a branded world: Branding made easy. A podcast where we explore great brands and learn how to build a powerful brand.

Growing your business is hard and this is especially true if you're a small organization.  Wouldn't it be great to learn from a seasoned marketer with a track record of growing revenue and profits while strengthening teams and building brands? Well, this is your chance. From the fundamentals to lessons you can only learn from over 30 years of experience, this episode is full of invaluable advice. Todd shares his insights on what brands need to have in place to better position themselves for growth avoid growing pains and not lose their magic, what makes them special, in the process.  

In 2020, many brands pulled back their advertising and marketing. To ensure they could continue to connect and be helpful to their audiences, many significantly increased their social media efforts. In today's episode, I'm talking with Miruna Dragomir, Head of Marketing for Planable. Miruna takes us behind the scenes to show us how some of the social media teams that grew the most in 2020 are structured, how they organize their work, and the most effective strategies they use.  

If you're starting your career, your consultancy, or small business, and want to position and differentiate yourself in the marketplace, elevate your credibility, and grow your influence, your personal brand is key. In this episode, we go through the steps you need to take to establish the brand you want to have. From the questions, you need to ask yourself before you start, to the two "must-have" platforms you need to be at. 

There are increasing expectations from consumers and investors alike for brands to demonstrate their genuine commitment towards a more sustainable future. But what does it mean to be a sustainable business and how can brands become more sustainable while ensuring financial viability?   In today's episode, I speak with Chad Park, VP of Sustainability and Citizenship at The Co-operators, Founding Director of the Energy Futures Lab, and founding member of The Natural Step Canada team. Chad has been recognized for his leadership and accomplishments in working with dozens of leading businesses and municipalities to help them integrate sustainability into their business strategy, operations, and organizational culture. He shares great advice and examples on how brands of any size or industry can apply.  

This episode is the second part of my interview with Oliver Šimko. Gamification can be highly effective in a variety of areas, from attracting customers, increasing sales, building loyalty, creating healthier habits, increasing productivity, achieving better learning outcomes, etc. Given its effectiveness and the potential to start fairly easily and inexpensively, gamification can be a very helpful tool for organizations of all sizes and budgets. In this two-part series, I speak with Oliver Šimko, the founder of Luducrafts, a gamification design studio. Oliver and his team have built gamification solutions to help change how people learn, build new habits, and stronger corporate cultures.  Luducrafts has worked with companies such as Microsoft and Jaguar as well as other groups around the world.

Gamification has become a bit of a buzzword in the last few years, but it's not just a gimmick. Gamification uses game design principles, behavioural science, and design thinking to create better products, services, and companies.   When done right, it can lead to engaging and effective solutions in a multitude of areas, from addressing social issues to the adoption of healthy habits to driving engagement, motivating staff, increasing productivity, or improve learning. In this two-part series, I speak with Oliver Šimko, the founder of Luducrafts, a gamification design studio. Oliver and his team have built gamification solutions to help change how people learn, build new habits, and stronger corporate cultures.  Luducrafts has worked with companies such as Microsoft and Jaguar as well as other groups around the world.

We like to think we're rational beings and we mistakenly believe that we can persuade or create the action we want by creating awareness of an issue or presenting facts and rational arguments alone. But as our own experience shows us logic, data, or rational arguments alone don't cut it. If it did, we would all eat healthy, have active lifestyles, and not be glued to our phones.  What has proven to be a powerful tool to move us into action is storytelling. But how can you use stories for your organization and what makes a good story?  

Entrepreneurs, small business owners, and non-profits have very limited time and resources. How should they use the little time and resources they have to compete with wealthier and more established brands?

When you're a small team culture is easier to manage but as you grow and hire more people, it becomes harder to preserve. It can easily grow and morph into something else. How do you create the right culture and maintain it as your organization grows? In this episode, I share six key principles that successful brands have applied to do just that.

2020 was quite the year and as much as we're all looking forward to putting it behind us, what are some learnings and insights we can take away from this crazy year that could be helpful in the future?  2020 impacted brands around the globe. While many brands and industries suffered significantly, with some not surviving, others experienced record-breaking growth.  What factors lead some brands to succeed and others to struggle? What are some consumer trends we need to pay attention to and be part of? And what are some opportunities worth exploring?  

Chances are that your audience will first hear or read about you before you ever have a chance to engage with them in person. The language you use, your tone of voice and what you choose to say are key to differentiate you from the competition and to persuade your audience to choose you. In this episode, I speak with Rob Marsh, co-founder of The Copywriter Club. Rob is an experienced writer that now trains other writers on how to write to turn readers into clients.

In this episode, we talk to Cian Murphy, Co-Managing Director of nfpSynergy, a research firm based in London, UK.  Cian is an expert in quantitative research design and analysis. Cian shares with us a research model used to better understand the drivers and barriers behind audience decisions and the latest trends and challenges corporations and charities face today.

In this episode, I talk with Sarah Mueller, SVP of Marketing and Development for A&W Restaurants Inc. Sarah tells us the story of the over 100-year-old brand. From its humble beginnings, to how it became the means for so many to achieve the American dream, to the many disrupting changes in ownership and strategies. This is a story of resilience and of how a brand had to look to its past to find its future.

