On Brand: A Podcast About Branding For Brand Builders, By Brand Builders

“Experiences bring brand values to life.” As leader of the creative team at BASIC, Steve Denekas spends his time crating experiences for brands like Canadian Club, Levi’s, and Dodge. As a designer, he brings a thoughtful process to everything he does. We discussed how he brings this design mindset to brand experiences this week on the On Brand podcast. About Steven Denekas Steven Denekas leads the creative team at BASIC®, designing experiences for the world’s most admired brands. He fosters creative environments that cultivate ideas both big and small. It all began behind the color copier at Kinkos and proceeded to the mount room of BBDO and the design studio of W+K, along the way winning awards for his work on Canadian Club, Levi’s®, and Dodge. Today, he brings raw energy, originality, and a poetic approach to digital experiences. His shifting career has shaped his current role building teams, methodologies, and practices that scale companies and deliver results for brands. His mission is simple: do work tha

Why a “cold shower” you may ask? Because we know that cold showers are good for us, and yet, we avoid them. Marketers have chores they need to do that they avoid. As a third-generation business owner and seasoned marketer, Ryan Cote knows a thing or two about what marketers should be doing. We discussed this on this week's episode of the On Brand podcast. (NOTE: Your friendly neighborhood podcaster was both on the go using his secondary mic and a little under the weather so the audio quality is a little sub-par this week.) About Ryan Cote Ryan Cote is the Director of Digital Services and Partner at Ballantine, a third- generation family-owned direct mail and digital marketing company based out of Fairfield, NJ. With Ballantine since 2003, a family-owned business started in 1966 by his great-uncle, Ryan now manages the growing digital marketing division. From lead generation to marketing strategy for small businesses, Ryan and his company rise above the get-featured-quick schemes so often attributed to digital

“You have to think of your marketing on every channel today. If you're a restaurant, you can't just put a picture of garlic knots on Instagram.” This week on the On Brand podcast, we got to talk about food and marketing — specifically content marketing in the food and hospitality industry — with the one, the only David “Rev” Ciancio. About Rev Ciancio Rev Ciancio is a Senior Marketing, Branding and Digital Strategist with 20 years of experience in digital marketing and business development, specializing in hospitality marketing, content and local SEO. He has led many clients to new levels of local, national and international success in the hospitality, financial service and entertainment sectors. He is also former agency owner as well as a former New York City bar owner. Rev is an “expert burger taster” and pens hospitality and marketing tips on his Instagram @revciancio as well as his LinkedIn Profile. Episode Highlights What's Rev's deal with burgers? As I answered Rev's call on Skype, I noticed that his ha

“Presentations are valuable content.” And yet, they often go underutilized. More challenging still, these prominent content delivery systems aren't branded consistently. Enter James Ontra. Author of the book Presentation Management and Co-Founder and CEO of Shufflrr, James joined me this week on the On Brand podcast for a discussion of all things related to branded presentations. About James Ontra James Ontra is the Co-Founder and CEO of Shufflrr, where he leads the Company’s vision, strategy and technical development. James has more than thirty years of entrepreneurial experience, helping large businesses optimize all stages of the workflow associated with presentations, from creation to distribution, through presenting and repurposing. James’s experience consulting with clients, directing sales and developing presentation management technology inspired him, along with his sister and Shufflrr’s Co-Founder AlexAnndra, to write Presentation Management: The New Strategy for Enterprise Content. This book helps l

“As marketers we retreat to the mean — to trendy best practices.” What’s required is out-of-the-box thinking. As the founder of Unthinkable Media and author of the new book Break the Wheel, Jay Acunzo knows a thing or two about pushing beyond the everyday and inspiring others to create and share exceptional stories. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Jay Acunzo Jay Acunzo is the author of the book Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work. He’s a critically acclaimed show host and executive producer, as well as the founder of Unthinkable Media, which creates documentary shows with brand clients. As a digital media strategist at Google, Jay was responsible for pushing marketing executives and practitioners into the digital age. He then held multiple leadership positions at high-growth tech startups, including HubSpot, and served as Vice President of Brand at the venture capital firm NextView. Jay’s work has been cit

