#168 Brian Bennett is the President of Stir Advertising , an agency specializing in the art and science of helping turn around struggling brands. Bennett has spent a career helping brands. And in this episode, he shares some of his insights and wisdom as a turnaround ninja. Here’s the breakdown of the show: 0:00 – 2:00 Intro 2:00 – 7:00 State of Branding Today vs. Past 7:00 – 14:00 When Clients Think They Need a Turnaround 14:00 – 21:00 Discovery Process & Stakeholder Interviews 28:00 – 35:0...
Jul 10, 2025•55 min
#167 Listen up all my higher ed peeps. I’ve got something special here. Mark Young is the Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions & Divisional Strategy at UW-Milwaukee, and he’s been rewriting the recruitment playbook. Here’s the short story. When Young got to UW-Milwaukee, there was no recruitment plan. So he got to work. And in short order, turned transactional recruitment into relational recruitment. No more just shoving forms at students. Instead, the focus is on creating emotiona...
Jun 30, 2025•56 min
#166 Hey there you amazing listeners. Thanks for checking out the show. We have a great one for y’all today. It’s a sit-down with the super-talented and bourbon-curious Cory Ampe. Ampe is the founder and CEO of Campe + Co . She’s also a BizTimes 2024 Notable Marketing Executive. In this episode, she shares how her zigzag journey through PR, publishing, and agency life led her to build a fractional CMO practice that’s equal parts strategy and scrappy brilliance. Here's what you're going to get: 0...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 3 min
#165 Holy sh*t how did we get to 165 already??!! And ain’t no better person to have on the pod than the Onion Lady herself, Ms. Michele Tonkovitz. Michele, or MT as her public knows her, is the Founder and CEO of Green Onion Creative . A successful agency rooted in Milwaukee. Not only is she a friend of the pod. She delivers great insights on marketing. Plus, she shares a great case study for her PR work around for Buc-ee’s in Oak Creek. Want more? Yeah you do becasuse there's so much more! Here...
Jun 12, 2025•46 min
#164 The work Hunger Task Force (HTF) is doing is impressive. Check out these stats: It supports 50+ food pantries, 20+ meal sites 100+ senior-serving locations locally And 150+ statewide partners via the Hunger Relief Federation Plus, they have a farm! A 28-acre partnership with Milwaukee County producing over 500,000 pounds of fresh produce annually, feeding the food system from the ground up. Impressive! Here are the highlights…make sure to have a listen! 00:00:00 – Intro + What’s in Your Pin...
Jun 04, 2025•38 min
#163 Pat sits down with Dana Lytle, Founder and CEO, and Emily Steele, President, of Madison-based ad agency Planet Propaganda — a shop with a point of view and zero interest in coloring inside the traditional ad agency lines. This agency has done incredible work for: ✅ Duluth Trading Company ✅ Jimmy John’s Sandwiches ✅ Jersey Mike’s Subs ✅ Pernod Ricard Smithworks Vodka Highlights from the show: Intro and Background of Planet Propaganda — 0:00:00 to 0:02:00 Dana on Starting Planet — 0:02:00 to ...
May 29, 2025•51 min
#162 Jim Kanter knows a thing or two about selling and marketing beer and spirits. That’s because he started off driving a beer truck as a summer job. Tell me, does a summer job get any better? From there, Kanter went on an 18-year tear at MillerCoors moving all the way up to General Manager. Then, he went in a different direction. Kanter pivots and joins a small but growing distillery called Central Standard. Today, Central Standard is one of the fastest-growing spirits brands in the Midwest! ✅...
May 21, 2025•57 min
#161 We love talking to folks in the real estate game. And in this episode, Pat has a sit-down with Charlie Hutchinson, who heads up one of the leading real estate teams in the Milwaukee area. Great insights into real estate and marketing. Here’s what we cover: 0:00:00 – Intro Face-to-face setting, Charlie's background tease, chemistry between host and guest. 0:05:00 – Charlie’s Background & Origin Story From Spanish class and radio to Nashville, and eventually real estate. 0:12:00 – Early A...
May 15, 2025•47 min
#160 SVP, at Zartico , Josh Derouin joins the pod. And in this episode, we break down how advanced analytics, attribution, and AI are transforming destination marketing—making data the real MVP of campaign success. We dig into the tension between short-term wins and long-term brand building, why most marketers still fumble with analytics, and how agencies can get ahead (without losing their creative edge). Here are the highlights: Intro & Josh’s Background Josh shares how he pivoted from Fla...
May 01, 2025•37 min
#159 Welcome back everyone. Glad you’re here. On this episode, Pat is joined by Jacob Burr , Creative Director. And Maddie Foord, Experience Designer. These two provide the creative firepower at Ascedia. On this show, Burr and Foord discuss their roles, and their ]data-informed and user-experience-focused approach to their work. Plus so much more… Here are highlights: 0:00 – 2:00 – Intro + Beverage banter 2:00 – 6:00 – Roles + Creative Approach 6:00 – 9:00 – What is UX + Why it Matters 9:00 – 13...
