What do you get when a kindness-led skincare founder & a community-first haircare CMO sit down together? An honest & instructive conversation on Brand Advocacy.

Live from the Brand Advocacy Summit: New York, Verity is joined by Dr. Brent Ridge (Co-Founder @ Beekman 1802) & Nilofer Vahora (Chief Marketing Officer @ Amika) to unpack how two very different beauty brands built lasting customer love – by making stylists, neighbours, and Advocates the centre of their businesses.

This isn’t about follower counts or funnel hacks. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the values, trade-offs, and systems that turn brand belief into million-dollar growth. If you’ve ever struggled to scale connection without losing credibility, this conversation will help.

What You’ll Learn:

🏆 Why Being ‘The Favourite’ Brand Beats Being The Biggest

🎡 How Amika Built a Stylist-Led Flywheel That Drives Brand Love & Revenue

🏘️ The Power of ‘Neighbor Services’ (Not Customer Service)

🫶🏻 Why Community Systems Beat Viral Campaigns Every Time

⚙️ What Happens When You Make Kindness Your Operating System

Two brands. Zero holdbacks. All Advocacy.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to the Live Panel: What Advocacy Actually Looks Like

02:27 – The Origin Stories: Kindness, Friendship & Founding from the Margins

07:05 – When Community Becomes the Growth Plan

09:07 – Building Brand Language: “Hi Neighbor” & “I Love Amika”

11:02 – Operationalising Kindness & Loyalty

16:45 – Systems That Scale Love: Amika’s Flywheel & Beekman’s KQ Program

23:42 – From Stylists to Screens: Connecting IRL Community to Digital Growth

28:10 – Trusting the Community with the Brand (Even When It’s Hard)

32:55 – Learning in Public: Handling Missteps & Turning Them Into Advocacy

38:30 – Final Takeaways: Real Community, Real Trade-Offs, Real Growth

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Brent & Nilofer:

On Brent’s LinkedIn

On Nilofer's LinkedIn

It’s the buzzword combo every CMO wants to crack, but few actually have.

Recorded live at the Brand Advocacy Summit: New York, this chat dives deep into what it really means to blend culture & performance – with two of the sharpest minds in brand today.

Ana Andjelic (Global Chief Brand Officer @ Esprit) and Nathan Jun Poekert (Brand Strategist & CMO Advisor) bring radically different lenses to one big challenge: how do you grow a brand that actually means something and performs?

This is a no-fluff, all-strategy conversation.

Covering:

🧠 Why most marketing is stuck in reactive chaos

⭐️ What the best brands are doing differently

📊 The missing metric: cultural impact as a KPI (& how to track it across teams)

📉 Why influencer marketing fails when measured like performance media

🎯 The rise of the "social franchise”

🧩 How to structure teams that don’t kill creativity or speed in the name of metrics

If you're a brand, a marketer, or a leader trying to build for the next decade – not just the next quarter – then tune in.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Culture x Performance (Live from NYC)

01:30 – Marketing in Chaos: What’s Really Going On

04:10 – The Story vs. The Dashboard

06:25 – Why Brand & Performance Still Don’t Work Together

08:00 – Measuring Cultural Impact: A New Index

10:15 – The Age Problem in Media Optimisation

14:30 – Forget Engagement Rates. Track This Instead.

20:40 – Virality, Creators & Brand Control

22:10 – The Social Franchise Model Explained

26:20 – Brand Safety vs. Subculture: The Trade-Off

31:45 – Why Paid & Organic Must Sit Together

36:35 – From Close Friends to Culture Clubs

39:15 – How Stanley Won Facebook Moms

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Ana & Nathan:

On Ana’s LinkedIn

On Nathan’s LinkedIn

TikTok’s not slowing down. Reddit’s rising. Creators are turning into strategists. And brands? They’re either adapting – or falling behind.

Recorded live in New York at the Brand Advocacy Summit, this special episode of Building Brand Advocacy throws six sharp minds into a game show-style debate (hosted by Verity) on what’s actually next in culture, social, and the creator economy.

