Answers in Action

Sarah and Steve review the commercials from Super Bowl LIV. What were some of the hottest trends this year? Nostalgia, ensembles and celebrity couples.

We're coming back with a brand new season of the Answers in Action podcast! Tune in for the first episode on Monday, Feb. 3, to hear Sarah and Steve recap commercials from Super Bowl LIV.

Clayton Critcher, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses his research that found mandatory candidate endorsements may incentivize nastiness (more here: http://bit.ly/candidateEndorsement). Plus recent political ad news about President Trump, social media bots and a voting pop-up for millennials.

What's scarier than a brand crisis? For our special Halloween episode, we talk with Jamie Singer, senior vice president on the crisis and risk team at Edelman in Chicago. Reports mentioned in this episode: CMO Survey: bit.ly/cmosurvey2018 Edelman Earned Brand: bit.ly/earnedbrand2018

Jellyvision CMO Bob Armour discusses how he handles step five of the problem-solving process: reviewing the results, analyzing the future and trying again.

Orbitz Brand Director Carey Malloy talks with Sarah about the fourth step in the problem-solving process: finding and implementing the solution.

Bonnie Massa, founder and president of marketing agency Massa & Co., offers her insights on the third step of the problem-solving process: making a map and writing a problem statement.

Today's guest is Flowers for Dreams Founder Steven Dyme, who will discuss the second step of the problem-solving process: building the problem-solving team.

Sarah chats with Feeding America CMO Catherine Davis about the first step of the problem-solving process: finding and defining problems. Read the related feature here: https://bit.ly/2DIjK8k

We’re returning from our summer hiatus with a special week-long series for Marketing Week. From Oct. 1–5, we’ll release a new episode on a different step in the problem-solving process. This series is a companion piece to a feature by Hal Conick in the October issue of Marketing News, available here: https://bit.ly/2IbXYZk

Sarah and Michelle discuss recent announcements by Instagram for IGTV and Facebook's paid groups. Special guest Brianne Huntsman (@the_huntswoman )talks about how brands get Pride wrong, and how to appropriately market to LGBTQ audiences. Read her Medium piece here: https://bit.ly/2N3oeqR

Sarah and Michelle discuss IHOP's goofy rebrand as IHOb, along with Domino's Pizza helping communities fill their potholes. Includes a preview of the June/July issue of Marketing News (https://bit.ly/1srUhjm), the last of the AMA's Gold Report as the team looks to refocus its coverage of the market research field.

Sarah and Michelle look at highlights from Mary Meeker's 2018 Internet Trends (https://bit.ly/2Jc1eDS) and discuss the growing costs of apology marketing, à la Facebook and Wells Fargo. Special guests Jane Hayward of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Claudia Linh of Children's Hospital Los Angeles talk with Sarah and Zach about efforts to improve web experiences and patient-physician matches.

Sarah and Zach discuss new rules from the Digital Advertising Alliance governing political ads, along with whether advertisers will respond to the new NFL policy on the national anthem. Zach offers his favorite marketing takeaways. Special guest Geoff Tuff discusses his new book, "Detonate: Why - And How - Corporations Must Blow Up Best Practices (and bring a beginner's mind) To Survive."

Sarah and Zach dive into what marketers can expect in a world with GDPR. Plus a little color commentary on the royal wedding. Special guest Peter Gillett of Zuant talks more about what marketers need to know about GDPR.

Zach and Sarah talk recent television news, including average age of viewers; plus, Starbucks looks to attract afternoon customers. Episode guest Jessica Best of Barkley chats about design with a big "D" and little "d," her company's 4/20 campaign for Wingstop and more. View the Wingstop commercial here: https://bit.ly/2qR9OR9

Sarah and Zach discuss Facebook's new dating platform, Yahoo's plans for a new messaging platform. Capsule's Aaron Keller chats about his book, "The Physics of Brand," finding a new term for consumers.

