On Brand with Nick Westergaard
Episodes
Immersive 3D Branding with VR Expert Ashley Crowder
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s podcast interview was originally scheduled to take place live on stage at SXSW. Unfortunately, a nasty pandemic got in the way of this. ...
The Economics of Attention with Jamie Mustard and Holt McCallany
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“Attention is the defining business challenge of our time.” This prolific idea was noted by not one but two guests this week. Jamie Mustard is a s...
Why All Startups Need a Brand Book with Mona Bijoor
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“Vision and strategy require a lot of thinking about brand.” Mona Bijoor would know. She spends a lot of her time thinking about and helping early...
Branding for Growth and Scale with Kristin Luck
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“Marketers today have to be data junkies.” Kristin Luck would know. She’s founded two marketing analytics companies that were so successful both...
Generating Unlimited Brand Story Ideas with Melanie Deziel
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“The biggest disservice we've done with content marketing is giving such high expectations without the tools to fulfill them.” When it comes to u...
Flipping the Script on Flip Flops with Jeremy Stewart
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“Your feet take you on these adventures. You should have quality flip flops that you keep for a long time. That really became our core story.” Tha...
Creating a Conversational Brand with Nick Usborne
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“Bad writing can undermine everything you’re trying to do.” As someone who started out as a marketing copywriter and who still spends a lot of t...
Marketing as Attraction vs. Marketing as Retention with Wayne Mullins
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“Marketing is your ability to attract and keep customers. Most confuse the definition of marketing with the definition of advertising.” This week ...
The Secret Sauce of Branding with Kerrie Finch
13 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“The secret sauce of brands is purpose.” In a career that’s taken her from wrangling brands at Wieden+Kennedy to launching her own successful gl...
Inspiring Your Brand's Fan Culture with David Meerman Scott
06 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What do the Grateful Dead and Harry Potter have in common? Both have huge fandoms that include author David Meerman Scott and his daughter Reiko Scott...
Building Brand Alignment Internally and Externally with Christopher Wallace
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“We're the BASF of brand story. We don't make it but we bring it life.” This analogy perfectly captures the inflection point where Christopher Wal...
Developing Smile-Inducing Brand Names with Alexandra Watkins
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“You don’t want your brand name to be tame. You can’t afford to be tame!” As the verbal identity expert behind names for brands ranging from f...
Using Big Data to Create Customer Connections with Aimee Irwin
02 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“The constant today is still that the consumer is at the heart of everything.” In a career spanning big brands and early-stage companies, Aimee Ir...
How to Humanize Your Brand with Beth Trejo
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s the simple things that I think people overlook because they’re trying to be so complicated or complex.” Beth Trejo is a force. As CEO an...
The Future of Marketing Is Collaboration with Vlad Calus
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Collaboration is the next phase of marketing.” And Vlad Calus knows a thing or two about collaboration. A serial entrepreneur, Vlad’s latest ve...
Managing Startup Brand Consistency with Jonathan Wassterstrum
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“How do we make sure there’s a consistency of experience, consistency of messaging, and consistency of feeling?” These are the questions all bra...
Creating Brands for Tomorrow’s Consumers with Emmanuel Probst
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Something that disruptors bring to the table is the personal relationship with the customer.” And Brand Hacks author Emmanuel Probst knows a th...
Building Brands by Changing Habits with Jessica Jensen
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Getting people to change habits and try new things is an exciting challenge for any marketer.” And Jessica Jensen knows a thing or two about mark...
How Self-Reliant Entrepreneurs Build Purposeful Brands with John Jantsch
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Entrepreneurs have always been the voice of good.” As the author of bootstrapping bibles Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, and Duct Ta...
Creating a Big, Bold Brand with Inge Overtoom
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Brands today have to create a memory.” In over 200 episodes of the On Brand podcast, we’ve had a lot of definitions of branding. However, I’m...
Help Customers by Building a “Lighthouse Brand” with Scott Wolfe of Levelset
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“As an entrepreneur, it’s our job to make something that wasn’t there.” And that’s exactly what New Orleans based entrepreneur Scott Wolfe d...
Finding Your Brand’s Universal Story with Ellen Utrecht
16 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Story doesn’t start with a 40-page deck. It starts with a founder with a vision.” And yet, there are quite a few 40-page branding decks floatin...
Why Your Brand Should Be an Outlier with Phillip Stutts
09 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Be an outlier. Play a game no one else is playing.” With success in developing both corporate marketing and political campaigns, Phillips Stutts ...
