Episode 014: Best Brands on Earth Atlanta Roundtable

**What do you get when you put a room of Atlanta marketing leaders together during Brand Week? An unfiltered conversation about what's working, what's cringe, and what the industry isn't talking about enough.** On this roundtable episode of Best Brands on Earth, brand and marketing leaders from companies including Zoom, Delta, PrizePicks, and a canned wine startup get candid about the state of brand today. They cover why boards are suddenly asking for "iconic," why Zoom is leaning into culture to escape its category, and why metrics like "talk time" are replacing the old funnel. They also ask whether "unhinged" social media is just lazy marketing, why consistency is the most underrated brand strategy, and how a marketing team can speak the language of sales and finance. The group debates the Sydney Sweeney sports-betting campaign, prediction-market advertising, and why every AI company sounds the same. They also pick the ads they love, including Google Pixel's "put your phone down" spot and the DTC ads that keep following them around, and dig into the US Open's sponsorship wins and its influencer backlash. The episode closes with Crumbs of Wisdom: explaining marketing to your kids, trusting a creative gut you can't defend, and why direct mail still works. Featuring Conley Downing Chief Marketing Officer, Archer Roose Wines Dylan Feinstein Head of Partnership Sales & Client Services at OpenFortune Hayley Clover Co-Founder & Host, Best Brands on Earth Jason Pirock Vice President, Global Brand Marketing, OUTRIGGER Hospitality Group Matt Kerbel Co-Founder & Host, Best Brands on Earth Nathan Smith General Manager, Delta Studio and Media Experiences, Delta Airlines Shawn Rinkenba Executive Creative Director, PrizePicks Whitney Magnuson Head of Brand & Media, Zoom **Chapters** 0:00 Welcome and kickoff 1:29 What conversations are leaders having now that they couldn't a year ago? 2:49 Zoom's board says "be iconic" 4:44 Beyond CPM: "talk time" and new ways to measure brand 6:18 In-person vs. virtual: why people want real experiences 8:10 Is marketing a cost center or a revenue driver? 10:12 Canned wine and owning a consumer's "first taste" 12:01 What's underhyped? Targeting 13:31 Designing for the audience you are (PrizePicks) 15:50 Nobody's teaching people how to write a brief 17:00 Human insight beats demographics 17:26 Breaking down channel silos 19:59 The "sea of sameness" and real differentiation 20:49 Is the unhinged brand voice just lazy marketing? 22:03 Duolingo, Liquid Death, and cultural permission 24:26 Back to basics: McDonald's, Heinz, Guinness, and brand equity 25:37 When is edgy worth the risk? 27:25 Consistency is the most underrated strategy 29:41 Why brand is underfunded and why conferences miss the point 30:46 Marketing's language barrier with sales and finance 32:49 The CMO title, and "sales wins the shelf, marketing drives the second purchase" 34:07 Hits and misses: setting up the debate 34:42 The Sydney Sweeney x NoVig controversy 39:23 Kalshi, Polymarket, and the media spend of prediction markets 41:16 Will your marketing get your whole industry regulated? AI ads and billboard sameness 44:06 Guilty-pleasure ads and DTC wellness marketing 46:21 Google Pixel's "put your phone down" and humanizing a product feature 50:41 Edutainment and the US Open sponsorship masterclass (IBM, AmEx, Rolex, Grey Goose) 52:01 US Open backlash: influencers vs. tradition 56:06 Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and celebrity-driven sports fandom 59:05 Crumbs of Wisdom with Open Fortune 1:00:13 What you can't explain about your job (Delta and the kids) 1:03:04 The creative instinct you trust but can't defend 1:04:29 The opinion you keep defending that fewer people share 1:05:28 Why direct mail still works #BestBrandsOnEarth #Marketing #Branding #BrandStrategy #MarketingPodcast #BrandWeek #AtlantaMarketing #Advertising #CMO #BrandMarketing #MarketingStrategy #Podcast