This Much I Learned: What3Words on breaking into popular culture

Founded in 2013 to revolutionise the way society talks about location, What3Words divides the world into 57 trillion 3 metre squares defined by three words. The startup appointed Giles Rhys Jones as CMO in 2014, who arrived with decades of agency experience from the likes of Ogilvy and Saatchi & Saatchi.

From joining a team of five to managing more than 40 creatives, strategists and marketers, Rhys Jones has built a team spanning B2B, B2C and in-house production. The brand boasts a “hybrid model” balancing key in-housed skills, such as performance marketing, with specialist agency expertise.

Over the past two years What3Words has negotiated the challenges and opportunities posed by Covid, optimised its strategy and gone live with a brand building campaign showcasing its tone of voice.

In this podcast, Rhys Jones explains why hiring senior talent is a good first step for startups, why local knowledge is crucial for a global brand and how he intends to make What3Words part of popular culture.

From opening up about mental health issues to closing the career confidence gap, you can listen to previous episodes of Marketing Week’s This Much I Learned podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud and Spotify.