The Singles is back with Tracksuit, taking some of the biggest marketing stories in culture right now and putting them under a bit more pressure using real brand data.

Because the interesting part is rarely just the campaign itself. It is what the campaign reveals about the category, the audience, and the way brands are trying to grow.

In this episode, Conor Byrne is joined by Ed Parkin and Bella Harrison from Tracksuit to explore three very different examples of brands using culture, entertainment, and timing to build relevance.

Lucky Saint shows how alcohol-free beer has moved far beyond Dry January, using Lime Bikes, London culture, run clubs, and moderation trends to position itself as a year-round brand for active urban consumers.

Lego demonstrates why it remains one of the most culturally flexible brands in the world, turning the FIFA World Cup into entertainment before a ball has even been kicked, while continuing to stretch beyond the toy category into fandom, collectibles, and adult audiences.

The conversation then turns to the latest Entertain or Die Report, looking at why entertainment is increasingly becoming a commercial growth strategy rather than just a creative ambition.

The episode also explores:

• Why brands are now competing against Netflix, TikTok, creators, and sport for attention
• The shift from “salesmanship” to “showmanship” in advertising
• Why entertaining brands are outperforming commercially
• What brands like Currys, Compare the Market, Guinness Zero, and Lego are getting right
• How mental availability is built long before purchase moments happen

If you want a deeper understanding of how entertainment, culture, and brand growth connect together, this episode is packed with practical examples and real-world data.

Listen to Paul Feldwick on That's What I Call Marketing here:

Paul Feldwick on That's What I Call Marketing

Read the full Entertain or Die report:

Entertain or Die Report

Find out more about Tracksuit:

Tracksuit

Listen to more episodes of That's What I Call Marketing:

That's What I Call Marketing

Timestamps:

02:06 – Lucky Saint and the rise of moderation culture

03:24 – Why Lucky Saint is so culturally aware

05:05 – Lime Bikes, London culture, and timing

07:08 – The functional drinks category shift

08:45 – Alcohol-free beer becoming mainstream

10:00 – Guinness Zero vs Lucky Saint

11:18 – Winning locally before scaling nationally

13:22 – Brand perception and category positioning

15:00 – Lego and the FIFA World Cup campaign

16:01 – Why Lego works across every demographic

18:22 – Lego’s cultural timing advantage

20:00 – Lego, fandom, and entertainment

21:40 – World Cup advertising and brand competition

22:15 – Entertain or Die explained

24:00 – Why entertainment drives commercial growth

25:35 – Future demand and entertainment

26:17 – Gap hires a Chief Entertainment Officer

27:09 – What makes brands entertaining

29:00 – Brands that entertain us today

31:00 – Why culture matters inside companies

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We talk about personalisation as if it’s about the person. It isn’t. It’s about prediction.”

That line sits at the centre of this conversation with James Taylor, CEO & Founder of A Particular Audience and once you hear it properly, it’s difficult to go back to how most marketing teams currently think about relevance. Because for years, personalisation has been framed as something close to one-to-one messaging. The idea that if we just had enough data, we could tailor every experience to the individual. It sounds right. It feels intuitive. And yet, in practice, it has largely disappointed.

What James lays out here is a different way of understanding the problem.

• Not who the customer is — but what they are doing.
• Not static segments — but real-time signals.
• Not demographics — but behaviour.

Drawing on his experience building AI-driven recommendation systems used by global retailers, he explains how the most effective ecommerce experiences are not built around people, but around patterns. Around the relationships between products, actions, and intent. Around what millions of other customers have done before you, and what that makes likely next. This fundamentally changes how you think about websites, search, media, and even creativity.

Along the way, the conversation explores why so many early personalisation efforts failed, how Amazon and Netflix approached the problem differently, and why most retailers are still playing catch-up despite having access to the same underlying data.

There’s also a more grounded thread running through it — the reality of AI in practice. Not the version you see in product demos or LinkedIn posts, but the version that still requires constraints, rules, and human oversight. The version that gets things wrong. The version that can be incredibly powerful, but only when properly understood.

