Uncensored Renegades

How are great products created through innovation? Jon and Kory tackle this topic bringing entertaining examples from their careers, including the runaway success of e.l.f.'s Power Grip primer. So what's the key to innovation? Culture, constraints, and most importantly, being close to your customer.
Timestamps
00:00 - Start
01:04 - Why innovation is Jon’s favourite marketing topic
01:35 - Creating the cultural conditions necessary for innovation
04:25 - The measuring stick for innovation
06:23 - Why innovation fails
08:19 - The innovation of e.l.f.’s Power Grip Primer
15:09 - How constraint breeds innovation
20:07 - Innovation when you’re close to your customer

How do you distil something as complex as marketing into something simple?

In this special episode of Uncensored Renegades, Kory delivers a powerful seven-minute poem (originally written as a pattern-disrupting acceptance speech) that captures the emotional weight, pressure, and responsibility of modern marketing leadership.

Born from a flash of inspiration at an AC/DC concert, the poem explores the trials of being a CMO, the burden of accountability, and the mental fortitude required to lead.

After the performance, Jon reacts candidly, unpacking the themes of ownership, bravery, and the uncomfortable truth that in leadership, pretty much everything is down to you.

Timestamps
00:00 - Start
00:28 - Why marketing is poetry to Kory
02:25 - Where did Kory’s love for poetry start?
03:58 - How poetry makes complex things simple
04:56 - Why Kory wrote a poem and not an acceptance speech
12:29 - Kory Marchisotto’s marketing poem
19:43 - Jon reacts to Kory’s poem
21:04 - The power of mental fortitude
24:34 - Pretty much everything is down to you, and you alone
26:45 - You don’t have to have all the answers
28:05 - Seek out what you don’t know

With Cannes Lions deadlines looming, Jon and Kory dive into what it really takes to pitch, and win, at Cannes.

We recorded this episode on the final day of Cannes 2025, with Kory in the thick of e.l.f’s "So Many D*cks" campaign submission for both a Glass and Titanium Lion. With the experience fresh in her mind, she breaks down the realities of the process.

Jon brings a different perspective, reflecting on his own Bronze and Silver Lion wins from years past, and the hard-earned lessons that came with them.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:49 - The pitching process for a Cannes Lion
03:14 - The pitch process for a Glass Lion
06:51 - The power of the Pratfall Effect
08:39 - Pitching for a Titanium Lion
10:41 - Jon’s tips from winning his Silver and Bronze Lions
12:17 - Audience before content
14:14 - How to make your campaign interesting (and not dull)
16:25 - How e.l.f. makes their campaigns interesting
18:58 - How to hack your campaign; babies or animals

When you define any other business function, the answer is simple. What is finance? What is HR? What is IT?
When you ask, what is marketing? The answer is broad. Is it sales? Is it storytelling? Is it brand?
In this episode, Kory and Jon dig into some of the words used to define marketing and decrypt some of the findings.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:15 - Why is marketing hard to define?
04:35 - Why brand is so important
08:36 - How your brand shows up when hiring people
10:36 - The words that describe marketing
14:47 - Do marketers neglect the role of strategy?
17:25 - The most surprising words that define marketing
18:39 - The power of storytelling

Know your e.l.f.ing numbers - it's your responsibility as a leader. Jon and Kory share stories of when this has helped them in roles, and share advice on how CMOs can be successful in getting more budget, taking bigger risks and, ultimately, grow the brand (for 25 consecutive quarters in Kory’s case).
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:34 - You just do the cutting, sticking and colouring in
01:42 - Why knowing your numbers is so important for CMOs
05:25 - Making the case for long term marketing investment
08:10 - Why CMOs need to earn the right to take risks
12:05 - Managing internal politics in the c-suite
15:16 - Kory’s formula to create successful work