Marketing Factories

Epizody

• Effie Special: Turning Litter Into Loyalty | Inside the McDonald's Nordics Marketing Factory 02.06.2026 1h 1min

  In this special episode of Marketing Factories, released to mark the opening of Effie Awards Europe 2026 entries, REBORRN partner Dafni Prosalika welcomes Staffan Ekstam, Nordic Marketing and Brand Strategy Director at Food Folk Sverige AB (McDonald's Sverige), and Petter Dixelius, Creative Director and Partner at NORD DDB STHLM.Back in December 2025, on the day following the Effie Awards Europe ceremony, we recorded in Brussels a special episode at EACA's offices (European Association of Communications Agencies), about one of the most talked about campaigns of the 2025 edition: McDonald's Nordics "Deal with the Trash".Staffan and Petter go inside one of the world's most recognised brands and the twenty-year agency partnership behind some of its most effective work. The conversation covers how global strategy actually lands in four Nordic markets, what it takes to turn a brand liability into an award-winning campaign, and why the best idea in the room sometimes has to wait five years before it's ready.- 01:44 – A Symbol That Needs No Words There are only a handful of them in the world. Dafni opens with one, and sets up exactly why this conversation matters.- 02:54 – The Idea That Had to Wait Petter on a creative idea that sat in the room for nearly five years because the world wasn't ready for it yet.- 04:12 – What Chicago Sets and What It Doesn't Staffan breaks down the real relationship between global strategy and Nordic creative freedom. There is more flexibility than most people assume with one non-negotiable exception.- 10:08 – When the Brand Becomes Part of the Solution How a well-documented problem with McDonald's in the Nordics became the foundation of a campaign that rewarded people for solving it.- 13:41 – The Difference Between an Insight and a Fan TruthDafni asks Staffan and Petter about what McDonald's global CMO Morgan Flatley calls "Fan Truths" and why a truth that only resonates with two people can still be exactly right.- 19:05 – Who Belongs in the Room From Day One The moment Staffan and Petter changed who was present at the brief. A small process shift with a significant creative consequence.- 43:43 – The Hardest Thing About Running Marketing at Scale Staffan names the capability he looks for most in his team. It sounds straightforward, but almost nobody does it well.- 45:11 – The Acronym That Stumped Him A story from Petter's first weeks working on McDonald's that captures everything about what it actually takes to understand a client's business.- 53:11 – Why McDonald's CMO Sits Closest to the CFOThe data says most CFOs don't believe marketing drives results. Staffan on why that gap looks different from inside McDonald's.- 59:53 – What Twenty Years Feels Like From the InsideStaffan and Petter on the thing that long partnerships build that no brief can ever replicate and why it shows up most when the work is hardest.CONNECT WITH REBORRN:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reborrn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reborrn.company/Substack: https://reborrn.substack.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reborrn.companyCONNECT WITH EFFIE EUROPE: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/effie-awards-europe/Website: https://www.effie-europe.com/
• How Heineken Became the World’s Most Creative Brand | Inside the HEINEKEN Company Marketing Factory 12.05.2026 1h 13min

  In this episode of Marketing Factories, REBORRN partner Dafni Prosalika welcomes Rob van Griensven, Global Digital Director at the HEINEKEN Company, who shares insights from his 18-year journey with the HEINEKEN Company. Transitioning from his global digital leadership role for the Heineken brand to leading Marketing Transformation for the entire HEINEKEN Company, Rob discusses how the 150-year-old family-owned company maintains its status as one of the world's most creative brands. The conversation explores the "magic" formula of art, science, and courage, the integration of AI in marketing, and the brand's core mission of fostering real-life human connections in an increasingly digital world.Key Themes:Art, Science, and Courage: the three words behind every Heineken campaign, from the Heineken Clinker at Coachella to Max Verstappen fronting their "When You Drive, Never Drink" program Fans Have More Friends: how a research insight on fandom became the foundation for unifying F1, Champions League and music sponsorships into a single platform, and the creative twist that made it unmistakably Heineken Social Networking Since 1873: the loneliness paradox of modern life and why a 150-year-old beer brand is building tech products that tell you to put your phone down The LePub Model: long-term partnerships, brutal facts, and the tension between global consistency and local creative freedom Playbooks to Playgrounds: how Heineken is turning 142-page PDFs nobody reads into AI advisory agents local marketers can actually prompt00:00: The World's Most Creative Brand05:20: The Formula Behind the Magic07:38: A Logo With a Secret09:19: The Wristband That Made Strangers Talk12:40: The Athlete, The Beer, The Backlash Risk14:56: Social Networking Since 187327:12: The Unique Agency Operating Model31:12: Fans Have More Friends41:34: The Brief That Writes Itself47:15: From Playbooks to Playgrounds01:02:42: How You Actually Get an Organisation to Change01:10:03: The 58-Hour ChallengeCONNECT WITH REBORRN:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reborrnInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/reborrn.company/Substack: https://reborrn.substack.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reborrn.companyCONNECT WITH EFFIE EUROPE:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/effie-awards-europe/Website: https://www.effie-europe.com/
• The 2-Year Process That Revived an $18 Billion Icon | Inside the Fanta Marketing Factory 21.04.2026 49min

