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

As we kick off the New Year, many are looking to build their own personal brand. Lydia Pierre is a branding coach and consultant. A self-branded “Corporate Socialite” who believes that business should be fun, we had a blast talking about personal branding, brand ambassadors, and—(da-da-dum!)—imposter syndrome! Enjoy and have a Happy New Year! About Lydia Pierre Lydia Pierre is a branding coach and consultant who provides services aimed at empowering entrepreneurs with skills and strategies to reach new levels of leadership. Her niche market is Executives, whom she counsels through the process of maintaining, improving, and upholding their reputation right where they are as they build their brand. She does this by developing, implementing, and executing strategic solutions that help to ensure a smooth transition to entrepreneurship for the executive, allowing their brand to remain favorable to their current audience as well as potential customers. Episode Highlights & Takeaways Where do you start with personal

This week we have a special holiday episode of the On Brand podcast with the “Naughty and Nice Brands of 2021.” This seasonally appropriate snapshot of brand behavior was developed by 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. What brand has made Matt smile recently? Initially, with the list foc

Ginni Saraswati is the owner and founder of Ginni Media and the Podcast Accelerator. Her work helps organizations and individuals tell their stories through podcasting. While we talked about podcasts a lot, we also spent some time talking about why it's important to unplug for the holidays and how to do that. Enjoy—and happy holidays from the On Brand podcast! About Ginni Saraswati Ginni Saraswati is the owner and founder of Ginni Media, a one-stop-shop, podcasting production house providing multiple podcast services in one company. Believing that everyone is capable of big ideas, Ginni has brought podcasting to the masses with The Podcast Accelerator, helping people spread their voice regardless of their back story. Ginni has been featured in a number of publications including Rolling Stone Magazine, Business Insider, and Reader's Digest. She’s also a contributing writer for Entrepreneur, podcast host for The Ginni Show, and an award-winning journalist. Episode Highlights & Takeaways Why is now the time for

Raj Venkatesan is co-author of the new book The AI Marketing Canvas and a professor of marketing at the University of Virginia. This week he joined me on the On Brand podcast for a timely discussion about artificial intelligence and marketing—how should we be thinking about it and what should we be planning for the new year ahead. About Raj Venkatesan Rajkumar Venkatesan is the co-author of The AI Marketing Canvas: A Five-Stage Road Map to Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Marketing. He is the Ronald Trzcinski Professor of Business Administration in the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. His writing has appeared in the Journal of Marketing and Harvard Business Review, among others, and he is the co-author of Marketing Analytics (2021). For more information, please visit the book’s website. Episode Highlights & Takeaways “AI is something that’s going to help marketers,” Raj began, noting that many worry about AI being something new and different. “If you’re i

“The metaverse will create gaps between the haves and have-nots that brands can fill.” In addition to breaking down the metaverse and leading the way on influence marketing (not just influencer marketing), Jason Falls recently founded a new network for marketing podcasts aptly titled the Marketing Podcast Network, which On Brand is a proud member of. We discussed all of this and more, this week on the show. About Jason Falls Jason Falls is a leading digital strategist, author, speaker, and thinker in the digital and social media marketing industry. He is an innovator in the conversation research segment of social analytics, having published the first-ever Conversation Report in 2012. He is the author of three books: Winfluence - Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand; No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing, co-authored with Erik Deckers; and The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing, co-authored with DJ Waldow. In 2021, he founded and serves as executive pr

“If you start off on the wrong foot and your brand isn't in line with the attitudes or personality of the brand, there's confusion.” Or, to put it bluntly, your brand sucks. That's the title of strategist Ernie Harker's new book. We discuss how to ... not build a brand that sucks this week on the On Brand podcast. About Ernie Harker Ernie Harker is a creative branding mastermind. He recently published Your Brand Sucks, a book that reveals why most companies get branding wrong and reveals the secrets he has used to assist dozens of companies define a clear image and personality for their brands. One of his greatest successes was to help revitalize an old-western retail chain into a $3 billion high-energy adventure brand. He leads workshops, gives presentations, and offers an online masterclass to help organizations define and develop remarkable brands. Buckle up because his dynamic personality and passion for brand development will have you racing to build your brand. His friends call him Ernburn. Episode High

