Lab-Grown Marketing by Evidenza

Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo
  • 4.5 (4)
  • MARKETING
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

What if you could conduct smarter, faster, and more cost-effective consumer research without alarming your budget-conscious finance team? Forget outdated advice about CTR and MQLs—what you need are evidence-backed strategies. For over a decade, we’ve partnered with LinkedIn's experts to uncover key B2B marketing principles. Now, we’re using those insights and cutting-edge research tech to break down what really drives growth. Join Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo each week as we explore proven, lab-backed tactics to help marketers thrive in today’s landscape.

  1. 5D AGO

    Why Marketing Should Stop Trying to Align With Sales

    Sales and marketing alignment might be the biggest fantasy in B2B. After decades of dashboards, handoff frameworks, attribution models, and “smarketing” workshops, most companies are still running the same internal knife fight. This week on Lab Grown Marketing, Jon and Peter argue that the problem isn’t failed alignment — it’s the assumption that alignment should exist in the first place. Drawing on new synthetic research and LinkedIn behavioral data across 7,000+ B2B companies, they reveal why sales and marketing almost never target the same customers, why MQLs distort behavior on both sides, and why the pursuit of shared metrics may actually make performance worse. The guys revisit the infamous “Tokyo Test” — the moment LinkedIn’s brand awareness disappeared overnight — to unpack why sales teams dramatically underestimate the power of marketing until it’s gone. Then they introduce a different solution entirely: strategic misalignment. Instead of forcing sales and marketing to do the same job, companies should divide labor correctly, align around customer needs, and let each team execute independently against different parts of demand. Turns out the biggest opportunity in B2B growth might not be tighter alignment. It might be finally admitting alignment was never the goal. 00:00 - Introduction – Sales & Marketing misalignment 03:40 - The Tokyo Test – what a near-empty event taught us about brand 09:10 - The case for strategic misalignment 13:00 - Million dollar data – survey of 500 marketers vs. 500 salespeople 20:25 - The Circles of Doom – LinkedIn's 7,000-company alignment study 28:30 - Division of labor – the Adam Smith prescription for sales & marketing 35:55 - The MQL problem – the metric distorting both teams 40:00 - Category entry points – the one thing sales and marketing can agree on

    46 min

  2. APR 27

    Brand Breakdown: RAO's - How a 10-Seat Restaurant Became a $2.7B Brand

    A 10-table restaurant in Harlem became a $2.7 billion CPG brand by mastering one thing: being easy to want and easy to buy. Rao’s didn’t scale the restaurant—it scaled the desire. Jon and Peter break down how Rao’s built extreme mental availability through myth, scarcity, and cultural relevance—then paired it with physical availability through disciplined distribution. From mafia mystique to premium pricing, every move reinforced the same positioning: this is not everyday sauce. Also, Peter has a special guest joining him today: Eric Skae — the CEO who took Rao's from 5% annual growth to 40% in four months, and is now running the exact same playbook at Carbone Fine Food — for a rare inside look at how the brand actually scaled. They unpack the full playbook—segmentation, positioning, pricing, distribution, and brand assets—and show why Rao’s is one of the cleanest real-world examples of Ehrenberg-Bass in action. If you want to understand how brands actually grow (and why most B2B companies get it backwards), this is the case study. 00:00 - The $2.7B question 03:13 - RAO's History and Strategy 17:44 - Segmentation and Targeting 24:08 - Positioning 28:14 - Line Extensions 30:48 - Distinctive Brand Assets 38:46 - Non-Synthetic Salon: Interview with Eric Skae, CEO of Carbone Fine Food 1:06:12 - Future Predictions of Carbone 1:09:23 - Ideas Wrap 1:15:36 - Commercial Outcomes 1:17:41 - Million Dollar Data 1:20:59 - B2B Lesson

    1h 26m

  3. APR 13

    From Ad Skeptics to Ad Empires: Why Every Tech Giant Becomes an Ad Company

    From Sam Altman to Jeff Bezos to Mark Zuckerberg, the pattern keeps repeating—leaders dismiss advertising right up until they need it to scale. Advertising isn’t a necessary evil. It’s the system that makes modern markets work. This week, Jon and Peter take on one of marketing’s most persistent myths: that advertising is annoying, manipulative, or optional. The reality looks very different. They unpack why advertising isn’t persuasion—it’s infrastructure. It connects buyers and sellers, subsidizes access, fuels competition, and quietly funds the innovations shaping the future. Including AI. Backed by new synthetic research, they reveal how people actually feel about advertising (hint: it’s not what you think), why even ad professionals misunderstand it, and how better framing completely changes perception. If advertising is the engine behind growth, innovation, and access—why does everyone keep pretending otherwise? 00:00 — The Most Misunderstood Engine in Marketing 02:10 — From the Feed: “I Hate Ads”… Until You Need Them 09:54 — Marketing Mental Models: Ads as Infrastructure 13:53 — Advertising Is a Weak Force (That Scales) 17:30 — Access, Innovation, Competition, and Survival 20:56 — Million Dollar Data: Do People Actually Hate Ads? 23:51 — Why Ad People Hate Ads the Most 26:48 — Good Ads vs Bad Ads 27:30 — Final Take: Advertising Is the System

    30 min

  4. FEB 2

    Designing for the Skip: Why Your Ads Lose in Half a Second

    Most ads aren’t ignored because they’re bad. They’re ignored because they assume attention that doesn’t exist.The real problem isn’t a “worst-case scenario” — it’s the default one. In this episode, Jon and Peter break down why modern advertising must be designed for half a second, sound off, mid-scroll. They unpack the picture superiority effect, why visuals are processed up to 20x faster than text, and why branding is mandatory while messaging is optional — no matter how smart your copy sounds in a deck. From Renaissance garb to Geico geckos, the guys explore why distinctive visual assets outperform clever words, why most marketers massively underinvest in imagery, and how AI-generated visuals are already beating human-made ads on clicks and purchase intent. If your ads only work when people pay attention, they’re not really working.