From red flags to green flags, beige flags to bold predictions for the year ahead; this chat doesn’t hold back.

Hear from:

— Madisen Theobald (Global Director of Social Creative @ M.A.C Cosmetics)

— McKinley Hart (Director of Social Media @ SoulCycle)

— Gabriel Gomez (Head of Social & Community @ MCoBeauty)

— James Denman (Brand Strategy & Marketing Expert)

— Brandon Smithwrick (Creator, Advisor & Content Strategist)

— Maksim Tokarev (Senior Social Media Manager @ Loop Earplugs)

For their hottest takes on why…

🧠 AI-generated UGC could get banned

🧵 Threads, Reddit & Broadcast Channels are in for discovery

📉 YouTube Shorts might not be worth the big bucks (yet)

🔑 Intimacy is the new influence & the DMs are where it’s happening

… and much more.

If your brand is still playing by the 2020 rulebook, stop. Listen. Learn.

Chapters:

00:00 – Kicking Off

01:22 – Hot Takes Begin: Predictions for 2026

07:34 – Brand Flags: Green, Red, or Beige?

23:03 – Watch, Wait, or Walk: What Brands Should Act On, Pause, or Ditch

35:25 – Social SEO & AI Content: Future-Proofing Your Brand

38:23 – AI Content Ethics: Where Brands Go Wrong

40:45 – Closing Out & Audience Questions

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with the Hot Takers:

On Madisen’s LinkedIn

On McKinley’s LinkedIn

On Gabe’s LinkedIn

On James’ LinkedIn

On Brandon’s LinkedIn

On Maksim’s LinkedIn

Most brands are looking at the wrong data.

Worse still? You don’t know what to do with it.

This week, Verity sits down with Jazmin Griffith (Social Strategist, Content Creator, and Founder @ Social Listening Studio, queloque?). Jazmin pulls back the curtain on what real listening looks like today – and why it’s about far more than sentiment & mentions.

From decoding niche communities to spotting Reddit-born Super Bowl ideas, Jazmin reveals how brands can shift from ‘monitoring’ to meaningful intelligence. If you’ve ever asked, "what do we actually do with this data?", this chat delivers your answers, fast.

Listen to learn how to:

• Use The 5 Cs to Guide Listening: Jazmin’s framework covers Content, Culture, Community, Creators, and Channels; and shows how to unlock insights across all of them.

• Get Past Vanity Metrics: Surface-level engagement doesn’t tell the whole story. Hear how to uncover what’s really working.

• Spot What Creators Aren’t Saying: Jazmin explains how the most valuable signals are often hidden in broadcast channels, DMs, Substacks, and Slack groups.

• Build Listener-Led Briefs: Why reactive brands are losing, and what it takes to create culturally relevant, high-performing content today.

• Think Beyond the Grid: Why Threads, Reddit, and even Substack might be the whitespace you’re overlooking – and how to know if it’s time to pivot your channel strategy.

This one’s sharp, strategic, and packed with takeaways.If you’re in social or strategy, do not skip it.

Chapters

00:00 – You Think You're Listening. You're Not.

02:04 – The Reddit Insight That Sparked a Super Bowl Ad

07:46 – Why Most Social Teams Still Get This Wrong

12:35 – The 5 Cs That Should Shape Every Strategy

18:00 – What Creators Know That Brands Miss

22:00 – Listener-Led Briefs > Brand-First Briefs

27:56 – Culture Is Not Your Playground

30:02 – Community Isn’t Comments

36:17 – Where Your Brand Should Actually Show Up

41:00 – 3 Signals Smart Marketers Are Already Tracking

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Jazmin:

On LinkedIn | On Instagram | On TikTok

On queloque?’s Website

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What does a decade of building Brand Advocacy look like in practice?

Back in May, Paul sat down with Luke Klein (Senior Director of Marketing Strategy & Growth @ Aerie) to unpack one of fashion’s longest-running movements: #AerieREAL.

The campaign started in 2014 with a bold commitment: no more retouching. But it was more than a moment; it was a cultural stance. In the 10 years since, Aerie has evolved that stance into a living, breathing ‘brandformance’ strategy that continues to drive relevance & results.