For marketers, there’s a useful tension here, on one side, the promise of hyper-relevance and automation, on the other, the discipline required to make it actually work.

This episode sits right in that space.

⏱️ Key Moments:

00:00 – Why “you are not your demographic” changes everything

02:15 – From investment banking to building AI products

08:00 – The real meaning of personalisation (and why it’s been misunderstood)

12:30 – Behaviour vs demographics: what actually drives relevance

18:00 – Building a recommendation engine from scratch

26:00 – Why most retailers still lag behind Amazon

30:00 – How AI is changing marketing teams

34:00 – The limits of AI (and why rules still matter)

36:30 – “Personalisation is just good prediction”

What you’ll take from this episode:

• Why most personalisation strategies fail to deliver
• How recommendation systems actually work in ecommerce
• The difference between explicit and implicit customer signals
• Why demographics are often a poor proxy for behaviour
• How AI should (and shouldn’t) be used in marketing today
• What marketers need to rethink about relevance and experience design

Brought to you by Tracksuit

Tracksuit is the always-on brand tracking platform helping marketers understand brand health, measure impact, and make better decisions over time.

👉 https://gotracksuit.com

Listen / Follow That’s What I Call Marketing:

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7MXhujDpTzbSRRbyQFgdWp

📩 Email: thatwhatswhatIcallmarketing@gmail.com

Subscribe for weekly conversations with leading marketers.

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How Brands Should Really Be Planning Christmas Campaigns

What happens when you start planning Christmas… in April?

In this episode of That’s What I Call Marketing, Conor Byrne is joined by Pete Markey (former CMO of Boots, Marketing Week Marketer of the Year) and Leanne Tomasevic (Insights Lead at Electric Twin) to explore how brands should approach Christmas advertising — using real-time synthetic audience insights.

Instead of guessing what consumers want, this episode puts Electric Twin’s platform to the test live, revealing how marketers can simulate audience reactions, test ideas, and sharpen creative briefs months before campaigns go live.

The result is a grounded, practical look at:

• What people actually want from Christmas ads in 2026
• Why emotional storytelling still matters (but needs reframing)
• The role of celebrities, music, and consistency
• How to balance commercial pressure with authenticity
• And how AI-driven research can speed up better decisions

If you’re working on a Christmas campaign, brand strategy, or creative development, this is a genuinely useful watch.

00:00 – The reality of planning Christmas in April

01:10 – What Electric Twin actually does (synthetic audiences explained)

03:00 – Why speed matters in modern marketing decision-making

05:30 – Live demo: Understanding the mood of the nation at Christmas

08:30 – What consumers really want this year (family, realism, restraint)

12:00 – Gifting trends: practicality vs meaningful connection

14:30 – The balance between storytelling and selling

16:00 – What people want from Christmas ads now

18:00 – Should brands use celebrities? (and when it works)

21:00 – The role of consistency (Kevin the Carrot, John Lewis, Coca-Cola)

24:00 – Realism vs escapism in Christmas creative

27:00 – How agencies can use this to build stronger briefs

29:00 – The most memorable Christmas ads and why they last

32:00 – Should brands reuse ads instead of making new ones?

33:00 – Why music is critical to Christmas advertising effectiveness

35:30 – Final thoughts: faster insight, better decisions

• Christmas advertising isn’t about excess — it’s about connection under constraint
• Consumers want authenticity, not performance
• Creative effectiveness improves when insight is iterative, not static
• Consistency often beats novelty in building long-term brand memory
• AI isn’t replacing research — it’s changing how quickly you can think

• Learn more about Electric Twin: https://electrictwin.com
• Listen to more episodes: That’s What I Call Marketing
• Previous episode with Dr. Ben Warner (Synthetic Research deep dive)

That’s What I Call Marketing features conversations with leading marketers, CMOs, and industry thinkers — focused on how marketing actually works in practice.

If you’re working on Christmas 2026 right now, get in touch with Electric Twin

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