Redefining Your Content Experience with Randy Frisch
02 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“What we do in life is we solve what’s in front of us instead of what’s next.” That’s exactly how most brands have approached content market...
Positioning Your Brand Platform with Derrick Daye
26 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“There are fifteen accepted definitions of a brand. My favorite definition is that a brand is a sum of all experiences a customer has.” As the nam...
How to Build a Challenger Brand with Prentice Howe
19 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“A challenger brand is defined by an ethos — a mindset. They have ambitions that outweigh their internal marketing resources. They have to outthin...
Boosting Brand Scale and Impact with Raul Hernandez
12 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Every company can be broken into three parts — marketing, operations, and product.” Raul Hernandez is an expert at helping business break down ...
Brands as Building Blocks of Personal Identity with David Lemley
05 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“The brand has changed from goods and services to a building block of personal identity.” David Lemley knows this first hand. Twenty years ago he ...
Using Brand as a Leadership Tool with Lindsay Pedersen
29 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Brand creates focus. It helps you prioritize. Because it’s a North Star in can help the leader allocate resources, determine how he or she should...
Building a Startup Brand with ShowerPill Founder Justin Forsett
22 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Excel at what you can’t control. A lot of people say ‘control what you can control.’ But I think you excel at those things that you can’t c...
Inside ADP’s First-Ever Rebranding with CMO Lorraine Barber-Miller
15 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s not a marketing veneer. It’s not a marketing campaign. It’s embedded in our values, our behaviors, and how we show up in the world.” R...
Brand Building Through Servant Leadership with Ken Blanchard
08 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“A lot of Wall Street people think that profit is the reason for business. I say profit is the applause you get for creating a motivating environmen...
Connecting Brand Strategy to Business Strategy with Jeff Swystun
01 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“A brand story should be built on a good narrative.” Jeff Swystun has built his career helping brands tell their stories. His career alone is stor...
Why Brands Have a Responsibility to Do Good with Alexandra Dimiziani
24 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“I started out struggling with doing business and doing good. It’s always presented as this zero-sum game. And it doesn’t have to be.” Alexand...
Remixing Your Brand's Story and Content with Judi Holler
17 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Someone’s story is what gets us most.” With a background in improvisational comedy and marketing, Judi Holler is an expert at crafting and remi...
Finding Brand Relevancy in a Fast-Changing World with Allen Adamson
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Marketing doesn’t always have one right answer.” As both a branding expert and instructor at NYU Stern School of Business, Allen Adamson knows ...
How to Orchestrate Your Brand Experience with Karin Soukup
03 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"Experience design is the suite of emotions that you deliver over time.” This clear and concise answer came from this week’s guest on the On Brand...
Finding the Epicenter of Branding and Culture with Dennis Hahn
27 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Brand and culture are two weird words that are getting put together more and more.” This week on the On Brand podcast, we explore these two words...
Creating a Heart-Centered Brand with Stephanie Nivinskus
20 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Everyone has an important role to play in the big vision.” This week on the On Brand podcast, I was joined by Stephanie Nivinskus, CEO of SizzleF...
Bridging the Brand Activation Gap with Mitch Duckler
13 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“If your brand was to go away tomorrow, would anyone miss it?” Awkward silence. That’s because, for the most part, very few brands today are tru...
Mapping a Customer-First Journey with Nancie McDonnell Ruder
06 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Leading with the who is something people want to jump right past.” No, my guest this week wasn’t talking about the band The Who. We were talkin...
Cultivating a Creative Culture with Justin Dauer
29 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Culture internally seems like one of the most intuitive things to support. It’s a no brainer. And yet …” We miss it. Often. Thankfully there’...
How Brands Can Apply Design Thinking with Alain Sylvain
22 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“People tend to see strategy and design as two separate things.” As the founder and CEO of Sylvain Labs, Alain Sylvain sits at the intersection of...
Taming the Brand Experience Beast with Darren Coleman
15 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Building a brand is everyone's job and it’s challenging. It can feel like moving a mammoth.” As the Founder and Managing Consultant at Waveleng...
Winning Your Customers' Hearts and Minds with Kieran Flanagan
08 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“One of the thing’s that’s hardest to do is continue to grow.” As Vice President of Marketing and Growth at Hubspot, Kieran Flanagan has helpe...
Designing Meaningful Brand Experiences with Steve Denekas
01 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Experiences bring brand values to life.” As leader of the creative team at BASIC, Steve Denekas spends his time crating experiences for brands li...
