Brandy
*Top 3% Podcast* Candid conversations over cocktails discussing all things brand with Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders, the rebranding experts of the award-winning brand transformation studio Motif Brands. Gain branding insights refined over 40+ years of rebranding and strategy experience. With Brandy's high concentration of branding, marketing, strategy, and behavioral science, you'll experience increased awareness of your business, brand, and audience to grow your business, increase pricing power, and unlock your strengths *Each round of Brandy is concise, ad-free, and on the house. Cheers!
Episodes
Money isn’t the only currency in business.
Status is.
And in many cases, it’s the one that matters more.
In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore the idea of status as currency and why brands are constantly participating in an invisible exchange of perception, identity, and social signaling.
Every purchase, every interaction, every brand choice communicates something.
Not just about the product but about the ...
Learn from F1 and Harry Potter that most rebrands don’t fail. They erase.
They wipe out years of accumulated perception, then call it progress.
On this episode of Brandy, brand strategy is reframed as an issue of asset allocation, not creativity.
Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders of Motif Brands introduce a different model: Scaffolding and Recursion.
Instead of digging for new meaning, you build from what already exists.
You use your bra...
Department stores were once the center of retail.
Today, many feel like empty shells. Large spaces animated by the brands inside them rather than the store itself.
In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore the changing trajectory of retail through the lens of Kohl's and its recent earnings struggles.
But the most fascinating insight isn’t on the balance sheet.
It’s on the sales floor.
At many Kohl’s locati...
Brand strategy is language.
Most founders underestimate the power of words.
But the right phrase can shape perception for decades.
Why do certain slogans stick in our heads?
Why do jingles become cultural memory?
And what does that reveal about brand strategy?
In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore the strategic power of language in branding and why the words a company chooses often determine whether ...
A playlist for perfect pasta?! Brand move to note...
Most founders think brand strategy is about logos, taglines, or differentiation.
It’s not. It’s about framing.
In this episode, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders of Motif Brands break down the deceptively simple line:
“Whatever you drive, drive a Firestone.”
On the surface, it sounds like a classic slogan.
Under the hood, it’s a masterclass in positioning.
Reilly and Scott unpack how a f...
Reilly's daughter is in Poppy Playtime?! And what's up with Staples and Party City?!
When a cult-beloved indie horror game launches a new chapter, the internet pays attention.
But when that game quietly sells hundreds of thousands of copies, racks up tens of millions of YouTube views, and builds a global fan base founders and marketers should really pay attention.
In this episode, Reilly and Scott break down the international ...
Amazon's Ring surveillance scare.
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
The words you use aren’t neutral.
They are setting the ceiling of your company.
In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders of Motif Brands break down the power of language; not just in marketing, but inside the mind of a founder and within the culture of a team.
Because words don’t just describe reality. They frame i...
Super Bowl ads are expensive. That doesn’t mean they’re effective.
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
On this episode of Brandy, brand experts Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down Super Bowl LX by separating the winners from the losers and digging into what actually worked, what fell flat, and what’s starting to feel tired in Super Bowl advertising....
They discuss the brand marketing trends that sho...
After 100 episodes of Brandy, patterns become impossible to ignore.
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
Across industries, company sizes, and growth stages, the same branding mistakes keep showing up and the same truths keep separating brands that stall from brands that win.
In this milestone episode, brand experts Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down the principles learned after decades of working wi...
From Luxury to Tax Prep, see why brands are going physical
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
For years, brands were told the future was digital.
Now, some of the most powerful brands in the world are placing a very different bet: physical experience.
In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore why brands across wildly different categories are investing in real-world spaces. From luxu...
Is 2026 the year you rebrand? Think again!
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
Every year around the New Year, founders feel the itch to rebrand. A fresh start. A new look. A clean slate.
But here’s the truth: if you wait for January to rebrand, you’re already late.
In this episode of Brandy, rebranding experts Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders reframe rebranding as what it actually is... not a one-time revea...
LEGO built one of the most powerful brands in history by standing for one simple idea: limitless creative play. So what happens when that same brand introduces a Smart Brick and leans into connected, tech-driven play at CES 2026?
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore whether LEGO has drifted from its core identity or whether this Smart Brick ...
Gift cards seem simple... but they reveal something profound about brand trust, psychology, and power.
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders unpack how Starbucks generates over $215 million annually from unredeemed gift card balances, why consumers forget to use gift cards in the first place, and what this tells us about trust, psychology, and brand ...
Most founders think they have a marketing problem. They don’t. They have a positioning problem and it’s quietly slowing every part of their business.
Brand News: Guess what brand paid $450 Million for Peanuts...
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman breaks down why positioning is the lifeblood of your business, not a marketing tactic. You’ll learn how perception shapes ...
Holiday marketing usually means louder ads, bigger discounts, and more noise. Dunkin’ took a different approach.
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down the ingenious holiday campaign from Dunkin' that transformed Munchkins from a product into a festive character. They used nostalgia, personification, and storytelling to embed the brand ...
Santa Claus didn’t always wear red, and what founders can learn from good ol' St. Nick.
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
So how did Coca-Cola help turn a beloved cultural figure into a billion-dollar brand association without most people noticing?
In this special holiday episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders of Motif Brands dissect one of the most masterful brand strategies in modern histor...
Founders can learn from this $5 store and why it is now a top-performing retailer.
Brand News: Eggnog is back at Starbucks!
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
Five Below is one of the most surprising winners of 2025. While many retailers are shrinking, Five Below is scaling and its stock is crushing the market(up 67% YTD).
In this episode, brand experts Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down how a bran...
Founders often obsess over what they sell, but consumers are driven by why it matters.
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
Every toddler discovers the same magic word. A word that Einstein, The Beatles, and Steve Jobs also relied on:
“Why?”
In this Brandy episode, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore why the question why is more than a phase kids go through. It’s a fundamental part of human nature, co...
You won't believe what 42% of Lays Chips consumers think about the product...
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders offer a meaningful thought to chew on this Thanksgiving: inaction isn’t free.
We’re biologically wired to play it safe, to preserve the status quo, and to assume that doing nothing carries no cost. But in business, in branding, and in life, inaction is a decision;...
Netflix is turning hit shows into real-world experiences, but is it right?
>> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us
Netflix just opened Netflix House, a multi-level immersive experience where fans can step into real-world versions of their favorite shows like Squid Games, Stranger Things, and more. It’s bold. It’s ambitious. It’s a big bet on the experience economy.
But… Reilly isn’t sold.
In this debate-style epi...
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