Backcountry Marketing

In Episode 2 of The Relevance Project, Cole continues working with Kitworks, Loon'r, and SkyGOAT to move from brand strategy into actual content strategy.

The episode starts by pressure-testing the idea of treating a brand like a character. For each of the three brands, those characters are becoming a tool for translating a point of view into recognizable behavior without necessarily putting a fictional character in front of the audience.

The project then takes a detour into the fundamentals of marketing with Jenni Romaniuk. The conversation explores mental availability, category entry points, and the idea that much of marketing's job is helping a brand come to mind in the right buying situations.

But strategy alone isn't enough. Joe Prebich of Benchmade introduces the other side of the equation: the creative still has to be interesting enough to earn attention.

From there, the teams begin turning the strategy into actual content ideas. Kitworks explores gear management and the strange rituals of outdoor life. Loon'r begins building an entire creative world around a war on cold feet. SkyGOAT starts experimenting with the idea of bringing unexpected comfort into uncomfortable outdoor situations.

About:

This podcast is produced by Port Side, a creative agency that helps outdoor brands build relevance, recognition, and attention.

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Support Us | We've been bootstrapping this for 6 years. Help us keep this going

The Archive | 250 hours is a lot to listen to; what if you could search it all?

Relevance Project | We're building three brands in public. Follow along

Email List | Follow along and join our email list

LinkedIn | Connect with Cole

Creative is often treated as an expense. Joe Prebich, the VP of Benchmade Knife Company, believes the best creative can become one of a brand's most valuable growth assets.

In this episode, Joe shares lessons from his time at Red Bull and Benchmade about why bold ideas matter, how great content can create distribution and long-term brand loyalty, and why much of the outdoor industry has become too safe.

We also explore the importance of having a strong point of view, why brands need to make real choices to stand out, how Benchmade thinks differently about organic and paid content, and why getting closer to the customer still matters more than another audience persona buried in a PowerPoint.

About:

This podcast is produced by Port Side, a creative agency that helps outdoor brands build relevance, recognition, and attention.

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Support Us | We've been bootstrapping this for 6 years. Help us keep this going

Relevance Project | We're building three brands in public. Follow along

Email List | Follow along and join our email list

Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us!

LinkedIn | Connect with Cole

In the first episode of the Relevance Project, Cole sits down with the teams at SkyGOAT, Kitworks, and Loon'r to understand where each brand is starting, what they want organic content to accomplish, and how they'll measure progress along the way.

The conversations reveal a shared challenge. The brands have audiences, products, and stories worth telling, but they haven't yet built a consistent organic content system that creates engagement, strengthens the brand, and continues working even when paid media is turned off.

This episode goes behind the scenes of establishing those benchmarks and introduces the larger experiment ahead: developing content that leads with value, earns attention, and *might* create a more durable path to growth.

About:

This podcast is produced by Port Side, a creative agency that helps outdoor brands build relevance, recognition, and attention.

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Relevance Project | We're building three brands in public. Follow along

Email List | Follow along as we build in public by joining our email list

Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us!

Insight Deck | Want 20 of our favorite insights shared on the show?

LinkedIn | Join the conversation and share ideas with other industry peers.

Apple Podcast | Want to help us out? Leave us a review on Apple.

Guest List | Have a Guest in Mind? Share them with us here.

Professor Jenni Romaniuk, Research Professor and Associate Director at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Adelaide University, breaks down the science behind how brands are remembered.

We explore why memory is at the heart of effective marketing, why only a small percentage of buyers are in-market at any given time, and what marketers should be doing to build future demand. Jenni explains the concepts of mental availability, category entry points, and distinctive assets, and why they're some of the strongest predictors of long-term brand growth.

We also discuss why so much advertising goes unnoticed, how outdoor brands can escape the sea of sameness, and why marketers should stop trying to communicate everything at once and instead focus on leaving behind one useful memory.

About:

This podcast is produced by Port Side. We help outdoor brands grow by building a content engine. Want to learn more about how we can help?

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Relevance Project | We're building three brands in public. Follow along

Email List | Follow along as we build in public by joining our email list

Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us!

Insight Deck | Want 20 of our favorite insights shared on the show?

LinkedIn | Join the conversation and share ideas with other industry peers.

Apple Podcast | Want to help us out? Leave us a review on Apple.

Guest List | Have a Guest in Mind? Share them with us here.

Cole shares the thinking behind The Relevance Project and why he believes relevance has become one of the most important competitive advantages available to brands today.

