually. You know, we had to do it in person because that's your business. So we're here at LVMH's villa. We're a few meters from the pool. So we'll see what we do after this. Anyway, how did you travel here this year? By British Airways. How did you do it? Non-stop? Non-stop, straight out of London City into Nice. I'm going back into Heathrow. So we have a lot of flights destinies all the year round it's a very popular destination fantastic well we saw each other in person last about a year ago yeah it was the other time last year this time last year i invited you and your agency uncommon at lucy's here with lucy's here yeah we're gonna lucy's in the audience lucy we may call you into this we'll see you came to my class there the same walk celebrer last year and presented the work the british original work and you won a grand prix i think last year and 23 23.
5:01A couple of golds and silvers last year. So, and you, and you shared that remarkable case. So it's an incredible time. So we're going to talk a bit about that, of course, but I want to pause there and just say, what's your reflection on that journey to that amazing work that was awarded is growing your brand, your company's healthy financially. I mean, I've done all my homework. Yeah. So it looks like it continues to work. Absolutely. It really resonates for us. I actually, you know, I joined BA just over three years ago and both Uncommon, our creative agency and MGOMD, our media agency, were already in place.
5:33I'd been appointed in I think February of that year as a lot of the thinking had already gone on and this idea was being floated. I came in, it was a very difficult time coming out of COVID of course and you know quarter two of 2022 and it was a platform that you know everyone believed could really resonate and you know you come in new to a job and you're a bit like well a lot of information how does this work what does this mean and actually as i look back on it it has been incredibly successful the idea that it comes from of being a british original you know we are so proud to be the you know fly the flag for the uk to all six continents are inhabited we're so proud to represent our country but the same time you know you look at it and you go is it too uk is it too british but actually when you look at our key markets and where we fly to it works really well because you know uk in itself is quirky it is original so it kind of literally flies and i feel it's one of those you know lines and platforms that only we could own and it has been so successful for us you said commercially we're doing really well you know we put a massive transformation plan in place and that's really starting to deliver our customer metrics are doing brilliantly our brand metrics are doing brilliantly of course there's more we can do but we are really happy with how it's oh it's cool we're going to talk about that in a bit more detail in a few minutes you've been in the airline business a long time, right?
6:54Most of your career, we're going to talk about the start of your career in a minute, but most of your career. So what's that about? What's, is that how, where does that start? At the ripe old age of 48, I've been in aviation 33 years this year. I started when I was 15 in a call center and I fell into it. It wasn't, you know, I hadn't been one of those people that sat at the end of the runway watching planes. I lived nowhere near an airport. It's just a job. You needed some money. The job, that's how it started. That's literally, I fell into it. And I actually fell into a job paging. Remember pages?
7:24My job was in a call center paging handling agents about where they needed to go to go pick up the luggage from flights. That's actually how I... That's glamorous. Well, I've been a baggage handler as well. You know, it's important to know where you've got to go. Yeah. And, you know, it kind of evolved from there. And I paid my way through school and university working in airlines. So I'm really lucky. I've done every job on the front line of an airline pretty much, apart from fly the plane and fix the plane. no one wants me to be an engineer and no one wants me to be a pilot but I was cabin crew for 11 years I've done short and long haul worked in the airport worked on the ramp baggage dispatch check-in at the you know in the call center so I have a real grounding and a real understanding and it's it's a love that came out and of course you know I'd study languages and it's a great way to pressure it's a great way to use it and I was actually British Airways had a low-cost airline at the end of the 90s called Go that was so successful.
8:19It was sold now because it was successful. And I was with them for the entire time. And I was actually the senior cabin crew member on the very last flight. So I had a real history. But I was doing that while I was doing my first post-university job. I still flew as cabin crew at weekends. Wow. What about the love of language? What did that start? Love of language, pretty much. I come from a household with a lot of culture, a lot of music, a lot of languages around. And it's actually, and I only realize it now, well, I realize it now, I actually realized it in my 20s when I was diagnosed with dyslexia.
8:56And I use languages as a coping mechanism because I learned them as a formula. So I don't have the same problems reading in other languages as I do in native tongues. And so I found it really easy in a way of doing it. Like German is really good to count in. It's very formulaic and you can learn things. And that combined with a passion and a curiosity for people and different cultures. You know, I've been lucky in my career to work across the world. You know, I've worked in Nigeria. I've worked in Spain. I've worked in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East for the best part of 10 years. I've lived in New Zealand.