“The reality is that many want to be innovative and disruptive and they’re just not.” Starting as a marketer at Motorola to founding Media Frenzy Global, Sarah Torville has spent her career helping disruptive brands tell their stories. We discussed all of this and more on this week's On Brand podcast. About Sarah Tourville Sarah Tourville is the CEO and founder of Media Frenzy Global, a global PR and Marketing agency that builds brands for innovative and disruptive companies. Over the last 10 years Sarah has helped Fortune 500 brands build and generate distinctive brand messaging and meaningful media coverage for companies that are disrupting in their industry. Prior to Media Frenzy Global Sarah led corporate communications for Motorola across Europe, Middle East & Africa and while Marketing Director at Worldspan, she launched the world's first online travel booking site - Expedia. Episode Highlights What does it mean to have a Media Frenzy? Sarah shared a story about her work on the launch of Vlingo featurin

“It’s imperative. You must design your culture. It plays such a big role.” Educator, author, and designer Josh Miles has made his mission helping organizations understand the need for culture design in our rapidly changing digital world. His new book Great Mondays charges organizations with developing a company culture that employees will love. We talked about how to think and act differently when it comes to culture this week on the On Brand podcast. About Josh Levine Josh Levine is an educator, designer, and author, but above all, he is on a mission to help organizations design a culture advantage. Even though his day job is Principal of Great Mondays, a 10-year-old culture design company, Josh is best known as Executive Director and Co-Founder of the international non-profit Culture LabX. His new book Great Mondays: How to Design a Company Culture Employees Love is available on Amazon. You can find him around the web @akajoshlevine Episode Highlights The problem with culture problems. Josh began the episod

“We're more and more distracted today. There's more and more noise. What hasn't increased is attention.” In our noisy, distracted world, it's harder than ever to get our audience's attention — to say nothing of making sure that they remember and refer us. What we need is clarity of message. This week on the On Brand podcast, I was joined by Steve Woodruff who talked about his new book Clarity Wins. About Steve Woodruff Steve Woodruff is known as the King of Clarity. In a world full of noise and distraction, Steve helps businesses craft a message so clear that they can be heard, remembered, and referred. In over 30 years of business experience, he has consulted with companies ranging from solo startups to Top Five Pharma. You can learn more about him and his work at www.clarityfuel.com. Episode Highlights In a world that's noisy and distracted ... As you can tell from the first few minutes of the podcast, one thing Steve and I both like saying in our best announcer voice is,“In a world ...” However, in a world

“Marketing is the balance of the irrational and the rational.” Someone that would utter this truth would naturally have some ideas that are out of the box. Drawing on his career at Microsoft and Motorola, Jeremy Dale has gathered stories on what makes a standout business — from authenticity to causes — in his new book The Punk Rock of Business. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Jeremy Dale Jeremy Dale is the author of The Punk Rock of Business: Applying a Punk Rock Attitude in the Modern Business Era. He has over 20 years' experience in the Consumer Electronics industry, and until 2017 he was Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's worldwide retail channel. Prior to that, he was CMO at Motorola during the RAZR heyday. Jeremy is now CEO of an exciting start-up business in the global football and entertainment sector where he is applying his philosophy. Jeremy owns a BAFTA for the launch of Pokemon, he was named 35th in the UK's Marketing Power 100, and he w

“Twenty or 30 years ago, business did not have to be connected to society.” Today this is not the case. Author and strategist Alberto Lopez-Valenzuela helps organizations overcome this challenge at several different levels. As Chief Executive at Alva, he helps organizations connect data sets to answer big questions such as this. As author of The Connecting Leader, he helps those at the top lead the charge for change. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode the On Brand podcast. About Alberto Lopez-Valenzuela For over twenty-five years, Alberto Lopez-Valenzuela has worked in business information and analysis, developing decision-intelligence solutions for Fortune 500 companies. He held roles in marketing, strategy, and corporate development at numerous global enterprises before founding and serving as Chief Executive at alva, a technology-enabled company that creates decision-ready intelligence for the largest companies in the world. Alberto is a visiting professor at Cass Business School, whe

