Jon Evans Takes the Guest Chair for Uncensored CMO's Episode 151

By Jon Evans

For 150 episodes, Jon Evans has sat on one side of the microphone, drawing out the stories and thinking of marketing leaders for his Uncensored CMO podcast. In Episode 151, the format flips. Jon…

For 150 episodes, Jon Evans has sat on one side of the microphone, drawing out the stories and thinking of marketing leaders for his Uncensored CMO podcast. In Episode 151, the format flips. Jon becomes the guest, interviewed by Antonia Wade, CMO of PwC, in a conversation that turns the show's usual lens back on its own host.

The episode traces Jon's path from tax intern to podcast host, a route through marketing that has taken in some of the most recognisable names in British drinks brands. Jon started his marketing career at Britvic, where he ran a 'Seed Brand Unit' in conjunction with Pepsi, before roles that included Marketing Director at Suntory on the Lucozade brand. He created Uncensored CMO in 2019, the same year he joined marketing effectiveness company System1, where he later became Chief Customer Officer.

The conversation with Antonia does not shy away from the harder chapters. Jon revisits being fired at Lucozade, part of a career he has described elsewhere as one where he has 'known epic failure' and been fired twice in a single year. Rather than treating those moments as footnotes, the episode uses them as material, drawing lessons from a career that has moved between brand-side leadership and the independent platform he built alongside it.

Much of the episode is given over to what Jon has learned across 150 conversations with marketers, and to the question at the centre of the show's title: what makes a great CMO. It is a subject Jon has circled from many angles as a host, and Episode 151 gives him space to answer it directly, informed by the range of guests and perspectives the podcast has gathered since 2019.

The episode sits within a body of work that has grown well beyond its origins. Uncensored CMO has since accumulated a substantial global audience, and Jon has spoken of a vision 'to create the world's most influential marketing media that will inspire a generation of marketers to reach the top.' Episode 151, with Jon in the guest chair for once, offers a clear window into the thinking behind that ambition.