Today we’re talking to Director of PR at Capital One, Sukhi Sahni. 

Sukhi, she was added to The Holmes Report’s Innovator Twenty-Five list of top PR movers-and-shakers and prior to joining Capital One, Sukhi worked in Communications at Sprint Nextel and before that she was a part of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

We discussed a lot of things, but primarily Sukhi will be sharing with us her thoughts on insights-driven PR and her work on Capital One’s Purpose Project; a fascinating creative initiative that focuses on the many ways card users are rethinking the power of travel as a vehicle for personal change and improvement.

All of that and so much more on this week’s episode of Damn Good Brands. Now, please give it up, for Sukhi Sahni, PR Director at Capital One, in conversation with Lippe Taylor president, Paul Dyer. 

 Key Links:

• Capital One
• Sukhi Sahni
• Purpose Project
• PESO model

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• The most effective creative collaboration starts in a vacuum. Benton said that, in every Harmon Brothers project, four writers are tasked with writing four separate initial scripts. No exchanging notes, no bouncing ideas off one another. Then, the client is called in for a reading of each script. Until this moment, no higher-up in the agency has seen or weighed in on any of them. This may seem like a huge risk, but the clients love it because it allows them to get involved in the raw creative process, resulting in a superior final product that is closer to what they want.

• Test EVERYTHING. Every Harmon Brothers campaign undergoes an insane amount of testing - for instance, in the conceptualization stage, the initial script is read to 10 semi-disinterested people. During the reading, their facial reactions are captured on video. A scorecard referred to as a "laugh graph" correlates the reactions to each part of the script in order to gauge whether it's a hit or not.

• Learn from Pixar and Create a Brain Trust. Harmon Brothers operates a Pixar-style creative brain trust that exists in part to identify weaknesses in the scripts, storyboards, and shoots. Benton said this group never overrides the agency’s quintet of creative directors but do offer constructive feedback for them to ponder and utilize (or not). This concept was borrowed from Pixar who operates similarly. You can learn more by reading Ed Catmull’s pinnacle book, CREATIVITY INC. 

• Learn REAL Storytelling Structures like Joseph Cambell’s Hero’s Journey. Benton spoke about how humans are hard-wired to pay lasting attention to stories featuring a protagonist on a quest. He said the hero’s journey formula is a solid-gold framework to approach ad-writing with because no other archetypal structure makes as deep of an emotional connection with audiences. However in Harmon Brothers ads, the viewers are positioned as the hero INSTEAD of the product. Instead, the product is the ‘sword that slays the dragon’ or the bridge stands between them and the prize—typically a happier life. 

 Thank you for listening to Damn Good Brands, don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen!

Key Links

Benton Crane LinkedIn page

Harmon Brothers website

From Poop To Gold: The Marketing Magic of Harmon Brothers by Chris Jones

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull

Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller

Squatty Potty ad

Poo-Pourri ad

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Ken has been at LG for over ten years.  Throughout the course of that time, he has witnessed and led the company through a number of technological and overall changes in the marketing landscape. Ken currently resides in Korea, but his position has taken him all over the world, giving him a very globalized perspective on consumer technology and the state of communications.

We discuss Ken’s philosophy of leadership during comprehensive company evolution, and his overall thoughts on today’s state of communications.  Here are some key takeaways from this conversation with Ken Hong:

Study psychology and political science or hire those who have. Ken is very vocal about the importance of lesser-mentioned disciplines that better enable communications professionals, specifically political science and psychology. Ken claims that his studies in both of these fields helped him tremendously as a communications leader since they gave him a fundamentally better understanding of humanity, culture, and therefore communications. 

Think global, stay local. Despite working in five international cities, Ken finds that experience in global comms is in low demand, whereas local expertise in any given market is much more valuable. Ken recommends that comms leaders have a baseline understanding of global communications but remain focused on their local markets, since global expertise is rarely important to local clients.

Keep your challenger mindset. Part of Ken’s success comes down to his refusal to rest on his laurels even when LG achieves market leader status in certain categories. In Ken's view, there is no fundamental sense of “having arrived,” considering the speed of change. In an industry like electronics with its diverse array of products, it’s critical to always be cognizant of the brands that aren’t market leaders and keep pushing them forward to remain vigilant.

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Key Links for Greg

• Website for Shorty Awards
• Greg’s LinkedIn page
• Muck Rack website
• Facebook News Feed Eradicator 
• Book that Greg recommends: High Output Management by Andrew Grove

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In this episode, Greg shares how the origins and early days of Twitter and other early platforms necessitated the rise of the Shorty Awards and his career in the field.