“Hold off until you have something to write home about.” As a podcaster and branding thought leader, Case Kenny offered insights on personal branding that many miss. Namely focus — both on your brand credentials as well as the right channels. We discussed all of this and more during our discussion on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Case Kenny Case Kenny is an entrepreneur and writer living in Chicago. He is the founder of 216 Ventures LLC and PRSUIT.com — a daily email focused on self development content. He is the host of the New Mindset, Who Dis podcast, an iTunes top 50 podcast focused on real and relatable life advice. He sits on the Forbes Business Development Council, has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, CBS, The Chicago Tribune and speaks, consults and writes regularly on all things personal and corporate branding, publishing, social media and growth strategies. Episode Highlights Where should you get started with personal branding? “A lot is channel focused. You’ve got to

“The science is just sitting out there in academia.” That’s why consultant, educator, and author Will Leach decided to package it up in a revolutionary new book. Marketing to Mindstates is about looking beyond traditional market research by understanding and appealing to your audience when they’re in the optimal mindstate. We unpacked this concept and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Will Leach Will Leach is the founder of TriggerPoint, a leading Behavioral Research and Design consultancy specializing in System 1 marketing. Simply put, TriggerPoint helps today’s largest brands understand and change consumer and employee behavior through Behavioral Research and Design. Will has over 20 years of behavioral insights experience and is a behavioral design instructor at the Cox School of Business BLC at Southern Methodist University. Will is the author of Marketing to MindStates: a Practical Field Guide to Applying Behavioral Design to Marketing and is also the only 2-time winner of the EXPLOR Award fo

“Webinars are a fundamental campaign we’re overlooking.” As Todd Earwood said that in the first few minutes of our interview it rung true. Webinars are a powerful direct marketing tool and yet we overlook them in favor of shinier new things like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. We discussed how to avoid this mistake and strategies for better integrating webinars into marketing campaigns this week on the On Brand podcast. About Todd Earwood Todd Earwood is the founder and CEO of MoneyPath, where his team helps to build growth campaigns marrying the efforts of sales and marketing for their clients. Todd believes webinars are the most powerful and most overlooked marketing campaign. After helping his private clients produce webinars in over a dozen industries, he was encouraged by the folks at Hubspot and GotoWebinar to help others and share his webinar formula. As such, he has turned all those successes into a webinar training program called Webinar Works. He’s here to share his perspective on marketing, argu

"Stop being Switzerland!” This could sound like vague advice but it's so important today. Translated it means that your brand can’t be neutral anymore. There’s so much noise you have to stand out. To help, marketers and serial co-authors Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio have penned the new book The Laws of Brand Storytelling, which launches this week. Both joined me on the On Brand podcast to discuss. About Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio Ekaterina Walter is a globally recognized business and marketing innovator, international speaker, and author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Think Like Zuck and coauthor of The Power of Visual Storytelling. After pioneering social media and digital strategies for Fortune 500 brands such as Intel and Accenture, she cofounded a start-up that was acquired by Sprinklr, a customer experience management platform, where she served as Global Evangelist. She now helps global organizations build customer-centric digital transformation strategies. Ekaterina’s thought le

“You’re going to get judged by your video.” If this quote scares you, you’ll want to listen to this week’s episode. With 80% of online content set to be video by 2019 more brands are pushing into the space. However, many are afraid of looking stupid. We talked about using video to build your brand and your business this week on the On Brand podcast with Wistia cofounder and CEO Chris Savage. About Chris Savage Chris Savage is the cofounder and CEO of Wistia, a web-based video hosting solution built for businesses. After graduating from Brown University, Chris and his co-founder, Brendan Schwartz, started Wistia in Brendan’s living room in 2006. Chris founded the company with the goal of helping businesses effectively market their products or services more creatively through video. Recently, Savage and Schwartz turned down an offer to sell Wistia and took on $17.3M in debt instead, which allowed them to buy out their investors, gain full control of Wistia, and take the path less traveled in the tech industry.