9:32I've been in the Caribbean. I've been in the US as well as being in the UK. I've been really lucky and it's really helped. And I think, you know, for an introvert, I am a people's person. And so it's been really good to be able to communicate. And I enjoy it. I love music. I love, you know, that my music can taste, don't have to define by one language. And, you know, I think it's allowed me to enjoy the world and enjoy more cultures. What city was most enjoyable for you? To visit Beirut. Beirut is my favorite city in the world. I absolutely love Beirut. There's this real mix of the Arabic with the French and the Western influence coming through.
10:06It's a great party city. It's a huge cultural city. it's near you know mountains it's near gorgeous beaches you can ski in the winter and and you know sunbathe in the summer that has that's had a real influence on me living I would say Lagos in Nigeria where I lived for two and a half years had a real great impact on me you know it's a very different place than where I grew up it's a very different place and it's so much fun it is so much fun and it just shows when you when you understand a culture you can get in with the culture I've lived in all these countries i've never well i've tried to never live the typical expat lifestyle you know i wanted friends from locations and i was really lucky at my wedding actually it was looking around people who were there from every country i'd lived in that was that was quite special to have that that was a fun wedding it was it was a christmas wedding but then i'm christmas so it was it was a very celebratory time now isn't png in your background somewhere png where Where did that come from?
11:04Lord. PMG. We're never going to leave your career path on this show. PMG was a brilliant time. I was there when you were there. I remember meeting you in Brooklands in Surrey. I mean, that was 20, something years ago. And it came from leaving university. I'd studied language. I was a medieval European literature specialist. Interesting, fascinating, but probably not practical for building a career. So I was like, well, what do I want to do? And I did that normal milk round coming out of university, you know, where the companies come in and present. I was like, well, what do I want to do? You know, I was working in airlines.
11:35I'd already done, you know, seven, eight years in airlines by then. So I had a good idea that, you know, of what business was. But I was like, I don't want to do just business. I want to do something that's creative too. I knew I had this side of me with the music and dancing and everything through my past. I was like, I need to bring out some creativity. And marketing seemed the best way to do it. And I asked around, who were the best people to learn marketing from? and pretty much it was P &G. That was pretty much across the board. I did a few of the applications because you never know you're going to get your dream job.
12:06And I did a few, but it was actually the recruitment process at P &G that made me go, this is the one for me. You made me bake a cake. And I love baking. Fork you did. And I love baking. I remember going up to Newcastle. I was studying at university. And of course, I didn't have an oven. So I had to go and borrow a friend's. I had to go to a friend's house and find an oven. And then I had to transport it up to Newcastle from Cambridge on the train and present the cake as part of my interview process. And I thought, I want to work for a company that makes me bake a cake. Why do they do that? I have.
12:39Do you know what? I'm going to say it's because they want to have different decisions, did we? No, not necessarily. Not in the UK. They did in the US for a while. Yeah, not in the UK at the time. And it was I was really lucky when when they hired me. I was really I was really looking forward to it. I remember I got the letter on the P &G headed note paper and, you know, you open it and, you know, because it was all letters to post back then and you open it and I read it. And it's like you're joining on this date and you'll be joining in Brooklands in Surrey. Of course, I didn't know whether it's going to be Brooklands or Newcastle or Geneva at the time because you were applying for Europe.
13:12Yep. And I got it and it said I was joining the beauty care team and I was super excited about that. You know, I was looking at the Max Factor adverts, looking at the Pantene adverts and Olay. And then they called me and said I was joining Head and Shoulders. What? Kind of beauty. I was, I mean, it's definitely, it didn't lie. It's still, well, they didn't lie. It was just, you know, I was thinking, oh, Hugo Boss Fragrance in New York. Maybe that's what I'm talking about. But I tell you what, it's still one of the best brands I've ever worked on. It was an incredible time. A brand with such rich awareness that, you know, I even didn't.
