On Brand with Nick Westergaard

“When you don’t answer your customers — you’re sending them a message.” Today we have to meet our audience on an increasingly diverse array of traditional and digital media touch points. None has garnered more headlines over the past year than Snapchat. Jed Record joined us in Iowa last fall for the Social Brand Forum. Since then, both Snapchat and the emerging story media format have evolved even...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City — Jay and I discussed a recent report on how Instagram’s algorithm works. While many thought the algorithm would kill the social network, Instagram is actually stronger than ever. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week’s show. Beyond the Sound B...

"Branding is complicated when you try to define it." If there was an ongoing theme of the On Brand podcast, this week's guest hit the nail on the head. Of course, your brand is more than your logo but how do you organize the words and language around your story and communicate that internally. Brad Flowers co-founded and leads a language and story-focused branding firm, Bullhorn. We talked about a...

On this week's Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City — Jay and I discussed some recently released numbers from both Facebook and Snapchat. As the upstart Snapchat prepares for their IPO, use, growth, and revenue are faltering. Over at Facebook, it's the exact opposite. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in...

“The art of the question has fundamentally been lost.” As a global speaker and consultant in digital marketing and sales, Marcus Sheridan has made name for himself and his business by answering all of the questions. I couldn’t wait to talk to the content marketing legend and author about all of this, on this week’s On Brand podcast.  About Marcus Sheridan Called a “web marketing guru” by The New Y...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed some new stats on Instagram Story use vs. Snapchat Story use. While everyone loves talking about Snapchat, it looks like Instagram is currently winning the story wars. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week’s show.  Beyond...

"The only way to stand out is to build a brand." B2B marketers often focus most of their energy on sales funnels, lead generation, and analytics. But how do you stand out in the noisy marketplace? A few weeks ago, Jay Acunzo told a story on the podcast about how Drift made the bold move of un-gating all of their content. I couldn't wait to hear this story first hand from Drift's Director of Market...

On this week's Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed recent "rogue tweets" from Badlands National Park, in response to an alleged media blackout for federal agencies from the Trump White House. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week's show. Beyond the Sound Bite Badlands Nati...

"You are the steward of the cluster that’s drawn to your brand.” Today, we’re simultaneously in control of our brands and not in control, as we build an increasingly diverse audience across diffused media platforms and touch points. It’s this dynamic that Gabriella Mirabelli spends most of her time helping big media and tech brands navigate. We talked about millennials, media brands, and more this...

“Brands that we look to, that are charismatic, know their audience. They know who they are.” Stories, personality, and experiences are the building blocks of modern brands of all shapes and sizes. This week, Carla Johnson of Type A Communications and co-author of Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing stopped by the On Brand podcast to discuss all of this.  About Carla Johnson Carla Johnson helps m...

“All advice is bad advice unless it’s contextualized to you.” As marketers and brand builders, we get advice left and right. Do this, not that. Send this many emails. Write this many blog posts. This week, Jay Acunzo of the Unthinkable podcast reminded us that we need to always ask ourselves why we’re doing this and who we’re doing it for if we want to close the chasm between average and exception...

On this week's Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a recent Twitter exchange between fast food giant Wendy's and a social media troll. Instead of following conventional wisdom and ignoring the troll, Wendy's engaged. The results will surprise you. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included...

In 100 episodes we’ve had a lot of our expert guests define what branding is. Today we add a new definition to that list. Seth Godin joined me to celebrate, as he said, “showing up 100 times.” I’m happy to do it and happy to bring you more great guests like Seth in the future. Enjoy this week’s 100th episode of the On Brand podcast featuring the one, the only Seth Godin!  About Seth Godin Seth God...

This week we have a very special episode of the On Brand podcast! Actually, it’s Part 1 of a two-episode special commemorating 100 interviews with industry-leading brand builders. To kick off Part 1, we go back to the beginning. Our first guest ever on January 1, 2015, was Patrick Hanlon, author of Primal Branding and The Social Code. A lot has changed since then and I couldn’t wait to catch up wi...

“I don’t look far enough ahead to call myself a futurist.” Instead, Rohit Bhargava focuses on being a “non-obvious” trend curator, to the benefit of brands big and small. Each year since 2011, he has curated the digital trends businesses need to be aware of in his Non Obvious book series. The 2017 edition just came out and I couldn’t wait to ask Rohit about it on the On Brand podcast. About Rohit...

“Most content marketing is stuck in the ‘meh’ gear.” Robert Rose knows a thing or two about content marketing. He literally co-wrote the book on it. As Chief Strategist for the Content Advisory Group with the Content Marketing Institute and a Senior Contributing Consultant for Digital Clarity Group, he helps organizations throughout the world enhance their content marketing and customer experience...

On this week's Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed several new features making their way to Instagram including liking comments, blocking comments, and reporting abuse anonymously. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week's show. Beyond the Sound Bite Instagram will soon let...

"The future for both organizations and entrepreneurs is in leveraging innovation techniques to design masterful customer experiences." Nicholas Webb knows a thing or two about both customers and innovations. As an inventor, he's been awarded over 45 patents. He now channels his innovative skills to help some of the world's top brands excel at customer experience. We discussed all of this and more...

On this week's Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a question on the minds of many social media marketers — should you use hashtags on Facebook? We found answers in some recent research. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week's show. Beyond the Sound Bite Should You Use Has...

“We have to make a distinction between the name and the brand. The name piques your interest or curiosity. It’s like having someone over for coffee or dinner. The brand is the impression that’s left after the experience.” As the president and creative director of a verbal identity firm, brand names are Mike Pile’s business. We took a deep dive on this critical brand touch point on this week’s epis...

“You have to look beyond the color and logos with brand identity. They're really the product of something deeper." It's this kind of brand introspection that Gregory Diehl excels at. As the author of two best-selling books including Brand Identity Breakthrough, Gregory has a unique, global, and modern perspective on how we build brands both online and off. We discussed all of this and more on this...

“A brand is not just to make marketing better. It’s to lead the company into the future.” Erich Joachimsthaler of Vivaldi Partners has a decidedly global perspective on brand building. The author of Brand Leadership and the new Hidden in Plain Sight has spoken at conferences and corporate events around the world in English, German, and Spanish. We discussed the most recent developments in brand st...

"The value of an editor cannot be understated. The editor is the proxy for the audience." As the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and the best-selling author of Everybody Writes and Content Rules, Ann Handley knows a thing or two about writing and editing. Most marketers have staffed up for content creation but what about editing? How do you know if you're creating what's best for your audi...

On this week's Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed what people are tired of hearing about on social media these days — the 2016 presidential election! New data from Pew Research shows that most have had enough. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week's show. Beyond the Sound...

"It's not about crisis preparedness. It's about how culture approaches challenges." Social media has created a powerful new dynamic for brands of all shapes and sizes. When things are going great, it can be an incredible business communications tool. When things go badly, they call crisis communications expert Melissa Agnes. We discussed crisis planning, culture, responsiveness, and more on this w...