Brandsplaining Obedient Agency | Allie LeFevere & Lyndsay Rush

It’s our party and we’ll…end it when we want to. That’s right, we’re bringing Season 1 of Brandsplaining® to a close in order to explore other show concepts for the upcoming NEW season. Hear what we’ve got in store and why it’s the most athletic thing we’ve done yet. A very special thanks to all of our incredible guests from this season—we had so much fun ‘splaining branding with you all. Season 2 drops soon, so stay tuned.

There’s not a more appropriate way to end 2020 than with an episode all about staying in. We chatted with Tyler Calder, the Director of Content for Girls’ Night In—a community and weekly newsletter exploring the ways we unwind, take care, and make friends into adulthood. Girls’ Night In also just launched The Lounge: a new membership platform for connecting IRL and online, and Whiled: goods designed for downtime. (And P.S. Whiled’s tagline is so good it makes us howl like wolves: “Press pause and play.) We’ve admired the entire brand suite because of their fun, candid messaging and their use of levity to open dialogue and foster community. We had a riot talking with Tyler (who herself is the queen of cozy) about the Girls’ Night In ethos and brand strategy and got into a lot of fun topics, like:
Using candor and clarity to draw in the right audience  Having a distinct brand personality in order to foster strong partnerships and collabs Resisting the urge to put out clickbait or frivolous content even if it feels the most marketable Not being afraid of having a counter-cultural message, because it can often help you carve a niche and find your people How a thoughtful, integral brand approach will pay off in the long haul in terms of consumer loyalty  And we ended talking about snack necklaces (on Instagram @wearyoursnacks, by the way). You can check out everything GNI is up to @girlsnightinclub, @whiled.co, or @jointhelounge on Instagram or at www.girlsnightin.co.

Ready for some un*match*ed entrepreneurial insights that will help you light your industry on fire and blow away the competition? Perfect, because this week’s episode is wick-ed good. We spoke with Ida-Sofia Koivuniemi, the founder of Evil Queen—a candle company committed to bringing light and attitude into homes around the world. Basically, they’re making candles fun again. 

Regularly selling out online and featured on Buzzfeed, Cosmo, and PopSugar, you‘re not gonna find ‘fresh linen’ or ‘pumpkin harvest’ in Evil Queen’s collections. Instead? Amazing scents with names like “Champagne Showers,” “Stolen Hoodie,” and “Wash Your Fucking Hands.” These candles are funny, memorable gifts for any occasion or the perfect home good to bring a smile to your face during a s****y week. Trust us, Evil Queen candles are the one candle you’d never regift. 

We talked with Ida-Sofia about a lot of really interesting things about creativity, entrepreneurism, and branding including:
Using bold branding to create niches in what seem to be saturated marketplaces  How to use make the mundane memorable How to stay in your lane creatively even if copycat brands start to pop up The power of humor to elicit relatability and inclusiveness Inviting others to be in on the joke  Risk-taking and the benefit of being willing to say things that others won’t How surprise and delight lead to memorability and new customer acquisition Ways to resist branding mimicking and instead trusting your unique POV Burning down industry norms and writing your own rules It’s a great chat and a great time (and we play a rousing game of Mascot Who? as well). For more from Evil Queen, you can head to shopevilqueen.com or on Instagram @evilqueen.

You’re nuts if you think we’d do an episode about branding nut milk and not make that joke. This week is all about joy and JOI and we had a lovely conversation with Mike O’Hagan, the chief strategy officer of JOI, who also happens to be a buddy of ours after working together to launch their first site in 2019. 

JOI (which stands for just one ingredient) is a concentrate made from whole, natural ingredients that, when blended with water, create nutritious, plant-based milks. It’s the first of its kind, creating an entirely new category in the food industry and absolutely crushing it—flying off the shelves, being carried at Amazon and Thrive Market, and receiving glowing reviews from bigwigs like Bon Appetit and The Food Network.