Sarah and Zach talk recent news on Diet Coke reinvigorating Coca-Cola and Prince's estate seeing a boost in its brand awareness with the surfacing of previously unreleased music and the opening of Paisley Park. The Marketing News team also discuss their stories from the May career issue, including: - Luck of the Drawer: A Chat With 'Marketoonist' Tom Fishburne https://bit.ly/2I4HsNi -The Complete Job-seeker's Guide: From A to Z https://bit.ly/2FxWrK9 - The Art of the Narrative Arc: Why Marketers Must Learn to be Storytellers https://bit.ly/2rdKIv3

Happy belated Earth Day! We discuss how some brands celebrated sustainability this year, along with the concept of "greenwashing." Sarah chats with Mightybytes CEO Tim Frick about building eco-friendly websites. Tim's recommended websites: Serving.green: https://serving.green/#greening-the-web Sustainable Web Design: https://sustainablewebdesign.org/ Ecograder: https://ecograder.com/

Pt. 2 of our career tips from the AMA International Collegiate Conference career panel, featuring: - Ryan Ayo of Aerotek Inc. - Yolanda Johnson of Enterprise Holdings Southern Louisiana - Lauren Peters of TEKsystems - Rachel Vogel of ABC Supply

Highlights from the 2018 International Collegiate Conference career panel on entry level jobs, featuring: - Charity Moser of Northwestern Mutual - Tonya Stanton of Mary Kay - Cassie Floersch of CDW - Alex Andreadis of The Wall Street Journal

Staff writer Hal Conick looks back on the impact of Sidney Levy, who passed away recently at the age of 96. Read Hal's story about the friendship between Levy and Philip Kotler here: https://bit.ly/2s7MVuY Sarah and Zach talk cosmetics marketing and modernizing a legacy brand with Mary Kay CMO Sheryl Adkins-Green.

Marketing News staff writers Sarah, Zach and Hal discuss whether users or advertisers will leave Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Nate Elliott, principal of Nineteen Insights, weighs in with his own thoughts on the matter. PLUS: Sarah and Hal give a recap of their April Marketing News features: Inside the Walled Garden of Social Media Communities https://bit.ly/2GnlBfE A Night in the Life of the Chicago Bulls Digital Media Team https://bit.ly/2H567Oz All Marketing News April stories: https://bit.ly/1srUhjm

Small breweries have some of the most creative marketing in the industry, from working with other small businesses on collaborative projects to sponsoring local celebrations. Sarah and Zach chat with Meredith June Anderson, the creative manager at Half Acre Beer Co.

The next generation of marketers has the latest technology and plans to help the greater good. Sarah and Zach talk with their colleague and AMA Collegiate Communities Manager Christopher Cole. They also chat marketing education with University of Cincinnati Professor Ric Sweeney and SimpsonScarborough Account Executive Ryan D'Ercole.

Sarah and Zach head to Madison, Wisconsin, to take in the World Championship Cheese Contest and learn about how cheesemakers market their products. We chat with: - Erika Kubick, a self-described cheese preacher and owner of Cheese Sex Death, where she offers social media marketing services to cheesemakers - Bill Schlinsog, chief judge emeritus at the contest - Lizzie Duffey, public relations specialist at the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board - Tim Omer, president and managing director at cheese producer Roth Cheese

The Marketing News staff writers discuss their March stories, including: - How Marketing Banned Microbeads - The Smithsonian's Spectacular Traveling Fundraiser - Why Emotion Can Derail a Nonprofit Merger Read those stories and more here: http://bit.ly/MarchMN

Why do companies continue to believe Peyton Manning is an actor? Where are all the women? What was Dodge thinking? These and more Super Bowl commercial musings from Sarah and Zach.

Sarah chats with David Aaker about his new book, "Creating Signature Stories" (http://amzn.to/2GyV8MW). Aaker's latest release describes the power behind a brand's signature story and how it goes much further than spouting facts.

Sarah and Zach look at the top business stories of 2017, including fake news, net neutrality, new media, #MeToo and our 2018 predictions. Part 2 of 2.

Sarah and Zach look at the top business stories of 2017, including major mergers and acquisitions, politicization, Uber, AI and more. Part 1 of two.

In an effort to draw a broader fanbase, the motorcycle industry is releasing smaller, 1960s-style bikes aimed at first-time riders. Sarah and Zach chat with Heather Malenshek, vice president of global marketing and brand at Harley-Davidson, about the company's focus on freedom, along with plans for its 115th year and beyond.

Audiences are consuming their favorite sports differently—so every step an organization makes needs to consider what the consumer wants. One example is the rebranding of the Milwaukee Bucks, an old team with a new look, new arena and new wins.