The Cold Shower Digital Marketers Need to Take with Ryan Cote
25 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
How to Develop Tasty Content That Sells with Rev Ciancio On Brand
11 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“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.” T...
How to Create Presentations That Are On Brand with James Ontra
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Presentations are valuable content.” And yet, they often go underutilized. More challenging still, these prominent content delivery systems aren'...
Thinking Outside of the Box and Breaking the Wheel with Jay Acunzo
18 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“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 Me...
Creating a Media Frenzy Around Your Brand with Sarah Tourville
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“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 Frenz...
Why Great Brands Must Design Great Culture with Josh Levine
28 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s imperative. You must design your culture. It plays such a big role.” Educator, author, and designer Josh Miles has made his mission helpin...
In a Noisy, Distracted World, Clarity Wins with Steve Woodruff
21 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“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 hard...
Applying a Punk Rock Attitude to Your Brand with Jeremy Dale
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“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...
How Leaders Create Strong Brands with Alberto Lopez-Valenzuela
07 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“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-Valenz...
Building an Audience for Your Personal Brand with Case Kenny
17 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Hold off until you have something to write home about.” As a podcaster and branding thought leader, Case Kenny offered insights on personal brand...
Why You Should Market to Mindstates with Will Leach
10 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“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 revolu...
The Best Marketing Tool You're Currently Overlooking with Todd Earwood
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Webinars are a fundamental campaign we’re overlooking.” As Todd Earwood said that in the first few minutes of our interview it rung true. Webin...
The Laws of Brand Storytelling with Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"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 any...
The Future of Branded Video with Wistia Founder Chris Savage
29 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“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 conte...
Creating Talk Triggers for Your Brand with Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin
16 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“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 an...
The Next Evolution of Branding with Mona Amodeo
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“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)categ...
What It Means to Be an Everywhere Brand with Jeff Rohrs
01 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"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 sta...
Why Data Is Critical to Building Customer Loyalty with Kevin Dean
24 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“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 ...
Crafting Brand Stories That Sell with Amber Williams
17 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Who are you? Why do you exist? Why should people care? Amber Williams, founder and brand strategist at Punkyflair, helps brand builders answer these ...
How to Turn an Entrepreneur’s Voice into Brand Voice with Kate Boyd
10 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“I joke that I’m good at impressions — you have to do voices.” Why would a marketer need to be good at doing impressions? As founder of Cobble...
Marty Neumeier Scrambles Up Business Books and Agile Strategy
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“A story lets you address problems in a very human way.” While traditional business books, textbooks, and case studies help us learn key concepts,...
Exploring the New Reality of Brand Building with Cathy Hackl
20 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Content is expanding — it’s shifting. It used to be 2D and flat.” Now we have VR, AR, MR, and XR. What’s a marketer to do? Luckily, we can ...
Building a Long-Term Legacy for Your Brand with Lucas Conley
13 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Brands that endure have long-term ambitions. They make a durable difference.” When it comes to celebrating your brand’s legacy, age is relative...
Discussing Dynamic Brands with Luke Beatty
30 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Brands today are more dynamic than ever before. We need to keep the idea of brand from being esoteric." And we need better tools for managing and m...
The Architecture of Building Brand Intimacy with Mario Natarelli
23 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Brands aren’t logos or static concepts. They’re value systems.” Mario Natarelli has branded everything. From Fortune 500 companies to entire ...
Making Sense of Advertising’s Existential Crisis with Kevin Kelly
16 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Everything is an ad.” At times it seems as though our industry is in the midst of an existential crisis. Who are we? What do we really do? Are br...
The Secret Sauce to Personal Branding with Phil Pallen
09 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“The only exciting thing celebrity has is the privilege of platform.” To build something from this privilege, you need to understand your personal...
Branding Luxury Real Estate with Matthew Leone
25 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“We sell the communities as much as the homes that sit in them.” Buying real estate — buying a home — is the biggest purchase many of us make....
Embracing Design Thinking for Your Brand with Jon Kolko
18 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Many have seen a TED talk about design thinking but they don’t know what’s next — what it looks like.” This week on the On Brand podcast we...
Asking for Help and Reinforcements for Your Brand with Heidi Grant
11 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“We all need help. We all need to move people. But we’re reluctant to ask.” While it may not seem related to branding and marketing, the social ...
How Brands Can Get Ahead of the Creative Curve with Allen Gannett
04 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Everyone is so stressed out. All of the marketers I talk to. There are so many channels and so many reports to prove our existential existence!” ...