Greg talks about a wide array of topics including: how powerful a work-from-home office dynamic can be, the importance of actively listening to customers and fans, the most effective initiatives for social good, influencer marketing, ways to stay productive despite constant social media bombardment, and much more.

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In This Episode:

• The origin story of the Shorty Awards and Muck Rack.
• The largest shifts in social media according to Greg.
• How social good has taken over social media in popularity.
• How to properly approach social good as a brand.
• The unique workplace culture of Greg’s companies.
• The benefits of a work-from-home company.
• On influencer-driven marketing: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
• Tools that Greg uses to minimize time wasted on social media and increased productivity.

Key Takeaways From This Episode of the Damn Good Brands Podcast

• Greg thinks that one of the largest changes in social media since he first started in the field is just the sheer amount of platforms that are out there now. Sure, social media is still volatile, and platforms fold, but the digital infrastructure is much vaster.
• When talking about the exciting things that brands are doing differently now on social media, Greg says that user-generated content is much more prevalent. This means that many brands are actively listening to customers or fans and creating a bottom-up experience instead of the isolated and contrived top-down dynamic of years prior.
• The best campaigns for social good come from a deep understanding of whatever initiative for social good is being showcased. Many companies build strong social good campaigns by actively listening to the community it serves and addressing any disconnect between conception and execution of any drive for social good.
• Influencers are the new athletes for marketing products. Just like Michael Jordan used to drive Nike shoe sales, so too influencers are marketing products in a similar way using their social media clout instead.
• Many businesses need to remind themselves that their work with influencers needs to incorporate the unique personality and creativity of the influencer in the marketing model as well.

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Damn Good Brands is brought to you by Lippe Taylor, a Public Relations and Digital Marketing agency committed to telling riveting stories that move brands forward.

The host for this episode was Nick Taylor, Innovation Technology Officer for Lippe Taylor. 

This podcast is a production of Evo Terra and the team at Simpler Media Productions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Key Links and Info for our Guests

• Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for Pfizer, Sally Susman’s business bio || LinkedIn profile.
• Head of Corporate Communications at Citi, Jennifer Lowney’s LinkedIn profile || Her Twitter page.
• EVP Corporate Communications at Scholastic, Stephanie Smirnov’s LinkedIn profile || Her Twitter page.
• Global Executive Director, Communications at Merck, Joanna Breitstein’s LinkedIn profile. 
• Former Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Kym White’s LinkedIn profile. 
• Director of External Communications and Customer Success, Pernod Ricard USA at Pernod Ricard, Taylor Foxman’s LinkedIn profile.
• [The roundtable was moderated by] The Former Chief Digital Officer of Bayer, Jessica Federer and The CEO of Lippe Taylor, Maureen Lippe. 

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The discussion was intended to distill the key lessons each woman learned from their respective rise to seniority, and their advice for future generations of female leaders. Below are our key takeaways from the evening.

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Key Takeaways:

• Don’t wait for an invitation. As Sally Susman shares, getting ahead in male-dominated fields means you invite yourself to events. Or in other words, you can learn to play golf just like Sally did. She learned that by playing golf, she wouldn’t be left behind or excluded. By being proactive and not backing off by an inch, Sally ensured her inclusion in the company. 

• Have an analytical approach to inclusion and for fighting bias. Jennifer Lowney of Citi accentuated the importance of leaning on data as a concrete tool for staving off unconscious gender bias. Citi does this through a hired third-party analyst who measures trends in real time to report any instances of unconscious bias in talent acquisition spheres or internal operations.

• There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’...and that’s just fine. As Kym White says, women often find themselves deflecting the credit that would drive professional advancement instead of accepting it. This is often done by giving credit to the team instead of individually claiming ownership. True credit gets lost within the team (or applied to men) when women are encouraged not to take credit for their actions.

• Find accomplices not allies, sponsors not mentors. As Stephanie Smirnov puts it, sponsors can be crucial for your development as a professional. A sponsor will coach you and push you farther than a mentor. And when differentiating between an ally and an accomplice: an ally will fight with you, but an accomplice will fight for you because they are inextricably dedicated to your professional development. Find yourself an accomplice!

• During a crisis, focus on unity and not division. Joanna Breitstein used the #MeToo Movement to illustrate how companies can come together and focus on organizational openness and communication on important issues, instead of functioning in a tight-lipped, reactionary mode.

