What do LEGO, Megan Thee Stallion, and a Ford Mustang have in common? They’re all proof that the right partnership can supercharge a brand.

In the sixth episode of The Brand Builder’s Playbook, hosts Jim Stengel and Ryan Barker, joined by guest co-host Lindsey Wehking, explore why not all partnerships deliver equal value…some enhance brand equity, while others can dilute it.

This week’s guest is Kristen D’Arcy, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Digital Growth at True Religion, who unpacks how collaborations and partnerships drive growth, cultural relevance, and long-term brand equity. From bold campaigns with Megan Thee Stallion to unexpected collabs with Ford, True Religion demonstrates how math, magic, and cultural insight come together to keep a brand not just alive, but thriving.

Kristen shares the playbook behind building a culture of collaboration inside the marketing team, tapping into subcultures that matter, and designing partnerships that actually move the needle.

Bottom line: when you know your customer and lean into culture, partnerships don’t just create moments, they create momentum.

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If you are Canadian, and you hear the words Tim Hortons, you conjure up a wide and deep range of emotions. Few brands inspire the kind of passion that Tim Hortons does in Canada. With nearly 6,000 restaurants in 22 countries, the 60-year-old brand continues to grow like a startup while holding a special place in Canadian culture. In this week's episode of The CMO Podcast, Jim sits down with Hope Bagozzi, Chief Marketing Officer of Tim Hortons, to discuss what it takes to steward such an iconic brand.

From her early career in psychology and executive recruiting in New Zealand, to 15 years at McDonald’s Canada, to now leading marketing at Tims, Hope brings a unique perspective on brand storytelling and customer connection. Recorded as part of the Next Gen CMO Academy at Deloitte University, this conversation explores the emotional power of brands, sustaining growth across decades, and the art of keeping a beloved brand fresh.

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Every CMO faces the same question: how do you balance long-term brand equity with short-term performance marketing?

In the fifth episode of The Brand Builder’s Playbook, hosts Jim Stengel and Ryan Barker, along with guest co-host Lindsey Wehking, tackle one of the most heated debates in modern marketing: brand versus performance. Is short-term activation enough, or does long-term brand building ultimately win?

This week’s guest is Andrea Brimmer, Chief Marketing and PR Officer at Ally, who has spent nearly two decades transforming Ally from a regional bank into one of America’s most admired challenger brands. Andrea shares the inside story of launching the Ally brand, driving growth through bold, customer-centric marketing, and proving that financial services can stand for transparency and trust. The conversation explores how to build brands people truly love, balance creativity with measurable results, and use brand purpose as a competitive advantage.

“We have to stop calling it brand versus performance. It’s demand generation and demand capture. And you can’t have one without the other.” — Andrea Brimmer

If you’ve ever wondered how to build a brand that punches above its weight, Andrea’s playbook is one you won’t want to miss.

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A repeated theme on this show is the goal of a well-lived life, and one of the ways Jim aims to live well is through working out. Moving your body, building strength, and finding balance are essential to living fully. 

Our guest this week on The CMO Podcast  is helping millions of people do exactly that through one of the most ambitious brand transformations in the industry.

Nicholas “Nic” Berglund is the Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer of Life Time, the company redefining what it means to be a fitness brand. Under Nic’s creative leadership, Life Time has evolved from a gym chain into a “luxury wellness country club,” with more than 225 destinations across North America and a market cap near $3 billion. Before joining Life Time, Nic shaped campaigns for major brands like Cadillac, PepsiCo, and Gap, and even launched his own wellness venture. 

So tune in for our final episode captured at the Best Buy Studios, where Jim chats with a creative leader who starts the day off with a good workout. 

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This week on The Brand Builder’s Playbook, Jim, Ryan, and Cait dive into one of marketing’s toughest questions: how do you prove the ROI of a brand? In a world where every dollar spent needs justification, they explore how marketers can connect creative storytelling to measurable business growth.

To help unpack it, they’re joined by Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s Chief Marketing & Communications Officer. Raja shares how Mastercard built one of the world’s most trusted brands by grounding its marketing in data, financial discipline, and purpose. He outlines his framework for measuring marketing ROI across three dimensions, brand strength, business growth, and sustainable competitive advantage, and shares practical lessons on earning credibility with CFOs and boards. 

“Purpose and profits are not mutually exclusive. If you pursue purpose methodically, thoughtfully, and innovatively, profits will follow.” — Raja Rajamannar

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If you live in Minnesota, you know there are two things that keep you going through the long winters: a good pair of boots, and a great cup of coffee. For years, that coffee often came from Caribou, where Jim's guest this week, Erin Newkirk, most recently served as Chief Brand & Marketing Officer, helping guide a beloved global coffeehouse with more than 850 locations across 11 countries. Erin left Caribou coffee shortly after we recorded this show to start her own training & coaching company.

Erin’s story stretches far beyond coffee. Her career spans Fortune 500s, startups, coaching, and everything in between, always with the same ambition: to build brands, businesses, and breakthroughs that spark movements people can feel. She began her career at the test-prep company Kaplan, earned her MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, and honed her brand chops at General Mills, shaping icons like Cheerios and Pillsbury. Then she leapt into entrepreneurship, founding Red Stamp, a mobile-first lifestyle brand that reimagined personal connection and scaled to millions before it was acquired. 

