In this week’s episode of On Brand, Southwest Airlines asks contestants to pitch a campaign for their “extra legroom” rollout — and the results are equal parts wild, weird, and wonderfully teachable. Ethan and Laura analyze the pitches, debate what actually makes a good brief, and dig into brand science lessons on clarity, differentiation, and human psychology.

You’ll hear why subtle differences in messaging can make or break a campaign, why clever isn’t always smart, and how “don’t make people think” applies as much to marketing as it does to airplane seating.

Main Topics Covered:

• The power (and peril) of reading a creative brief correctly
• “Blue Ocean Strategy” and how Southwest built differentiation that lasted decades
• When being clever crosses into “toilet paper math” territory
• How minor tweaks (a color, a line, a word) create major impact
• Why Bianca’s “Take Up Space” campaign had heart — but drifted into orbit
• What it means for a campaign to truly have “legs” (pun absolutely intended)
• How the best ideas expand into airports, ads, and culture — not just PowerPoint slides
• Lessons from “Forget the Unexpected”: why humans love certainty and hate surprises

🏆 Premium Stickiness Award:

“Take Up Space.”

Bold, human, and on-brand for a company built around heart. It wasn’t just about legroom — it was about belonging, confidence, and making room for people as they are. Sticky in spirit, even if it didn’t win on TV.

Tune in for brand science, creative chaos, and the occasional dad joke (because Ethan). Subscribe to Cover Brand wherever you get your podcasts, and keep following this special On Brand mini-series for more reality-TV-meets-real-marketing lessons. 

Descript used to create drafts and then edited with human eyes, ears and hands. Produced by BiCurean.com

#TeamBianca #TeamMahiri #TeamRyan #OnBrand

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