Focus On Brand

Brand isn't meant to start the fire — it's the accelerant. And you can't accelerate something that isn't already moving. By the time Giga came to Focus Lab, the fire was already burning. They had traction, product-market fit, and a proven model. What they didn't have was a way to package, position, and communicate what they'd built. In this episode of The Debrief , Focus La...

This rebrand started with a new CMO and a 20-year-old company ready for change. It ended with real diamonds given away in a crowd. Here's everything in between. In our latest episode of The Debrief, Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney sits down with Rhiannon Staples, CMO of ClearCo, to walk through the rebrand that brought their brand identity in line with who they'd actually become. From building a...

When your product outpaces your brand, it's a signal — not a crisis. After a decade of building, Seamless recognized that gap and decided to do something about it. In this episode of The Debrief, Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney sits down with Jonathan Pogact (VP of Marketing) and Philip LaChance (Principal Designer) at Seamless, to relive their 8+ month rebrand journey — from building the internal c...

Brand decisions don't have to be personal. The best rebrand leaders know how to take the emotion out and replace it with clear criteria. ✅ In this episode of The Debrief, Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney sits down with Beth Forester — now CEO of Animoto, and VP of Marketing during their rebrand — to explore how intentional process and clear decision-making can be the difference between a brand proje...

What happens when a brand still holds value — but no longer reflects who you’ve become? In this episode of The Debrief , Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney sits down with Nick Donovan, VP of Marketing and Communications at the Technology Association of Iowa (TAI), to explore how his team evolved an almost decade-old brand into a scalable system that better reflects who they are today. With a background in...

Brand naming in 2026 is more complex, and more critical, than ever. David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding (the team behind names like Swiffer, BlackBerry, Sonos, and Dasani), joins Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney to explore the new frontiers of naming: from AI-driven processes and trademark saturation to global naming challenges and evolving consumer expectations. What you'll learn: How AI is re...

When’s the right time to let go of a brand that’s no longer serving your business—even if it’s been working for 10+ years? In our latest episode of The Debrief , Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney talks with the GigSalad team: CEO Mark Steiner, CTO Locke Bircher, and Product Designer Nichole Baiel. Together, they discuss the bold, intentional rebrand that helped them level up and better align with their fu...

Let's be honest, we don’t need more AI hype. We need real examples of how teams are using it to work smarter. In this episode, Henrique Cruz of Rows shares how AI is becoming a true creative collaborator — streamlining workflows, accelerating iteration, and unlocking bandwidth for higher-value thinking. After partnering with Focus Lab on a full rebrand, the Rows team didn’t shelf the guideline...

What does it really take to lead a successful B2B rebrand — one that aligns internal teams, resonates externally, and drives measurable ROI? In this episode, Contentstack CMO Gurdeep Dhillon joins Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney to break down the full rebranding journey. You’ll learn how Gurdeep approached agency selection, structured internal collaboration, navigated creative feedback, and activated th...

In the final episode of our Brand and Product series, Bill Kenney (Focus Lab) and Lee Eisenbarth (MaxQ) look ahead: What does the future hold for brand in a world shaped by evolving user expectations and AI tools? From kids swiping TikTok to professionals navigating enterprise software, the bar for user experience is higher than ever. So how does brand show up — not just in how things look, but in...

When brand and product are treated as separate silos, user trust suffers. In this episode, Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney and Max Q Co-Founder Lee Eisenbarth unpack what it means to build software experiences that feel cohesive—because they are. They explore how design systems, microcopy, onboarding flows, and even 404 pages can carry the weight of brand, not as decoration, but as the soul of the exper...

When product teams build fast and brand is left behind, user experience gaps emerge — and trust erodes. In this first installment of our Brand & Product Series, Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney sits down with Lee Eisenbarth (Co-Founder, Max Q) to unpack why brand and product are still so often siloed — and why that separation is a critical failure for B2B startups and scale-ups. From early-stage iden...

Totango’s CMO Karen Budell joins Focus Lab’s Bill Kenney to unpack how bold branding choices and a tight internal team led to a rebrand that didn’t just look good — it worked . From aligning internal cultures to creating a booth activation that got people talking, Karen shares tactical insights and strategic takeaways that any B2B leader navigating brand change can apply. In this episode, you’ll h...