“Good things take time to build.” In his work as Founding Director of the digital marketing agency Revenue Ascend, Jonathan Tuttle helps brands of all shapes and sizes build good things. How do you know if something in marketing is good? Measurement and ROI—and we spent a lot of time talking about best practices and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Jonathan Tuttle Jonathan Tuttle is the Founding Director of Revenue Ascend, a leading digital marketing agency based in Chicago. The firm is focused on driving new growth and generating measurable ROI. The agency was designed to dominate the market while working with each brand individually. Beyond this foundation, Revenue Ascend also creates a customized tactical marketing playbook and growth strategy. Jonathan is also a Fund Manager at Midwest Park Capital, a private real estate investment firm. Episode Highlights & Takeaways WORLD DOMINATION! As Jonathan’s bio notes, Revenue Ascend helps clients dominate the market. We kicked off the show defining d

“People want to interact with people—not brands.” David Brickley has been helping brands interact with their people through his agency STN Digital and his two podcasts Business of Social and Entrepreneur Wrap. This week he joined me as a guest on my podcast to talk about how to build a social-first brand. About David Brickley After working with his first-ever client, Kobe Bryant, David Brickley used that as motivation to launch STN Digital in 2013, and has since grown an award-winning team of some of the best talent in the industry. STN Digital is an expert at launching brands and building highly-engaged audiences. STN is a social-first marketing agency and provides services ranging from 360 marketing, social media management, paid media, on-site activations and anything in between. STN Digital works with some of the biggest brands in the world including Amazon, the Olympics, NBC, FOX, & HBO to name a few. David is also the host of two podcasts, Business of Social and Entrepreneur Wrap, which was ranked by Fo

“We are profoundly visual creatures. We respond to what we see more than anything else.” Dan Roam has spent his career helping people master the art of visual communication and storytelling. His books from Back of the Napkin to his latest, The Pop-Up Pitch, help organizations and individuals put this system into action. I couldn't wait to discuss all of this with him this week on the On Brand podcast. About Dan Roam Dan Roam is the author of five international bestselling books on business-visualization and communication clarity. The Back of the Napkin was named by Fast Company, The London Times, and BusinessWeek as the 'Creativity Book of the Year.' Dan's book, Draw to Win, debuted as the #1 new book on amazon.com in the categories of Business Communications and Sales & Marketing. Dan is a creative director, author, painter, and model-builder. His purpose in life is to make complex things clear by drawing them and to help others do the same. Dan has helped leaders at Google, Microsoft, Boeing, Gap, IBM, the

“In the old days, branding was a very broad thing. Today it's picking your spot.” Jonathan Byrnes knows a thing or two about building a profitable brand for the long haul. He's a Senior Lecturer at MIT, founding partner of Profit Isle, and the author of two books and numerous HBR articles. He's also my guest this week on the On Brand podcast. Enjoy! About Jonathan Byrnes Jonathan Byrnes is founding partner and chairman of Profit Isle, a highly successful MIT spin-off SaaS software company that helps organizations increase profits by 10–30 percent using its profitability analytics and management process. A widely followed thought leader on profitable growth and innovative customer-supplier relationships, Byrnes is a frequent speaker and writer who has advised over 100 companies and institutions. He earned a doctorate from Harvard and has been a Senior Lecturer at MIT for 30 years. In addition to his popular HBS column, “The Bottom Line,” he is the author of Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink, an Inc. Best B

