What do Weight Watchers, Tropicana, ABRDN, Jaguar, and HBO all have in common?

You guessed it — terrible rebrands. In this ep, Jon and Peter are putting risky marketing moves under the microscope to ask the question — just how much risk is too much?

First, they’re diving into the feed and covering some of marketing’s biggest acts of brandilism. Why are so many brands turning into blands? And are there better ways for marketing to take the risk out of risky business (like, oh, say… rebranding)?  

Step away from the computer and drop the rebranding stick immediately because Peter and Jon are explaining why category optionality is a far superior solution, keeping a diverse customer base is king, and how AI can be a clutch component to making your customer research completely risk-free.

Plus, how do CFOs and CMOs really feel about risk management? Peter and Jon unpack the data to get to the juicy center of your CFO's cold, steely heart before heading into the Synthetic Salon to chat with Rory Sutherland and Nassim Taleb about the perception and safety of brand in decision-making.

01:17 From the Feed – The Risk of a Rebrand

09:33 Million Dollar Data – How Marketers and CFOs Think About Risk

16:02 Mental Model – Why Marketing and AI Derisk Business

26:38 Synthetic Salon – Sori Rutherland

Back from Cannes and still reeking of overpriced rosé, Peter and Jon tackle the pain point marketers love to hate but can’t stop obsessing over: measurement. In this episode, they take a flamethrower to the click-through cult and ask the real question: why are we still chasing metrics that don’t matter?

First up in From the Feed, the boys unpack the 95-5 rule thanks to a spicy little post from a French professor and dive into why most brands are over-indexing on the 5%. Can we finally just agree? Brand is the real engine of demand.

And why do 8 out of 10 marketers still worship at the altar of click-through rate? You know… the metric that hasn’t correlated with purchase intent since like, ever. Can Jon and Peter talk some sense into the cult of CTR? They introduce the CMO Scorecard — a smarter framework for measuring what actually matters (creative, media, and outcomes) and explain how your obsession with CTR might be negatively impacting your brand’s performance.

Finally, in the Synthetic Salon, they welcome Fannie Duke (not Annie, obviously), the probabilistic princess of poker and marketing realism. She explains how in both games and marketing, you can make the right decision and still lose. So then, just how much does measurement matter in a game of chance?

03:07 From the Feed — The 95-5 Rule Receives Pushback

11:29 Million Dollar Data —  Enough with Click Through Rates Already

17:51 Mental Model —  How to (and NOT to) Think About Measurement

35:07 Synthetic Salon — Probabilistic vs. Deterministic (ft. Fannie Duke)

This week on the pod, Peter and Jon are done talking about the marketing renaissance — so they’re leaping into the new age of marketing maximalism. When it comes to ad targeting, more is more. So why do so many marketers keep trying to hypertarget the “perfect” audience? After all, brands used to succeed before targeting was invented… so is it possible it just isn’t as important as we’ve been led to believe it is?

In a recent article, 67% of people targeted as parents didn’t actually have any kids… so that begs the question — how accurate is hyper-specific targeting anyways? And is it possible you’re really just being scammed?

Then, the guys reveal what the only number that matters in marketing is and why they live by the mantra “go broad or go broke.” Are you shooting yourself in the foot by limiting your targeted audience? And just how much targeting is too much targeting?

And later, Peter and Jon break down the synthetic stats on how B2B and B2B marketers prioritize targeting vs. reach before heading over to the Synthetic Salon for a lively showdown with Helena, a die-hard hypertargeting fan. Can Peter and Jon convince her to embrace the maximalist mindset? TBD.

01:30 From the Feed — When Ad Targeting Goes Wrong

04:43 Mental Model — Reach Maximalism

12:37 Million Dollar Data — Targeting vs. Reach

19:04 Synthetic Salon — The Case for Hypertargeting

Creative: everyone's got an opinion, but no one seems to have a framework. Until now.

In this episode of Lab Grown Marketing, Jon and Peter pull back the curtain on what makes creative actually effective—not just award-worthy. Spoiler: most award-winning ads are terribly branded.

They cover Coca-Cola’s AI-generated holiday ad (spoiler: creative directors hate it, the AI loves it), and walk us through the ABLE Framework—a financial formula for creative effectiveness that's as brutal as it is helpful.

Finally, they use lab grown research to test IBM's most famous taglines through the ABLE lens and reveal which one actually drives business results (hint: it’s not “Let’s Build a Smarter Planet”).

Creative may be art—but it turns out, it’s also math.

01:54 - From the Feed – Coca-Cola’s AI Ad: Good, Bad, or Just Too Branded?

14:49 - Million Dollar Data – Which IBM Tagline Actually Works?

24:39 - Synthetic Salon with Pocket Professor

If you aren’t standing out, you’re blending into the competition.

So, how can you ensure you’re creating distinctive brand assets that stay top-of-mind in buyers everywhere? Jon and Peter break down the data behind what makes brands memorable— and explain how to analyze the numbers to guarantee your assets leave a lasting impression. Why are brands like McDonald's, Liberty Mutual, and Apple so successful at what they do? And what are the top mistakes your creative team is probably making when it comes to branding?

Then, the guys chat with the Pocket Professor to glean some foolproof tactics to measure and manage your distinctive brand assets before getting into the weeds about which specific parts of a brand consumers actually remember most.  And hint: it’s not what you think.

