WFA's Better Marketing Pod with David Wheldon · 2026-06-08 · 22 min
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.
Ep 51: Opella's Alberto Hernandez on the commercial payback from curiosity, courage and purpose75 / 100
Ep 49: Google's VP Global Ads Dan Taylor: "AI is more of a leadership than a technology challenge"
Ep 48: Judy Smith on why "be who you say you are" is the only crisis playbook that matters
Ep 47: HP's Antonio Lucio on leading through a CEO transition, an AI surge and 4 layers of disruption
Ep 46: Grab CMO Cheryl Goh's playbook on how to 'cross swim lanes' for commercial impact