What if you could test your business strategy in days instead of months? That’s what Kate O’Keeffe, CEO and Co‑Founder of Heatseeker, makes possible. From building the first AI‑powered platform for market experimentation to helping companies validate strategy, positioning, and buyer demand at lightning speed, Kate’s career is all about turning bold ideas into measurable results. Former BCG Partner and Silicon Valley innovator, she’s here to show how AI is rewriting the rules of testing ideas — fast, smart, and with real data.
What You'll Learn
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(00:38) Why AI is changing brand strategy
(01:41) Heatseeker explained and the problem with traditional surveys
(05:17) Common mistakes in testing and the role of AI
(10:23) Balancing speed with rigor in experiments
(14:12) Creating a culture of experimentation without chaos
(19:42) The future of AI-driven market experimentation
(23:53) A brand that made Kate smile recently and how to connect
Kate O’Keeffe is the CEO and Co-Founder of Heatseeker, the first AI-powered platform for market experimentation that helps companies validate strategy, positioning, and buyer demand in days instead of months. She spent a decade in Silicon Valley founding CHILL, Cisco’s global co-innovation lab, and launching high-impact ventures for Fortune 100 companies at startup speed. A former Partner at BCG, Kate has advised executives and boards on innovation, growth, and digital transformation, delivering hundreds of millions in business value. She also serves on the board of Birchal and as a non-executive director for Naked Ambition and CircleOf, Inc.
What Brand Has Made Kate Smile? L’Oreal impressed Kate with its recent work in the refill movement, turning sustainability into a movement people want to join. She loved how the brand tapped into the human need to feel like part of something bigger and clever messaging that invites consumers to “be a recycler” rather than simply recycle.
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Impact isn’t a vibe — it’s measurable. This week I’m joined by Neil Callanan, LooseGrip founder and creator of the GRASP Impact Framework, to unpack how storytelling can stand up to scrutiny and move both culture and the bottom line.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(00:18) Opening remarks
(00:30) Welcome and first impressions of GRASP
(01:05) Explaining the GRASP Impact Framework
(02:55) Legos and dashboards metaphor for data
(06:15) Storytelling plus analytics for brand impact
(10:02) Halo effect and connecting activism to outcomes
(24:52) Brand that made Neil smile recently
(27:03) Where to find Neil and learn more
Neil Callanan is the founder of LooseGrip and creator of the GRASP Impact Framework, a system that helps mission-driven brands translate storytelling into measurable business outcomes. With over 15 years of experience aligning activism and analytics for brands like Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s, Neil specializes in helping companies prove that purpose-driven marketing can drive sales, culture, and social impact simultaneously. He combines data, narrative, and strategy to help leaders measure and defend their impact at every level.
What Brand Has Made Neil Smile Recently? Neil shared that Rivian has impressed him with its attention to detail and customer experience. From a Halloween mode in their electric trucks to playful Easter eggs in their app, Rivian creates joyful and memorable experiences for drivers and families. Neil appreciates how their intentional brand efforts foster engagement, loyalty, and advocacy, even if the company is still ironing out the challenges of being a new brand.
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The secret to great creative work isn’t just the idea — it’s knowing how to get there. Toby Wilkinson, co-founder of Ask Us For Ideas, has spent the last decade helping brands navigate the messy world of agencies, briefs, and creative partnerships to make the process smoother, smarter, and more successful.
What You'll Learn
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(00:30) Welcome Toby Wilkinson
(01:10) The story behind Ask Us For Ideas
(04:18) Defining the perfect agency fit
(08:40) The agency selection process step by step
(12:07) Red flags in agency relationships
(17:25) Navigating a shifting agency landscape
(21:17) Favorite success stories and brands that inspire
Toby Wilkinson is the co-founder of Ask Us For Ideas (AUFI), a company dedicated to helping brands find the right creative partners. Over the last decade, he has connected more than 2,000 brands — from startups to global companies — with agencies across branding, marketing, digital, social, and more. He is passionate about creating productive, long-term partnerships between brands and agencies and shares his insights through AUFI’s website, podcast, and Substack.
What Brand Has Made Toby Smile Recently? Toby has been enjoying the meal kit delivery company Mindful Chef. He appreciates the quality of the ingredients, the variety of meals, and the shared cooking experience it brings him and his wife, making it a meaningful part of his daily routine.
