brand-strategy
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Hemal Somaiya wants marketing to master the art of subtraction
After a career in consulting and global brand leadership, the PharmaForceIQ co-founder is building a business around better timing, closer coordination and knowing which marketing efforts to leave behind.
Blair Waugh Brady and the Work Between the Work
A coffee without a pitch. A company built around collaboration. The WITH co-founder has spent years making a case for the human work that a timesheet struggles to explain.
Kate Twist and the space between a promise and a customer
Before co-founding Ever/Body, Kate Twist learned how to get a brand’s moving parts to work together. Her career since then has taken that lesson from global marketing to a SoHo storefront and into other founders’ businesses.
Rob Farinella built an agency. Then came the art of making room.
He arrived in Atlanta knowing almost nobody and founded Blue Sky Agency in 1994. His longer project has been learning how to turn personal conviction into a company that other people can help lead.
Noah Brier and the things a logo cannot tell you
A late-night experiment asked strangers what brands meant. It set Noah Brier on a path through Percolate, company culture, and a new question: what happens when software can read the room?
Debi Hammond and the Long Memory of a Good Manager
Before she founded Merlot Marketing, Debi Hammond worked nights and weekends at Taco Bell. Twenty-five years into running an agency, her story keeps coming back to the people who show up.
GG Benitez and the business of the next introduction
A babywear label led Ghada “GG” Benitez into public relations. Her next chapters - a beauty brand, international property and a podcast - reveal how much a career can change while its working habits stay familiar.
Daniel J. Kim and the business of coming back
He brought Red Mango to American customers, one store and one conversation at a time. From frozen yogurt to financial software, Daniel J. Kim keeps returning to the same question: what makes a new idea useful enough to use again?
Mike Schaffer and the business of saying yes
A commercial photographer kept getting asked to do more. He built Echo-Factory around the answer, then learned that a useful yes requires curiosity, good partners and the occasional refusal.
Emily Reynolds Bergh and the business of paying attention
A food writer became a publicist, then built R Public Relations around the people she wanted to work with. For Emily Reynolds Bergh, the useful story has always started with a conversation.
Erica McArthur Allison and the Geography of Trust
She built a communications agency with clients across the country, then bought a building in a Hendersonville neighborhood she wanted to help grow. For Erica McArthur Allison, where you stand has a great deal to do with what you can say.
The Tuxedo Problem That Explains Mario Mirabella Jr.
A formalwear website needed a different point of view. For MSM Digital founder Mario Mirabella Jr., the answer came from outside the business - a habit that runs through his career.
Natalie Norcross knew a beautiful room needed an introduction
She built a career designing interiors, then helped other designers get their work into print. Natalie Norcross turned the practical business of being noticed into A Design Partnership.
Emily Rex and the business of making things happen
At DEPARTURE, Emily Rex connects brand strategy to the work of running a business. Her other commitments, from Girl Scouts to a new AI venture, reveal how much of that work happens between people.
Anne Marie Holder and the art of a better conversation
She started SPARK Strategic Ideas at a coffee-shop table in 2008. The Charlotte founder has spent the years since making a business out of listening carefully, asking awkward questions and choosing her company.
Priscila Martinez and the business of belonging
A roommate’s glamorous job drew Priscila Martinez into public relations. Building The Brand Agency meant deciding who would get to feel at home there.
Tevis Houston and the three-hour problem
A department closure and the prospect of a three-hour commute pushed Tevis Houston to rethink work. Friends Everywhere grew from that practical question into a creative business built around the people inside brands.
Tod Martin and the case for a bigger room
Tod Martin started The Martin Group in borrowed office space in 2001. Twenty-five years later, the Buffalo agency founder is still making room for people, partnerships, and work he wants to do.
Jessica Meisels and the art of getting people in the room
From a New York fashion apprenticeship to Malibu beach houses and Formula 1, the Fingerprint Communications co-founder has built a career around the social life of a brand.
Rod Little and the question nobody could answer
An unanswered question at a company town hall sent Rod Little back to first principles. At Edgewell, the former Air Force officer has spent his CEO years rebuilding the team, changing the portfolio, and testing whether a different culture can produce a different business.
Roberta Thomson and the problem of a character with a mind of its own
She went from singing in a teenage rock band to explaining Facebook. Now, as CEO of Hasbro’s Sixth Wall, Roberta Thomson is working out what happens when familiar characters can answer back.
Mo Said had a Super Bowl ad. He left the room.
The Mojo Supermarket founder built his career making ads, then began asking whether he wanted to watch them. His next assignment was harder: building a company he wanted to run.
Jason Rieff and the value of a better label
From rethinking the hostel guest to preparing music for AI, Jason Rieff keeps returning to the details that broad categories miss. His route to BeatpulseLabs includes a music-rights venture and a surprisingly instructive wall-sticker shop.
Buffy McCoy Kelly and the trouble with a sensible idea
A mile of rubber ducks. A two-story vacuum cleaner. A snack cake with an attitude. Buffy McCoy Kelly built a career giving familiar brands unexpected things to say - then rewrote her own job.
Dakota Green and the hard work of taking it easy
At Vacation, Dakota Green helps turn poolside daydreams into things you can hold. Behind the whipped-cream can and the revived Orange Gelée is a founder occupied with the practical business of pleasure.
Phil Landau and the Work You Never See
He helped build a branding business by thinking about what happens behind the brand. From a decision to stay in St. Louis to a return to the technical classroom, Phil Landau’s career runs through the systems that make an idea work.
Tom Gallego and the Trouble With a Finished Idea
He founded L7 Creative in 2001, wrote Adapt or Die, and kept returning to the microphone. For Tom Gallego, a marketing career means getting comfortable with the next revision.
Mary Ann O’Brien and the customer who gets the last word
A computer company gave Mary Ann O’Brien her start. Twenty-five years into OBI Creative, she is still following the people on the other side of the sale.
Patrick Charlier and the work between the jobs
At Wonder Media, Patrick Charlier brings technology to a business built around brands. His work connects technical strategy, a creative co-founder and the practical demands of running an agency.
Les Kollegian and the business of remembering your name
A clothing store in Grand Central gave the Jacob Tyler founder an idea about service. Building an agency taught him how difficult that idea could be to keep.