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Gozney's brand building secrets revealed
Dan Pope
May 30, 2025
I found the hidden space station in Bournemouth
The space station is a secret no one knows about. A space station where people are taking things to a different planet. You need a special code to enter the space station.
Bournemouth is an old and sleepy, cute and cheery seaside town. Where cute and old, cheery and sleepy couples called Arthur & Marge suck 99p Flake ice creams on black painted park benches. Their luscious whipped-cream white manes whipping in the wind as they discuss what t’ av’ for Tea.
Bournemouth Gardens is picnic-perfect. Primmed & Proper gardens with a verdant verve of palm trees and thick green bushes freckled with star-bursting colours of orange and purple, yellow, red, lavender, blue, white and black.
The space station is above a Debenhams-esque Department store - enveloped by ring road and hawking Seagulls and Bournemouth Gardens and - Pret A Manger - Franco Manca - Zizzi - Greggs.
Below the space station, in the square, are usual shops. NEXT - JD Sports - Boots - Card Factory - shops you’d usually see in usual seaside towns. I wasn’t expecting to see anything unusual.
I inhaled my 3rd Marlborough Gold of the morning. My hands cloying clammy. Thoughts throbbed and thronged through the backwaters of my mind like White Sharks.
“Will I come back to reality?“
“What am I going to see up there? Why did I sign up to this?”
Opposite the NEXT was a Merry-Go-Round - a fizzing galaxy of colour, sleeping under the generous morning sunshine.
In 47 minutes to be intruded by brigades of boisterous kids ready to whiz and whiz and whiz and whiz and whiz around whilst parents wile away their time.
The Merry-Go-Round attendant who looked like a Kal or Carl in Lonsdale Trackies said./
“Don’t go up there…Sir, please don’t go up there… you’ll see things you never want to see, never come back”
The space station requires a special code. I received mine at 9.57am.
The doors to the department store are a clotted cream white with sparkling copper door knobs.
I pushed the door, my clammy hands leaving a light bruise of heavy fear on the door knob. The walls were a deep lavish green running down an endless corridor. A light perfume dances in the air like Dubai Michelin Star restaurant. At the end of the endless corridor is a lift.
I pushed in my code
5 - 9 - 7 - 1
The door screamed a silent BIIINGGGGG.
We shot up past Floor 4 to Floor TG.
As I walked through the space stations doors.
90’s HipHop - Wu Tang Clan - Nas - Big Daddy Kane - blasted heavily
Some at the Bournemouth Space station say the spaceships use 90’s HipHop as fuel.
The spaceships are lined like New York Gangsters. A Gang of Stars staring at me down like Gangsters. Yup, New York Gangsters.
Some candle-cream white. Some are yacht cushion navy. Others Colorado Spring Forrest green.
What are these spaceships I hear you asking you little space dog?
GOZNEY PIZZA OVENS.
Gozney’s a brand where Space meets Pizza. Future meets Ancient. Technology meets Nature.
Last week, I divulged in the utter joy of chatting to Tom Gozney on el poddy pod pod.
Tom is an ultimate brand builder of the highest calibre.
Gozney is a +£100 million brand.
At Gozney’s Bournemouth Office, coupled with Tom’s infectious energy, you feel like you’re in a space station, on a pizza mission way past the moon to gastronomic galaxy far, far, far away.
NeoApollo 10 bro.
Let me tell you Tom’s biggest secret to building a + £100 million brand
…shhhh… don’t tell anyone.
Only those in the space station know it.
Brand Dichotomy.
Dancing in the middle of two completely opposing tensions.
🍕1. Male/Female Dichotomy
Gozney is mostly used by males. Yet Gozney target to a female audience.
Why?
Most husbands need their wives approval to put a pizza oven in the garden.
Gozney is not just a pizza oven husbands love.
Gozney becomes a garden feature wives tell their friends through beautifully created products.
🍕2. Ancient/Futuristic Dichotomy
Gozney takes all the genius of ancient Neapolitan pizza ovens.
Yet applies the design techniques of modern space engineering.
Confluence of ancient and future = category of one.
NeoApollo10 bro
🍕3. Nature/Technology Dichotomy
Gozney harnesses that we’re addicted to our phones.
Gozney’s #CookDifferent campaign is genius
Gozney don’t sell pizza ovens.
Gozney sells time in nature.
Gozney sells time away from your phone.
Gozney sells a Dad connecting with his estranged son over pizza dough.
Gozney sells the engrained human desire for fire.
Fire = community = connection
Sell Benefits > Features.
🍕4. Open Minded/Close Minded Dichotomy
Tom is radically open minded.
A sponge that absorbs learnings, always
Yet Tom is radically closed minded with brand decisions.
Love these two Anti-Fragile questions
what’s the last thing you radically changed your mind on?
what’s one thing you’ll never change your mind on?
Dance there.
Other things I learned from our chinwagathon
5.High Agency Hustle.
George Mack has a wonderful essay on High Agency.
High Agency goes beyond Glass Half Full. Glass Half Empty.
High Agency means you’re the mother fucking tap.
You control your destiny.
When High Agency meets Hustle - you’re unstoppable.
A is Glass Half Full
B is You’re the Mother fucking tap.
Always pick option B.
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6.“Something Remarkable is ALWAYS Waiting for You Over The Hill”
Tom told me this and I absolutely LOVED IT.
I love the idea of just keep going. Keep persisting because something remarkable is always waiting for you over the hill”
7.“You’re never lonely when you’re around fire” - Tom Gozney’s Mum
Tom deeply understands the power of fire on humans and marketing.
Marketing is Fire.
Fire is Marketing
Seth Godin says the timeless marketing laws are based on humans innate desire for
Status
Affiliation (Connection)
Freedom of Fear
In Tribal times, fire takes care of Affiliation (Connection) + Freedom of Fear.
Fire is a great way to frame marketing.
Tom thinks about fire in everything they say and do in marketing.
I believe this is a hidden reason for their astronomical success.
Start your own Brand Fire for Your Own Brand Tribe.
poddy is coming soon
Peace and LOVE
Popeyyyyyy D xxxxxx