“A lot of the assumptions we make are bad assumptions.” When it comes to making assumptions, sometimes we marketers can't help ourselves. To avoid this, we need to ensure that we have a good mix of both quantitive and qualitative research. Dr. Duane Varan is a leader in the field of qualitative research and was my guest this week on the On Brand podcast. About Duane Varan Dr. Duane Varan is CEO of both MediaScience and HarkConnect. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Australian Prime Minister’s Award for University Teacher of the Year, and is a global pioneer in developing new methodologies for the study of audience behavior. MediaScience is a leader in lab-based audience research counting almost every major US television network, social media platform and many global brands as clients. HarkConnect is the world’s most advanced qualitative research platform. Although Dr. Varan is now based in industry, he continues to contribute to academic journals. In fact, in four of the past six years, his

“If you can design triggers into the thing someone’s already doing, you make advertising even more impactful.” Expanding the definition of advertising to include more human-centric and respectful ideas has been at the heart of Dan Greenberg’s work as CEO and founder of Sharethrough and as a leader in the native advertising movement. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Dan Greenberg Dan Greenberg is the CEO and Founder of Sharethrough, the largest independent native advertising platform that powers in-feed native ads for publishers like Forbes, Time, and CBS and enables marketers like Coca-Cola and P&G to programmatically distribute branded content at scale. He dropped out of the Stanford Masters program to start Sharethrough and went on to popularize the term “native advertising” in 2008 and now serves as Chair of the IAB Native Ad Committee. He has been named to Ad Age’s 40 Under 40, Forbes 30 Under 30, Inc.’s 35 Under 35 Founders List, and honored as an Ad Age Media Ma

“The pandemic has forced brands to change the way they communicate and the way they operate.” As a research professor, author, and VP at Ipsos, Emmanuel Probst spends a lot of time studying, teaching, and writing about consumer behavior. His latest update to Brand Hacks provides brand builders with a useful compass for navigating the increasingly challenging world we find ourselves in. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Emmanuel Probst Dr. Emmanuel Probst’s background combines over 15 years of market research and marketing experience with strong academic achievements. As Senior Vice President at Ipsos, Emmanuel supports his clients by providing them with a full understanding of their customer’s journey. His experience spans a wide range of industries, including consumer packaged goods, retail, financial services, advertising agencies, and media outlets. He is the author of the upcoming book Brand Hacks: How to Build Brands by Fulfilling the Consumer Quest for Meaning (S

“Storytelling is in the air for business but why is that? Why is it so important?” These questions and more were at the very heart of my interview with Norman Bell, author of The Story Powered Speaker, this week on the On Brand podcast! About Norman Bell Norman Bell is a storytelling and presentation coach, award-winning speaker, theater and film actor, and author of the book, The Story Powered Speaker: How to Own the Stage, Enchant your Audience, and Grow Your Business Using the Magical Power of Storytelling. Norman is passionate about helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs and organizations communicate their stories and messages more effectively so that they connect with their audiences on an emotional level, which leads to more clients, more donations, and more impact. Episode Highlights Where do you start with storytelling? Norman often asks his workshop attendees to start with their why—their origin story. “I focus on telling stories on stage but it applies to all channels.” The trouble with business stori

“Consumers seek authenticity and they’re getting better at weeding out the greenwashing the brands that don’t have the people, story, and heritage behind them.” As the Vice President of Innovation at green cleaning brand ECOS, Jenna Arkin’s work sits at the intersection between science and creativity. This week on the On Brand podcast, she joined us for a discussion on this innovative brand’s story, differentiation, communicating science, and more. About Jenna Arkin Jenna Arkin, Vice President of Innovation at ECOS, uses her unique background in both chemistry and design to innovate safer, more effective formulations and compelling packaging designs for the ECOS product lines. She also leads the ECOS partnership with the U.S. EPA’s Safer Choice program, a third-party certification that helps consumers choose products made with safer chemical ingredients without sacrificing quality or performance. As the Vice President of Innovation, Jenna brings a novel combination of passionate scientist and creative profess

