In this episode of Brand2Brand, Thomas and Veronica revisit some of the greatest moments from season one. Join them for a stroll down memory lane as they unpack the importance of personal branding, discuss the world of blockchain technology and uncover the business impacts of a connected metaverse.

core/paragraph

core/button

core/buttons

<span style="color: #444444;">TRANSCRIPTION FROM AUDIO PODCAST:</span>

core/heading

You're listening to Brand2Brand. A B2B marketing show that’s safe enough for work but not safe enough to be on the radio. With your host, Thomas Stirling. In this episode of Brand2Brand, Thomas and Veronica revisit some of the greatest moments from season one. Join them for a stroll down memory lane as they unpack the importance of personal branding, discuss the world of blockchain technology and uncover the business impacts of a connected metaverse.

Hey everybody. Today on the show we're taking a look at some of the best moments on Brand2Brand! We'll share some highlights and break down the biggest takeaways as we prepare to close out the season. Don't forget to tip your servers. Let's kick things off. That's right, that is right, we did it. We are officially closing out season one of Brand2Brand and it has been, well it's been a lot of work. It's been hard work. I'm ready to sleep. I'm ready to take a nap, hibernation, the end of the year. I don't know, it's coming fast. It's gonna be nice to have a little bit of time back. But with that said, and with all that hard work, how are you feeling Veronica?

I'm not crying. You're crying. Oh god, it's been such an emotional roller coaster. It's been a wild ride. I feel like we've learned a lot. We've lost a lot. Just kidding. It's been all games. I'm just grateful that somehow we were given a platform to be able to talk, share some insights...

Yeah, sharpen our skills. I'm looking forward to stepping into the ring and putting some of our best insights head to head.&nbsp;

I think what people really need to know is that season two we are ready to f***ing bring it and we've got some great stuff in store. But before we open up that next chapter, it's time to go backwards.&nbsp;

Sometimes you gotta back it up before you pull forward, as they say.&nbsp;&nbsp;

And with that, let's get into it. Alright, so would you like to cover your talking points from last season representing Team Veronica, or would you like to take Team Tom?&nbsp;

I feel like I should bet on myself. I think I could take you down.&nbsp;

Whoa, shots fired. Okay, honestly, we're kidding. There's really no opportunity to compete here on this kind of stage.&nbsp;

Well, we'll let the audience be the judge of that.&nbsp;

This is really about the brands that we featured on the show. And we have featured quite a few and we've covered everything from, I would say your brand foundation, the fundamentals, the words that we use, the way that we use them, what those words mean, brand values. And then we've really built on that foundation and really thought about what marketing and business leaders are doing today with their brand, what that bleeding edge looks like with NFT's and crypto and Decentraland. And then what that not-so-distant future looks like, really full-spectrum branding here. So let's pull forward some of the highlights of those first few episodes. And honestly, Veronica, what were some of those favorite moments you had in the early days?&nbsp;

What an honor I get to pick the first clip! Okay, boy do I have a highlight for us. Once you establish a brand, people don't put that book away. And I think one of the biggest things we've talked about this season that was a huge takeaway for me, is you actually have to execute on whatever the hell you're putting down on paper. You kind of have to live it because people will see through that. So I think I want to take us back to episode three, Patagonia vs. Urban Outfitters: Your Brand Integrity Matters.

And when that brand, kimono blows in the wind...&nbsp;

You had to bring the kimono back? I thought we left it behind.

Oh, no, no, no. Let's hear it. Let's go back.

Yeah, I think it's not voluntary. Participating in having a brand with integrity is not voluntary. If you have a brand, you've put yourself out in the market, you're out there. People are going to take notice, and they're going to make assumptions. So if you're going to talk the talk, you better walk the walk, and you better hope that all of your channels are walking in the same direction.

Patagonia, they're all about building the best products. They're all about the quality of their products. They really care about their reputation. If you want to talk about reputation, even just in the caliber of the gear. If you look at Patagonia from the last 10 years, you will see a brand transition from a brand that appealed to activists to a brand of activists.