Apr 23, 2025•50 min
#158 Michael DeNunzio is back talking more about AI. More specifically, how to get on top of this wave 🌊 and not get left behind. 2025 has been a pivotal year for AI. The amount of growth and attention in this area is bananas! Individuals and organizations are either going to invest or get left behind. Where are you? Here are highlights from the conversation: Timestamp Topic 00:00 – 02:00 Intro 03:00 – 06:00 Michael’s pivot from Web3 to AI 10:00 – 13:00 The firehose effect: AI advancements in l...
Apr 15, 2025•43 min
#157 Bottom’s up, everyone. Pat and Dave are back and loaded with insights. Here are the highlights: 3:01 – Remote work discussion 16:31 – State of the Economy 24:16 – Scenario Planning 32:41 – Networking when sh*t hits the fan 48:41 – Tactics for connecting Plus, WTF – Starbucks collab with Peanuts?? Connect with Dave on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-coughlin-0870598/ Connect with Pat at: pmcgovern@ascedia.com Before you go, please do us a favor. Take a minute and leave us a rev...
Apr 11, 2025•53 min
#156 Pat’s daughter Emma McGovern stops by to chop it up on important brands to Gen Z. Plus, a deep dive on the NBA and film studio A24. Here are the highlights: 02:25 – What Makes a Brand Magnetic to Gen Z 06:10 – The Rise of Influencer Culture 10:30 – Where Are the Fashion Brands? 14:10 – Food, Fast Casual, and Gen Z Brand Spending 19:40 – Brand Deep Dive #1: The NBA 23:55 – Attention Economy and Sports Consumption 29:00 – Is the 3-Point Shot Ruining Basketball? 37:30 – Brand Deep Dive #2: A24...
Apr 03, 2025•50 min
#155 Hey-O. On today’s pod, Pat does a sit-down with Regional Sales Manager, Dan Ardelan to discuss a key but often overlooked part of marketing – CMS platforms. Let’s face it, your website is the front door to your business. And your CMS is the foundation to a high-performing site. If that’s not working right, your site isn’t working, and if you don’t have a website that's working for you…you’re leaving money on the table. In this episode, Pat and Dan talk about Kentico…a leading CMS in the mar...
Mar 27, 2025•58 min
#154 Josh is back!! Friend of the pod, Josh Albrecht is back. It’s been just about two years since we last talked to Mr. Albrecht. And since then a sh*t ton has happened! Especially when it comes to the great city of Milwaukee. In this episode, we chop it up on: ✅ The impact of hosting "Top Chef" and The Real Housewives in Milwaukee ✅ The massive complexities and successes of hosting the Republican National Convention ✅ Albrecht's expanded role as CMO, and… ✅ The strategies Visit Milwaukee emplo...
Mar 19, 2025•52 min
#153 Hey everybody…thanks for stopping in. You’re in for a good one. In this episode, Shannon Hess joins the pod. Hess is the Director of Content and Communication at Purdue University Daniels School of Business. This is a deep dive into content marketing and Hess delivers. Here’s just some of what we get into: ✅What does a Director of Content & Communications at a major university do? ✅What do most people get wrong when it comes to content marketing? ✅How Hess and her team take an idea from...
Mar 13, 2025•53 min
#152 In this episode, Pat sits down with Sean Momsen. Momsen is a co-owner and head of new business development and marketing at Evology Manufacturing. Evology specializes in rapid turn-arounds of detailed prototypes across a range of industries. They are using cutting-edge technologies to deliver products faster than the competition. In this episode you’ll learn: ✅ How Evology is using speed to create a competitive moat ✅ Momsen’s approach to developing content that converts ✅ The social channe...
Feb 26, 2025•49 min
#151 Let’s be honest with each other, ok. Because if we don’t have honesty…well…what do we have? For many SEO is a bit like black magic. It works…we’re just not sure how. If you fall into this camp…Tyler Einberger is about to illuminate your world. In this episode, we spend a lot of time talking about SEO. The key elements of SEO, the impact of AI on this channel, and where SEO is going next. All of that is 24K gold. But there’s more. Tyler is also the COO of Momentic – a specialized digital con...
Feb 20, 2025•56 min
#150 Welcome back. Glad you’re here. We have something special for y’all. John Leornardo from Palermo’s Pizza. If you’re not familiar with Palermo’s – they are one of the biggest frozen pizza brands in the country. And John is at the marketing helm. In this episode, we cover: ✅The current state of the frozen pizza business ✅What are the two biggest days for frozen pizza? ✅What are the opportunities for Palermo’s ✅His approach to sponsoring professional sporting teams ✅What channel is he investin...