13:47Who was your marketing director? It was Jill Whitty Collins who is still an inspiration today. Her recent, she published a few years. I was really lucky she invited me to go and speak at the book launch because she's, you know, P &G was fundamental to who I am today. You know, I'm really lucky. So we look after five areas in customer brand. We have brand and marketing, of course. We have customer experience, so the end-to-end customer journey. We have cabin crew. We have customer care and we have customer strategy and transformation. and you know you get lots of people who've come up in marketing and lots of people who come up in airlines have come up in product which has become customer experience I'm really lucky that I've done them all I feel very sorry for the members of my team because I've done all their jobs I absolutely wouldn't have done the marketing side without P &G and I think it's so fundamental I look back it's such a great university it gives you structure it gives you rigor and the most that I take out of it is how you value and work with your agency partners as well as how to fit a report on one side of a4 in font size no smaller than that i can still do i know how to change the margins so yeah it's it's been fundamental and without it i wouldn't have had that classic brand training through head and shoulders through pringles great brands doing stuff i remember without for a little time i didn't have a brand manager as people were in transition as often happens in png and they were like oh no we'll just we'll just leave the assistant brand manager be on head and shoulders because he can't mess it up i'm like that's pressure but i mean i've worked on you know those brands and actually i've as i think back there someone asked me this actually earlier this week you know why did i leave yeah i didn't leave because i was running away from anything i actually i could see a place where i might still be there today yeah and it's only because an opportunity came up at virgin atlantic airlines oh yeah doing product and marketing and came up at a time when they were setting up this team for the first time that made me go So maybe all of this background I've got in airlines, I could bring it together with what I love about marketing.
15:44And that is where my career took off. But it wouldn't in kind of aviation. But that wouldn't have happened without that frontline experience. And it certainly wouldn't happen without P &G.
16:02Everyone seems to be chasing the next big thing. The fastest answer, the quickest win. But great CMOs believe the real power isn't in the speed, it's in stepping back to see the bigger picture. That's why everything Deloitte does in their CMO program, from their industry-leading capabilities to their connected network of CMOs, is designed to help you zoom out and gain fresh perspective. Deloitte will help you see the bigger picture together. Learn more about the CMO program at cmo.deloitte.com.
16:35I want to sort of fast forward to today we've been talking about your career path we started the podcast by saying how strong the business is the campaign that you presented to my class last year and won awards two years ago is still the platform for the brand it's a company idea as you've talked about so I want to go back to there's I think there's so much rich learning you were fantastic in my class with uncommon uh last year that you you know they raved about it afterward, lots of lessons. So I'd like this podcast to sort of take people on that journey because I think there's so much learning for people to learn from what you have done with your team and with Uncommon.
17:13So could you take us back to when you came in, you know, several years ago and you discovered you had the agency there, you had some foundation, but my gosh, have you taken it to different places? And I find the work funny, humorous, touching uh the first time i saw it i was like my god this this is original that's good enough good but i you know take us back to that time and take us through the journey what have you learned what went well what maybe didn't go so well and there've definitely been things yeah i mean i think i think when you come in when you come into a new role your first thing is you need to discover you need to learn you need to ask what when why how where um but i always i go in with an essence of trust and you know the agencies had just been appointed it was a matter of weeks the contracts weren't even fully signed when when i joined and a lot of people go in and say i want to change everything i i it's not how i go in i go in and want to understand the history and i wanted to understand where this had come from and actually you know i don't think they'll mind me saying it i went into a time when tv ad had already been produced i'm looking over to my right um i don't think we've ever spoken about this but it's coming now no better place for it to come out safe safe audience here it's yeah it's totally off the record clearly with the cameras and microphones but anyway we're going to talk about it because it is about the journey because nothing is right really our first time and actually it came into a time and it was an advert that for its time coming immediately out of covid as the uk had opened six borders could have really worked the problem is it takes a little while for it to get through production and then get onto tv i remember the first time i looked at it and i was just like uh no like but why am i saying no did i not like the idea did i not like the execution like why is this resonating and it was quite a visceral reaction i'm looking at lucy i had quite a visceral reaction to this tv ad and you know you could appreciate his brilliance you could appreciate the work of the uncommon and you got it wasn't like it was weird yeah but it was just a couple of months too out of date and i was like we can't run it we did a few edits we tried to edit a few things around and we just couldn't make it work so we decided that that wasn't going to happen and that we were going to rethink.
19:38But the one thing that struck me from the beginning that we wouldn't rethink was the platform. Because for every reason we spoke about a bit earlier, British Original worked in British Airways. And it worked in the UK and it worked overseas. And I saw that it could work. I have for many years had this concept of customers because, you know, looking after customer and brand, I think is fundamental. I think it allows us particularly lean service brands to do what we need to do. I have this concept of customers. We have two types of customers. So we have external customers. They're the people who we're so lucky choose to spend their money to fly with us every day and internal customers, and that's our colleagues.
20:15So everything that we do from a brand perspective has to work for those because our customers are fiercely loyal, hugely passionate about the brand, want us to succeed, often our harshest critics, you know, and we have to listen to that. But I was like, this could really work. This could work at home. This could work abroad. This could work internally. I'm partnering with Lisa Tremble, who looks after, you know, corporate affairs and people at British Airways. We can make this something. But we had to rethink how we would execute it. And so, you know, you sit down and you give this news to an agency, which isn't easy, and they're looking at you going, new guy comes in, going to change everything.
