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

Ulli Appelbaum has held senior strategy and account planning roles at some of the largest advertising agencies in the world, working with brands like Wrigley, Hallmark, Nestle, and Chrysler along the way. His latest book is The Brand Positioning Workbook, which we discussed this week on the On Brand podcast. About Ulli Appelbaum Born in Germany, raised in Africa and Belgium, and now living in the US, Ulli Appelbaum has held senior strategy and account planning roles at some of the largest advertising agencies in the world including BBDO Germany and Chicago, Leo Burnett Budapest, Frankfurt & Chicago, Fallon Worldwide in Minneapolis, and SapientNitro in Chicago, L.A., and Minneapolis. His insights and strategies have helped brands such as Wrigley, Nestle Purina, Harley Davidson, Hallmark, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Chrysler, and many more. In 2014, he launched First The Trousers Then The Shoes Inc. a brand research and strategy consultancy based here in Minneapolis working for clients including Siemens, Outlaw

Rebecca Coleman is the President of The Narrative Group and leads US operations for We Are Social. Her work is defined by the innovative approach of earned-led thinking, which has been used by brands including Mcdonald's, Harmless Harvest, and Universal Pictures. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Rebecca Coleman Rebecca Coleman holds over 20 years of experience in building great relationships with clients and even better campaigns for their brands. Currently, she is President at The Narrative Group, an award-winning creative agency that specializes in earned-led brand experiences for some of today’s biggest brands including McDonald’s, Harmless Harvest, and Universal Pictures. Previously, Rebecca founded Something Massive, a strategy-led advertising agency and production company with clients like Plum Organics, Oikos, and KIND. Episode Highlights News about The Narrative Group. As we began the interview, Rebecca shared that her company, The Narrative Group, just merg

Mark Kilens is Chief Marketing Officer of Airmeet, a virtual and hybrid event platform. While it’s been a challenging couple of years, events of all kinds—virtual, hybrid, and live—are critical components of the content marketing landscape. Mark and I discussed all of this and more, this week on the On Brand podcast. About Mark Kilens As Chief Marketing Officer of virtual and hybrid event platform, Airmeet, Mark Kilens leads a global team of marketing professionals who are working to advance the event-led growth movement across the B2B events category. Kilens has 15 years of marketing leadership experience. His main goal is to help global businesses engage and grow their customer base through event-led growth practices. This consists of using immersive and integrated events across the entire customer journey to create a highly personalized digital experience. Prior to joining Airmeet, he served as VP of Content and Community at Drift, and oversaw Drift Insider, a community of 50,000+ members. He also previou

Linda Fanaras is CEO/Strategist of Millenium Agency, where she helps B2B brands develop integrated campaigns that get results with her innovative approach of transforming market research into powerful campaigns. This isn’t always easy—especially when it comes to B2B. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Linda Fanaras Linda A. Fanaras, CEO/Strategist of Millennium Agency, is an award-winning executive marketer with exceptional leadership and communication skills, relationship-building expertise, and a proven track record in executing strategic marketing campaigns that improve marketing ROI and CLV. Linda is highly experienced in brand analysis and structure, positioning and messaging that engages, the development of integrated digital marketing campaigns, and the formulation of creative concepts for B2B manufacturing and software technology. Focused on motivational and positive inclusive leadership skills, she drives marketing teams to achieve exceptional results. Episod

John O’Melia serves as Chief Customer Officer at Contentsquare. His Customer Success team works to ensure that brands of all shapes and sizes are able to understand what’s happening with their brands online and, more importantly, why. We discussed all of this during our conversation on the On Brand podcast. About John O'Melia John O'Melia was previously the CEO of Seal Software, which was acquired by DocuSign in 2020. He has also held senior leadership positions in Customer Success and Sales at EMC. Earlier in his career, he was a partner at Coopers & Lybrand/PwC where he oversaw global projects in multiple industries. Over the course of his career, he has always sought to truly understand customers’ needs and aspirations associated with their investment in technology and to ensure they realize the maximum possible return. John joined Contentsquare in early 2021 as Chief Customer Officer. His Customer Success team works to ensure all customers harness the full power of Contentsquare’s technology to drive sig