Brand isn't just a creative exercise — it’s a product that drives ROI. Back for his third appearance on the Focus on Brand podcast, Sergio Claudio (ex-Adobe, Marketo, Zuora) joins us to challenge how organizations perceive and measure creativity. Is it just a cost center—or a powerful growth engine? In this episode, Sergio unpacks how creative work can (and should ) drive business outcomes. Fr...

Join Bill Kenney as he sits down with Jason Alvarez Coen, CEO and co-founder of Popl, and Bryce Alston, VP of Marketing, to relive Popl's transformation in this insightful episode:  ✅ Discover how Popl transitioned from a viral TikTok hardware product to an enterprise B2B SaaS company  ✅ Learn about the triggers and catalysts that prompted the rebrand  ✅ Understand the challenges and opportunit...

Calling all creative agency founders (or aspiring founders) 🚨 In our latest podcast episode, we sat down with the partners of Casa Davka, a consulting firm for creative agencies. Focus Lab CEO, Bill Kenney, had the pleasure of diving into the highs, lows, and everything in between with Emily Cohen and Hunter Vargas on their experiences and observations working with agency owners across the countr...

Calling all design and brand mascot nerds that were around in the 90s! We sat down with one of the original creators of Clippy (and the suite of Microsoft Office Assistants) and we got really deep in the lore of the tech mascot universe. Focus Lab CEO and Monte Atherton, founder of Astonishing Work design studio, hit on so many fantastic topics such as: 👉 How Clippy (and friends) came to be Offic...

In our latest episode of The Debrief, we're sitting down with MessageGears VP of Marketing, Will Devlin. After 10 years with the same logo, the MessageGears team's rebrand mantra was "anywhere but here" — and their rebrand project benefited greatly from that mindset. Will and Bill touch on so many important topics such as: The inflection point for the MessageGears rebrand The challenge of the unkn...

In our latest episode of The Debrief, we're sitting down with Cadmium's marketing director, Jessie Reyes—and she brings as much data as she does passion to this conversation. Jessie and Bill touch on so many important topics such as: 👉 The lead-driven reasoning behind Cadmiums rebrand 👉 The benefits of working with an "A" Team agency 👉 The importance of leadership championing a rebrand 👉 How b...

In this episode of The Debrief, we're sitting down with Irwin's VP of Marketing, Melissa Homère, and digging into their team's experience working alongside Focus Lab to level up their existing brand. Irwin had an innovative product and a respected brand, but recognized that they were in need of a refresh to get organized, strategic, and elevated. In our conversation, we touch on everyt...

In this episode of The Debrief, we are sitting down with our pal Philip Lakin, former CEO and co-founder of NoCodeOps. What do we mean by former, you ask? Well, a few weeks back our friends at NoCodeOps were acquired by "their favorite player in the space" — Zapier. Focus Lab CEO, Bill Kenney, sits down with Phil to relive their rebrand experience with us from two years ago and discuss h...

Join us in our latest episode of In Conversation as we chat with John Rougeux — founder of Flag & Frontier, a company that specializes in narrative design and execution. In this episode, John and host Bill Kenney break down various category design strategies, discuss how to find c-suite alignment without taking away autonomy from the larger team, dig into what the right mindset is to have when...

Calling all B2B marketing professionals out there — our latest episode of In Conversation is not one you'll want to skip. Today we're sitting down with Palmer Houchins, currently Head of Marketing at G2 (maybe you'v heard of it). In our latest episode, Palmer and Bill dive into Palmer's early days at MailChimp, the tricky science of measuring brand ROI, the future of B2B marketing,...

As an AI company who was building their premium product well before the big AI boom, PolyAI recognized that their previous brand did not represent the level of power and maturity they had achieved — it was time to level up. It was a pleasure to have Kylie Whitehead, Senior Director of Marketing and Brand at PolyAI, sit down with Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney to reflect on their rebrand project with ou...

Rewind to 2022 when we were still gearing up for Odi, our sister agency purpose-built for startups. In order to drum up some excitement, we ran a giveaway — a free brand project for one lucky (soon-to-be) client. The winner of that giveaway was no other than Noelle London, founder and CEO of Illoominus, a company focused on simplifying HR tech stacks in order to transform organizations into people...