  Fanta is an $18 billion brand sold in over 180 countries. For the past three years, Ibrahim Khan, Fanta's Global Marketing VP, has been tearing it apart and rebuilding it from scratch.In Episode 2 of Marketing Factories, Ibrahim joins Dafni Prosalika to reveal the strategy behind the brand's biggest-ever gaming campaign, launched with Xbox and Activision Blizzard across 60+ markets, and why it took two full years to find the two words that would rediscover what Fanta stands for.Ibrahim also talks about what it takes to hold a coherent brand across 190 countries while giving local teams real autonomy, what it means to market in a world where your consumer holds the mic, and more. Key themes:The two-year project that stripped an $18 billion brand back to two wordsWhy one simple global strategy still needs 190 different executionsHow 70% of Fanta's investment moved away from TVWhat authenticity actually costs in gaming culture, and why live experiences are part of the answerHow a network of 40-50 marketers holds a global brand together through autonomy rather than controlWhy the fundamentals of great marketing haven't changed00:00: Campaign Intro01:18: Xbox & Activision Partnership03:07: New Limited Flavors04:08: Influencer & Gear Strategy06:16: Rediscovering Core Values08:36: Reaching Gen Z Gamers10:47: Global vs. Local Scale12:35: Entertainment Brand Vision15:42: Rewards & Live Experiences17:21: Authentic Fandom Engagement19:34: Digital-First Marketing23:27: Strategic Brand Shifts25:35: Experimentation Culture27:51: Universal Insights30:41: Network Operating Model34:22: WPP Partnership & Talent40:49: Marketing Fundamentals43:49: Technology & AI47:51: The 58 ChallengeCONNECT WITH REBORRN:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reborrn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reborrn.company/Substack: https://reborrn.substack.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reborrn.companyCONNECT WITH EFFIE EUROPE: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/effie-awards-europe/Website: https://www.effie-europe.com/
• How Sound Became Magnum's Most Valuable DBA | Inside The Magnum Ice Cream Company Marketing Factory 24.03.2026 1h 52min

  After decades under the Unilever umbrella, one of the world’s most iconic indulgent brands is striking out on its own. The mission? To build a marketing machine from the ground up that is lean, fast, and unapologetically intentional.In this episode, Tobias Sparnaaij (Global Marketing Lead Masterbrand and Sticks Portfolio, Magnum) and Bruno Yanagui Gomiero (Global Planning Director, Lola MullenLowe) join host Dafni Prosalika (Partner, REBORRN) to uncover what makes this serially-awarded Marketing Factory so effective.Watch to find out how a team of 13 people manages a multi-billion-dollar global flagship, the neuroscience behind "the drool factor," and the rare alchemy required to turn a lean client-agency duo into a powerhouse that wins big on the global stage.In this episode, we discuss:🎧 The Crack as a Sonic Distinctive Brand Asset (DBA):From a post-production sound effect to a global brand system. How Magnum turned sound into a signal of quality, a media strategy, and a weapon to fight a 400% cocoa price increase. 🎧 The Brief That Rewrites Itself:Why the best briefs are not fixed on paper. How what started as a sustainability brief became a campaign against private label copycats and how continuously challenging one another is this agency-client 10-year recipe for success. 🎧 The Lean Team Paradox:13 people running a multi-billion-dollar global brand. How speed comes from structure and focus, and what a founder mindset in global FMCG actually looks like. 🎧 Engineering Craving Before the Shelf:How Magnum builds anticipation in a category driven by impulse. Designing every asset to start the experience before the product is even in hand. 🎧 AI Needs a Role and a Reason:Where AI accelerates thinking and where it compromises craft. A clear line between using technology to serve the idea and using it to replace it. 🎧 Consistency Enables Risk:Why long-term brand assets are what make bold creativity possible. The hidden system behind campaigns that seem to break the rules. Marketing Factories explores the world’s most effective marketing teams. Hosted by Dafni Prosalika (Partner, REBORRN). Produced by REBORRN in collaboration with Effie Europe and European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA).