Meme Team: The Pop Culture Marketing Podcast

Sonia Baschez
  • 5.0 (21)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

Meme Team is the pop culture marketing podcast where host Sonia Baschez and guests break down the marketing and PR behind viral moments in movies, TV, music, tech, sports, and politics Every Thursday, Sonia (founder of Yapping as a Service) sits down with marketers, founders, and creators to unpack the campaigns, rebrands, press tours, and platform shifts shaping culture, from Taylor Swift and Warner Bros. to YouTube, TikTok, and AI. You'll hear what worked, what flopped, and the takeaways you can use for your own brand. If you care about brand strategy, storytelling, creator marketing, or why the algorithm is acting weird again, this one's for you. New episodes every Thursday on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts..

  1. 2d ago

    Winners and Losers: Warner Bros, Paramount, YouTube, Amazon, Apple

    Warner Bros. and Paramount are merging under the Skydance name, YouTube is done rewarding content farms, Amazon MGM turned a movie set into a creator activation, and Apple just quietly blocked half the ad tech industry from iOS 27. Sonia Baschez and fractional GTM advisor Gregory Kennedy break down what each of these moves actually means for brands, creators, and anyone paying attention to where the media industry is heading. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:40 Warner Bros. + Paramount become Skydance: rebrand or escape? 18:00 YouTube kills the content farm: what the algorithm update actually rewards 38:00 Amazon MGM's Verity creator press tour: 30 creators, 12 countries, a new playbook 55:00 Apple's iOS 27 ad block: Trade Desk, ad tech, and what brands missed About Gregory Gregory Kennedy is the founder of Vibe Your Sass, a fractional GTM advisor to startups, and a 3X CMO with 20+ years in Silicon Valley marketing. Find him on X: @gregorykennedy

    Winners and Losers: Warner Bros, Paramount, YouTube, Amazon, Apple

  2. Oct 1

    Disney, Taylor Swift, Letterboxd, and Meta Are All Living on Borrowed Trust

    Disney just announced John Watts for Star Wars Episode 10 and simultaneously undermined him by pairing him with Simon Kinberg — the writer behind X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Fantastic Four, and a failed Twilight Zone reboot. Taylor Swift's bonus "encore" to Life of a Showgirl got dismissed by critics and hit number one anyway. Letterboxd is up for sale at $300M with A24, NYT, Netflix, Sony, and Paramount all circling. And on the same day Meta unveiled its Muse Charm AI wearable, news broke that Muse AI had been caught reading Apple messages after being explicitly told to stop. Timestamps 0:00 — Star Wars Episode 10: John Watts, Simon Kinberg, and why Disney keeps getting in its own way 21:00 — Taylor Swift's "The Encore": what happens when critics stop mattering to commercial success 33:00 — Letterboxd for $300M: who should buy it, who would ruin it, and the Goodreads warning 51:00 — Meta Muse Charm: Tamagotchi-style AI wearable and the iMessage scandal that hit on launch day About Kushaan Kushaan Shah leads marketing at Superhuman and writes about consumer behavior and growth. Find his newsletter at substack.com/@kushaan

    Disney, Taylor Swift, Letterboxd, and Meta Are All Living on Borrowed Trust

  3. Sep 24

    Choose Equity: Mbappe, Lili Reinhart, Netflix, & Xbox

    Mbappe just walked away from a lifetime Nike deal for equity at On Running, and Thierry Henry has been quietly running the football strategy behind it since 2025. Meanwhile, Lily Reinhart built a viral press tour for The Love Hypothesis with basically no help from Amazon, then Amazon showed up after she hit 1.7M impressions on her own. Four stories this week about which brands are staying ahead and which are reacting too late. Timestamps 0:00 Intro 1:19 Mbappe, On Running, and Nike's brand crisis 19:03 Lily Reinhart's method dressing press tour 37:24 Netflix, A24, and the streaming wars 56:51 Xbox CEO Asha Sharma goes undercover in customer support 1:05:07 Takeaways 1:10:43 Wrap About Danielle Danielle Messler, head of marketing at Captivate Talent and content strategy practitioner. Fine her at https://www.daniellemessler.com/ and on X @danielleismessy

