JUST Branding

Katie is the Founder and Creative Director of Brooklyn-based SMAKK, a branding and growth studio whose mission is to help values-led clients build world changing brands. For much of her career she has worked with everyone from industry giants like American Express and Shiseido to a variety of nimble disruptive beauty, fashion, wellness, and lifestyle brands, including The Honey Pot Company, Harry’s Razors, and more. Katie applies her expertise across content creation, ecommerce, social media, marketing, and digital experiences toward changing consumer behavior, leading to purchasing decisions that are better for people and the planet.

What makes a powerful personal brand and how can you build one that endures? We outline all the steps you need to follow to craft an authentic brand narrative that will help you get noticed, remembered and results. Rob Levinson is a seasoned brand strategist who’s worked for global consumer brands such as DeBeers, Rolls-Royce, BMW and more. Now he’s the principal of Leverage Advisors which helps grow middle-market B2B businesses, as well as a Personal Brand Coach which helps people to develop brand stories that get them noticed & remembered. He’s also a lecturer at Boston Uni, and a former Wall Street Journal online columnist. If you’re wanting to improve & grow your personal brand, this episode is for you!

Learn how to write rock-solid creative briefs and the fundamentals of strategy so you can gain confidence in your strategic abilities, and ultimately have a bigger impact on your company. Julian Cole is a strategy consultant for global brands such as Apple, Facebook & Disney. Previously, he’s held the role of Head of Comms Planning at BBDO & has helped create award-winning work for PlayStation, Pepsi, Google and after looking at his wrap sheet - pretty much the Global 100. Julian is also a strategy coach and in 2017 he founded the Planning Dirty Academy which helps agency strategists improve their craft by getting their hands dirty.

What's it like working on corporate brands from the inside? In this episode we take a peak behind the curtain to see how big brands are managed by their in-house teams. We sit down with the fantastic Kyle Millar, VP of Marketing at SodaStream Canada. Kyle outlines how he views brand strategy, the principles he uses to build brand, create memorable customer experiences and to inspire his teams to success. He also digs into what it’s like to work “in-house” - both the highs and the lows. If you are thinking about working in-house, or if you are just curious as to what it's like joining a large organization in their brand department, this episode is not to be missed. Previously Kyle has led leading brand roles in Unilever, Molson Coors and Capital One - so it you want to learn from someone whose been there, done it and got the corporate T-shirt, this is the episode for you.

In this episode, we go deep into the world of business strategy with Emily Cohen. Emily is a self-described “brutally honest” consultant to creative professionals and in fact, she even named her book that! Her business book, Brutally Honest: No-Bullshit Strategies to Evolve Your Creative Business, is chock full of advice, insights, business best practices, actionable strategies, case studies and much more, but unlike many other books for our industry, Brutally Honest is designed for visual learners (like us!) and includes colorful info-graphics, checklists, as well as short & impactful sound bites to apply! So if you’re looking for the tools & strategies to whip your business or team in to shape, this episode is for you.

Today we have Scott Buschkuhl who is the Creative Director at Siegel & Gale, a brand strategy, design, and experience firm with its global headquarters located in NYC. Here, Scott develops teams and works hands-on with his clients who have included folks like New York Times, Victoria’s Secret, Wired, and dozens more. He’s got a ton of awards on his belt, he’s a sought-after lecturer, an esteemed judge for competition juries, and also a professor at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He’s previously worked at Pentagram and also ran his own agency for 12 years so it’s safe to say we’re in good hands. Today we’re going to be discussing Simplicity in Branding which is S&G’s philosophy on brand in general. In fact, they state “We’re the simplicity company” as their tagline. We discuss designing for humans, emotional responses, team collaboration, simplicity as an approach to brand strategy, presentation techniques, and much more!

Relevance. That's the key to ensuring a brand thrives. We sit down with expert and author of "Shift Ahead", Allen Adamson, to understand how to stay relevant in today's fast moving world. How organizations stay relevant is Allen’s area of specilality. Together we tuck into the principles of relevance, and Allen gives valuable first-hand examples of how to apply these principles in action. We look at how the best organizations recognize when it’s time to change direction, and how they pull it off while bolstering their brands. As well as “Shift Ahead” Allen is an author of a number of branding books such as; BrandSimple, BrandDigital, and The Edge:50 Tips from Brands That Lead – which are used in universities across the USA. He is also the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce, a disruptive marketing and product consultancy which, unlike traditional firms, takes a multi-disciplinary channel-agnostic approach to marketing challenges. So - if you want to learn from an industry giant on the key topic of Relevance, look no further!

As a customer, you’re not buying the item. You’re buying the experience. Today, we have Joseph Pine, co-author of The Experience Economy, on the show to discuss the importance of delighting your customer, along with some powerful examples that will help you “Design the TIME the customer spends with YOU”. If you work with people, then this episode is for you.

Trademark law is tricky. And unsexy. But not anymore. Come join trademark lawyer, Joey Vitale, who will teach you the ins and outs of trademark law so you can practice safe branding. Joey is a “lawyer with a soul” who works with small businesses, helping them stay safe when it comes to entity formation, trademark registrations, contract drafting and other fundamental legal needs. In this episode, we break down the legal jargon in a way that actually makes sense, so you can stay safe and keep pumping out great work, without being worried of the consequences. We discuss: - How can you protect your ideas & work - What do you do if your work is stolen - What to put in your contracts - The differences between ® ™ © symbols - The trademarking process - Plus dozens more legal questions for you to get schooled on. Practice safe branding people. Take a peek inside this episode. It’s glorious.

Sagi Haviv is a logo design legend. However, in this episode we go deeper and uncover what it takes to solve big brand & business problems. We discuss CGH’s branding process using case studies from Discovery+, Harvard University Press and Chase Bank, as well as Sagi’s biggest life lessons, how to “pressure test” a trademark & visual identity system, presentation techniques that win, when & how to break the rules, and ultimately how to “problem solve”. Hint… you first must define the business’ problems & success criteria. Tune in for a monster value-packed episode.