How I got fired twice in one year, the Uncensored CMO story - Jon Evans

In this special episode of Uncensored CMO, Jon finds himself on the other side of the mic being interviewed by producer James McKinven, who grills him on some unusual career moves. After a promising start in the City Jon makes a large u-turn and decides to become a marketer instead where he goes on to learn his early craft at Britvic. His next big break came at drinks business First Drinks where he notoriously closed down the London underground after causing a terror threat. After recovering from that he returned to Britvic to launch brands in International markets and from there set up a new team of challenger brands. With the entrepreneurs bug he poured his life savings into a management buy in which didn’t end well. From there he went ‘major league’ as Marketing Director of LRS before being fired. Then landing his dream job Brewdog he only managed 3 months before being fired again. But the story ends well as you find Jon as host of Uncensored CMO and CMO for System1 talking about what makes advertising work. In this episode he shares everything he has learnt in his career and why being fired twice in one year wasn’t the setback you might imagine.

What we covered in this episode:

What inspired Jon to go into MarketingMaking the giant leap from Business Finance to MarketingGetting a big break launching Fruit Shoot at BritvicHow small conversations can make a big differenceWhy leaving Britvic was the best way to get promoted at BritvicLearning the marketing ropes at First DrinksCausing a terror threat in the London UndergroundAppearing on Have I Got News For YouHow sometimes it pays to go backWhat you discover in International marketingCreating a challenger brand from within the companyBetting his life savings on a Management Buy InWhat you learn when you have nothingLanding a grown up CMO role at Lucozade Ribena SuntoryWorking with a Boxing legend Anthony JoshuaImposter syndrome when going from nothing to £50m budgetsManaging perception vs reality in a large corporation organisationCreating the best performing OOH ad everHow to screw up the Lucozade reformulationGetting fired despite delivering every single KPIJon’s 100 day plan to meet 100 peopleLanding his dream job at BrewDogGetting fired (again) after only 3 monthsThe power of being unreasonableWas James Watt a good CEO to work for?The unexpected source of work after being firedHow Uncensored CMO was bornThe episode that made him cryWhat happens next for Uncensored CMO and how he wants to help you