The Brand Insider – Details, episodes & analysis

How do you take a single ingredient and turn it into a global lifestyle brand? And how do you balance an aspirational message while still being accessible to the mainstream?

In this week’s Brand Insider, Erin Everhart goes 1:1 with Bruno Cardinali, Global CMO for Oakberry, to see what’s all the buzz about this little berry.

Behind Dr Pepper’s Fansville Gameplan with Ben Sylvan

No brand collaboration is as synonymous with college football as Dr Pepper, and that’s by no mistake. Now in its eight season, the leaders behind Fansville’s effervescent brand story are running all new plays.

In this episode of Brand Insider, Kate Terhune goes 1:1 with Ben Sylvan, SVP of Connected Media at Keurig Dr Pepper, to unpack how he’s retooling a modern CPG media engine around one interconnected strategy.

Fresh from The Trade Desk, Ben walks through why KDP moved from a “Chipotle assembly line” of channel owners to a true PESO formation—one integrated lead tackles everything from the biggest screen to the IRL interaction at point of sale. He talks team structures that empower success and measurement playbooks that allow for real time refinements.

Ben’s north star is simple: growth. The gameplan? Precision, personalization, and partnerships—from Jerry Jones in an “away game” cameo to RC Cola’s legacy with the Chicago Bears. 

If you’re building connected media for outcomes—not org charts—this conversation is your playbook.

This week Doug Parks chats with Vicki Poulos, Head of Luxury & Lifestyle Brands at IHG Hotels & Resorts

This week Steve has a vegan geek-out with the CEO of Seed Ranch Flavor and GrownAs.

In this episode, Steve chats with Genentech's CMO, Erica Taylor.

This week Steve has a conversation with the CEO of SmartyPants Vitamins, Brenda Demers.

This week Steve chats with Matt Carrington. Matt is the CMO ­at Athletic Greens, the decade old maker of a nutritional supplement, a category now known as green powders. The company works on a DTC model around a deliberately narrow set of products available in a single-sale or subscription model. Any podcast fans will recognize the brands, especially under its more common recent moniker, AG.

This week, Steve sits down with Zelle's Senior Director of Brand Marketing, Joshua Fajardo to talk about the digital payment landscape and banking apps.

This week Steve sits down with Ginny McCormick, the CMO of Zappos.

In today's episode, Steve sits down with James Merk, Brand Director of EyeBuyDirect.