By all measures, Hot Wheels is a brand success story. It's sold in over 150 countries, has universal brand awareness and it's the best selling toy in the world. But the question is, how can the brand continue to be as iconic for the next 50 years as it was for the first 50? In a digital world of mobile phones and on-demand content, how can Hot Wheels compete with the infinite choices kids have? Jason Horowitz, Senior Vice President of US Marketing at Mattel and Head of Global Digital and Media for Hot Wheels is my guest in this episode. Jason walks us through the year and a half long journey, he and his team went through to find the answer to those questions.

With everything that is happening in the world right now, we've seen brands struggle on how to best react.  Global market trends and the significant importance of younger generations have intensified the need and urgency for brands to do much more than provide a quality product or service.  In this episode, we explore the pressures that are at play and what brands need to consider as they move forward.

Protecting your brand starts with registering your trademark but it needs to go well beyond that. As the CEO of the International Trademark Association, Etienne Sanz De Acedo, my guest on the podcast, has a good handle on what it takes to protect brands. With offices and representatives around the globe, and headquartered in New York City, Etienne walks us through what brands should do to foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation.  

An organization's culture is not just about having a positive work environment, it's about having the right team, that acts the right way and makes the right decisions. This is particularly true during critical times, such as the coronavirus crisis we all find ourselves in at the moment. How do you build the right culture? What do you need to do to create the right environment?  And how do you do that when you may be working from afar and may need to let go some of your team members? In this episode, I speak with Lorne Rubis, culture, and leadership expert about how to build a culture that is resilient in the face of adversity. That can adapt and pivot and does not deviate from their values even, or especially when having to make difficult decisions. 

So, we're still in the midst of the pandemic, and brands are trying to figure out what to do. By now most organizations have cut costs and are actively looking for financial support. But now it's important for brands to go beyond reacting to the challenges and look for opportunities. There are many examples of brands that managed to flourish during a crisis, mostly did so because of their ability to innovate and pivot. To envision possibilities rather than focus on the present existing problems, may even feel wrong, like bad leadership or use of resources. After all, we're in crisis management mode and the instinct is to protect and defend or manage to try to survive.   But it is exactly the ability to envision possibilities and seek new opportunities that give brands the best way to survive and potentially even thrive. In this episode I share three essential elements to help you imagine possible new opportunities that both address market demand and are a good fit with your brand.  

In this episode, I speak with David Lemley, president and chief strategist of Retail Vodoo, about the main external challenges brands face in their pursuit to stand out in overcrowded markets and how to overcome these challenges. Learning to navigate external challenges is critical to success. Just as important, but often not addressed, is the ability to identify internal blocks or blind spots, that may be stopping brands to evolve or do what is needed to remain relevant and outlast competitors.

The two questions that I've been getting the most this past week from organizations are, “Should we continue to market? and "Do we need to engage or talk about the crisis?”. Like me, you've probably received emails from every organization you ever engaged with. Although I don't think that's the right approach, not acknowledging the crisis, can make your brand seem completely out of touch or worse, insensitive to what consumers may be going through.   If this was a localized or short-term crisis, this wouldn't likely be an issue, but the impact of the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented and it have already had an impact never seen before. So, what should brands do? In this episode I walk you through 6 guiding principles to help brands navigate this unchartered territory.   

I don't think anyone was quite prepared for the COVID-19 crisis we're all facing right now. Unfortunately, this crisis will likely severely affect many organizations, for profit and non-profit. Today's episode is an encore episode first launched in March 2018. Although the examples shared are quite different in nature and scale (by a lot!) to the one we're experiencing now, the principles and best practices shared here, still apply. It's my hope that the advice shared in this episode can help guide some organizations through this crisis.      

In this episode, I speak to Brent Baldwin, head of brand marketing for the Harlem Globetrotters. Brent shares the history of the globetrotters, the evolution of the brand and how focusing on their purpose is helping the organization create clarity on who they are and attract the right audience and talent.

Many brands leave to chance that front facing staff will know how to interpret the brand and create the right interactions with external audiences. This is at best a missed opportunity to strengthen your brand and at worst a risk in ending up with wrong or detrimental brand experiences. In this episode, I talk to Chris Wallace, Co-Founder and President of Innerview Group, a consulting firm that helps companies effectively transfer their brand strategy to their customer-facing staff. Chris shares the 3 steps to successfully engage and transfer the brand sentiment to staff and the 3 most effective tactics to do so.  

In this episode, Usman shares with us in detail what the selection and training process is like for a potential MacDonald's owner and operator. This is a grueling process by which McDonald's is able to select the right people to represent the brand. McDonald's train them in how to become a successful operator while immersing them in the McDonald's brand.

According to a 2019 study by Statista, McDonald's brand value is estimated at over $130 billion dollars. Almost three times more than number two, Starbucks, on the “fast food” category. How does a brand who regularly receives harsh criticism have such high brand value? And how do they keep their brand integrity and consistency in over 37,000 restaurants in 120 countries?