20:58PMG background. Don't get in. Never heard of it. hasn't worked in the UK for 20 odd years. Like, who the heck is he coming in? He did head and shoulders. Nothing like he, yeah, exactly. You know, and you know, worked in the Middle East. Who does he think we are? What budgets do we have? And you go, right, I love your idea, but I hate this TV ad. And I was honest from, I was fiercely honest from day one. And I was like, right, how are we going to, how are we going to make this work? And we sat down and we sat down with MGOMD. And I think that's really key to have the internal team, you know, the creative agency and the media agency all working together and go, right, how are we going to rescue this?
21:34And I'll tell you what, what has been brilliant as you've seen it develop is you see that purpose of your visit campaign, which is the business leisure insert line here. The one that we are so proud won the Grand Prix a few years ago. You know, that came from that idea of people are traveling for different reasons after COVID and everyone's traveling for an individual reason. so what I really liked was watching uncommon and there you know there was over 500 executions published in the first round there was actually over 600 written but sometimes you have to control uncommon's creativity because it it can be a little bit yeah we're not publishing that one but they're over 500 and they five out of six yeah exactly I think it's great and they sat down with mgomd and issued mgomd the challenge that if we come up with 500 different executions across outdoor print and digital can you find us 500 different locations in which we could show these and what i really love was oh that is original that is a challenge can they do it and ng are d stepped up and we're now i think we're over 900 executions now because we're able to use that to capture the zeitgeist at the time you know around big sporting championships our rugby partnership at heathrow on sunday there was business leisure dad jokes because it was father's day so it's a campaign that's still really running well and it works because not only is the creative great but the placement of the creative is is great too and that platform has allowed us to do it it's worked here it's worked in india it's worked in the us so we did uh we did a big campaign for purpose we visit last summer in the us and i was in new york and i saw business leisure jitney which i think is the coach that takes you off to the hamptons yeah i saw it i remember seeing the development of that and my one thing was we will use British English there will be used there will not be said for us because we are British airways but it can work there it works in India so you know you look back and you think you know it has worked but it came from it came from a brilliant idea with the first execution that maybe wasn't wasn't right at the time what I do love though is that out of that advert MGOND came up with an idea to create idents at the beginning of end of ad breaks so we actually used a lot of the advert we just didn't play as a 30 or a 45 second spot so they came up with another way of doing it again an apartment ship and and you know and that's been brilliant and the other thing was looking after customer brand I had to see this come to life through the customer experience and I think that was probably different than when I joined I think with the idea but I don't think it necessarily looking to I'm looking to see if they hate me yet but you know i wanted to bring it to life and you know and i love seeing that be that through the inflate entertainment the new you know english sparkling wine that we've got on board um the new seats on our short haul aircraft which have been made from all four corners of the uk and the republic violent and you know we have a new tea brand a classic british tea band on board we have the pick and mix in the lounges we have the afternoon tea own this british quirkiness and And then you see it come through the creative.
24:45Then you see it come through the first safety video, which was celebrating normal Brits, you know, just life in Britain through to the kind of period drama. And making me feel like traveling. Well, that is the aim of what you're doing, right? Like, I think, you know, and, and I think it works, and it works internally and it resonates internally and it resonates with something. And I think this is where, because I do think there's always a bit of luck and chance in things that go. one thing I've always believed in is everyone being themselves when they come to work. And you hear me talk about consistency a lot.
25:19And consistency is important, but consistency can be delivered with individuality. And that's the secret sauce. And I think that's what British Airways has got. I think that's what Britain's got. I think that's what modern Britain's got. The other thing is, when I joined, it was all about brand buildback. That was one of our transformation initiatives. we need to build this iconic brand 105 years well back then 104 but you know 105 103 we're 105 years of flying now you know a brand that is loved by many people and known by so many awareness is high preference thankfully is still high but had taken a dip as all of travel and aviation in particular did during the pandemic and you have to kind of think back okay we need to bring back this magic and it was a few months in that I realized I don't want to build this brand back I want to build this brand forward yeah I love that and I'm a massive fan of heritage you know if you our first safety video little sims rapper holds up her headphones and she's listening to the flower duet which has been so synonymous with British Airways for so many years I'm such a fan of where this brand has been.