Crafting Your Brand’s Signature Story with David Aaker
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"Digital is content, content is stories." Listeners of the podcast know that I am a big fan of storytelling as a brand building tool. And I'm not alon...
Why Brands Have to Take a Stand to Stand Out Today with Katie Kern
21 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"Why is our industry slow to adapt? Because the way we've done things had always worked ..." Until it didn't. While technology has changed the marketi...
Brand Storytelling at the Santa Barbara Zoo with Dean Noble
14 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Every animal has a story to tell.” And we didn’t even get to them all! But we tried. This week I chatted with Dean Noble, Director of Marketing...
Mastering Your Brand’s Verbal Identity with Al Hussain
07 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“The CMO for a medium-sized brand is responsible for more words than the editor of a newspaper.” Words matter. And, to this very point, there are ...
The Legal Implications of Brand Building with Jenny Odegard
30 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"Does your brand exist legally? The depends on what your brand is.” We only tackle the big questions on this podcast! Our guest this week isn’t a ...
Better Brand Experience Through Brand Education with Justin Wartell
23 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Experience is the residue brands leave with people after the product’s gone.” Justin Wartell of Monocle knows a thing or two about brand experi...
Social Sound Bite: Starbucks Steps Up in a Crisis
20 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s Social Sound Bite — recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City — Jerry and I discussed how Starbucks is using a recent in-s...
The Psychology of Branding with Kaye Putnam
16 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“The confused mind doesn’t buy.” As a psychology major — I know enough to be dangerous — I couldn’t wait to talk with Kaye Putnam. A psych...
Tom Peters on Excellence and Personal Branding
09 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Early in my career, I spent my commute listening to audiobooks in my 1996 Ford Taurus. The tinny car speakers shook as Tom Peters spoke about excellen...
Social Sound Bite: Experience Is Marketers’ Top Challenge
06 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s Social Sound Bite — recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City — Jerry and I discussed the latest data from the State of Br...
How to Build Brand Loyalty Today and Tomorrow with Barry Kirk
02 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Consumers are human beings first.” Duh. Who needs to be reminded of this? I mean, we’ve got our big data, customer analytics, loyalty metrics,...
Taking Employee Engagement to the Next Level with Shawn Premer
26 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“How we treat employees relates to how they become brand ambassadors.” Your employees — your people — are one of your biggest brand assets. Ho...
Embracing Brand Citizenship with Anne Bahr Thompson
19 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“People want brands to step in and solve things that government can’t.” With the latest news of #BoycottNRA and the #MeToo movement, it could se...
Social Sound Bite: Why Your Brand Should Be Podcasting
16 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s Social Sound Bite — recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City — Jerry and I discussed some new podcast listenership data c...
LIVE Onstage at SXSW with Heather Whaling and Wendy Cohen
12 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we have a special LIVE episode of the On Brand podcast — on stage from SXSW 2018. Recorded Saturday, March 10 in Austin, this episode fea...
Social Sound Bite: Are We Overvaluing Digital Media?
09 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s Social Sound Bite — recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City — Jerry and I discussed a new report from Radiocentre and Eb...
Why You Need to Integrate Brand and Culture with Denise Lee Yohn
05 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Most CEOs delegate culture to HR and brand to marketing. You need to prioritize a fusion of these areas.” For many organizations, this is a big s...
Social Sound Bite: Twitter Cracks Down on Bot Use
02 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s Social Sound Bite — recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City — Jerry and I discussed a new report on how Twitter is crack...
Hammering Home Your Brand with Words and Visuals with Laura Ries
26 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“The tactics have changed but the strategy of owning and building a brand hasn’t.” Laura Ries can share first hand how branding has stood the te...
Social Sound Bite: Facebook Use Down for the First Time in 10 Years
23 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s Social Sound Bite — recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City — Jerry and I discussed some new data from Edison Research’...
How to Project Brand Confidence with Melanie Spring
19 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“You have to find people who like you but aren’t like you.” This is a mistake many brands make. They look for customers just like them — wi...
Mastering the Storytelling Edge with Joe Lazauskas
12 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"A lot of content being produced is not good. That's because it's not telling a great story." As Editor-in-Chief and Director of Content Strategy at C...
Branding Is the New Advertising with Fabian Geyrhalter
22 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"Everyone thinks that branding isn't important today but branding is the new advertising." Despite media and technology shifts, the brand behind your ...