Luke shares how Aerie stays intuitive to their customer (not just reactive), balances brand consistency with performance-first cultural agility, and designs a creator strategy that feels genuinely co-owned.

If you’re looking for smart ways to evolve a brand, this episode is yours.

You’ll learn:

• Why Brands Need a Mirror, Not a Magnet – Aerie doesn’t try to manufacture hype. They reflect real conversations their customers are already having; and that’s what earns trust.

• The Bow Tie vs The Funnel – A customer journey model that actually reflects how people buy and Advocate today.

• Why Brand Is Performance (& Vice Versa) – Luke shares why separating the two is outdated, and how Aerie uses one strategy to drive both impact and immediacy.

• How Culture-Driven Content Fuels Strategy – From “Coastal Grandma” to subculture playbooks, Luke breaks down how Aerie turns social listening into scalable strategy.

• Why Influencers Should Translate, Not Recite – Scripts are dead. Aerie’s creator strategy starts with values, then lets partners lead with their own voice.

• The Underrated Power of Store Associates – When you empower employees to show up authentically, they become some of your best Advocates.

Whether you’re brand-side, agency-side, or founder-led – if you’re serious about scaling with Advocacy, this is one way to do it.

Chapters:

00:00 – Why #AerieREAL Was Never Just a Campaign

02:50 – Evolving the Movement for Gen Z in 2025

08:45 – How Aerie Turns Listening Into Strategy

10:30 – From SEO to Trend Spotting: The Content Nucleus Model

13:00 – Subcultures, Micro-Trends & Translating the Brand

14:00 – Scripts Are Dead: Let Creators Lead With Values

21:00 – Why Brand and Performance Aren’t Separate Anymore

23:00 – The Bow Tie vs The Funnel (and What Actually Works)

26:00 – Segmenting Advocates Beyond Purchase Frequency

30:00 – Store Associates as Advocates: The Untapped Channel

34:00 – The Myth of Message Matching Across Touchpoints

36:30 – Letting the Customer Shape the Brand, Not Just Receive It

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

🔗 Apple Podcasts

🔗 Spotify

Connect with Luke:

On Instagram

On LinkedIn

Not Hot Take: Marketing shouldn’t feel like a meeting.

It should move you.

This week, Verity sits down with Henry Hayes – Head of Marketing @ Passionfruit and the comedic content machine reshaping how brands build attention, internally & externally.

Whether you know Henry from his LinkedIn comedy bits or his unconventional marketing strategies at Passionfruit, this conversation peels back the layers on what today’s brand teams really need to nail.

Think funny’s overdone, or simply isn’t for you? Think again.

Press play to hear:

• Brand vs. Performance? That’s Old News: Henry shares why separating the two is a risk in 2025 and beyond – and what should be done differently.

• Behind the ‘Comedy Content Machine’: From Stan parodies to ‘The Bear for Marketers’, Henry breaks down how he ideates – and why truth always trumps polish.

• Why Passionfruit Doesn’t Spend on Ads: And what their founder said that changed everything.

• How to Unlock Employee Creators: Why leadership’s job is to get out of the way, and let their teams build personal brands that fuel business growth.

• D2C Brands, You’re Still Playing It Too Safe: Henry names names, shares what works, and dissects why brands still treat Instagram like a shop window.

This one’s part tactical teardown, part creative permission slip.

Listen in. Rethink the rulebook. And maybe… be funnier.

Chapters:

00:00 – From Creator to Head of Marketing

05:10 – Building Advocacy Internally

10:20 – Marketing at the Speed of Culture

14:40 – Why Passionfruit Doesn’t Spend on Ads

20:15 – D2C Brands Are Still Playing It Safe

25:55 – Let Employees Create (Then Get Out of the Way)

31:25 – Comedy Is a Marketing Tactic

42:35 – You Are Not the Customer

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Henry:

On LinkedIn

On Instagram

On TikTok

Via Passionfruit’s LinkedIn

Brand budgets? Tighter.