26:32And I'm so honored to be, you know, one of the people guardian of the brand at the moment, you have to pay its respect. So I love heritage, but I don't like legacy. In fact, I really dislike legacy. That's our headline. So I really wanted to take something and issue the challenge to the team. So the internal BA team to uncommon to NGO and D and say, how are we going to build this brand forward? How are we going to represent modern Britain? How are we going to do something differently? And that's where things like the period drama safety video come into their own. You take something classically British, Downton Abbey meets Bridgerton, and then you throw in the British quirkiness and the British Airways brand quirkiness.
27:14And that's when you can see it come to life. So I'm so very humbled and honoured and proud to have been part of that. And I am a small part in a massive team because this brand of British Airways is not only the 40 ,000 odd colleagues that now work for British Airways. It is everyone that's ever chosen to fly with us in all the corners of the globe and everyone that thinks about flying with us. And then when you can bring on the back of it commercial success, because let's face it, we're here to sell airline sales. That's what we're here for. You can get lost sometimes in all this, you know, creativity.
27:48to and always what I give the agencies. We're not making an advert just to win an award. We're here to sell airline seats and they always reply with the same thing. Why can't we do both? And they did. And they did.
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29:11Could you talk a little bit more about the internal side of this? We talked about the external and internal, and I love that. In fact, we interviewed American Express earlier, and they used the same concept. They said, obviously, we're taking care of our external customers, protect, defend, so on and so forth. But 70 ,000 people inside are our best ambassadors, and we have to care for them, communicate with them, listen to them. They're all part of the campaign, if you will. We absolutely do. We have to. But we also, as a service brand, particularly pilots, cabin crew, airport staff, who never come to an office, really.
29:42Right, right. Their working environment is the aircraft. They're out on the front line each and every day. You know, they are our brand. 24-7, 365 days a year across all the corners of the globe. So you have to bring them on that journey. So as I said, I've been working very closely with Lisa, Tremble, who's our chief people and corporate affairs officer, because she runs the internal comm side of things. Her expert team, they'll do that. And go, how can we bring this to life together? And it lends itself. the platform lends itself as we continue on this seven billion pound transformation journey as we continue on this journey to creating a better ba british original is part of that but they merge together because it encourages everyone to be themselves we've been you know we've seen engagement grow significantly in the past three years very proud of that now we've got a long way to go as we do on all metrics but you know we know we're heading the right direction my part of that is making sure that the customer experience we offer that the environments you know when we design aircraft in lounges i'm not just thinking about the customers i'm thinking about this as the working environment so many of our colleagues and the other thing was really important to me and it comes from being on that front line of airlines for so many years you know i remember the first casting and the first proposal of people in our adverts and i was like we are not using actors we are not using models you know we are back then we were 37 000 people in british airways when we're doing this.
31:09We took about 10 ,000 people in in 18 months post-pandemic. And I was like, we have got everyone here. We've got, we can absolutely use our own people to bring it to life. And it became a slight obsession of mine. I mean, I feel sorry for the agencies and the internal team who listened to me do this. But even at Heathrow now, and at Mumbai Airport, Amsterdam Airport, Delhi Airport, the announcements you hear on British Airways flights are no longer the airport announcement. They are our colleagues. Oh, wow. Who are announcing it Because you have to realize that we're in a brand like this. It is your colleagues together with your customers.
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31:43It's that ignition that brings it to life. And if we don't invest in our colleagues, proudly showcase our colleagues, then I don't know why we're here. So, you know, take the safety video. 42 different colleagues in that, either playing themselves or playing characters. So the butler, the conductor, one of the maids, all our colleagues. You must have had a great director for that. I have to say that. We did. We had Sharon McGuire, who directed Bridget Jones. We had Jenny Bevan. You know, we had costume designers. And it was great that these people would want to work with us. We take that, you know, we take that as very proudly too.
32:21Yeah. So to sum all this up for those listening who are totally energized by this, I'd love to do this on their brand. What's your one foundational piece of advice? Surround yourself with the most brilliant people. I'm so lucky that I work as part of why Hope is a great internal team at British Airways. I honestly believe that we work with the best creative minds in the business at Uncommon and the best media experts at MGOMD. Everyone challenge each other. Egos are the door. We've all got a job to do. You don't need job titles. Creativity and push can come from anywhere. Challenge can come from anywhere.
33:03be open to those new ideas be open when an agency comes in with an advert that doesn't even feature your logo in it it's happened to us with windows and just be prepared to sometimes be wrong and back to png test everything yeah and then you can't really go wrong because people bring brands to life you hear at brea shareways everywhere i've been lucky enough to work and that is what i think I would encourage everyone to do. You know, we're here in Cannes. There are a lot of clients here now. I think, I don't know, half of the people are clients or something that I think Cannes share with me something.
