Soul & Science Mekanism

Jesse Bongiovi’s Hampton Water rosé is as much a lifestyle brand as it is a Wine Spectator darling. Bongiovi started the company with his Notre Dame college roommate, Ali Thomas, and the brand took off through spot-on social marketing that included Happy Half Hour livestreams during lockdown. There’s another co-founder at Hampton Water, Bongiovi’s famous father, Jon Bon Jovi, whose love of the “pink juice” during their Hamptons summers inspired the brand. A famous parent can help, but Bongiovi, who walked onto the Notre Dame football team, is determinedly building a bartender-referral network, innovating rosé cocktails and creating a year-round lifestyle positioning for Hampton Water.

In this episode you’ll learn:

Success is not owned, it is leased and the rent is due every dayAfter the launch year, you can’t ride the PR train so muchWhy marketers should figure out how to destigmatize traditional categories for new consumersNo one thinks they're 60 , everyone thinks they are 25Brought to you by Mekanism.

Before any consumer product or service comes to market, there is a history of B2B activity that’s already taken place. Supplyframe CMO Richard Barnett serves the full range of engineers, manufacturers, supply-chain experts and B2B brand leaderswith a continuous loop of online resources, such as Hackaday for engineers, business connections across manufacturing and supply chains and predictive trends that go on to imbue new applications. Rooted in a Stanford education in political science and international policy, Barnett chose globalization over academia. Now, at Supplyframe, he’s focused on fulfilling the individual’s need to connect, learn and grow.

In this episode you’ll learn:
Sometimes, what you choose not to do is as strategic as what you choose to do.It’s important to be transparent with your team about the roles they play in the grand mechanism of the business. When everyone knows where they fit into the machine, they will be empowered to succeed.Keep it simple. Richard and his team tell each other “Piggy Doggy Bunny” as a reminder not to overcomplicate things.Brought to you by Mekanism.

Magnolia Bakery is a popular destination in New York City, and it's common to find residents and tourists lining up to buy perfectly iced cupcakes and other sweet treats. Now, CMO Eddie Revis is helping turn Magnolia Bakery into a global D2C brand. Magnolia’s Breakfast Loaves video, a remake of comedian Liam Kyle Sullivan’s early YouTube hit, Muffins, went viral, immediately landing with millennial targets. Revis does it, in part, by daring his creative teams to pitch their craziest ideas. It’s no surprise that his career spans agencies, starting with a high-school internship, and big brands, such as Chobani.

In this episode you’ll learn:
If you have an idea that could be unstrategic but it’s wild and awesome, share it anywayThe great thing about the agency side is you get to focus on impactAs a client, you think about impact and the repercussions that making that decision is going to have across the businessIf you really want to learn about the company as a new CMO, share an office with the CFOBrought to you by Mekanism.

It can feel impossible to express the human condition, so we look to great artists, writers and even advertising creatives to do the job. Pranav Yadav, Founder and Global CEO of Neuro-Insight, saw how inconsistent people were doing field interviews–one memorable study tried to find out why people gamble in Las Vegas. A more innate truth was to be found in neuromarketing, which measures neural signals by electrodes to track emotional responses. Yadav brilliantly reads the data and helps marketers, including TJ Maxx and Anheuser Busch, make ads that both stir emotions and hit the right pitch.

In this episode you’ll learn:

What neruomarketing is and how it’s innovating the way brands are built.What people say in the first hour of a focus group is different from what they say in the second or fourth hour and it really doesn't correlate to actual in-market purchase behavior.Creative is an idea that engages people, but an ad has the additional responsibility of associating the brand at the peak emotional moment.The beauty of life is that if you are open enough to learning, it teaches you everything you need to know.

Seth Matlins, Managing Director at Forbes CMO Network, was only seven years old when marketing claimed his future. He was transfixed by the founder of the Pet Rock, who had brazenly turned construction rubble into a viral sensation, the tulip mania of the disco era. Matlins’ first marketing job was to be part of the team that was turning another earthly resource–water–into the highly valuable, branded asset, Evian. His career spans advising some of the world’s most iconic brands and promoting civic ideals, such as voting and truth in advertising. At Forbes, Matlins markets marketing to marketers, as more than a byproduct of data but a role that is vital to a company's future growth.

In this episode you’ll learn:.
While data is important, interpreting that data is the real magic.Why each and every employee at a company is responsible for driving the business forward.To be a great brand, you need to be both differentiated and valuable. Differentiation is easy, but how you express the value of that differentiation is the challenge.Brought to you by Mekanism.

In this special edition episode of The Soul & Science Podcast, Jason shares his discussion with author, zen teacher and monk Koshin Paley Ellison during the launch event for his new book, Untangled. Untangled is a welcoming guidebook to finding expansive ease and joy through the Eightfold Path, one of Buddhism’s foundational teachings. In his book, Koshin, shares anecdotes from his life dealing with abuse and discrimination as well as the path of teachings from Eastern and Western wisdom traditions.

Together, Zen teacher and monk, Jungian psychotherapist, and the co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, Koshin Paley Ellison, and Jason Harris, Co-founder & CEO of creative agency, Mekanism, discuss how to incorporate these teachings of untangling our suffering and the path of freedom in our everyday lives.In this episode you’ll learn:
When unfortunate circumstances arise, rather than ask yourself, “why me?” ask yourself, “why not me?”Slowing your mind and becoming more intentional are key to living a fulfilling life.It’s important to confront your fears, not to be enveloped by them.