Can marketing save us from political extremes? with Peter Seymour

Can marketing help rebuild the centre ground of British politics?

In this recent You’re MarketingKind gathering Peter Seymour, former VP of Marketing & Strategy for Europe at Mondelez, shares his journey from consumer marketing into political marketing, and explores what politicians could learn from the world of brands.

Peter’s starting point is simple: politics isn’t just about the facts — it’s about how people feel.

Drawing on his experience as a marketer, Peter explains how skills such as understanding your audience, creative storytelling and balancing a P&L can be applied to political marketing. He also shares how he is using these skills to support Centre, a cross-party centrist think tank working to develop practical solutions to some of Britain’s biggest challenges.

Why listen?

Peter explores:

- Why understanding what people feel is as important as understanding what they think

- What politicians can learn from customer insight and brand strategy

- Why centrist politicians need to focus less on anger and more on the issues that matter to voters

- What recent political communications from the UK's main parties can teach us about effective, and ineffective, marketing

- Why the political centre needs a compelling overarching vision

- What the far left and far right understand about political storytelling and mobilisation

- What More in Common research tells us voters care most about: the cost of living, immigration and community cohesion

- How making housing, education, healthcare and energy more affordable will help address inequality

This is a fascinating conversation about the intersection of marketing, politics, psychology and social change.

Continue the discussion

We invite all marketers to consider how the skills we use to build brands could also help rebuild trust, find common ground and create a more constructive political conversation.

If you are interested in this discussion you may also enjoy our conversations with Jo Swinson on building an economy that works for all, Will Hutton on the ‘We society’, Polly Mackenzie on purposeful enterprise and Andy Burnham on devolution to counter the silos of central government.

Listen or watch now

Learn more about ⁠Centre think tank here⁠.

Enjoy the podcast episode with a longer edit of this conversation here. Or watch the video edit below.