33:3890 % of the Fortune 500 are here, which is an amazing stat. Everyone's here trying to be a better client. So that's what they're trying to learn. This is a beautiful story about that. So I'd like to unpack that a little bit with you and probably bring Lucy into this conversation at some point. You presented to my class last year. Obviously your chemistry was beautiful, right? It was fun. It was irreverent. It was, uh, you're poking each other. It was really amazing. So I'd like you to talk about what makes you, and it's a little bit of a self-conscious question, maybe a weird one, maybe Lucy will answer this better than you will, but what makes you such a great client?
34:17But how do you coach how to be a great client? You said PNG does that pretty well. Yeah. But let's unpack that a bit more. I want to hear what what Lucy says to this one. She's not mic'd yet. She's okay, right. Well, I think one of the things that really happens is that you're in it together. And I think it's proven with Lucy volunteering to come along today. Lucy had no role today. She called me, said, I'm there to support you if you need him. Natalie from MGOMD said exactly the same thing. And, you know, every event we do. So here, Lucy's seeing by my side. Hamish, our director of marketing, is talking on a panel at the moment.
34:56and MGOMD are there. So they divided and conquered to be there to support us. I think that's one thing. When we spoke at your event last year, Natalie from MGOMD rushed to come and join us. When I spoke with MGOMD at Adweek Europe, Lucy was there with the team to come and support us. I think that kind of in it together, I've never, and it is the P &G in me, my way of expressing is I don't care who pays your wages. We're all in it for British Airways in our case or whichever brand you're working from and pulling that together and respecting everyone on there, allowing people to challenge, having, you know, a media agency be able to say to your creative agency, I've come up with a brilliant creative platform that I need you to develop an ad for, which we did.
35:44We used two summers, two summers ago now, yeah, it must be summer of 23 on one of the video on demand platforms, MGOMD came up with the idea of owning the pause screen. So when you pause in the middle of live television, it said business, leisure, pause. And then Uncommon unpacked it and turned it into a beautiful holiday creative. It ran over summer. And, you know, that's one example. Uncommon when they go and, you know, deliver the news about, I need you to find 500 different media sites in the space of six weeks. And that challenge, challenge I think ignites a spark and you know I said it earlier everyone should have the right to challenge everyone's got a right I mean they hate it because you put up a media plan in one of our meeting one of our big team meetings I ask on Common to comment on it they put up a creative idea has happened just a couple of weeks ago I asked MGOMG to comment on it and they still sit in the seats like and a little bit oh I don't know if I shouldn't I'm like come on this is this is what we're about.
36:46Fierce honesty and loyalty go hand in hand. And you can have those disagreements because out of those disagreements can come some brilliant stuff. But that's my take on it. I think I think he's too humble. He talks a lot about the team and I think he believes that and I do too. But I'd love your perspective on what about how he behaves, how he works, how he communicates, elicits this wonderful relationship you have and the remarkable work you've done. I would start with probably three things. Callum is fiercely bright. I mean, he has incredible attention to detail. He gets ideas quicker than almost any client I've ever worked with.
37:30He really can look at a script and have a point of view very quick. So he's incredibly bright. He knows the industry inside out and you kind of absolutely have to respect. He knows how it's going to work. He knows which crew are there. He knows, I mean, everything. So he has an encyclopedic knowledge and he's already said it. He's fiercely honest. And it's really interesting because we've been through some really tough times And you can only do that if there's a mutual respect, but a mutual honesty. And he is very direct, but very, very supportive. I think it's really unusual that a client comes in.
38:14We see it all the time. A new client comes in and their instant reaction is to get their people in. And he gave us the chance to see if this could work or not. And that, I think, is also a very kind of brave thing to do, because the easy option is always just to get your people in. And so I think that's incredibly open-minded as well. I do think it's interesting. You have this remarkable platform. You've been very innovative and media creative working together, which Callum has talked about. How do you keep it going? You talk about, you know, consistency and creativity. It's an and. You use better words.
38:56But you have a remarkable platform. But the challenge is to keep it fresh, right? But that is, I mean, that's just, it's a gift. I think everyone gets excited. It's quite rare you get to work on a brand which is a national flag carrier. So there is that inherent kind of pride and excitement that if we get this right, it doesn't just say something about British Airways. It says something powerful about Britain. It's a platform about originality. So it asks you every time to try and do something different. And that is a really exciting challenge. And then the last thing to say, I think, is, you know, when you're working with an airline, you've got so much surface area to play with.