Today, Erin brings that same energy to her work as an advisor and board member. partnering with founders, executives, and mission-driven ventures including ModernWell, Omnia Fishing, and TurnSignl, an award-winning service providing 24/7 real-time legal assistance.

Recorded in person at the Best Buy Studios in Minneapolis, here is Jim's conversation with the leader who believes in grounding herself each day—and helping others grow along the way.

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The consumer sets the price. That simple truth reframes how we think about brand strength and its real business impact.

In the third episode of The Brand Builder’s Playbook, hosts Jim Stengel and Ryan Barker, along with guest co-host Cait Lamberton (Professor of Marketing at Wharton), unpack one of the most powerful—and often misunderstood—outcomes of strong brand building: pricing power.

Our guest this week is Sandeep Seth, Chief Growth Officer at Tapestry (parent company of Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman), who joins the conversation to share lessons from his decades at Procter & Gamble and his current work revitalizing iconic fashion brands. Together, they explore how differentiation, brand love, and consumer perception translate into a brand’s ability to command a premium.

From conjoint analysis to luxury pricing strategies, and from mass-market cosmetics to premium handbags, this episode dives into how pricing becomes both a signal and an outcome of brand strength. Listeners will walk away with fresh insights on how to connect strategy to pricing, reduce price sensitivity, and build long-term brand value.

True pricing power doesn’t come from spreadsheets—it comes from the trust and love consumers place in your brand.

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They call it the Land of 10,000 Lakes, we believe it may also be the Land of 10,000 Great Brands.

Welcome to a very extraordinary live roundtable edition of The CMO Podcast. This week Jim is coming to you from the Twin Cities, Minneapolis–St. Paul, to try to answer a big question: what’s in the water here that’s helped so many companies thrive for decades?

He is joined by four powerhouse marketers who are shaping some of the region’s most iconic brands:

 – Jennie Weber, the Chief Marketing Officer of Best Buy. Jennie is leading a customer-obsessed transformation, bringing digital innovation and human connection together across one of America’s top retailers.

 – Martin Nance, the Chief Marketing Officer of the Minnesota Vikings. A former NFL wide receiver turned CMO, Martin is shaping world-class fan experiences on and off the field — from building year-round engagement platforms that connect fans to the team, to elevating U.S. Bank Stadium as one of the premier destinations in sports and entertainment.

 – Jill Renslow, the Chief Business Development and Marketing Officer at Mall of America, which is the largest retail and entertainment destination in North America, attracting more than 40 million visitors each year. Jill leads the charge for new entertainment concepts, global brand partnerships, and community-driven experiences that is keeping the mall both a cultural icon and a shopping hub.

 – Heather Malenshek, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer of Land O’Lakes. Heather is reimagining marketing for a century-old cooperative while championing farmers, food, and the future of rural America — from amplifying the “All Together Better” platform to spotlighting sustainability and innovation across the agricultural supply chain.

Recorded live at Best Buy’s state-of-the-art studios, tune in for a candid, inspiring dialogue about the grit, generosity, and community spirit that make Minnesota business so unique. These leaders open up about career transitions, the shift from product-driven to experiential marketing, and how legacy brands can stay both relevant and timeless.

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Tune in each Friday to enjoy our most recent episode of The Brand Builder's Playbook...

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How do you turn customer love into business growth? In the second episode of The Brand Builder’s Playbook, the team explores how emotional connection fuels measurable results, from loyalty and repeat purchase to long-term enterprise value.

Jim, Ryan, and Lindsey dive into what it really means to build “Brand Love,” using BERA’s Love Curve to unpack how the most emotionally connected brands outperform competitors on pricing power, market share, and shareholder returns.

They’re joined by Sofia Colucci, Chief Marketing Officer of Molson Coors, who shares how her team translates brand love into bookings, loyalty, and iconic creative ideas; from beer-flavored Pringles to New Balance koozies and even a dive-bar perfume.

“Brand equity isn’t a soft metric. It’s a growth engine. The most loved brands deliver stronger loyalty, pricing power, and market performance.”

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Whether it’s the Wolves lighting up the court or the Lynx dominating the playoffs, few understand the power of fan passion quite like Jim’s guest this week on The CMO Podcast—Mike Grahl, Chief Marketing Officer of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx. The Wolves are one of the NBA’s most dynamic rising franchises, and the Lynx—a four-time WNBA champion—are a powerhouse team that embodies the spirit of the Twin Cities both on the court and in the community.

Since 2018, Mike has led marketing for both franchises, overseeing brand strategy, creative, digital innovation, retail, and fan engagement. Under his leadership, the Wolves and Lynx have achieved record ticket sales, soaring fan engagement, award-winning campaigns, and retail growth that has set franchise records. Before coming to Minnesota, Mike spent more than 20 years with the Milwaukee Bucks, rising from account representative to Chief Digital Officer and helping drive that franchise’s digital transformation.

Tune in as Mike shares how he’s built two thriving sports brands that go beyond the game, the lessons he carried from two decades with the Bucks, and his playbook for turning loyal fans into a movement.

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