Tom Höglund is one of the founding team members at Epidemic Sound, which helps connect brands with the music they need to tell their stories. But when it comes to music rights, complexity lurks around every corner. He shared this story and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Tom Höglund Tom Höglund is one of the founding team members at Epidemic Sound and has been responsible for several different functions at the company as it has scaled, reaching a $1.4B valuation in 2021. Tom developed Epidemic Sound’s innovative digital rights model, which paves the way for creators — everyone from YouTubers to small businesses to the world’s largest brands—to use restriction-free music to take their content to the next level. Tom is also an early-stage investor in companies primarily geared towards creator monetization and B2C and B2B SaaS solutions. Episode Highlights “The future of content creation will be fragmented,” Tom said of video’s prevalence in both branded content and creator content. “We want to p

Ellen Marie Bennett is the founder and chief brand officer of Hedley & Bennett. If you’re a foodie, you’ve seen Hedley & Bennett aprons on some of the world’s best chefs. I saw one on Stanley Tucci and knew if I was going to be a serious home cook, I had to have one. Ellen shares how she created this brand 10 years ago—at the age of 24—this week on the On Brand podcast. About Ellen Marie Bennett As a 24-year-old line cook, Ellen Marie Bennett couldn't stand the kitchen staff’s poorly designed, cheaply made aprons. So when her head chef announced he was ordering a new batch, she blurted out, “Chef, I have an apron company”—even though she had no company, no business plan—just a glimmer of a design idea and a business license. Through hustle and a willingness to leap into the unknown, time and time again, she built that first order into a multi-million-dollar company called Hedley & Bennett, making aprons and kitchen gear worn by many of the world’s best chefs and home cooks everywhere.   Episode Highlights “Y

Happy New Year from the On Brand podcast! To celebrate this fresh start to an exciting new year, we have one of our favorite guests joining us once again—the one, the only Tom Peters! Tom is the “one and only” of many things when it comes to management thinkers but he’s the only guest who’s appeared four times on the On Brand podcast. Tom shared how to kick off a year of excellence this week on the On Brand podcast. About Tom Peters Called “the Red Bull of management consultants,” Tom Peters is a leading business management guru and founder of the Tom Peters Company. He continues to be in constant demand for lectures and seminars. In 2017, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Thinkers50 and the Jack Covert Award for Contribution to the Business Book Industry from 800-CEO-READ. Peters is the bestselling author of seventeen books, including In Search of Excellence (with Robert H. Waterman, Jr.), which is often cited as among the best business books ever written. His latest book is Tom Peters’ Compact

Jill Ong is Managing Director of ACE and has spent her career on the global advertising stage–working with iconic brands like Converse and Adidas. We talked about all of this and more—including brand building during a recession—this week on the On Brand podcast. About Jill Ong Jill has spent her whole career of 22 years in advertising working on iconic brands like Converse, Beats by Dre, and Sonos. She has deep expertise on global businesses and the APAC region, with work experience spanning China, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore. She moved to New York in 2010 during the Big Recession and has been in the Anomaly/ACE family ever since. As Managing Director of ACE, she’s charged with inspiring and nurturing people and optimizing operations across ACE. On a sabbatical in Puerto Escondido 5 years ago, Jill decided to challenge her lack of sporting ability to learn surfing. Despite her poor swimming skills and getting a black eye after getting hit by a surfboard on her first day out, she has persevered and has

This week we have a special holiday episode of the On Brand podcast with the “Naughty and Nice Brands of 2022.” This seasonally appropriate snapshot of brand behavior was developed by the smart folks at Brand Federation. The consultancy’s Chief Growth Officer Matt Williams joined me to discuss which brands have been naughty and nice this year. About Matt Williams Matt Williams is Chief Growth Officer for Brand Federation, a brand strategy consultancy in Richmond, Virginia. Prior to joining Brand Federation in 2019, Williams was CEO of the Martin Agency, one of the world’s most recognized advertising agencies, where he managed strategy development for world-class brands like GEICO, OREO, UPS, Discover Financial, Walmart, and more. Williams also is a Clinical Professor in the marketing department at the Mason School of Business at William & Mary. He teaches in the MBA program and is the developer and Faculty Director of the school’s Online Masters in Marketing. The Naughty List 2022 was the year of billionaire