39:39It's not just a TV ad and some packaging. There's, right, how are we going to show up and make our lounges feel more original? How are we going to show up on the menu and create a British original menu? How are we going to show up in the customer experience? How are we going to do sponsorship? There's just so much to play with. And that is just exciting. It's really rare you get a chance to think about a brand on all those dimensions and all those bits that people don't usually think about. And that's just a privilege. So it makes it very easy, honestly. Calum any reaction to what Lucy has talked about here yeah well I've slightly humbled and slightly okay you know it's very lovely to hear that I think I think that honesty thing is it comes through I am I hope they know that it comes I hope they feel it both ways I say it really honestly when I think it's brilliant it's not you know I think there's there's a lot of work that we haven't even spoken about that not even seen in the UK one of the things I'm most proud of and I hope they know it both Uncommon and NGOMD is the work we did for the hundred years and the centenary of flying to India last year we did bespoke creative and placement and you know that was very emotional you know I was so lucky to do a five-day city tour five cities in five days I felt like a pop star around India and people crying each time so I hope they know they heard we say how brilliant that was as well as other work in the safety video you know i think i mean i think it's real i think what lucy says backs up what i said and i think if natalie were here from mgond she would say the exact same thing it is real it is human we are an airline we are a business of humans we have brilliant technology and machines we have you know of course technology that supports us ai that's coming to help us as part of our transformation plan but we are a business of humans and so that humanity that comes into a relationship into developing work into creating work and knowing that not every day is going to be smooth sailing I mean that happens in our industry the whole time and you just have that reactivity and so yeah I'm I'm very grateful but as I said I'm very humble to be in the job I'm in and it is my dream job I'm so lucky that this was the role I've wanted in the company I wanted for so many years so I feel a real sense of kind of responsibility but such a sense of humility and pride as well so um i'm i'm glad that that comes through in a way that creates work that is recognized and appreciated that delivers the commercial results that's starting to see you know the numbers come through both commercially and from the customer side so yeah i can only say thank you very much you know it's good he left P &G.
42:37You'd be like senior VP of Head & Shoulders now. I still love that brand. Don't anyone take it? I love that brand. Only I had hair to watch anymore. Tell me about it.
42:54Hi, everybody. I'm Andrea Sullivan, the CEO of Vive, and we have produced the CMO podcast with Jim Stengel for many years and I'm sitting in his seat right now. It's so exciting. I wanted to tell you a little bit about one of our programs that's called Vive by Vayner. It's a 12 month program that's designed for C-suiters and founders. And we want to help people to grow their businesses, but also to grow themselves. And so we bring in people from Shark Tank to talk to our founders, but we also focus on wellness. We want to make sure that people are leaning into becoming their best selves, their best and happiest selves.
43:34So if you are someone that wants to learn how to grow your business and grow yourself, check us out at vive.co. That's V-Y-V-E dot co. We'd love to talk to you.
43:52Let's flip into the creative brief. And obviously this is going to be focused a little bit on what we talk about in Cannes, creative evaluation skills, right? Lucy just said you're bright and you get stuff. Lucy says you're thinking. But no, I wanted, you know, for our listeners out there, what's your advice on improving their creative evaluation skills? Go through emotion and trust gut first, then go to the testing. And when I say trust gut, that doesn't mean trust my gut. I'll be honest, when the Windows campaign came through, which was brilliant and won golds and Silvers were so proud at Cannes last year, as well as, you know, the outdoor Grand Prix at the awards in London last week, you know.
44:33But when that came through, you can imagine as a classically trained marketer, when they bring you an advert that doesn't have the whole of your logo on it and no call to action and no speed mark for British Airways, you're like, what are you thinking? and but the gut of uncommon backed up by the internal ba team because it's not just as i said it's not about me it's about us now backed up by omd like you've got to allow people to take those chances and so whilst my emotion was like what is going on what is happening i think and they fiercely believed in it and they were right i mean the i remember because you know the png me is testing everything.
45:21I want to see those numbers. You know, the average brand recall from an ad is around 73 to 75%. And these executions were 85 to 91%. So they knew what they were talking about. So I say trust that. But I always also say, go back to the brief. What was the brief? Is this answering? And distance yourself a little bit. I think Lucy's being very kind. I think one of the things I have is because I'm not in the day-to-day of the production. Sometimes I see things we did a creative review last week or week before last actually and i'm like i think you guys are too close to it i don't think you're seeing what i'm seeing lucy's a bit the same because she's also not in the day today we often agree and i don't know i don't know if nielsen is gonna like a second but your team's on that but because we're not seeing every day so and trust those different opinions if i take the safety video for example if i mean we were probably on version 176.
