The Daily Brief Podcast | Promax

Strategy and design form the cornerstones of both the personal and the professional relationship between Justin and Emily Nardone, founders and partners at Los Angeles-based creative agency Bellaluca. In this episode, the Nardones share how they came together to evolve their individual work to a new place -- both literally and figuratively -- creating an agency that combines strategy and creative to take brands forward.

WAR’s Brien Holman discusses how the agency creates compelling visuals for audio-only content and why  sound and music are so important in all types of marketing.

19th and Park Co-Founders Tahira White and Whitney Headen – president and CEO, respectively – discuss how they created and launched the New York City-based agency and its newly launched production company, 1Park9.They share what the two entities’ unique positioning is in the marketplace, why they felt the need to launch a division that’s entirely focused on production and how they find and develop talent – a mission on which they each spend a lot of time. They also encourage the industry to give up-and-coming diverse talent the experience they need to survive and thrive. And finally, they share their views on how talent should be working with artificial intelligence as they forge their creative paths forward.

12 years ago, David Jeffers suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the chest down. But through his recovery process, the mechanical engineer launched a new career based on one of his oldest passions: music and sound. And his old friend, Ricardo Roberts, executive producer at Los Angeles-based inclusive motion-graphics studio Bien, has been there to provide assistance and encouragement all along the way.

Together, Quadriphonic and Bien have produced an award-winning spot for the Paralympics and created a unique brand campaign for Quadriphonic. Now Bien is producing a short documentary about Jeffers’ life.

In this episode of the Daily Brief Podcast, we talk to Jeffers and Bien Creative Director Hung Le about what it means to be an inclusive studio, how the relationship between Bien and Quadriphonic has evolved, how Jeffers operates as a quadriplegic sound designer, and what’s next for everyone.

Late last year, Rick Lewchuck, former senior vice president of creative marketing and brand standards at CNN Worldwide and former Promax board member, departed his post amid deep cost-cutting at CNN owner Warner Bros. Discovery. Lewchuck had been at CNN for a decade, following a 32-year career at Canada’s CTV. While at CNN, Lewchuk and his team were named Promax’s Global Marketing Team of the Year seven times, and they won the Emmy for outstanding promotional announcement in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020. Over the course of Lewchuk’s five-decade career, he and his teams have won more than 2,000 Promax awards. 

In this episode of the Daily Brief Podcast, Lewchuk discusses how he first got into entertainment marketing, his time at CTV and how he ended up at CNN. He looks back on some of the most impactful campaigns that he oversaw, including “Go There,” “Donkey & Elephant” and “Facts First,” starring an apple and a banana. He also offers insight into how best to lead creatives and considers what he thinks the future of entertainment marketing holds.

As head of Fubo Sports Network and original programming, Pamela Duckworth brings 30 years of production, marketing and branding experience together to oversee Fubo Sports Network as well as Fubo Movie Network, Fubo Latino Network and soon, Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort Network.  On Tuesday, Fubo announced that it was launching Fubo Sports Network on Amazon's Freevee, making that network available on more than 155 million devices across multiple streaming platforms.

While providing sports programming to fans without necessarily having the ability to carry those games is a challenge, Fubo Sports Network has made the most of the opportunity by working with such athletes as Gilbert Arenas, RJ Hampton, Terrell Owens, Matthew Hatchett and Shawne Merriman to produce programming, distribute that programming across multiple platforms and going live with those athletes when possible. Duckworth, whose background includes car-racing and other sports productions, first learned that athletes can become premium content providers after working with Peyton and Eli Manning for 11 years. 

In this episode of The Daily Brief Podcast, Duckworth talks about how she and Fubo are working to build its sports and original offerings in today’s challenging streaming environment.

From NFTs to virtual influencers, augmented reality and crypto, the metaverse may feel like the Wild West, but for brands who embrace data-driven planning and are willing to iterate and evolve, it’s the biggest opportunity out there. And it’s coming fast, so it’s something all brands will want to take into consideration as they plan for the future.

In this episode of The Daily Brief Podcast, Jason Rockman, president of customer experience agency Definition 6, and Shep Ogden, co-founder and CEO of Offbeat Media Group, introduce us to virtual influencer Zero and give us a taste of what it’s like to interact with him.

After talking with Zero, Rockman and Ogden share how successful the virtual influencer has been as he gains followers, acquiring more than 350,000, and works with brands, such as Samsung, just since being introduced in February. The pair go on to consider other ways brands should be thinking about innovating as the internet evolves into Web3 and beyond.

Earlier this year, two veteran creative directors – Ryan Summers and Brian Eloe – joined Denver-based creative agency Spillt, working with Owner and Executive Creative Director Ed Rhine. Summers comes from a motion-graphics background, while Eloe’s work has mostly been in live action, but together, the team takes on all sorts of projects as they look to expand Spillt’s clientele and expertise.

"The most unorthodox way is often the best way to find a solution," Eloe says.

Rhine, Summers and Eloe join this episode of The Daily Brief Podcast to discuss how they collaborate to deliver the best work for clients, how they try to keep their egos out of their work, and what they see coming down the pike for entertainment marketing. (Hint: it involves Web3). And stay tuned until the end for a fun, thoughtful and off-the-cuff conversation about main titles.

As Loyalkaspar Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Beat Badenbacher hunkered down, like everyone else, during the pandemic, he began to think. He thought about how brands define the world around them and how people turn to brands – or familiar symbols – in times of strife. And then he turned those thoughts into a book.

“Somewhere Yes: The Search for Belonging in a World Shaped by Branding” combines both written and visual language to ask questions and consider ideas. More of a thought exercise than a conclusion or a prescription, the book asks readers to consider what branding means in our current society and how it can be used for good.

"Somewhere Yes" is available from Amazon and other booksellers on July 12.

Today’s episode is a replay of an interview from August 2020 with leadership consultant Esther Weinberg, developer of a program called The Ready Zone. Weinberg has more than two decades of experience working with executives to help them evolve their careers – particularly in the entertainment space.

Esther, in collaboration with Promax, is getting ready to launch the next cohort of program Promax Next, which has been custom built to help entertainment marketers with an interest in leadership progress both themselves and their teams. 

Listen in to hear Esther describe how The Ready Zone and Promax Next could help you move your career to the next level and then head to promax.org/next to apply. Applications are due by next Friday, March 18, 2022.