Part of the YMCA success is their ability to change, but how does a massive global organization master the art of understanding audience needs, have the willingness to change and adapt while staying true to its brand essence? ken Lima-Coelho, VP of Community Engagement with the YMCA Calgary tells us how the YMCA does it and how they are investing in the brand. 

This is the third and final episode of a three-part series where we go deeper on how to define and operationalize your purpose and core values and how to create and nourish the right culture.

Almost every organization has a set of values, but most don't know how to live by them. Operationalizing your values, translating them into actions and experiences is very hard to do. In this episode we pull the curtain to show you how Airbnb did it.

There is a lot of information about defining your purpose but there is not a lot on how to find your purpose and even less on how to implement it. This three-part series, will walk you through how to find your purpose and how to bring it to life. We'll give the behind the scenes details of how Airbnb did it, including the process and exercises they went through.

Events can be a great way to fully immerse your audience in your brand. Good food and a good venue are important but to achieve a memorable brand experience and meaningful connection with your audience you need to go beyond the basics.   In today's episode I'm speaking with Eryne Sarabin, founder of Tycoon Event Planning. Eryne shares with us some great tips and advice on how to create events that will attract and connect your audiences, internal or external, with your brand.

Injecting your brand in your spaces enhances the connection with your brand values reinforces your culture, nourishes staff and customer engagement and creates the right brand experiences.

Every brand should have a good handle on who their ideal customer is, not just based on age or gender but rather on their needs and desires.  In this episode we explore some ways to uncover the information you need to truly understand your audience and be able to provide them with the right product or service and craft the right messages and strategies to reach and convert them.

In this episode I'm talking to Barry Enderwick, who helped shape the Netflix brand in its early days. We discuss how Netflix has been able to continuously change and adapt, staying on top of its game and how you can do so as well.

Most brands dedicate resources to carefully select the right images and although sound can make an image much more powerful very few brands spend time selecting the right sounds.

Douglas Atkin, former Head of Community at Airbnb walks us through how to identify your purpose, how to evaluate it to ensure it's a good one and how to bring that purpose to life which is the hardest part of all and essential to have a cult like brand.

Swell Bottle was not the first to come up with a multi-use water bottle but how did they get the attention of people like Oprah, publications like Vogue and retailers like Starbucks? What is the magic behind Swell? What is the "secret sauce"?

Lush Cosmetics is not afraid to stand for what they believe in and what they are against. In this episode Brandi Halls, Brand Director North America, shares with us how Lush lives by their values, how they have grown a cult like following.

Social enterprise may likely be the new business model. In this episode I'm talking to Dave Cree, co-founder of Common Good Linens. Get a behind the scenes on a successful social enterprise that is helping those facing homelessness and poverty.

With 1 billion users spending an average of 53 minutes a day on the app, 50% actively following brands and 72% purchasing from them, Instagram is a platform you should be at. But how can you use Instagram for your organization in an effective way?

What makes a remarkable brand, well…remarkable? What are their characteristics? What decisions their leaders make? What goals they pursue? Do they share similar attributes? More importantly, what can we learn from them and apply to our own experience?

This is the last episode of 2018, I wanted to pick the one episode from all year that is a definite "do not miss". If you only have time to listen to one episode this is it. If you've already listened to it it's totally worth while to do it again.

Like it or not we all have to “sell” our products or services or cause. In this episode, Hamish walks us through the best way to approach selling, the proven seven step process to convert and the psychology behind successfully selling.

Brian knows a thing or two about building remarkable brands. He is not limited to traditional and digital creative marketing campaigns but rather the entire process of building a brand from within, creating strong cultures that live and embrace the brand.

If you know Terry, you're not reading this, you've hit play already. If you don't know Terry, boy are you in for a treat. He is an esteemed adman, author and the host of the hugely popular and award winning radio show and podcast "Under the Influence".

A Branded World is celebrating its first anniversary. I can't let this date go without thanking everyone who has contributed with their time and insights.  This podcast is possible because of them and listeners like you. Thank you!

Follow a few organizations who are going through Fast Pitch, a program provided by Social Venture Partners, to help craft a strong pitch. We go behind the scenes and look at what it takes to develop a simple, clear and impactful pitch.

Staying true to your brand values and purpose can feel like climbing a building from the outside during a hurricane. It's not easy. And for those of you who are trying to do it, you know exactly what I mean and this episode is for you.

This is part two of my interview with Christina Zeidler. What makes the Gladstone a remarkable brand is the fact that Christina has identified a set of values that guides every decision turning those values into actions and experiences.

Christina Zeidler rejuvenated a historic Toronto landmark, the Gladstone hotel and build a brand that has deep connections with the community, visitors and staff. Christina managed to build a brand that is much more than the services it offers.

Branding is how you shape your identity and attract customers. In this episode, Dr. Hancock, an international expert in brand storytelling, provides great examples of how brands effectively shape an identity to tell stories that attract and retain customers.

Most leaders are pulled in a million directions so you have to be diligent of where to spend your time and resources. In this episode, I explain why it's important to have a defined brand and give you three key steps to define and bring your brand to life.