02:06 From the Feed- Art Imitates Life (and Distinctive Branding)

04:57 Mental Model- Distinctive Brand Assets

12:25 Synthetic Salon- What Makes a Brand Memorable?

 21:08 Million Dollar Data- AI and the Future of Brand Marketing

What do champagne and cloud servers have in common? Absolutely nothing — unless you’re thinking like a marketer.

This week, Jon and Peter take a deep dive into category entry points and explain how those magical money moments — like when someone suddenly decides they do need to buy that $200 bottle of Dom Pérignon at the club — happen. Why is the brand that comes to mind first the brand that gets bought? And why does staying top of mind in the ol’ brain search engine outpace anything SEO optimization can do?

Then, the guys unpack their latest synthetic research findings to discover what motivates people to enter a buying category. Whether they’re popping bottles in the club or panicking over performance alerts at 2 a.m. — what triggers a purchase? And how do category entry points differ for B2B and B2C?

Plus, Erica from IT is stressed out about her job… and she’s not even real. Find out if Peter and Jon can give this overworked and underpaid cloud storage shopper one decent weekend without having to extinguish a server fire.

01:18 From the Feed - What are Category Entry Points?

10:20 Billion Dollar Data – Entry Points for B2C and B2B

20:02 Synthetic Salon – Erica from IT

The customer is always right… right?

Bezos knows they are. And if Jeffrey thinks it, you should probably pay attention.

In this week’s episode, the guys explain why the king of Amazon keeps an empty chair in his meeting rooms at all times (we swear — it’s not a creepy billionaire thing) before exploring the importance of everybody’s least favorite topic — market research.

How is it possible that B2B is a complete sampling desert while B2C is drowning in customer data, yet both can be completely parched of any kind of wisdom? With a little help from their synthetic friends, Jon and Peter suck the real truth out of just how often (or how little) B2C and B2B really survey their customers — and Houston, we’ve got a problem.

Plus, was synthetic research cooked before it even got started? LinkedIn influencer Tom Goodwin recently called out all artificial intelligence insights as mid (*ok, shots fired*)….but Jon and Peter play devil’s advocate and explain why being average is actually a good thing. Pacers, it might just be your lucky year.

00:24 Benefits and Barriers of Market Research

01:48 Mental Model: Market Research

10:05 Million Dollar Data: Is Synthetic Research Mid?

15:55 The Synthetic Salon: NOT Jeff Bezos

With so much rage bait in the world, sometimes you just can’t resist clapping back. This week, consider us sufficiently rage baited because we’re taking on Scott Galloway’s latest remarks and marking him as public enemy #1. Galloway recently went on a podcast to claim that “brand is dead.” But Jon and Peter wonder if he’s actually just brain-dead or just taking a note from the Elon Musk playbook of how to get attention (and piss people off). They break down Galloway’s ridiculous comments, explain how brand is more alive than ever, and commiserate over the overtly obvious attention signaling.

Peter and Jon also explain why the 60-40 rule of lead generation is outdated. They reveal how only 5% (not 40%) of buyers are in the market to buy at any given time and use their million-dollar data to show why it’s time to revise the rule. And later, they explain why memory generation is the #1 thing you can do to generate leads.

Plus, in this week’s synthetic salon, Jon and Peter consult their dear artificial friend, Barren Wuffet*, to see if brand is actually dead. Spoiler alert: It’s not.

*Our legal team would like to note that any likeness to Warren Buffet is purely coincidental.

For the past century, marketing has been a human-driven craft. But in the next decade, man-made marketing will be dead. Welcome to the rise of the Synthetic Century.

Before you start picturing a Skynet-style takeover, Jon and Peter are here to explain why synthetic technology is actually a good thing—just like lab-grown diamonds, oil, and rubber, it democratizes access and improves efficiency.

With the help of their synthetic pocket professor, they’ll break down why traditional segmentation is slow, expensive, and often flawed and why marketers are stuck in the Dark Ages of micro-segmentation and outdated personas—clinging to Maria the Marketer while ignoring how markets actually evolve.

It’s time for lab-grown segmentation—faster, smarter, and built for the future. Because if you’re going to do dumb sh*t, you might as well do it faster and cheaper.

Jon and Peter will also reveal what makes segmentation powerful (or useless), why complexity doesn’t equal intelligence, and how great marketing starts with broad, meaningful, actionable insights.

Ready for the marketing renaissance? Tune in now.

Man-made marketing will be dead in the next 10 years. The synthetic revolution is here.

There. We said it — someone had to. But what does that mean for your marketing department?

Throughout the show, Lab-Grown Marketing, Jon Lombardo and Peter Weinberg break down what this synthetic revolution means for the future of marketing with a little help from their AI-powered assistants.

But before you go building your doomsday bunker or unplugging yourself from the Matrix, let us briefly unpack why synthetic isn’t scary — it’s revolutionary (especially when it comes to marketing and segmentation).

- It democratizes access. Think lab-grown diamonds, oil, and rubber — synthetics didn’t make them worse; they made them better and more accessible.

- It improves efficiency. Marketing segmentation research is slow, expensive, and deeply flawed. But synthetic segmentation? It’s smarter, faster, and more accurate.

- It’s the future. Lab-grown segmentation is cheaper, sharper, and built for scale — because great marketing starts with great segmentation.

Not quite convinced? Let’s talk. Lab-Grown Marketing drops every other Monday. Check it out on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. 🎧