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What does the producer of Wedding Crashers, Serendipity, and Van Wilder know about building brands? Turns out—a lot. This week on On Brand, Andrew Panay shares how Hollywood storytelling principles shape not just hit movies but also unforgettable brand stories for companies like T-Mobile, Microsoft, and Anheuser-Busch.
What You'll Learn
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(00:30) From Hollywood to branding
(02:00) The disconnect between filmmakers and brands
(03:30) What Wedding Crashers teaches us about 30-second storytelling
(05:00) Capturing attention in seconds, not minutes
(08:00) Creativity, evolution, and staying uncomfortable
(10:40) Originality vs imitation in marketing
(20:30) Balancing elegant risk with commercial success
(25:00) The brand that made Andrew smile
(27:30) Where to learn more about Panay Films
Andrew Panay is the founder and CEO of Panay Films and a veteran Hollywood producer whose movies—including Wedding Crashers, Serendipity, and Van Wilder—have grossed more than $800 million worldwide. Beyond film and television, Panay brings his storytelling craft to branded content and advertising for companies such as T-Mobile, Microsoft, and Anheuser-Busch. His signature approach blends cinematic storytelling with strategic brand thinking, creating work that moves audiences—and the business forward.
What Brand Has Made Andrew Smile Recently? Andrew pointed to Nike for a recent campaign during the World Series. The spot used a clever mashup of sound, attitude, and nostalgia—culminating with Ken Griffey Jr.’s signature backward cap and mischievous grin. For Andrew, it was the perfect example of creative “juj”—that mix of confidence, playfulness, and truth that makes great storytelling irresistible.
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What does it take to build one of the world’s top-rated social media management platforms—without a single dollar of outside funding? This week on On Brand, Emeric Ernoult, founder and CEO of Agorapulse, shares how he bootstrapped the company to over $20 million in revenue, pioneered ROI-tracking tools for social, and carved out a powerful niche in a crowded market. We talk scaling smart, making social media actually measurable, and where attribution is headed next.
What You'll Learn
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(00:45) Bootstrapping Agorapulse the Hard Way
(03:40) The Realities of Going Without Funding
(07:20) Reinventing Through Growth and Churn
(08:50) From Social Media to Interest Media
(10:20) Why Attribution Is Broken
(17:50) Three Ways to Track ROI That Actually Work
(23:20) How Brands Can Win at Interest Media
(29:00) The Brand That Made Emeric Smile
About Emeric Ernoult
Emeric Ernoult is the founder and CEO of Agorapulse, one of the world’s top-rated social media management platforms. Bootstrapped from the ground up, Agorapulse has grown to more than $20 million in annual revenue—without taking a single dollar of outside funding. A pioneer in ROI-tracking for social media, Emeric has built his career around helping brands not just manage their social presence, but measure its real business impact. He’s a frequent speaker and writer on marketing measurement, leadership, and scaling companies the sustainable way.
What Brand Has Made Emeric Smile Recently?
Emeric shared that Alex Hormozi—the entrepreneur and content creator—made him smile recently. After attending Hormozi’s workshop in Las Vegas, Emeric was struck by his unfiltered mix of humor and humility. Hormozi’s perspective—that we’re all small in the grand scheme of things, so we might as well do good and enjoy the work—resonated deeply, especially after Emeric’s trip to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park reminded him of life’s scale and simplicity.
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How do the most visible leaders stay trusted and relevant in a noisy world? Danielle Sabrina has spent her career helping them do exactly that. As founder of Society22 PR, one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing firms, Danielle has guided CEOs, athletes, and celebrities in building credibility that scales. Named Female Entrepreneur of the Year and one of CIO’s Top 20 Female Entrepreneurs to Follow, she joins me to unpack how smart brands turn trust into momentum.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(00:44) Credibility as the New Currency
(03:25) Why Founder Stories Matter
(05:03) PR Beyond Press Releases
(07:57) Balancing Authenticity and Strategy
(09:36) Finding the Right Story to Tell
(17:16) Turning Vulnerability into Strength
(21:25) Scaling with Integrity
(27:06) Brand That Made Danielle Smile
About Danielle Sabrina
Danielle Sabrina is an award-winning publicist and the founder of Society22 PR, one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing companies and ranked among the Top 10 National PR Firms. With more than 25 years of experience, she’s helped CEOs, athletes, and celebrities build credibility that drives growth. Named Female Entrepreneur of the Year and one of CIO’s Top 20 Female Entrepreneurs to Follow, Danielle’s insights on trust, storytelling, and media strategy have made her a leading voice in how brands earn attention and stay relevant.
