On Brand with Nick Westergaard

“Your brand is what people say about you when you aren’t in the room.” This very personal, very human definition is what Kary Delaria uses to guide her brand building online and off. As the Social Media Manager at Allianz, she spends her time navigating the engaging yet challenging waters of digital marketing in a regulated industry. This week, she took some time to talk to us about brand ambassad...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed some big news on Facebook. This past Tuesday Mark Zuckerberg announced that they were adding a new button. While many have called this a Facebook dislike button, the truth is that it’s likely to be much more complicated than that. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to th...

“This is a cultural shift. Not an operational shift. You have to understand people first.” As the SVP of Marketing for Sysomos and co-author of The Now Revolution, Amber Naslund understands the impact people — both internally and externally — now have on brands. Before Amber joins us in Iowa next month at the Social Brand Forum, I wanted to take a few moments and chat with her about the role that...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed several new Facebook page features that should make admin’s lives a lot easier. Soon pages will start appearing in new shopping and services tabs for easy discovery. Facebook also announced new commenting features including saved replies and reply privately. Listen for the full sound bite and en...

“It’s not what we sell. It’s what we stand for.” This simple statement provides a concise summary of the key differences between traditional brand advertising and modern content marketing. At the forefront of this movement is Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, author of the new book Content Inc., and lover of the color orange. In the midst of hosting Content Marketing World,...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a new feature on Instagram. Or, more accurately, an existing feature with a big change. Instagram has been defined by their fun filters and square photos. But that’s about to change. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week’s...

“There’s no one size fits all in marketing today. It’s like football, though. Everyone is trying to move the ball down the field.” In a career that has taken him from commercial publishing to financial services B2B and now educational technology, Rob Yoegel has navigated many different customer profiles across many industries. This week on the On Brand podcast, Gaggle’s VP of Marketing shares why...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed some new insights from a Pew Research Center study. Specifically the fact that Instagram and Pinterest usage has doubled since they started tracking while Twitter and LinkedIn use is flat year on year. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips incl...

“Today brands need to surgically remove and filter insights.” How can we make sense of it all? This week on the On Brand podcast I was joined by two old friends, Tim Hayden and DJ Waldow. These two innovative marketers have joined forces as part of the team at Zignal Labs, a realtime digital story-tracking platform. I couldn’t wait to learn about the realtime branding possibilities, politics, and...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed something of a throwback campaign. Hearkening back to the Navy’s World War II propaganda poster “loose lips sink ships,” the Air Force has repurposed this message for the social age, warning service men and women that “loose tweets destroy fleets.” Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these...

“It’s not about the name. It’s about the product you deliver and the service around it.” Service and customer experience are at the very heart of the Suitsupply brand. This vertically integrated men’s fashion retailer is gaining a lot of attention and confounding many traditional industry expectations. I was fortunate to be joined this week by Nish de Gruiter, the self described Market Maker of Su...

Was Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories the original brand manager? That’s the theory Scott Monty posed at the top of the show. Scott is the executive editor and co-host of the Sherlock Holmes website and podcast I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere. He’s also a leading digital marketing strategist and consultant at Scott Monty Strategies. On top of all of this, Scott is a speaker at this fall’s ...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a flurry of recent announcements from Instagram. Specifically, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform announced that they were opening up their advertising API — a move that could put them ahead of Google and Twitter in display advertising. They also announced closer integration with HootSuit...

“Great brands demonstrate unity not uniformity.” Branding is a tricky topic. It’s both an art and a science. It’s about consistency yet not being so consistent that your story suffers. It’s this narrow space that Josh Miles navigates every day. As principal of the Indianapolis-based firm MilesHerndon, he works with organizations of all sizes to build better brands. I couldn’t wait to get wonky wit...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a recent item in the news. Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer probably wishes he never killed one of Zimbabwe’s most beloved lions. The Internet will never let him forget, as negative reviews of his business flooded Yelp and various social outlets. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these use...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a new announcement from Facebook. While YouTube is the leading source for online video, the social media giant took another big step toward being a major rival by announcing a revenue-sharing model for video creators. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trend...

“Great brands are built, not bought.” To many brands and agencies alike, this has been a big shift in recent years. It’s a shift that Jeff Rosenblum has been at the forefront of understanding and explaining. As the founding partner of Questus, he works with with clients to develop brands with purpose. He’s also the director of The Naked Brand, a documentary film exploring how brands are built toda...

“Our brains are wired to recognize story structure, to help us gain meaning. Our job as communicators is to bring meaning to everything we do.” Park Howell helps organizations, communications professionals, and executive MBA students unlock the secrets of storytelling to create more meaningful brand experiences. I couldn’t wait to chat with Park about the “Business of Story” on this week’s podcast...

“How can you find a fun way to get into your story.” That’s what Tim Washer spends most of his time doing. As part of the social media team at Cisco, he helps create entertaining and engaging video content. He’s also a regular on the comedy scene, with an impressive list of credits including a recent spot on Last Week Tonight. I couldn’t wait to talk about the intersection of brand building and co...

“I spend a lot of my time at the intersection of branding and social media.” As Global Director of Employee Engagement at Siegel+Gale, Thom Wyatt helps organizations build brands through improvements in employee engagement, corporate culture, and organizational purpose. I couldn’t wait to discuss all of this with Thom on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Thom Wyatt Thom Wyatt is t...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a new announcement from Pinterest. The social bookmarking giant’s new buyable pins feature will allow users to buy products of things they see in pins they like — all while never leaving Pinterest. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included...

“Today people are exposed to your brand in a whole new way.” Customers are different than they used to be. We don’t like cold calls. We use our DVRs to skip commercials. Hubspot knows and has built a marketing movement around this shift. This week, Hubspot CMO Mike Volpe joined me on the On Brand podcast for a discussion charting the growth of this inbound marketing giant. About Mike Volpe Mike Vo...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed several new Instagram features. These updates to the fun, photo-filtering social network are noteworthy as they inch Instagram even closer to Twitter, offering users better tools for real-time event updates and discovery. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, t...

Scott Stratten has been called the Henry Rollins of marketing. Recently, this analogy came to life at Copyblogger’s Authority Rainmaker event where Scott had the honor of preceding Rollins onstage. We talked about all of this and what so many businesses are still missing on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast — which Scott immediately renamed “Un Brand” for just one episode. Enjoy! About S...

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed … JEB! Kidding aside, we discussed Jeb Bush’s recent campaign announcement which included a logo with a lot of … excitement (!) surrounding it. We also looked at the latest social media tallies among the candidates as well. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news,...