Brand New

What happens when you’re a top media executive and you choose to leave the corporate world to start a food company… with no prior food experience?  What happens when you set out to build a brand based on passion and purpose, not playbooks?
If you’re Gail Becker, you turn cauliflower into Caulipower: the brand that invented a whole new category in an industry that can be a little … crusty. In this e...

We’re in the month that celebrates women… which always begs the question: why do we need a month? There’s no one better to talk that topic than Shelley Zalis, founder of The Female Quotient and a trailblazer in advocating for equity. At the heart of Steven and Marisa’s conversation with Shelley: the clear case for why women leadership in business is simply good for business. From reframing “diversity&...

 If it feels like a year has already happened in two months, for those in the world of business and brands, keeping a finger on the pulse of how consumers are feeling is as critical now as ever. Joining Marisa and Steven on this episode is the CEO of the famed Harris Poll, John Gerzema. In this current climate, will Americans “keep calm and carry on… shopping?” How can business leaders and particularly marke...

Marisa and Steven are back! With big (brand) new professional chapters underway, the co-hosts catch up on their respective journeys over the past few weeks: Marisa in the midst of a big corporate merger and Steven back as an entrepreneur in the dynamic AI landscape. With those developments as a backdrop, get caught up with them on what professionals - including boards - should be doing now about AI, and why the role of brands, and ...

Marisa and Steven close out 2024 with the inimitable Dr. Marcus Collins, award-winning marketer, cultural translator, and bestselling author of “For The Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be.” If you agree with Marcus’ thesis that “culture is the operating system of humanity,” what does that mean for how brands connect into culture - the right ways? Who does it well, ...

Back in 2009, famed author Michael Lewis wrote a profile of basketball player Shane Battier in which he dubbed him “the no stats all star.” What would make someone a no stats all star? An individual whose game play puts the team above himself (how rare is that)? It just took some deeper analytics to realize that how the TEAM performed (Sven even how the competition underperformed) came down to this one unassumingly shrewd variable....

Businesses that learn forward know that - after a big campaign, whether a big success or big failure - it’s wise to conduct a post-mortem to understand what happened and their implications. In that spirit, and just a few days after a resounding presidential win for Donald Trump, Marisa and Steven offer their view of 5 major learnings for all marketers and brands that we can draw from this election outcome. No (well, almost no) poli...

Marisa and Steven continue their recurring series on building understanding between the Marketers and the Money, when they sit down with private equity leader and former CEO Joshua Schultz to tackle this burning question: do finance leaders truly understand the value of marketing?  Together they get real about the tension between short-term financial performance and long-term brand building, and volley on marketing as an essential ...

In the course of just one week, Marisa and Steven each announced major career news. For Marisa, it was the return to serving as the brand and marketing chief for a big American retailer (but doing it her way, which she wrote about on LinkedIn in a piece called “Try it On”). For Steven, it is also   about doing it his own way by launching a new company (Alpha & Co) to help brands, boards, and business leaders navigate the comple...

One of the recurring questions on “Brand New” has been to what extent should everyone think of themselves as a “brand.“ When it comes to celebrities, it’s not a question; they know they are brands. On this episode, Marisa and Steven talk with renowned interior designer, lifestyle expert and star of Netflix’s “Queer Eye” about his journey of creating a brand first as an entrepreneur, and then experiencing its transformation through ...

As summer winds down and everyone gets back to business, Steven and Marisa are talking the business of marketing and the media in a multi-part series tackling the divide that exists (but shouldn't!) between those who control the purse strings ,and those who control the brand and audience string. Joining them on this episode is one of the most prominent analysts in media and technology: Rich Greenfield. Covering everything happening...

With Steven recording from Spain, the co-hosts take this moment in the heat of August to talk about the importance of taking breaks, comparing American culture with regards to work and vacations versus Europe and many other parts of the world. (Spoiler: the U.S. ranks LAST). Both Marisa and Steven riff on the brands of both of the political parties in the wake of the DNC and RNC… and cover some recent business / CEO change headline...

It’s back to school time with Steven and Marisa, as they bring on fellow podcasters Sarah Hofstetter and Rachel Tipograph, co-hosts of Brave Commerce, and each well-known CEOs in the world of digital commerce. When these four industry leaders who have known each other for years get into it with each other, you know the discussion is dynamic on where commerce is going. From debating whether “personalization” is all it was hyped to b...

The Olympic Games are more than the ultimate in sports; they are the ultimate execution of an event involving billions of dollars in stakes (invested and potentially made) for brands, countries, athletes and more. In this episode, Steven and Marisa invite sports legend Kathy Carter, most recently CEO of the LA2028 Games, to share a unique insider’s perspective on the business of the Olympics. What does it take, really? Which brand ...

At this historic moment in American electoral politics, Marisa and Steven put a brand new lens on the two major political parties, and U.S. politicians. In this very timely conversation, they are joined by Congressman Jeff Jackson (NC), who shot to national prominence in the most unexpected of ways: after entering office last year and finding the actual experience of serving in the House so different than what he imagined, he wante...

It’s no secret that Steven is passionate about futbol! But of course he is not alone. The moment of soccer becoming a major part of mainstream American culture is here, and in this episode Steven and Marisa bring on longtime media executive Jason Wagenheim, who is now the North American CEO of Footballco, to talk about what that means for brands. Do you know why soccer has been such a phenomenon in most other parts of the world? Wh...

If you think you’ve heard all the definitive recaps of the Cannes Lions, put that thought aside and join Marisa and Steven as they talk to the person who is the Chairman of it all: Philip Thomas. Just some of what will interest and likely surprise you (in a conversation intended at least as much for those who did NOT attend as for those who did):

- What the real lead story of the festival was (which barely made a headline)

- The tr...

With our world in a state of rapid change, Steven and Marisa talk about what it all means (or might mean, or should mean) through the lens of work. Joining in for the conversation is Jessi Hempel, Senior Editor at LinkedIn and host of the award winning podcast Hello, Monday. Together, they discuss the big themes we can glean about our collective relationship with work together, and how, especially in these industries, to approach o...

On this episode, get ready to get provoked in your thinking about using social media, as Marisa and Steven are joined by industry icon Gary Vaynerchuk, better know to most as “GaryVee.” Having known each other from the early days of social, there is unique insight and candor across this fast-paced conversation about how social media has evolved for marketers, along with practical ways to be tapping it today. Listen for: what is the...