“Influencers take the power out of the hands of those who used to tell us what we should like and not like. You've divested power to those bold enough to go online and share their stories.” From the College of Influence to his Normalize Equality initiative, teaching and managing the power of digital influence is at the heart of Kyle Hjelmeseth's work at G&B digital management. We discussed all of this and more on this week's episode of the On Brand podcast. About Kyle Hjelmeseth Kyle Hjelmeseth is the Founder and CEO of top-tier talent management agency G&B, which houses both the College of Influence and the Normalize Equality initiative. A self-made minority business owner, Hjelmeseth brings the full extent of his experience living as a half black, half white male to his work building media momentum around messages of diversity and inclusivity with his trademark solutions-driven attitude. Under his leadership, G&B has successfully re-invented the talent management world with integrity while creating a refres

“I’ve been completely obsessed with this—not only how do we prove the ROI of these specific experiential programs but how do we do it at scale.” Jonathan Yaffe was one of the first marketing hires at Red Bull following the brand’s entry into the U.S. market. His first task? Quantifying their experiential marketing efforts. Today he does this for numerous brands through his company AnyRoad. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Jonathan Yaffe Jonathan Yaffe is the CEO and Co-Founder of AnyRoad (hailed one of Marc Benioff’s best investments), a data and analytics platform that powers the data behind many of the Fortune 2000’s offline experiences, including Absolut, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Michaels Arts & Crafts, Honda, Diageo, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, and the Golden State Warriors. Jonathan began his career in experiential marketing at Red Bull, and holds a degree in Cognitive Science from the University of California Berkeley. Episode Highlights “Experiential m

“There was a big group of people who were able to fare very well during this time and it was those who took action.” As CEO of Consulting Success, Michael Zipursky has worked with hundreds of clients across industries on overcoming the chaos and uncertainty this past year has presented. We discussed how brands can plan, pivot, and take action this week on the On Brand podcast. About Michael Zipursky Michael Zipursky is the CEO of Consulting Success® and Coach to Consultants. He has advised organizations like Financial Times, Dow Jones, RBC, and helped Panasonic launch new products into global markets, but more importantly, he’s helped over 500 consultants from around the world in over 75 industries add 6 and 7 figures to their annual revenues. Over 35,000 consultants read his weekly consulting newsletter. Michael is also the author of the Amazon Best Sellers ACT NOW: How successful consultants thrive during chaos and uncertainty, The Elite Consulting Mind and Consulting Success®, the book. Episode Highlights

“If you look at designing a brand logo in a visual form, there’s an infinite amount of material. With sonic branding, you have no choice but to create your own playbook. You need to understand the impact that sound has on people’s emotions.” Sonic branding was one of the many marketing and media disruptions I discussed this week with Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for Mastercard and author of the new book Quantum Marketing. About Raja Rajamannar Raja Rajamannar is Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for Mastercard and president of the company’s healthcare business. He also serves as president of the World Federation of Advertisers. With more than 30 years as a global executive, Raja has held C-level roles at firms ranging from Anthem to Humana and has overseen the successful evolution of Mastercard’s identity for the digital age, from its Priceless experiential platforms to marketing-led business models. His work has been featured by Harvard Business School and Yale School of m

“Marketing's most fundamental role is understanding markets and consumers better than anyone else around. This past year has allowed us to pause and realign.” Engelina Jaspers has built her career around inflection points in periods of change. The author of the book Marketing Flexology, Engelina stopped by the On Brand podcast this week to share how we can all future proof both our marketing and our careers. Check it out! About Engelina Jaspers Over a rewarding 30-year corporate career, Engelina Jaspers experienced revolving-door CEOs, business course corrections, and lots of reinventions. Across all her VP leadership roles — marketing, brand strategy, environmental sustainability, corporate communications — none escaped disruption. After being tapped to lead multiple company-wide transformations, Engelina became a student and teacher of marketing and career agility. These experiences led her to develop the MARKETING FLEXOLOGY Management Framework — a mindset and a toolset for future-proofing your career, you