Meet the fixer who will build your perfect marketing team. Brianna Showell spent 20 years at Nike—starting with the mysterious coveted role as an EKIN, moving on to product line management before roles as Global Brand Director for Innovation and for Nike Kids, then finally as VP of Marketing for Nike Swim.
It set her up for VP Marketing roles at two timeless California brands, Prana and Reef. In this episode, she talks about the single non-negotiable for high-impact creative: hiring world-class teams.
We talk about the one quality every marketing leader needs, the first hire a CMO should make, and at what point you need to switch from hiring generalists to specialists. It's a masterclass on building your marketing team whether you're starting from ground zero, or cleaning up an existing team.
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Liquid Death x Mary Ruth's - Killing Clowns Campaign
How do you get massive results on a tiny budget? Gillian Damborg cracked the code with a viral social campaign for period care brand Aisle. She had one shot and to save the business and sell 20,000 pairs of underwear. With a budget of CAD $30,000 the brand had a return of nearly CAD $1.1 million. In this episode, she spells out the formula for the video series that made it happen.
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When he was a VP at Dick's Sporting Goods, Ryan Eckel asked a simple question: what if we replaced just one 60-second TV spot with an anthemic full-length documentary? The result was a pair of films that hit film festivals, won awards and put Dick's in a new tier of brand equity. In this episode we hear how he did it, and follow Ryan's journey from speechwriter to head of marketing at Puma. We find out why he went from one of retail's biggest names to a scrappy running startup, and why he's now cast his lot with an Italian brand you might only remember if you grew up in the '90s.
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In some circles, Ty Haney needs no introduction. She became an icon for millennial women when she launched her activewear brand, Outdoor Voices, as a sparky 23-year-old. She quickly became a DTC powerhouse and saw huge success raising capital and turning Outdoor Voices (or OV as it was widely known) into the coveted uniform for active living.
Ty left OV in 2020 (not the story we're telling here, but a fascinating one to read up on), took a beat, and went on to start two new projects: a better-for-you energy drink called Joggy and a brand loyalty platform called TYB—short for Try Your Best.
In this conversation, we talk a lot about loyalty, TYB and how Ty used community to grow Outdoor Voices into a cult brand with more than 10,000 engaged ambassadors. But there's a secret lesson to cult-brand building in this episode too. Listen closely. We think you'll learn a lot.
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How much did Kendall Jenner really get paid for Aritzia’s Super Puff campaign? That’s one of many secrets divulged in this expansive episode with Shawna Olsten. Shawna led marketing creative at Aritzia when the brand went big on the Super Puff. She pulls no punches as she shares the highs and lows of that star-studded campaign. She also tells us how to get the most out of user-generated content (UGC) and how Aritzia has managed to perfect the brand retail experience.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
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No brand has fans like Nike has fans. In this episode, the architect behind their global membership program, Katie Dreke, gives us a look behind the curtain of their omnichannel loyalty program and how it evolved out of a stand alone performance training app.
We talk about how Nike created an indispensable feedback loop with their most devoted customers and Katie shares the one tiny hack that unlocked an extra $2 million in revenue for Nike Japan. We went deep in this one and Katie really pulled back the curtain on what worked, what didn't and how she managed to get a massive, global matrixed organization on the same page about loyalty and membership.
Katie Dreke has had a global career in agencies and brands—from IDEO, Weiden + Kennedy and Droga 5 to adidas and Nike, with stints in Tokyo, Sydney and Amsterdam. Today she is the founder of DRKE in Portland, where she bridges brand, systems-thinking, digital transformation and story-craft to design emotionally meaningful, and financially powerful, products and experiences for human beings and planet Earth.
LINKS
Nike Membership via Nike app
Read about Wexley School for Girls
How to Revive a Brand: The Story of UGG’s Global ComebackUGG boots were massive when they launched in North America. They came onto the scene with huge Y2K energy and gradually seemed to fade into midwest suburban obscurity. But today they’re back in a big way, largely due to the leadership of Nicks Ericsson. In his 11 years with UGG—in global roles focused on brand, product marketing, and purpose and sustainability—he helped double the brand’s revenue, making it a significant part of the Deckers portfolio.
In this episode, he tells us how they brought UGG back into the cultural conversation, explains the “UGG Eclipse,” and spells out the ingredients of a great celebrity brand collaboration. Then he shares what drew him to his latest role at Keen Footwear, how their sustainability mission plays out, and how to drive purpose at global public companies vs private owner-led companies.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and follow us on your fave podcast app. It helps us grow.
We’re mixing it up! In this episode Amanda shares her annual Crystal Baller—her roundup of emerging cultural, marketing and product trends that will shape the market for outdoor, active and wellness brands. She’s got 9 trends she’ll be watching for in 2025, and tips for how your brand can respond to the cultural moment.