    Choose Equity: Mbappe, Lili Reinhart, Netflix, & Xbox

  4. Aug 20

    Document for Content: Hollywood, Mamdani, American Tourists, and Hilary Duff

    Prada is making films with Barry Jenkins and Zohran Mamdani has 69% approval for posting about potholes. Hilary Duff just sold out a tour that has nothing to do with nostalgia, and Americans are spending $350 a day in Europe while Portugal buys ads in Times Square. Sonia and brand strategist Gia Jasing get into all four stories on the Meme Team, the podcast where we discuss viral pop culture moments in movies, TV, music, and politics. Timestamps 0:00 Brands are the new Hollywood (Martin Scorsese/LavAza, Prada/Barry Jenkins, Ben Affleck/Dunkin, Ryan Reynolds/Maximum Effort, Gap + Running Point) 20:55 Zohran Mamdani's governance as content strategy 37:48 The rise of the American tourist in Europe 58:59 Hilary Duff's Lucky Me Tour 1:11:53 Takeaways About Jiya Jiya Jaisingh is a brand strategist and behavior change marketing specialist. Find her at www.jiyajaisingh.com/ and on X at @JaisinghJiya

    Document for Content: Hollywood, Mamdani, American Tourists, and Hilary Duff

  5. Aug 13

    When Your Differentiator Stops Working: Meta, Bumble, Obama & the FAA

    Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word manifesto calling for open, democratized AI the same week Meta was defending itself in six active monopoly lawsuits. Bumble scrapped the women-message-first rule, which was literally the brand. Obama launched a book podcast on an audio platform and somehow it's one of the smarter marketing moves of the year. Jonathan K. Lowe joined me to talk through all of it, plus the FAA quietly solving a hiring crisis by recruiting video gamers. Timestamps  0:00 Zuckerberg's AI manifesto vs. Meta's monopoly problem 23:48 Bumble drops women-message-first (and what the Southwest comparison reveals about brand strategy) 42:00 Obama's Audible book podcast and why celebrity co-signs beat institutions now 54:00 The FAA is hiring gamers as air traffic controllers 1:03:00 Key takeaways About Jonathan K. Lowe Jonathan is the founder and CEO of Salt Foundry, a fractional CMO collective, and author of "Keeping People Interested: How Leaders Use Marketing to Capture and Sustain Attention."

    When Your Differentiator Stops Working: Meta, Bumble, Obama & the FAA

  6. Aug 10

    Fans deserve better: Disney, Vinyl, Flock, BTS

    Spider-Man Brand New Day just hit $1 billion, and Disney's CEO is already publicly attaching Avengers Doomsday to that momentum. That's a bold bet with a lot riding on it. Sonia Baschez and journalist Shannon Miller look at the gap between brands that genuinely show up for fans and brands that just extract from them, from Disney's new TikTok creator deal to vinyl labels charging $40 for incomplete pressings to Flock Safety's police camera cover-up. Timestamps  00:00 Disney, Josh DeMaro, and the TikTok IP deal 24:00 The Vinyl Trap: why your record probably has missing tracks 41:55 Flock Safety and the police surveillance scandal 55:47 BTS Ari Dang World Tour and how K-pop does fan activations right About Shannon Miller Shannon is a journalist and former managing editor at AdWeek covering the creator economy. She co-authored "A Miscellany of Weird and Wonderful Facts" with Jess Severis and writes her own newsletter. Follow her on Threads and Instagram @ShannonL_Miller.

    Fans deserve better: Disney, Vinyl, Flock, BTS

  7. Jul 30

    The End of Mid: Zendaya, Nolan, + Marvel

    Zendaya's press tour for The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day is generating more coverage than either studio's marketing budget combined. Christopher Nolan crossed $650M without a traditional campaign, the IMAX CEO is sitting on the biggest missed opportunity in entertainment, and Marvel Doomsday is locked into a same-day release against Dune 3, which is a position nobody should want to be in. This week Sonia Baschez is joined by Christina Garnett for her seventh appearance on the show. Timestamps  0:00 Intro 0:48 Zendaya's fashion campaign: Law Roach, Schiaparelli, Mathieu Mirano wings look, and the plot Easter eggs 18:24 The Odyssey vs. Moana 2, Christopher Nolan at $650M, and the IMAX CEO fumbling in real time 29:55 Marvel Doomsday vs. Dune 3: same release date, missing female characters, why Doomsday deserves to lose 34:38 Fan conventions as marketing real estate: Hall H, Ryan Gosling as Ghost Rider, Fanatics Fest, Coachella as the influencer Olympics 47:00 Hades Town beats Hamilton's opening pro-shot record, Apple TV acquisition, and making theater accessible 1:00:00 World Cup lessons: monocultural moments, Scottish fans in Boston, Cape Verde's goalkeeper to MLS, FIFA leaving money on the table 1:10:00 Brand identity: Coca-Cola's successful rebrand addition vs. Cracker Barrel and Red Lobster alienating their base About Christina Garnett Christina is the author of Transforming Customer Brand Relationships and Pocket CCO. She's a fractional chief community officer who helps brands turn customer loyalty into a real business asset. This is her seventh time on the show.