Expectations on creators? Higher.

Welcome to the new era of influencer marketing; where performance matters most, platforms are merging, and brands can’t afford to get it wrong.

Kicking off Season 3, Verity sits down with Lowri Evans – an influencer strategy expert with experience at VIEVE, Coco & Eve, Revive Collagen and more. Fresh from going freelance, Lowri breaks down the real rules of modern creator marketing; from Spark Ads to affiliate programs, and why relationship-building still outperforms pay-to-play.

Turn this episode on & up to learn how to:

• Merge Performance & Brand Marketing: It’s time to bin the silos. Lowri shares how results and relationships can (and should) work together.

• Get Smart About Affiliate Programs: From ShopMy to real ROI, Lowri explains how the smartest brands are tracking impact without diluting brand.

• Build Real Relationships with Creators: Forget transactional. Learn why taking milestones seriously might be your highest-converting move.

• Use Spark Ads to Supercharge Results: TikTok content that converts? Spark it. Lowri walks through the what, why, and how.

• Turn Customers Into Collaborators: From fans to featured creators, hear how VIEVE and others are turning everyday customers into stars.

If your brand still sends mass gifting with no follow-up, this is your wake-up call.

Listen for the insight (& influencer receipts) you actually need.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Season 3: Why This Episode Matters

04:00 – Inside the Evolution of Influencer

07:00 – Relationship-First vs. Pay-to-Play

11:00 – Affiliate Strategy That Actually Drives Sales

15:00 – Spark Ads, TikTok Shop & Performance That Converts

20:00 – Why Brand & Performance Must Talk to Each Other

27:00 – Turning Customers Into Creators

34:00 – Building Real Community Through Real People

39:00 – The Problem With TikTok Shop (& How to Use It Right)

44:00 – Are Nano Creators Your Most Powerful Advocates?

49:00 – What Brands Still Get Wrong About Advocacy

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Lowri:

On LinkedIn

On Instagram

Engineering joy > selling stuff.

It’s really that simple.

(But how do you do it?)

This week, Verity sits down with Content Creator, Social Strategist, and ‘Coldest Creative’ Founder, Joel Marlinarson. Together, they unpack the intersection where fashion, food, music, and culture collide online – and what smart brands are doing about it.

Joel’s built a platform decoding brand moves for his audience (over on @coldestjoel), while building for brands behind the scenes. He shares what’s working, what’s next, and what most brands are missing entirely.

Turn this on & up to learn how to…

• Brand Like a Musician: From Cowboy Carter to Brat, musicians are leading the experiential game. Joel breaks down why brands should start thinking more like them.

• Win with Small Joys: The "little treat" moment is more than a trend. Discover how food, feeling, and brand identity fuse to create Advocacy-ready experiences.

• Track What Actually Matters: Forget followers. Joel shares why repeat commenters and micro-engagements are the real signal of brand love.

• Build In-Jokes & Icons: Learn how obscure memes, emoji signals, and recurring brand language can create loyalty (and drive people to comment).

• Cast Wider: Gen Z doesn’t have to speak to Gen Z. From retail staff to over-50s creators, Joel shares how unexpected casting builds connection.

• Use EGC The Right Way: From ethics to execution, this is how to make employee content fair, diverse, and seriously effective.

From Loewe’s tomato hot air balloons to finding your own “Juno” moment, this chat covers what makes culture tick – and how brands can keep up.

Chapters

00:00 – Why Music Marketing Works Better Than Brand Campaigns

06:00 – Brat. Cowboy Carter. Juno: What Brands Can Learn

08:00 – Food as Feel-Good Branding

10:00 – In-Jokes, Emojis & Repeat Commenters: Signals of True Community

14:00 – Is Sass Out? Why Ryanair’s TOV Might Be Tired

20:00 – Doing EGC Right (& Fair)

26:00 – Weird But Works: The Best Brand Collabs

30:00 – Silver Economy & The Power of Over-50s Influencers

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

🔗 Apple Podcasts

🔗 Spotify

Connect with Joel:

On TikTok

On Instagram

On LinkedIn