Read the original Crystal Baller article, and past editions here.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA) has an audacious goal of reaching one billion soccer fans with their games and digital properties—and Nicholas Lammie is leading the charge for the brand. He also led the brand through a monumental relaunch when EA and FIFA dissolved their partnership after 30 years. He shares how they did it, launching around the world with 200 partners—including David Beckham, ManCity and Real Madrid—simultaneously. He also shares how he scored his first job at EA, and how he gathered 17 of football’s greatest in one studio for a single photoshoot.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
Content was the secret to Rapha’s huge rise in the cycling world, and Luke O’Shea has the story of how a small global team made 21 films around the world in just a year. As the head of Marketing and Sales for Asia Pacific he oversaw many of them, and he shares how they built consistency across continents, while keeping the films locally relevant. We talk about secrets to working in founder-led companies, and the arc of Luke’s 20-year career that spans his early days at Asics to his current photography projects with Sydney FC and endurance sports.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
Meow Wolf is a surrealist fever dream—a large-scale psychedelic wonderland with five locations. And Didi Bethurum is at the helm of the creative team that keeps selling out openings in cities like Las Vegas, Houston and Denver. Sometimes that means taking big creative risks, like a teaser billboard campaign that doesn’t even name the brand. Didi walks us through the steps that made Meow Wolf’s Denver launch a landmark success.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
Braden Hoeppner has been a driving force behind major brand success stories—FYidoctors, Herschel Supply, Saxx underwear and Clearly—but in this episode we’re learning from a brand that (initially) failed. Working at Kit and Ace was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—a brand fully and liberally funded by the family behind lululemon. Braden and the K+A team were tasked with growing a billion-dollar brand in three years. Spoiler: it didn’t happen. But having limitless resources meant trying things that had never been done: building a custom ecomm site that could scale globally, opening 60 stores in 5 countries in one year, and a road trip in a giant copper Airstream.
Braden tells the story and practical learnings about brand storytelling, performance marketing, holding things loosely, and the major marketing inflection points shaping our work.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
Women’s apparel brand Athleta has totally flipped the model of athlete sponsorship on its head—breaking all the usual rules. Their roster includes true icons: Simone Biles, Alicia Keys and Allyson Felix. Seasoned marketer Michelle Lazar helped bring these partnerships to life across the brand’s many touchpoints, and she shares with us how they happened, what made them work, and the lucky breaks that turned into major cultural moments.
Find Michelle on Linkedin and heck out her latest project Community Academy.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
Liv is arguably the leader in the world of women’s cycling, and for the last three years they’ve made a huge splash by sponsoring the industry’s biggest event: the Tour de France Femmes. Liv’s Global Brand Manager, Cassondra Spring, tells us how they do it, what they get out of it, and how they turn that kinetic energy of on-the-ground event marketing into a lasting relationship.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
Find Liv Cycling at the Tour de France Femmes and on Instagram
Match-making is a one-to-one business, and for Talia Goldstein, Founder + President of Three Day Rule Matchmaking, growing her own business required that same personal touch. She explains how brands can fuel the fire of word-of-mouth and create a playbook for PR to seize those lucky media breaks when they happen.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
Jeanine Pesce is the oracle of the outdoor industry—for more than 20 years she has informed trends in culture, brand and product. For years her magazine Range was the go-to resource for industry insiders to see what’s new and test out-of-the-box creative. She talks about the pros and cons of print content marketing and how it built her brand.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
The brand that MTV built
Sneaker Steve was running Global Special Projects at DC Shoes during its multimillion dollar growth run. Find out how he built the brand through celebrity partnerships and some major MTV moments, and how he’s gone on to build his own sustainable footwear company, Ales Grey.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
The making of a viral billboard campaign
BelliWelli seized a moment and latched onto the “Hot girls have…” meme, and then made it entirely their own. Find out how strategic billboards helped this CPG brand build a die-hard fan base. Katie Boston-Wilson, CEO of BelliWelli, has the tea.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
The parody video that garnered 4.7 million views
Peak Design was built almost entirely on Kickstarter. Now, their YouTube videos—including one parody that takes on Amazon Basics—are keeping it in the spotlight. Adam Saraceno, CMO at Peak Design tells us how they did it.
My Best Campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram and stay tuned for when a new episode drops.
Amanda Lee Smith, CEO of Monday Creative, talks to some of the world’s best marketers to hear their path into marketing, and the story behind one career-defining campaign—their first global spot, a major rebrand, a video that went viral, or maybe something that just changed the way people saw their brand.