46:15I was like, hold that longer. I can be, you've got to let the creators do their work. But sometimes you're like, no, I like that too much. But every single time I watched that safety video, I brought someone else from the team. So the whole customer branding team, someone who I knew would be honest and direct and not just sycophantic and say, oh, it's great. Someone that would give me their real opinion. I brought someone different in every time. And when I was watching it, I was watching them, not the video, because I'd seen the video and to see if it was a listing reaction. So that's why I'd say I think there's a lot more gut in it and an opinion than people sometimes give credit for.
46:49Yeah. What's the first brand you remember making an impact on you as a young boy? I know, my parents are going to kill me. Guinness. Oh. I'm so proud of my Celtic heritage, but to have a brand that was so ubiquitous, so tied to the country, it's the same symbol on a can of Guinness as on the front of my passport. You know, it's the only country in the world to have a musical instrument I think as it's a national symbol and to have a brand that has been throughout my life I remember it from a child I mean yeah my parents aren't gonna kill me that I'm choosing Guinness but you know it's still as strong today so I think it's you know it's massively drunk in Nigeria it's one of the biggest countries and you know it's so tied to the nation it's proudly from it still gives me inspiration today it's either that or VW because my other set of grandparents in Scotland, when I didn't see them so much, of course, and when they'd come and visit, they drove a VW camper van.
47:49So I always associated VW with happiness and family. So it's one of those two brands. I probably should have said Volkswagen, but Guinness is number one. So who has been the most creative inspiration for you in your life? It is actually my parents. It's a mix of my parents because I take creativity to be a value, not just a professional way of working. my dad trained as an architect and as an incredible line drawer my mum is incredible with people she has an empathy and a way of being to adapt to a situation and make people feel welcome which for me is creativity too it's not just about it but I think between them although they're very different people and I am very different from a lot of my family as my mum calls me special the you know i think they've had a huge influence my life i come from a family of musicians and a family of artists and i sometimes don't even realize that that's where i come from so they have always been who has inspired me and i can look up to hopefully one day achieve what they have done for me i think i'd be very lucky it's a beautiful way to end it Alan, thank you.
49:03But we're not going to let our audience go yet, though. I do the three takeaways from each show and our audience loves that. So I'm going to exercise their improv skills today. We have audience members back there I'm going to call on. So I want one takeaway from each one of you from the show. Joe Hall, I'm from, I live in Austin, Texas, and I work at a company called Spaceback. Depth and empathy. I got that coming out of you from the very beginning and you mentioned You get it from your mom and that comes through deeply. So thank you for sharing. Lucy. Simple as relationships. Now you're a total inspiration, honestly.
49:39Thank you so much. You're going to be a lot of people and I love all of them. This was especially powerful on many levels. Thank you. I really appreciate it. It is an honor to be here. I remember, you know, meeting you, as I said, in Brooklands and you gave a talk in the, there was like a, I remember that outside and, you know, you sit there and you think, my goodness you know away responsibility and someone who comes in with humanity and humor and doesn't need to be you know isn't a clone isn't you know a robot and is relating people to humans I think you know and I look back on those years as I said people like Jill Whitty Collins and and those moments where you see you speak so it's kind of full circle so it's been a real honor for me thank you.
50:22That's it for this week's episode of the CMO podcast as always I would be grateful if you shared our show with your friends, along with subscribing and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. The CMO Podcast is a Vive original production. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of our sponsors or its personnel, nor do our sponsors advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.
From the publisher
In this week's episode The CMO Podcast, Jim sits down with Calum Laming, the Chief Customer Officer of British Airways. He and his team are responsible for a creative replatforming of British Airways, celebrating the airline as a British Original. For their remarkable creative work, Calum and team won the highest honor last year at the Cannes Lions Festival, the coveted Grand Prix.
With a lifelong passion for aviation, Calum has built a career spanning five airlines, including Virgin and Etihad, before taking the helm at one of the world’s most iconic carriers. And like Jim, Calum’s journey began at Procter & Gamble, giving him a unique blend of brand-building expertise and airline industry know-how.
So, buckle up, switch your devices to airplane mode, and get ready for a candid conversation on leadership, creativity, and what it takes to keep an airline soaring.
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Recorded live at the Brand Innovators LVMH Villa, presented by Shutterstock, during the 2025 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
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This week's episode is brought to you by Deloitte and StrawberryFrog.
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