Tony Gnau is the founder of T60 Productions and author of the new book Light, Camera, Impact. His work is focused on helping brands of all shapes and sizes tell better stories through video. We discussed all of this and more, this week on the On Brand podcast. About Tony Gnau Tony Gnau is the Founder and Chief Storytelling Officer at T60 Productions. He’s a three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, has led T60 Productions to win 18 Telly Awards for its corporate videos, and is the author of the book Lights, Camera, Impact: Storytelling, Branding, and Production Tips for Engaging Corporate Videos. Finally, he is a former USC Trojan football player, Star Wars geek, and a devoted husband and father. Episode Highlights “There are a bunch of hurdles with video!” Tony laughed as we began. I confessed to being challenged by DIY video. Video is a part of everything. But how do we use it better? “Video is a tactic but it’s a tactic that needs its own strategy.” What brand videos does the video guy like? I couldn’t w

Katie McCleary is a storyteller, professor of leadership, and co-author of the book Bridge the Gap. As founder of the nonprofit 916 Ink, she helps transform underprivileged youth into confident authors. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Katie McCleary Katie McCleary is a storyteller, professor of leadership, and a lover of people. She is co-author of Bridge the Gap, which Inc. Magazine named 1 of 3 business books to read in 2022. Her work has been featured by Forbes, PBS, Shondaland, New York Post, and more. Katie hosts NPR CapRadio’s leadership podcast, “The Drive,” in partnership with The American Leadership Forum. She is also the founder of 916 Ink, a nonprofit that has transformed over 4,500 youth into confident authors who know the power of their voice and story. Mashable named her as a “Real Miss America” for her projects in low-income communities. She teaches leadership in the master’s program at Pacific University and is passionate about amplifying people’s pe

Mark DiCristina is the Vice President of Brand Experience at Mailchimp, where he focuses on ensuring that the brand shows up for customers in authentic and truthful ways. We covered everything from their famous sponsorship of the Serial podcast to their innovative and, again, authentic user experience during our conversation this week on the On Brand podcast. About Mark DiCristina Mark DiCristina is the Vice President of Brand Experience at Mailchimp. He and his team are responsible for ensuring that Mailchimp’s brand shows up in thoughtful and authentic ways. During his time at Mailchimp, Mark spearheaded many of the brand’s largest marketing initiatives such as the launch of Wink, Mailchimp’s in-house agency, and has been fundamental in the creation of Mailchimp’s creative ad campaigns; most recently Guess Less, Sell More. Mark was responsible for the company’s first major ad campaign, “Did You Mean Mailchimp?” which won the Cyber Grand Prix at the 2017 Cannes Lions Festival, and the legendary “MailKimp” a

Tom Suharto leads global strategy at Forsman & Bodenfors where his clients include Volvo, Crocs, Baileys, and H&M. Prior to that, he was at Wieden+Kennedy working on iconic brands like Nike and Disney. We discussed all of this and more, this week on the On Brand podcast. About Tom Suharto Tom Suharto leads global strategy at Forsman & Bodenfors, one of the most creatively awarded agencies of the past decade. His clients at Forsman include Volvo, Polestar, Crocs, Goldman Sachs, Baileys, and H&M, to name a few. Before joining Forsman, Tom spent a decade at Wieden+Kennedy, starting in their Shanghai office where he helped to launch Shanghai Disneyland and led strategy on Nike China. Then in Portland, Oregon, where he worked on Nike Women and Just Do It campaigns, helped launch Samsung flagship phones, and led strategy on Facebook Groups. Episode Highlights The Crocs brand is certainly having a moment … Following a recent trip to New York where my daughter was most excited about visiting the Crocs store (!), I

Lesley Bielby literally wrote the book on agency account planning—Super Strategist. A 30-year veteran of the world of advertising, she’s now Co-CEO of DiMassimo Goldstein, a leader in Positive-Behavior Change marketing. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Lesley Bielby Lesley Bielby is the Co-CEO of DiGo (DiMassimo Goldstein), the industry-leading agency in Positive Behavior Change marketing, and has authored the only modern guide in account planning, Super Strategist: The Art and Science of Modern Account Planning. A 30-year veteran in the world of advertising, she was one of the British account planners to cross the pond in the turn of the century, to bring the discipline to America. In addition to DiGo, Lesley has led and been a part of a number of agencies including Hill Holiday, McKinney and Silver, Digitas, and MMB. Episode Highlights What is Positive Behavior Change marketing? You know me—I love definitions. Turns out, Positive Behavior Change marketing is exact

