Cult Brand Secrets

Each year, The Gathering brings together disruptors from around the globe to learn from, and celebrate, the leaders behind iconic brands like Marvel, Skittles, Beats by Dre, Yeti, and the Dallas Cowboys. For the first time ever, these unique and enlightening presentations can be heard any time and anywhere on this podcast. Cult Brand Secrets is an anthology of the greatest and most influential presentations The Gathering has to offer, featuring experts that transcend branding to build cult-like adoration of their work. Additionally, host Chris Kneeland uses his own experience in associating with these brand leaders to highlight key trends and help you identify the most worthwhile takeaways. Join our Premium Channel to hear full length presentations at cultbrandsecrets.com.

Spotify is a remarkable company and an amazing Cult brand. Birthed in 2008 as a viable alternative to music piracy, Spotify has always upheld the importance of properly compensating creators. In this episode, we hear Alex recount his personal journey and share how the Creative team at Spotify uses data to inform campaigns, Alex will share several examples of how marketing worked with the product, and the data, to create greater fan engagement. Learn more at CultBrandSecrets.com

Mindy is the Senior Vice President over Global Marketing Partnerships for Marvel Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. She’s a horse lovin’ southern gal, now living in the glam and glitz of Hollywood, and applying her formidable experience with entertainment properties and big brands to the different Marvel franchises. As you listen to Mindy speak, you’ll note two things in particular. First, Marvel isn’t about superheroes. They have transcended beyond their characters and are really about epic storytelling and the power of the human spirit. Those are two things we need better represented in more brands and categories. Secondly, Mindy references the need to “Interact instead of transact''. To build a cult brand, you need to transcend the typical business to consumer relationship. Learn more at CultBrandSecrets.com

Jane Hwang is the former Global Vice President over Fruit Confections at Mars, which includes Skittles. She has a manner that helped her organization be comfortable with being uncomfortable, which is perfect for such an offbeat brand. Skittles is the #1 globally selling non-chocolate candy. 200 million individual skittles are produced daily. Obviously when you’re that big so much of the brand’s success is based on manufacturing consistency and supply chain, and distribution within multiple countries. But Jane didn’t talk about any of that. Instead, she talks about consistent disruption in regards to consumer expectations, their storytelling, and the causes Skittles supports. She elaborates on the discipline to stick with something, like Taste the Rainbow has been a work in progress for nearly 30 years. With how transient the CMO position is, it seems like mediocre, or immature brands are reimagining their identity and value propositions every couple years. That’s the wrong way to do it. Learn more at CultBrandSecrets.com

You’re in for a treat because Douglas Atkin is the OG of cult branding. He literally wrote the book on the subject. Back in 2005 he published a book called The Culting of Brands and he was first the first person I know who compared the beliefs and behaviors of actual cults - the creepy kind - with enviable organizations, like fraternities, fast growing religions, and brands. Douglas’ work led him to interesting marketing roles within professional service firms and the social gathering site MeetUp, but his career went to a whole new level when he was hired in the early days of AirBNB and deployed his thinking on cult brands to that business and contributed to their meteoric rise. Learn more at CultBrandSecrets.com