What Brand Has Made Danielle Smile Recently?
Danielle shared that Skims has been making her smile lately — especially their creative brand collaborations with partners like The North Face. She admires how the brand’s constant stream of collabs keeps them culturally relevant and seemingly everywhere, even if she’d love to see them slow down just enough for us all to appreciate each one.
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How do brands really live in our minds? According to Ulli Applebaum, it’s all about associations — the complex web of meanings and emotions that define how people see your brand. This week on On Brand, the international strategy veteran and author of The Science of Brand Associations shares how we can use science, not guesswork, to build brands that stick.
What You'll Learn
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(01:20) Why no one has written about brand associations—until now
(03:40) The brain science behind how brands live in memory
(06:20) Brand associations as your brand’s operating system
(08:00) How associations drive purchase and brand preference
(10:20) Managing negative brand associations
(14:50) What small brands can do to stand out
(23:50) The brand that’s made Ulli smile recently
Ulli Appelbaum is an internationally recognized brand strategist, consultant, and author with more than 25 years of experience shaping business-building strategies for some of the world’s top brands. Before launching his consultancy First The Trousers Then The Shoes, he held senior strategy roles at agencies including BBDO Germany, Leo Burnett Chicago, Fallon Worldwide, and SapientNitro. Ulli’s work has earned seven Effies and an ARF Ogilvy Award for Excellence in Research. His latest book, The Science of Brand Associations: Win Minds, Win Markets, is a first-of-its-kind guide to understanding and building the mental networks that make brands thrive.
What Brand Has Made Ulli Smile Recently? Ulli chose KitKat — a brand he’s admired for decades for its clever, humorous advertising and the enduring “Have a Break” positioning. He recalls a classic British TV spot where a photographer takes a break with a KitKat just as the panda he’s waiting to capture starts ice-skating behind him. It’s a moment that’s stuck in his mind for 25 years — proof, he says, of how powerful brand associations can be.
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Geoff Cook’s career took off the night he met MoMA’s CMO—and helped create the iconic MoMA QNS brand. Since then, he’s shaped brands from MILK and NeueHouse to Times Talks, JFK Terminal 4, and the Prince Estate. Partner at Base, mentor at TechStars, and global culture expert, Geoff shares how bold branding can leave a lasting cultural impact.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
- How a single encounter can launch a career and define a creative trajectory
- Why human connection is at the heart of every successful brand experience
- The concept of “world-building” in branding and how it fosters community
- How to balance AI as a tool without losing creative originality
- Key considerations for branding early-stage companies and preserving cash
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(00:33) Geoff Cook’s career breakthrough at MoMA
(02:10) Early lessons from DKNY and international branding
(04:07) Culture-driven branding from Milk to global institutions
(07:40) Translating cultural expertise to JFK Terminal 4
(10:09) World-building brands to foster human connection
(12:19) AI in creative work: opportunities and guardrails
(20:12) Mentoring early-stage companies and branding pitfalls
(26:27) Brands that make Geoff smile
About Geoff Cook
Geoff Cook's career catapulted on the night he met MoMA’s CMO at a Base party in Manhattan, where he discussed developing the institution’s new branding for its temporary museum in Queens. The project, MoMA QNS, was the first in a string of iconic brands he has helped to create, including MILK, NeueHouse, JFK Terminal 4, Iconiq, The New York Times' Times Talks & Food Festival, the Prince Estate, and countless others. Geoff approaches branding with a sharp understanding of business strategy and a finger on the pulse of global culture (he speaks four languages and savors local flavor everywhere he travels). As a partner at Base, Geoff asks companies big questions and helps answer them with unexpected, visionary solutions. The result is very often a profound cultural impact. Geoff also puts his branding acumen to use as a mentor at renowned tech accelerator, TechStars, and serves as a board member at Sentral.
What Brand Has Made Geoff Smile Recently?
Geoff is impressed by On, a Swiss-based athletic brand. He admires how On builds a cohesive, coherent world through product design, store experiences, and creative campaigns that surprise and delight. The combination of Swiss precision and playful, culturally relevant marketing makes On a standout in his eyes.