Dr. Richard Winters is an emergency physician and director of leadership development at the Mayo Clinic. In addition to working with leaders internally at Mayo, Dr. Winters delivers programs that help healthcare leaders worldwide. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Dr. Richard Winters Dr. Richard Winters is an emergency physician at the Mayo Clinic. As director of leadership development for the Mayo Clinic Care Network, Dr. Winters delivers programs that train leaders at all levels of healthcare organizations worldwide. As an executive coach, Dr. Winters provides coaching for Mayo Clinic leaders. Winters graduated from the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in 1994 and returned to Mayo Clinic in 2015. Previously, Winters served as managing partner of a democratic physician group, department chair of an emergency department, president of an 800-physician medical staff, and CEO/founder of a startup managed care organization that struggled to survive amidst the complex r

Beth A. Livingston is a professor, consultant, author, and speaker focused on human resources, gender & diversity, and the management of work & family—all in the service of the employee experience. She’s also a colleague of mine at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business and co-author of the new book Shared Sisterhood. We discussed all of this and more, this week on the On Brand podcast. About Beth A. Livingston Dr. Beth Livingston is the Ralph L. Sheets Associate Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. She’s also an internal advisor with the Healthier Workforce Center of the Midwest, a NIOSH Center of Excellence, and the faculty director of the Dore-Tippie Women's Leadership program. After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Florida, and her MBA from the University of Kentucky, she began her career at Cornell University in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations before moving to the Midwest. She studies and teaches human resource mana

Patrick Holly has worked for agencies like R/GA and brands like Apple, Uber, and Harley Davidson, where he served as brand director. Currently, he's Upwork’s Executive Creative Director leading a team of writers, art directors, designers, and strategists who are changing the way the world thinks about work. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Patrick Holly Patrick Holly is a multidisciplinary creative whose career has run the gamut from agencies like R/GA and AKQA, to brands like Apple and Uber, to building a content platform with Steph Curry. He currently serves as Upwork’s Executive Creative Director leading a team of writers, art directors, designers, and strategists who are changing the way the world thinks about work. Prior to joining Upwork, Patrick was the brand director at Harley Davidson, overseeing content, PR, social, and brand partnerships. When Patrick is not working, he spends most of his time on two wheels or watching Sex and the City reruns with his wife

Lee LeFever literally wrote the book on explanation. In addition to being the author of The Art of Explanation and Big Enough, he’s the co-founder of Common Craft where he helps leading organizations simplify their explanations through guides, videos, and visuals. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Lee LeFever Lee LeFever is the co-founder of Common Craft and the author of two books: The Art of Explanation and Big Enough. Since 2007, Common Craft has won numerous awards, worked with respected brands like LEGO, Google, Intel, and Ford, and created original explainer videos that have earned over 50 million online video views. Today, Common Craft produces educational guides, ready-made videos, and digital visuals that are used by educators in over 50 countries. Lee and his partner Sachi are Common Craft’s only employees and work from their home off the coast of Washington State. Episode Highlights Why is it so hard for us to explain things? “We do it every day and we can

Todd Irwin is the Chief Strategy Officer and Founder of Fazer. The brand strategy agency has worked with Fortune 500 brands like Coca-Cola and Nike as well as SMBs and startups. Todd joined me this week on the On Brand podcast to discuss Fazer’s positioning-based brand strategy methodology. About Todd Irwin Todd Irwin is the Chief Strategy Officer and Founder of Fazer, a brand strategy and creative agency. He has developed a compelling brand strategy methodology that delivers business-to-brand strategic alignment to position companies more competitively in markets. Todd brings 30+ years of brand strategy experience, helping big brands such as Coca-Cola, Nikon, Verizon, Walmart, Pepsi, Ann Taylor, Macy's, Olive Garden, and The New York Times, as well as a host of SMBs and early-stage funded growth companies.   Episode Highlights “Branding is a tangible asset,” Todd noted, defying the popular theory that brands are intangible—and thus not always seen as a valuable aspect of the business. “Brand is the product,