“Word of mouth influences 50% of all purchases yet no one has a strategy for it.” Ask any business what drives the most leads and sales and the answer is almost universally — word of mouth. Yet, as Jay Baer notes, we leave it largely to chance. That's why he and Daniel Lemin co-authored Talk Triggers, a new book to provide a reliable system system for word of mouth. We discussed all of this and more this week with both of these authors on the On Brand podcast. Enjoy! About Jay Baer & Daniel Lemin Jay Baer is the founder of Convince & Convert, a strategy consultancy that helps the world's most interesting brands gain and keep more customers. He's a seventh-generation entrepreneur; has started five multimillion dollar companies; and is the author of six books including Youtility and Hug Your Haters. He is a keynote speaker and emcee, an angel investor, and an inductee in the Word of Mouth Marketing Association Hall of Fame and the National Speakers Association's CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame. Daniel Lemin is the co

“It’s no longer enough to sell the sizzle. Customers today want to know what’s behind it — what the brand stands for.” While many (mis)categorize branding as simply a logo or a department or responsibility within the marketing department, strategist and author Mono Amodeo sees branding as a way of managing an organization. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Mona Amodeo Mona Amodeo, Ph.D. is an innovator and catalyst for transforming organizations into brands that matter. She is an award-winning management strategist and recognized expert in organization development and change on a mission to move business-as-is to business-as-it-can be. Her work spans the boundaries of scholarship and practice in the disciplines of branding, communications, and organization culture. In her book, Beyond Sizzle: The Next Evolution of Branding, Mona shares the secrets to igniting transformation by leveraging organization development principles and change management approaches

"Consumers deserve perfect info about businesses everywhere. We can all agree on that." Going out of the gate, Jeff Rohrs reminded us of what's at stake with all of the information about businesses online. As Chief Marketing Officer at Yext, Rohrs is on the leading edge as brands work to manage all of the digital knowledge that's available today. Chances are, what you've thought about already is just the tip of the iceberg. We discussed what data, voice, AI, and AR mean for "everywhere brands" this week on the On Brand podcast. About Jeff Rohrs Jeff Rohrs serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Yext, the Digital Knowledge Management platform that gives companies control over their customer-critical facts across today’s ever-expanding universe of intelligent services. Jeff co-authored The Everywhere Brand (Yext 2017), and his first book, AUDIENCE: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans & Followers (Wiley 2014), has been lauded by marketers and executives alike as a must-read. Prior to joining Yext, Jeff serve

“If you don’t care about having a lifelong relationship with your customers then keep doing what you’re doing.” But if you want to understand the customer journey and build that relationship, you have to understand the data behind it. Kevin Dean is President of Marketing Services at Experian. He joined me this week on the On Brand podcast for a discussion about how data and systems driven brand loyalty. Enjoy! About Kevin Dean Kevin Dean is Experian’s President of Marketing Services for North America, the primary data, identity linkage, and audience activation partner in the advertising industry today. Dean joined Experian in 2011 as Senior Vice President, Global Product Management. Prior to joining Experian, Dean spent ten years in leadership roles at Equifax and previously he served as Director of Marketing at Cendant and Marketing Manager at Vita-Mix Corporation. Kevin received his MBA from the University of Akron and holds a BA in History also from the University of Akron. Episode Highlights Getting state

Who are you? Why do you exist? Why should people care? Amber Williams, founder and brand strategist at Punkyflair, helps brand builders answer these top-of-mind questions day in and day out. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Amber Williams Amber Williams is a passionate brand strategist and the founder of brand storytelling agency Punkyflair. Amber is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs grow their business authentically through story. She spent 7 years in the corporate world crafting marketing strategies for mega brands like Armani Exchange, Volkswagen, and The United States Olympic Committee, just to find out that the success of any brand is all about how well you can package up your purpose into a story that speaks to your audience. It’s just that simple. Amber feels to grow your business, you have to do this one thing: Start storytelling. Episode Highlights Stories vs. Brand Stories. Storytelling is a concept that gets tossed around a lot when it comes t