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In this special bonus episode of On Brand: Taylor’s Version, now that The Life of a Showgirl is out in the world, we’re asking: what does this new era tell us about Taylor Swift? To explore, I’m joined by Joanna Weiss, editor of Harvard Magazine, journalist, and co-author of Taylor Swift: Album by Album, a deep dive into every era. Together, we’ll unpack how Showgirl fits into Taylor’s evolution and what this chapter reveals about her storytelling, strategy, and brand.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Episode Chapters
About Joanna Weiss
Joanna Weiss is the editor of Harvard Magazine, a contributing writer for Politico Magazine, and a former columnist for The Boston Globe. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, The Economist, and many other outlets. After chronicling her own Eras Tour experience for Boston’s NPR affiliate WBUR, Joanna dove deeper into the Swiftiverse as co-author of Taylor Swift: Album by Album (Quarto Books), which explores each of Taylor’s eras in detail. In addition to her journalism career, Joanna fronts a rock band she formed with five fellow moms — a story captured in her Boston Magazine feature “For Those Moms About to Rock,” now optioned for film by 20th Century Studios.
What Taylor Era Has Made Joanna Smile Recently?
When asked which Taylor song or era makes her smile, Joanna picked “Love Story.” Despite everything that has come since, she still returns to that song for its sheer emotional clarity — a bedroom-written, 20-minute burst of teenage storytelling that still captures the universal thrill of hope, love, and happily-ever-after energy that defines so much of Taylor’s work.
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What makes a brand unforgettable instead of overlooked? Tom Miner knows. As Head of Global Social Media at Crocs, he helped drive one of today’s biggest brand turnarounds. Now author of Social First Brands, Tom shares how embracing productive tension, making personality your secret weapon, and riding trends that matter can turn comments into real community.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Intro
(00:35) Welcome to Tom Miner
(01:22) Crocs as a brand turnaround case study
(04:41) Embracing polarity and productive tension
(09:08) What it means to be a social first brand
(13:21) Fearlessness and comfort levels in social strategy
(15:32) Unhinged marketing and authentic brand personality
(18:18) Comments versus true community
(22:43) Liquid Death as a social first example
(25:10) The brand that made Tom smile
(27:10) Where to learn more
About Tom Miner
Tom Miner is a social media strategist and the author of Social First Brands. As the former Head of Global Social Media at Crocs, Tom helped lead one of the most remarkable brand turnarounds in recent years, taking the shoe from internet punchline to cultural icon. Based in Denver, Tom now consults with organizations worldwide—from household consumer names to international B2B enterprises—helping brands move beyond chasing trends to creating genuine, lasting connections with their audiences.
What Brand Has Made Tom Smile Recently?
Recently, Tom found himself impressed by PopSockets. Long known for their stick-on phone grips, the brand has reinvented itself with MagSafe-compatible products and a renewed sense of fun on social media. A standout moment was a TikTok reaction video where the founder surprised a customer who lost her phone in the ocean. The mix of humor, generosity, and leadership buy-in reminded Tom why surprise-and-delight marketing still matters.
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In this episode of On Brand: Taylor’s Version, we’re joined by Ann Handley — Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, and one of IBM’s ‘7 people shaping modern marketing.’ Ann brings not just her marketer’s eye but also her mom’s heart to the Swiftiverse. We’ll explore how Taylor’s storytelling fuels parasocial relationships, why The Eras Tour transformed casual fans into rabid ones, and what smart marketers can learn from the savviest hitmaker of our time.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Episode Chapters
About Ann Handley
Ann Handley is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, digital marketing pioneer, and Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs. Named by IBM as one of seven people shaping modern marketing, Ann is a trusted voice on content, storytelling, and building authentic connections with audiences. She is the author of Everybody Writes, now in its second edition, and a frequent keynote speaker at marketing and business events worldwide. Through her popular newsletter, Total Annarchy, and her leadership at MarketingProfs’ B2B Forum, she continues to inspire marketers to approach their work with clarity, creativity, and heart.
What Taylor Era Has Made Ann Smile Recently?
Ann lights up when she talks about Taylor Swift’s most recent projects—The Tortured Poets Department and Midnights. She especially loves “Fortnight,” with its Post Malone collaboration and typewriter aesthetics (a nod to her own collection of typewriters), and “Mastermind” from Midnights, which she admires for its playful storytelling. For Ann, these albums are on constant repeat, blending artistry, narrative, and joy in ways that fuel both her fandom and her creative spirit.
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