A brand that became activists, that is a beautiful tale.&nbsp;

I think the fascinating thing about the study of Patagonia is, this is a business that didn't get into it to be a business. Or I think more so midstream once they started hitting their stride, and they were successful, they sort of zoomed out and they said, "Let's challenge the conventional business model, what you hear in the business school. Let's let people work with no socks on, let's have people have the flexibility and all sorts of stuff in the book!" This is a book by the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, and he says, "Let my people go surfing." And this whole book is about what he's learned in business and it's about breaking the mold, being unconventional. You remember, we saw those advertisements that Patagonia put out on Black Friday, where they said, "Don't buy this jacket." They are doing so many things that fly in the face for what you would expect a business to do and yet, they have such customer loyalty. And it comes down to the quality of the product. Unbelievable quality in the product, but it's backed up by their values. And we could talk about them all day but I know we've got to keep going. If I was gonna go back through the Rolodex of episodes, I don't know Episode Two was one of our most popular episodes. I still get feedback from people. I think it's a great entry point to the show because a lot of people have a tagline. And a lot of people haven't thought about that tagline in a little while.

All right, Tinder, Hinge. Which one?&nbsp;

Ooh, I'm going Hinge. Their tagline is, "The dating app designed to be deleted." They want you to use their product so you never have to use their product again. That's very bold.

It is risky, right? I mean, think about how many websites or services that you use that are constantly trying to get you to never cancel your subscription or if you cancel it and then they're like, "Why did you cancel it?"

I don't use Tinder, but there was a time. Well, do you know what their tagline is?&nbsp;

Actually, I don't know what their tagline is. I've never used any dating apps.&nbsp;

"Swipe right." Right's the good one, you want them to swipe right.

But part of me feels like, just based on Tinder and what I hear about it, I feel like they want you to swipe left.&nbsp;

No, no, no they want you to swipe right. Tinder just inherently with their tagline is transactional. They're looking for long-term use, they want you to continue using it. And if you look, and you explore the way they present the brand, if you go to their website, if we were to pull it up right now, it's a collage of profiles. All are different, carefully curated male, female, non-binary, black, white, Hispanic, the full spectrum which they've done a great job with. But that immediately hits you over the head with the fact that they want you to know they have all the profiles.

Well, they are leaning into it because they're saying, "If you have a type, your type is on here."&nbsp;

Well, that's true. They got all the types.&nbsp;

And what's so fun about talking about brands like this is just how hyper-competitive the online dating space is, and they're very aware of their competition. A lot of times brands sometimes put the "brand blinders" on. And they're not necessarily always frequently looking at what their competitors are doing, what other messaging that other brands are utilizing. A lot of changes that have come out of the pandemic. And we've talked a lot about that on the show. What other episodes for you like, really, would you want to celebrate today when we think about this season?

I feel like before we go any further, we have to go back to the very beginning. Because I think a lot of people do not know that they're a brand.&nbsp;

Oh, spoiler alert. You're a brand here.&nbsp;

Congratulations, you're a brand! Everything's a brand. And I think in the first episode we launched, Tom Brady vs. Conor McGregor, the importance of personal brands, really dug into that and I think told that story in an interesting way. So we can roll that clip.

And a lot of people now on social media, we talk about "Fall from grace." Social media is all over Tom Brady being drunk, right?&nbsp;

Well, because I mean, again, it comes back to this image. It's this brand that he's put out there. He's cultivated, he's curated this brand and so it's unexpected. People love the unexpected. They report on unexpected, that's newsworthy. But I think what's great about Tom Brady, is because of the brand equity that he's built, nobody's like, angry at Tom. People are celebrating it on social media. They're like, "Good for you, Tom. Good for you. You're finally out there. Maybe you're getting a little crazy." This speaks back to, people like authenticity. They like to know that he's a real guy. People don't want to just think about the fact that he can have a perfect diet.&nbsp;

But don't you think that the reason we're talking about it is because his brand is so squeaky clean that the fact that he got drunk is now big news, even if people are happy for him?

Right, it is but now what if his brand took a little bit of a death spiral? What if all of a sudden we found out he had a drug problem or something else? So I mean, I think the thing about branding, if we bring it all the way back is, you need to set the right brand rules that actually reflect the personality that you are. Because if you put something out there, and it doesn't actually speak to who you are, then that's where people will find out over time.

You'll break character, you'll lose it. You'll lose that luster and the court of public opinion is mean. They're ready to judge you. They're ready to knock you down. And once you're knocked down, it's really really hard to get back up.

BONUS EPISODE: Season One Highlight Reel