The goal of marketing hasn't changed, but the landscape and tools have. Attention is becoming scarcer, paid media is becoming more expensive, audiences have more control over what they consume than ever before, and brands now have access to free distribution at a scale that was unimaginable just a decade ago.

The challenge? Most brands are still operating as if nothing has changed.

About:

This podcast is produced by Port Side, a content strategy studio that helps outdoor brands become relevant, recognized, and build an audience. Want to learn more about how we can help?

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Relevance Project | We're building three brands in public. Follow along

Email List | Follow along as we build in public by joining our email list

Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us!

Insight Deck | Want 20 of our favorite insights shared on the show?

LinkedIn | Join the conversation and share ideas with other industry peers.

Apple Podcast | Want to help us out? Leave us a review on Apple.

Guest List | Have a Guest in Mind? Share them with us here.

After reviewing 19 brand applications, Port Side has selected three brands to work with: Kitworks, loon'r, and SkyGOAT.

The Relevance Project is a public experiment exploring whether outdoor brands can become more relevant, recognizable, and memorable by creating audience-first content that builds attention, trust, and long-term demand.

About:

This podcast is produced by Port Side, a content strategy studio that helps outdoor brands become relevant, recognized, and build an audience. Want to learn more about how we can help?

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Relevance Project | We're building three brands in public.

Email List | Follow along as we build in public by joining our email list

Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us!

Insight Deck | Want 20 of our favorite insights shared on the show?

LinkedIn | Join the conversation and share ideas with other industry peers.

Apple Podcast | Want to help us out? Leave us a review on Apple.

Guest List | Have a Guest in Mind? Share them with us here.

Andy Pearson, VP of Creative at Liquid Death, explains why brands should stop thinking like advertisers and start thinking like entertainers. We dive into how Liquid Death built one of the largest organic audiences without relying on paid media, why humor is an underrated marketing tool, and why the best brands behave more like memorable characters than carefully managed style guides.

We also pressure test some of the ideas behind The Relevance Project, discussing audience building, paid media, share of voice, and why Liquid Death doesn't have a brand book.

This podcast is produced by Port Side, a content strategy + production studio that helps outdoor brands become relevant, recognized, and build an audience. Want to learn more about how we can help?

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Relevance Project | We're building three brands in public. Follow along

Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us!

Insight Deck | Want 20 of our favorite insights shared on the show?

LinkedIn | Connect with Cole

Apple Podcast | Want to help us out? Leave us a review on Apple.

Guest List | Have a Guest in Mind? Share them with us here.

The Relevance Project is underway! 15 brands have applied to be considered. If you want to apply, reach out to us and submit your application by June 26th.

This podcast is produced by Port Side, a content strategy studio that helps outdoor brands become relevant, recognized, and build an audience. Want to learn more about how we can help?

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us!

Insight Deck | Want 20 of our favorite insights shared on the show?

LinkedIn | Join the conversation and share ideas with other industry peers.

Apple Podcast | Want to help us out? Leave us a review on Apple.

Guest List | Have a Guest in Mind? Share them with us here.

In this solo episode, Cole shares why he believes many outdoor brands already possess something unique beneath the surface, but struggle to translate that uniqueness into content that earns attention, builds an audience, and drives business results.

Cole also announces a public experiment: We're looking for one outdoor brand willing to partner with Port Side to test these ideas in real time. Together, we'll document the process, share the wins and failures publicly, and explore what it actually takes to build relevance and an audience through organic content.

This podcast is produced by Port Side, a content strategy studio that helps outdoor brands become relevant, recognized, and build an audience. Want to learn more about how we can help?

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us!

Insight Deck | Want 20 of our favorite insights shared on the show?

LinkedIn | Join the conversation and share ideas with other industry peers.

Apple Podcast | Want to help us out? Leave us a review on Apple.

Guest List | Have a Guest in Mind? Share them with us here.

Laura Jastram-Wrend joins Cole live at the HikeExpo to discuss what most outdoor brands are still getting wrong about the power of social. Laura breaks down why social should no longer be treated like an afterthought, how creator ecosystems outperform one-off influencer activations, and why "edutainment" is the new standard for outdoor content.

This podcast is produced by Port Side, a creative production studio creating content strategy + production for outdoor brands, rooted in emotion. Want to learn more about how we can help?

Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below:

Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us!

Insight Deck | Want 20 of our favorite insights shared on the show?

LinkedIn | Join the conversation and share ideas with other industry peers.

Apple Podcast | Want to help us out? Leave us a review on Apple.

Guest List | Have a Guest in Mind? Share them with us here.