Upshot's Liz Aviles, vice president of marketing intelligence, and Katie Butman, vice president of account management, discuss trends in Halloween season marketing. Sarah and Zach their top marketing horror stories for 2017.

Sarah and Zach take a look at 2017 trend predictions to see what came true. Sarah chats with Lilia Arroyo-Flores, executive vice president and head of planning for Edelman Chicago, about using trends to guide brand positioning ahead of her 2017 Chicago Ideas Week lab. PLUS a giveaway for two spots at the Edelman lab (more info here: http://bit.ly/2wtWLpq).

The National Retail Federation expects the 2017 back-to-school market to be worth $83.6 billion. But are marketers really meeting these consumers' needs? Sarah and Zach take a trip to Target and compare with an online experience on Amazon.com. Plus, Sarah talks potential new back-to-school marketing tactics with Kathryn Worthington, managing director of strategy and planning at R/GA Chicago.

We sat down with a few presenters from the 2017 AMA Nonprofit Marketing Conference held in Washington, D.C. Kerry Rodgers from Airbnb discusses her organization's shift from home sharing to experience sharing; Ad Council's Lisa Sherman talks corporations moving into the nonprofit marketing sphere; and Debbie Bates-Schrott says creativity is one of the perks of working with nonprofit organizations.

Members of the marketing and communications team at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh , including Marc Lukasiak, Meghan Belotti, Tracy Gibson and Maggie Bray, discuss some of their work, including the Walk for Children’s, organ donor awareness, using Snapchat, kid-friendly imagery and physician involvement.

This episode includes conversations with presenters at the 15th Annual Racom IMC Roundtable at DePaul University, including Ron Jacobs of Jacobs & Clevenger, Steve Krull from BeFoundOnline, David Dowgiello from Twitter and Beau Davis from Verve.

Takeaways from the 2017 HOW Design Live conference, including highlights from the Starbucks panel discussion and a chat between Yeti Coolers' Trish Olives, LexisNexis' John Lewellan and inMotionNow's Alex Withers. To wrap it up, Sarah and Zach discuss collaboration and the creative process.

Matt Marcus, executive creative director at R/GA Chicago, discusses the work behind the 2017 People's Voice Webby Award-winning "Just the Right Amount of Wrong" canvas ad, created for the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. He also describes the Cosmopolitan chat bot named Rose and the intersection in advertising between systems and stories. View the canvas ad: http://judgeseyesonly.com/cosmopolitan-of-lv-canvas-ad

Designer Christine Mau talks with Sarah about her time at Kimberly-Clark, where she helped redesign Kleenex and Kotex packaging, along with the No More movement against domestic violence and sexual assault. Mau, scheduled to speak at How Design Live in Chicago, offers an argument for considering design as integration, not output.

Sarah stops by Shinola headquarters in Detroit to talk with Shinola CMO Bridget Russo about the company's many categories, job creation and brand consistency.

Cole T. Evans, the young founder and president of Confadent Oral Technology, talks with Sarah and Zach about how he put faith in his brand and polished its story as he pitched his product at various competitions.

Sarah talks with Google Ghost founder and owner Amanda Brinkman, creator of the "Nasty Woman" t-shirt that went viral overnight. Brinkman discusses the lessons she had to learn at a fast clip, including trademark decisions, marketing and staying authentic.

Sarah and Zach talk with celebrity branding expert Jeetendr Sehdev about his new book, "The Kim Kardashian Principle." Sehdev describes why shameless sells and how brands can respond to an audience that expects authenticity.

Marlene Byrne, president of marketing agency Celtic Chicago, discusses ShamROCK Chicago and how they "green" the city for St. Patrick's Day.

Sarah and Zach visit the first-ever Hoots restaurant, a Hooters concept, in Cicero, Illinois, and talk with Hooters COO Sal Melilli. Get their takes on the fast-casual business, Hoots' wings and more.

Sarah talks with ITN Productions' Mark Browning about the Academy Award-nominated documentary short his company produced, called "Watani: My Homeland." They also discuss video marketing and authentic storytelling.

Sarah chats with Steven Dyme, the co-founder and CEO of Flowers For Dreams, a bouquet delivery company headquartered in Chicago. Dyme discusses marketing to millennials, Valentine's Day efforts and more.

Sarah, Zach and Michelle discuss their favorite and least favorite Super Bowl LI commercials, along with some common themes this year.