Mike, a plant-based eater for over 23 years, has over 16 years of marketing and advertising experience and we got to gabbing all about the Brand Personality of JOI (that Obedient created), the consumer response to the playful and envelope-pushing tone, how humor kicks shame out of the health food conversation, strategies for flexing in varying brand voices depending on platform, and how helpful a fun approach is in helping a new brand get attention. 

Bonus: we haze him into rehashing a line of copy we wrote for them that ended up on the cutting room floor and we still maintain its brilliance.

Your brain glass will be more than half full after listening and we know that only barely makes sense. Just trust us. If you want more JOI in your life, you can check them out at addjoi.com, and @addjoi across social media.

Do You Hear What I Hear? Some Jingle Bell-y laughs and minds being (snow)blown. That’s right, It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Great Branding and in this episode Allie and Lyndsay brandsplain all of the strategies and tactics that make the holiday branding so compelling...and how you can incorporate them into your business year-round. Gather round the fire as they break down the two pillars of holiday branding—spectacle and story—and share magical background stories to classic campaigns (did you know Rudolph was created by a department store?!), insights into how this season taps into consumer emotion in order to convert, and personal anecdotes from their upbringing that prove that fun is an unmatched tool for creativity and differentiation. Like taking a bite out of a Christmas Tree shaped Reese’s, this episode will leave you happy, hopeful, and ready to take your business from Scrooge to Santa—all year long. 

Bonus topics: Taylor Swift’s new album, Evermore, the 1990 classic animated film, Rover Dangerfield, rebranding Saint Nicholas to Jolly Old Saint Nick, satirical holiday gift guides, Andre 3000’s vacuum, the power of a brand mascot, and of course, the namesake of the episode title: Obedient’s fictional head intern, Gary.

This episode is a panty dropper. Oh man we are already sorry for writing that line BUT we promise it sorta makes sense given that today’s episode is all about underwear. And even wilder: recycled underwear. Keep your pants on while we explain: this week we spoke with Eleanor Turner, the founder and CEO of The Big Favorite, which is a company making super soft and circular understuffs (their brilliantly coined term for undershirts and underwear) for men and women. They are an innovative, thoughtful, and offbeat brand with an incredible mission to put a dent in the 11 million pounds of understuffs that go into landfills and incinerators every day. EVERY DAY, YOU GUYS. To use their great slogan: The Big Favorite goes places, just not in the trash. 

The Big Favorite is new to market but already making a big splash—being worn by the likes of Nicole Richie and featured in Vogue and Marie Claire among others.  Eleanor herself is a heavy hitter in the fashion design world, with iconic American brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Tory Burch, and J.Crew on her resume. She also co-founded the direct-to-consumer company, Argent, where she innovated workwear with four patents pending and dressed trailblazing women like Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Glossier's Emily Weiss, and actress, Awkwafina, among others. 

We got to hear about how The Big Favorite was formerly a cotton workwear brand led by her great grandfather in the 30s and how she revived it using a lot of the original heart and story and adding in quirkiness, fun, humor, and intention.

Beyond the amazing backstory and mission, we gabbed about:
How undergarments are the one apparel category you can’t donate or resell. And how The Big Favorite is changing that with their zero-waste, plastic-free, circular, understuffs. The genius process of how TBF is recycling their own textiles How Eleanor created a Brand Personality and tone of voice for TBF that deviates from the sustainable fashion industry status quo and how that has impacted everyone from the models on her photoshoots to consumers. The eventual plan for these products to be carried at corner stores so that good quality can meet convenience. The creative strategy for people to experience joy when they interact with the brand.  The importance and payoff of taking risks with your branding. Not shying away from the funny/weird sides of your business  Eleanor’s mission to conquer textile waste, get her hands dirty cleaning up the planet...and have a blast doing it. Her time as the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Argent We also play a rousing game of Mascot Who? and riff on slogans that would convince party-going teens to ‘responsibly rage’ and recycle their beer cans. We know you’ll laugh and learn as much as we did, and for more from The Big Favorite you can check them out at thebigfavorite.com (there is a Thong Song/Sisqo joke waiting for you on the homepage. bless), on Facebook and Instagram @thebigfavorite on Twitter @the_bigfavorite and on Reddit at u/greatgrandaddyturner