Feb 12, 2025•53 min
#149 Mark Moll knows a thing or two about the ad biz. And he should – he has been in the game for almost 30 years. In that time, Moll has worked with some of the best agencies in the country: Arnold Deutsch–LA Leo Burnett CP+B Marc USA Bernstein-Rein Just to name a few. As a creative lead/writer, Moll has worked on almost every type of product you can think of: Dollar Shave Club, Domino’s Pizza (the turn-around campaign), Sprint, healthcare, a ton of pro-bono work, and even the NFL! During this ...
Feb 06, 2025•58 min
#148 Favorite of the pod, Dave Coughlin returns. But this time it's something a little different. Pat and Dave riff on the Sonos debacle and the steps the company can take to pull themselves out of the downward spiral. They also hit on the Starbucks turnaround. Plus, Nike under Elliot Hill. Enjoy the listen. Catch the past episode with Dave when he gives a case study on the turnaround at Sentry Equipment. Connect with Dave on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-coughlin-0870598/ Connect w...
Jan 30, 2025•48 min
#147 Remso Martinez is the CEO of Marketer On The Run , a digital agency that delivers personalized service with a proven track record for growing businesses, start-ups, nonprofits, and everyone in between. Check 'em out. Remso, got on our radar with this article: What Marketers Job Seeking in 2025 Need to Know. And that's the focus of this pod -- the steps can you take to get hired in marketing. If you’re out there looking – this may be helpful. Have a listen. Connect with Remso on LinkedIn: ht...
Jan 23, 2025•49 min
#146 Nancy Harhut has written one of the best books for marketers — EVER published. Period. End of story. Her book: Using Using Behavioral Science in Marketing: Drive Customer Action and Loyalty by Prompting Instinctive Responses is a complete and thorough guide to key behavioral principles marketers can use to influence and motivate customers to action. This is a rebroadcast episode and we discuss: ✅How she structured and wrote the book ✅How she used the principles to market her book ✅How to us...
Jan 17, 2025•53 min
#145 Terra Fletcher is a fractional CMO, author, and keynote speaker. Her marketing space is manufacturing. This episode works in two parts. The first, how Tara was able to leave her 9 to 5 job and start Fletcher Consulting. For those interested in leaving your current job in 2025 and forging your own path, Fletcher has got some great advice. The second half deals with marketing in the manufacturing space. Fletcher has worked with ten-plus companies going through major changes and looking for he...
Jan 09, 2025•57 min
#144 Jonathan Baker is the head of M&A at Punctuation – the leading authority on positioning, reinventing, and selling firms in the creative and digital space. In this episode, we talk about the selling process. We cover: ✅ How long does a typical sale take ✅ How Jonathan and his team go about valuing an agency ✅ What owners need to do to prepare for the selling journey ✅ What type of agency typically is valued the highest ✅ Why Punctuation is the right agency to partner with to sell your ag...
Jan 03, 2025•41 min
#143 Abigail Carlson is a senior marketing communications leader with deep experience in the manufacturing space. Her passion includes strategic planning and employee engagement. In this episode, we talk about the overall manufacturing environment, how she forges better relationships between sales and marketing, the real power for organizations to stay authentic and to their core values, and a whole bunch more. You can connect with Abigail Connect here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigailcarlson...
Dec 13, 2024•49 min
#142 Lynn Clark has been in the travel and hospitality space her entire career. But it wasn’t until 2016 that Clark took the plunge and decided to buy out an existing travel agency. Everything was going great until a little thing called COVID showed up and threw the entire travel industry into a tailspin. This episode deals with how she overcame those challenges but it also explores what's it's like being a travel agent. Here's what you'll learn: ✅ What a travel agent does ✅ How they get paid ✅ ...
Dec 07, 2024•58 min
#141 Ryan Chuckel is the founder of the specialty agency, Gunpowder . A hugely successful marketing and communications agency focused on the active lifestyle category. His agency just celebrated its ninth anniversary – and for anyone in the agency space, you know that’s about 112 in dog years. In this episode, Pat and Ryan talk about his earlier years—his successes, why he started Gunpowder, and how he and the team got into the active lifestyle category. Chuckel goes into great detail about the ...
Nov 27, 2024•53 min
#140 Bill Blank is the Director of Global Marketing Communications for Badger Meter – a 120-year-old organization that provides water flow measurement and quality monitoring solutions. Let’s be honest – not the sexist vertical in the world. But the work Blank and his team have pulled off is impressive. In this sit down we go deep in the paint on how Blank and the Badger Meter team pulled off the spectacular launch of BlueEdge. It’s a rebrand…but it’s so much more. If you love to geek out on bran...
Nov 21, 2024•54 min
#139 Susan Baier runs the show at Audience Audit, Inc. – a marketing firm helping small to mid-size advertising agencies stand out. Earlier this year Audience Audit and the Agency Management Institute conducted and presented findings from The Agency Edge research series. This is the 10th year they have been running this study. This custom research is designed to help marketing agencies better understand their clients, their prospects, and even their employees. In this podcast, we go deep into th...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 3 min
