Podcast Summary: Uncensored CMO

Episode: "Fernando Machado on Turning Creativity into Competitive Advantage"

Host: Jon Evans
Guest: Fernando Machado
Date: August 20, 2025

Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Jon Evans welcomes renowned marketer Fernando Machado back to "Uncensored CMO" to explore how creativity goes far beyond advertising—becoming a central engine for business growth and competitive advantage. Fernando shares personal stories from his award-winning campaigns at Unilever, Dove, Burger King, and NotCo, and discusses how creative thinking can drive success for businesses of all sizes. The episode also introduces listeners to Fernando's latest initiative: the Lions Growth MBA, a course designed to help marketers harness the power of creativity at every level.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Creativity as a Business Driver

• Broad Application: Creativity isn't limited to advertising—it's about approaching every business problem with fresh thinking.
  • "To me, creativity is like a way of life. It's beyond campaigns." — Fernando Machado [02:38]
• Areas for Creativity: Advertising, cost-cutting, innovation, new products, pricing, packaging, and organizational culture.
• Not Just for Big Brands: Small and emerging brands should set even higher creative benchmarks, turning their constraints into advantages.
  • "In fact, you should be aiming even higher because you are small." — Fernando [03:25]

2. Behind Iconic Campaigns: Dove, Burger King, and NotCo

Dove – Real Beauty Sketches

• Background & Insight: The team discovered only 4% of women globally considered themselves beautiful, leading to the campaign’s core insight.
  • "Only 4% of women consider themselves to be beautiful across the globe." — Fernando [06:18]
• Impact: Touched millions, sparked conversations everywhere, and drove brand growth—“It still touches people.” [08:43]

Burger King – Moldy Whopper

• Strategic Challenge: Needed to resonate with a younger audience who valued authenticity and natural ingredients.
• The Journey: Years of product reformulation, operational changes, and a willingness to lose margin for long-term gain.
• Creative Leap: The campaign showed a Whopper decaying over time, visually breaking category norms.
  • "No one wants to eat a moldy burger. But we made it look mesmerizing and beautiful, almost like hypnotic." — Fernando [12:44]
• Lessons Learned: Earlier, didactic ads failed to generate interest, highlighting that breakthrough creative ideas—not just rational benefit pitches—generate attention.

Burger King – Whopper Detour

• Innovation in Promotion: Offered Whoppers for 1 cent when ordered via the Burger King app—but only near a McDonald's.
  • "It's a promotion where you would be able to buy a Whopper for one cent, but only if you're close to McDonald's. Kind of like a mind fuck." — Fernando [14:08]
• Creative Principle: Denied the audience’s assumption, creating surprise and buzz.
• Quote:
  • "What makes something interesting is when you deny a key assumption of your audience." — Jon Evans [16:58]

3. Creative Principles & Notable Quotes

• The Importance of Surprise:
  • "If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic." — Bill Bernbach, quoted by Fernando [19:47]
• On Attention:
  • "Your first job is to be noticed." — Jon Evans [19:35]
  • "I tell my clients, they don't have the budget to be boring." — Greg Hahn, quoted by Jon [20:36]
• On Breaking Through: Don’t conform to the “sea of sameness.” Creativity requires courage and risk.

4. Creativity Beyond Advertising

• Early Career Example: Saving money through packaging innovation to create a teddy bear-shaped bottle for Fofo (Unilever), achieving a market breakthrough with no ad spend. [21:15–23:33]
• Building Creative Cultures: At Burger King, empowered global teams—often with no direct reporting lines—to create and execute bold ideas.
  • "I'm really proud of the creative culture that we built." — Fernando [24:00]
• Product Innovation: Guided Vaseline to develop products specifically for under-served ethnic groups, including new tests and machinery. [25:45]

5. Influential CMO Insights

• Leadership Advice: Influence comes from business impact and internal team growth, not from seeking external recognition. [36:27]
• Culture Over Command: Building enduring creative teams is a leader’s legacy.
• Being a CMO Is Hard: Especially when pushing for creativity in risk-averse environments.
  • "It's not easy to be a CMO, period. And I think it's even harder if you want to lean into creativity." — Fernando [38:45]

6. Navigating Company Size & Budget

• Big or Small, Constraints Exist: Even at market leaders like Dove or Burger King, budgets are never enough for everything.
• Startups & Scale-Ups: Experience with NotCo and advising private equity indicates every business must use creativity to maximize its “small blanket”—whether in launching, innovating, or scaling. [42:15]
• Advising Private Equity Portfolio Brands: Fernando shapes operating frameworks and empowers existing marketing teams, using his experience to unlock growth across sectors. [44:45]

7. The Value of Focus and Clarity in Private Equity

• Private Equity Culture: Less bureaucracy, sharper focus, clear accountability, and collective bias for action accelerate growth and innovation.
  • "Very clear point of accountability in decision making. And everyone has the same exact target." — Fernando [50:57–51:48]

8. Lions Growth MBA: A New Creative Masterclass

• Genesis: Conceived as a practical, real-world course on how to build creativity into every layer of marketing and business.
• Course Structure: 11 modules with video masterclasses, case studies, live Q&As, and a community forum.
  • "I only present stuff that I did...because when people just look from the outside, they think we're kicking an open door all the time." — Fernando [52:44]
• Community Creation: Early engagement strong—over 120 professionals (from Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, AB InBev, and more) signed up for the launch.
• Accessible Learning: Cohort-based model; next cohort starts September 2025.
  • "If you just Google Lions Growth MBA, the link will come." — Fernando [57:42]

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Surprise Leads to Attention:
  "What makes something interesting is when you deny a key assumption of your audience." — Jon Evans [16:58]

• Living Creativity:
  "Creativity is like a way of life, you know, it's beyond campaigns." — Fernando Machado [02:38]

• Budget Constraints Breed Creativity:
  "I tell my clients they don't have the budget to be boring." — Greg Hahn, quoted by Jon [20:36]

• Leadership Philosophy:
  "I'm really proud of the creative culture that we built at Burger King." — Fernando [24:00]

• Facing Risk in Creativity:
  "The biggest risk is not taking any risk." — Mark Zuckerberg, quoted by Fernando [40:48]

• Motivating Marketers:
  "The first job of any advertiser is not to be ignored." — Jon Evans [19:35]

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------|--------------| | Introduction & episode overview | 00:06–01:19 | | Fernando’s creative campaigns overview | 01:56–04:18 | | Dove Real Beauty Sketches: Backstory | 04:21–10:02 | | Burger King (Moldy Whopper & Detour) | 10:02–17:40 | | The power of subverting category norms | 16:55–18:21 | | The importance of attention in marketing | 19:06–21:15 | | Creativity beyond advertising (Unilever) | 21:15–25:45 | | Team culture, leadership, and personal growth | 24:00–29:14 | | Navigating small/large company constraints | 42:15–43:05 | | Private equity experience & framework | 44:45–51:34 | | The Lions Growth MBA: genesis & intent | 51:49–58:31 | | Course details and wrap up | 58:31–59:58 |

Conclusion

Fernando Machado's episode is a rich, candid exploration of creativity’s role in business—demystifying famous campaigns, championing new approaches for both giants and startups, and sharing the behind-the-scenes realities of creative leadership. From product innovation to building winning teams and daring to surprise an audience, Fernando makes it clear: creativity is not an extra—it’s essential for growth.

For more on the Lions Growth MBA, visit the official site or search ‘Lions Growth MBA’ to learn how to join the next cohort.