The Expedia Pitch Mix-Up: When the Wrong Logo Won the Deal
5/21/20265 min
In this episode of Embracing Marketing Mistakes, Sam Benton, co-founder of Mad Masters, joins Chris Norton and Will Ockenden to revisit one of his most unforgettable marketing moments. Early in his career, Sam walked into a major pitch for Expedia only to realise that Experian’s logo was proudly displayed on every single slide. What could have been a career-ending blunder turned into a long-standing client relationship and a story that still gets a laugh today.
The team reflects on the lesson behind the mishap. Sam shares how working alongside Rory Sutherland shifted his perspective from “knowing it all” to embracing curiosity and collaboration. It’s an honest conversation about humility, growth, and the surprising ways that small mistakes can lead to big professional wins.
Whether you have ever sent the wrong deck or just enjoy hearing marketers own their most human moments, this episode is equal parts insightful and entertaining.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsChris Norton· Host0:00
So you, you talked about failure then. So come on then. You're on, you're on a podcast about mistakes. What, what, what failure have you made in your career that you have learnt from that you think that our listeners could use? 'Cause they've, they've made loads, and it's... I, I want them to all send them into us.
Sam Benton· Guest0:16
Yeah.
Chris Norton· Host0:16
I'm really interested to hear what, what you've had, what you've had to go through. 'Cause you've worked in sales as well, so you'll have had some interesting pitch scenarios and all sorts.
Sam Benton· Guest0:23
Oh, yeah. Uh, I, yeah, I could probably, uh, I could probably give you, you, you two there. I mean, I think the biggest one for me, my mistake was when I was a bit younger, was just kind of thinking that I knew everything coming into this sort of stuff. Just always being like, "No, I, I know this. I know what I'm doing. I don't need that help." And if someone ever asked like, "Oh, can I help you on this?" I almost viewed that as a sign of weakness. That it was sort of, oh, if you're asking me if I need help on that, then I'm clearly struggling. I'm not doing the right thing.
Chris Norton· Host0:49
Mm-hmm.
Sam Benton· Guest0:50
And I think then as I sort of, my career moved on a little bit, and obviously then I started working with Rory as well, you realize that even someone like Rory Sutherland, who's an absolute genius, never claims to know everything. The amount of books he still reads and the amount of people that he asks for help and, uh, and advice on everything. Someone that's mega famous, that's done this for 35 years will never admit to knowing everything. So I think that was a, a big thing for me looking back and just being able to say, "Cool." Asking for help or asking for advice i-i- in a company and from friends, from colleagues, from, uh, you know, uh, people underneath you, even people in your team really, like, sort of people that report into you. Going to them and asking for help, I think that is a b-