• There’s a difference between speaking up and being heard. Taylor Foxman says that she has learned to be in as many meetings as possible, to formulate her thoughts carefully, and only speak when she has something insightful to say. This emphasis on coherency and tactfulness means that all present at those meetings equate her voice to thoughtfulness and truly listen every time she speaks.

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Damn Good Brands is brought to you by Lippe Taylor, a Public Relations and Digital Marketing agency committed to telling riveting stories that move brands forward.

The host for this episode was Nick Taylor, Innovation Technology Officer for Lippe Taylor. 

This podcast is a production of Evo Terra & the team at Simpler Media Productions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chester joined Johnson & Johnson from Procter & Gamble, where he spent over 25 years. At P&G he led sales for a massive global category that included baby, feminine and family care products and he also ran the global AS Watson customer account. This role took him across the world including all over the US, China, India, Singapore and Europe.  

Chester holds an MBA in Marketing and a Bachelor of Commerce and Economics from the University of Mumbai, India. He is a fascinating and incredibly accomplished person with a deeply global sensibility and we were very honored to speak with him.

We covered A LOT of ground in this conversation, including:

• The value of keeping a large company like J&J agile and why it’s a critical part of keeping pace with market trends and consumer demands that are constantly changing at an accelerated rate.
• The challenges of deriving actionable insights from the vast amounts of consumer-related data that brands have access to in an age where consumers expect personalized experiences.
• Chester’s advice for future generations of marketers who want to remain competent and competitive in the brand workforce (hint, it all comes down to curiosity and constant learning).

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When describing the nuances of communicating a clear-cut brand vision internally, as well as externally, Torod articulates the importance of having a well-defined narrative or story to tell--one which provides relevance, meaning, and context to customers and stakeholders alike. He says there are a few core  principles that are at the center of Lenovo’s master brand story. The first is diversity. This means that culturally and philosophically, Lenovo has absorbed a myriad of Eastern and Western influences and mentalities over the years which drive and inspire all major business and marketing decisions. The second is the insight and innovation that goes into the products that Lenovo creates. And lastly, he gets into the importance of conveying Lenovo’s financial story, it’s origins and history, and the global citizenship work that Lenovo has done to bring different cultures together in a global, collaborative scope.

Other important facets of this conversation include the need to broaden one’s aperture. Because Torod worked with Verizon, one of the nation’s leading communications behemoths, he was heavily involved on a national level, but only when he started working with Lenovo, did he have to shift his perspective to one that was more global. Another key topic is just how important diversity is for a global titan like Lenovo, especially from a creative, financial, and technological standpoint. Additionally, the importance of disruptors is explained at length, and the value of taking calculated risks is held up as a viable strategy for sustainable branding success.

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Today’s episode is with Franz Paasche, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communications at PayPal.

When PayPal split from Ebay, Franz built a corporate affairs function by integrating the communications practice with governmental relations and social innovation, all operating as a single entity. We get into the benefits of consolidating previously disparate communications practices and key insights for other brands seeking to better integrate their own comms departments.

Prior to joining PayPal in 2015, Franz spent spent almost four years at McKinsey & Company, where he was responsible for external relations, public affair and strategic communications. Before that, he was a senior partner at FleishmanHillard and is one of the few comms industry leaders to hold a law degree. Earlier this year Franz, was ranked as one of the most important and influential in-house communicators in the world by Holmes Report’s Influence 100.

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Today’s episode is with Dan Tarman, Chief Communications Officer of eBay. eBay, as a company, is driven by a strong sense of purpose as a platform that democratizes commerce through technology; this purpose is remarkably consistent with everything they do in a marketing and communications capacity.

In this interview, we get into the nitty gritty of how eBay is able to walk the walk in ensuring indelible consistency between their communications strategy and brand mission. We also get into how brands can use data for their own storytelling, the importance of self-disruption and the power of a brand’s purpose to inspire and energize its staff.

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Previously, Lauren was the Vice President of Talent Partnerships and Influencer Strategy at Refinery29 where she launched their dedicated influencer division and lead the team retaining cultural tastemakers, digital influencers and celebrities for R29's array of branded partnerships, ranging from sponsored content to full scale endorsement deals.

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• HBO's Game of Thrones "Ascend the Wall"
• Paramount's Interstellar
• Marvel's Avengers
• Merrell's "Trailscape"
• Volvo's "Volvo Reality"
• Marriott Hotels "The Teleporter" and "VR Postcards"

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