    25 min

  5. JAN 19

    AI Slop Is a Lie: Why Voice-First Marketing Is Actually Better

    AI slop? Not so fast. This week on Lab Grown Marketing, Jon and Peter make the case that AI isn’t cheapening marketing — it’s upgrading it. From voice-first workflows to a sudden boom in “storytelling” jobs, the guys explore why the real productivity unlock of AI isn’t faster typing… it’s better thinking, spoken out loud. They kick things off From the Feed with a surprising Wall Street Journal signal: job postings for storytellers are exploding. Why now? Because when content becomes infinite, narrative coherence becomes scarce — and valuable. In Million Dollar Data, Jon shares fresh synthetic research showing just how bad most companies are at telling a clear story (spoiler: only 6% think they do it well), and why committees, fear, and diluted positioning keep killing narrative power. Finally, in the Synthetic Salon, a very-not-Morgan-Housel guest drops a simple but dangerous idea: the best story wins. In a world where products are copyable and content is free, storytelling isn’t fluff — it’s the moat. If you’re still typing your way through the AI revolution… this episode might convince you to start talking instead.

    35 min

  6. JAN 5

    Data is Making You Dumber (Here's Why)

    Marketers love data. More dashboards. More cuts. More “just one more slide.” But what if more data doesn’t make you smarter — it just makes you slower?This week on Lab Grown Marketing, Jon and Peter go deep on the signal-to-noise ratio and the uncomfortable truth hiding inside modern marketing teams: sometimes the thing you’re asking for is the thing delaying your best decision.They kick things off From the Feed with a tweet that hits a little too close to home — why adding more information can actually make automated systems (and humans) worse at choosing. Then in Million Dollar Data, they reveal results from a synthetic survey of 1,000 global CMOs… and yes, the numbers will surprise you. Most leaders swear more data helps them make better decisions — but the same people admit something else that completely flips the story.If you’ve ever felt “data-driven” right up until you were data-driven off a cliff… press play. 02:18 — From the Feed: more data = slower decisions 4:12 — Million Dollar Data: 1,000 CMO survey results (the paradox) 9:58 — Marketing Mental Models: The horse racing study

    25 min

  7. 12/22/2025

    The Product Delusion: Why the Best Product Rarely Wins

    Everyone loves the idea that the best product wins. It’s clean, comforting, and almost always wrong. This week on Lab Grown Marketing, Peter and Jon take on the product delusion — the belief that product superiority alone guarantees success. In From the Feed, the guys use a timely media moment to revisit an old debate: why better products so often lose to better distribution. It’s a familiar pattern, and one that keeps repeating itself across entertainment, tech, and now AI. Then, in Million Dollar Data, Jon shares new synthetic research exploring where the product delusion actually lives inside modern organizations — and who’s finally starting to let it go. The results might surprise you, or they might confirm everything marketing has been quietly complaining about for years. Finally, in Synthetic Salon, Peter and Jon sit down with a very on-brand guest to talk defaults, familiarity, and why being easy to choose beats being objectively better. In a world where products are increasingly copyable, the real advantage shows up somewhere else entirely. Product matters first. Everything else matters most. 02:40 — From the Feed: Netflix, HBO, and the Myth of Product Superiority 23:42 — Million Dollar Data: Who Still Believes the Product Delusion? 31:05 — Synthetic Salon: Defaults, AI, and Why Distribution Always Wins

    36 min

  8. 12/08/2025

    Move 37: The Day AI Proved It Could Be Creative

    Marketers keep talking about brand building — meanwhile, half of today’s brands are quietly dying. Jon and Peter are here to stop the funeral. This week on Lab Grown Marketing, the guys break down how to avoid brand death in the synthetic era — why it happens, what causes it, and what the top 1% are doing differently. We open with Move 37, where Jon shares the story of how AI beat the world champion of Alpha Go and explains the shift from making “one ad” to making “infinite ads.” Peter argues the old model wasn’t just slow — it was creativity-blocking. Yes, there are framework jokes. In From the Feed, Jon and Peter dissect the internet’s latest identity crisis: brands acting like people, people acting like brands, and why the line keeps getting blurrier. Then, in Million Dollar Data, Jon shares new findings showing that most “breakthrough” assets aren’t novel — they’re consistent. Peter walks through why repetition remains the most underrated growth lever in the synthetic century. We wrap with this week’s Synthetic Salon, where the guys tackle the real question: How do you keep a brand alive when everything is changing? The rules are simple, the execution isn’t — but the payoff is massive. Four segments. One mission. No brand funerals. 3:30 - Move 37 8:26 - From the Feed 18:13 - Million Dollar Data 30:55 - Synthetic Salon

    40 min
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About

What if you could conduct smarter, faster, and more cost-effective consumer research without alarming your budget-conscious finance team? Forget outdated advice about CTR and MQLs—what you need are evidence-backed strategies. For over a decade, we’ve partnered with LinkedIn's experts to uncover key B2B marketing principles. Now, we’re using those insights and cutting-edge research tech to break down what really drives growth. Join Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo each week as we explore proven, lab-backed tactics to help marketers thrive in today’s landscape.

Information

  • Creator
    Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo
  • Show Website
    Lab-Grown Marketing by Evidenza

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