    The End of Mid: Zendaya, Nolan, + Marvel

  8. Jul 16

    Authenticity Wins: Jennifer Lawrence, Christopher Nolan, Apple & Letterboxd

    Sonia sits down with Brianna Miller, to break down Jennifer Lawrence saying she hates doing press, Christopher Nolan's take on Gen Z rejecting AI slop, Apple quietly dominating the Emmy nominations, and why Netflix, Paramount, and Sony are all trying to buy Letterboxd. The big thesis: authenticity isn't optional anymore, and the brands that engineer trust without manufacturing it are winning the cultural moment. Jennifer Lawrence told Viola Davis on Variety's Actors on Actors that her biggest hindrance to acting is doing press. She dropped out of middle school and feels self conscious about how she comes across intellectually in interviews. This falls in line with celebrities opting out of traditional outlets and going direct to podcasts like Amy Poehler's show, Hot Ones, Call Her Daddy, and Chicken Shop Date. The reasons: lower stakes questions, the interviewer knows the space, their guard comes down when talking to a peer, and dual star amplification where both audiences compound reach. Emmy Rossum talked to Alex Cooper about asking for a raise on Shameless and how she got paid the same as William H. Macy. That story never would have come out with a traditional journalist. Tom Holland did press for The Odyssey and talked about being thrown into IMAX filmmaking instead of answering questions about his relationship with Zendaya. The lesson: celebrities are figuring out that if they go direct to celebrity podcasts, they control the narrative and get to talk about what they actually want to talk about. Christopher Nolan said he's never seen a more rapid wholesale dismissal of a supposedly foundational jump in technology. Gen Z's judgment of AI slop has been immediate and harsh because they grew up online and can tell the difference. Kodak's film division is thriving because young filmmakers are embracing original film technology. Project Hail Mary used a puppeteer for Rocky instead of CGI and it worked. The Odyssey built practical effects for Cyclops, the horse, the boat, and filmed in caves that have never been filmed before. Olivia Wilde paid for film herself for The Invite when the studio didn't want to, and when A24 bought it for a huge profit she got the money back. Kane Parsons and Curry Barker both came out against AI. The lesson: audiences want original stories and practical effects, and the more real you make things, the more authentic it comes across. The 2026 Emmy nominations came out: HBO got 122, Netflix got 111, and Apple TV got 81. Apple's library is way smaller than Netflix but they have a track record for choosing the correct shows. Their word of mouth is unheard of. Severance, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, Silo, and Widow's Bay all became word of mouth shows. Apple is quietly curating itself as the sci fi and fantasy streaming platform, which fits with their brand. F1 marketed the camera they built to film cars racing. Netflix is thinking about doing channels that'll be on 24/7, which makes them regular TV. Amazon is becoming the place that creates shows from books: Off Campus, The Love Hypothesis, Lord of the Rings, Jack Reacher, Jack Ryan. The lesson: curation is a strategy, not a compromise, and one show that people feel something about is worth more than 50 average ones. Netflix, Paramount, and Sony Pictures are in talks to buy Letterboxd. The concern is that they're trying to own an organic community of 26 million users who actively discuss films and influence what people watch. Amazon bought Goodreads and the culture didn't survive intact. OpenAI bought TBPN and the trust is gone. The lesson: when you buy a community, you don't automatically buy their loyalty, and it's very easy for them to leave the platform if they feel it's no longer worth voicing their opinion. Timestamps 00:00 Jennifer Lawrence hates doing press and celebrities going direct to podcasts 20:00 Christopher Nolan on Gen Z rejecting AI slop and film division thriving 40:00 Apple quietly dominating Emmy nominations with 81 and word of mouth strategy 1:00:00 Netflix, Paramount, and Sony trying to buy Letterboxd and community trust Guest: Brianna Miller, Director of Demand Generation at Cohere Health and Adjunct Marketing Professor at UMSL

    Authenticity Wins: Jennifer Lawrence, Christopher Nolan, Apple & Letterboxd
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5
out of 5
21 Ratings

About

Meme Team is the pop culture marketing podcast where host Sonia Baschez and guests break down the marketing and PR behind viral moments in movies, TV, music, tech, sports, and politics Every Thursday, Sonia (founder of Yapping as a Service) sits down with marketers, founders, and creators to unpack the campaigns, rebrands, press tours, and platform shifts shaping culture, from Taylor Swift and Warner Bros. to YouTube, TikTok, and AI. You'll hear what worked, what flopped, and the takeaways you can use for your own brand. If you care about brand strategy, storytelling, creator marketing, or why the algorithm is acting weird again, this one's for you. New episodes every Thursday on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts..

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