Adspeak

In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, host Rob Klara sits down with three communication leaders to explore how iconic brands can turn major anniversaries into opportunities for cultural relevance and future growth. Sona Iliffe-Moon, Chief Communications Officer at Yahoo; Gina Pesko Laughlin, VP and Global Head of Communications at Delta Air Lines; and Melissa Menta, SVP, Global Brand and Communications at Peanuts Worldwide, share lessons from celebrating Yahoo’s 30th, Peanuts’ 75th, and Delta’s 100th anniversaries.

The conversation explores how brands can harness nostalgia without becoming stuck in the past, why authentic brand DNA matters more than flashy campaigns, and how partnerships, social content, and experiential activations can bring heritage to new audiences. From Delta’s employee-designed centennial aircraft and renovated Flight Museum to Peanuts’ NASA partnership and Yahoo’s playful Super Bowl campaign, the guests reveal how legacy can become a powerful platform for innovation, relevance, and connection across generations.

What You'll Learn:
How to activate nostalgia without losing contemporary relevance
Why brand DNA matters more than flashy production
The museum and physical experience as brand storytelling
How to use partnerships to extend brand legacy organically
The power of employee-created design in anniversary campaigns
Why anniversary milestones create credibility platforms for future messaging

About the Guests:
Sona Iliffe-Moon is Chief Communications Officer at Yahoo, where she leads global corporate, consumer, and internal communications. She brings more than 20 years of experience across strategic, consumer, crisis, and corporate communications, having held leadership roles at Lyft, Facebook, Instagram, Nestlé, and Toyota, as well as PR agencies Weber Shandwick and Hill & Knowlton. Before entering PR, Sona worked as a foreign affairs officer at the U.S. Department of State. She holds degrees from George Washington University and USC Annenberg.

Gina Pesko Laughlin is Vice President, Global Brand Communications at Delta Air Lines, where she leads communications strategies that strengthen Delta’s reputation, culture, and customer brand. A 20-year Delta veteran, she has held leadership roles spanning corporate, employee, executive, crisis, and operations communications, including helping guide the airline through its merger with Northwest and bankruptcy reorganization. Gina previously built Delta’s employee engagement function and launched its first internal social platform. She holds degrees in public relations and political science from Syracuse University.

Melissa Menta is a veteran marketing and communications executive with deep experience building global entertainment and character brands. As SVP, Global Brand and Communications at Peanuts Worldwide, she led major initiatives including the brand’s 75th anniversary, the NASA partnership featuring Astronaut Snoopy, and The Armstrong Project which supports emerging artists of color. Her career has included work with The Muppets, Pets.com, Shiseido, Dilbert, and other iconic properties. Melissa holds degrees from Middlebury College and NYU and serves on the board of the Charles M. Schulz Museum.

Host and Guest Resources:
Sona Iliffe-Moon on LinkedIn
Yahoo Website
Gina Pesko Laughlin on LinkedIn
Delta Air Lines Website
Melissa Menta on LinkedIn
Peanuts Worldwide Website
ADWEEK Website

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What does it take for brands and teams to turn uncertainty into a competitive advantage?

In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, host Alison Weissbrot, Executive Editor at ADWEEK, sits down with Jonathan Fields, Founder, Co-Executive Producer, and host of the Good Life Project, for a live BrandWeek conversation about navigating disruption with clarity, resilience, and purpose.

Jonathan shares five principles for businesses to thrive in volatile markets, including actively seeking new opportunities, building trust through creator partnerships, narrowing strategic focus, and addressing the deeper anxiety behind consumer needs. The conversation also explores why calm, grounded communication can build stronger connections than simply addressing surface-level problems.

Going a step beyond strategy, Jonathan explains how leaders can operationalize resilience through simple nervous-system regulation techniques, including the physiological sigh, and embed practices like mindfulness and breathwork into their organizational culture. The result is a practical framework to help leaders and teams stay creative, focused, and able to make better decisions when uncertainty is at its peak.

What You'll Learn:
How to Operationalize Door Finding
Why Trust Transference from Creators Outperforms Brand Affinity
The "Narrow by 50%" Framework for Resource Allocation
How to Solve for the Meta Problem, Not Just the Surface Problem
The Physiological Sigh Technique for Real-Time Nervous System Regulation.
How to Operationalize Personal Peace as a Cultural Practice

About the Guest
Jonathan Fields is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, executive producer, and host of the globally popular Good Life Project podcast, which has generated more than 100 million listens and views. He has founded multiple companies focused on human potential and created the Sparketype Assessment, used by more than 1 million people and organizations. Jonathan’s work explores uncertainty, resilience, human potential, and the pursuit of meaningful work, helping leaders and individuals turn disruption and challenge into opportunities for growth, creativity, and possibility.

Host and Guest Resources:
Jonathan Fields on LinkedIn
Good Life Project Podcast
Alison Weissbrot on LinkedIn
Adspeak by ADWEEK on Apple Podcasts
Adspeak by ADWEEK on Spotify
ADWEEK Website

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What happens when brands stop treating audiences as consumers and start treating them as communities?

In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, host Jenny Rooney brings together Jason Bunge, CMO at Hasbro, Rachel Delphin, CMO at Twitch, and Dan Moriarty, CMO at Chicago Fire FC, for a live BrandWeek panel on the future of play and fan engagement.

The conversation explores how brands can move beyond traditional broadcast marketing to create authentic experiences that bring people together across physical and digital worlds. The panelists share how strategic partnerships, creator ecosystems, micro-communities, and grassroots experiences can turn casual audiences into loyal advocates.

They also unpack the importance of accessibility, cross-generational play, and the emerging idea of the “brand as fan,” showing up authentically in the communities that matter most. From stadiums and youth soccer clinics to Twitch chats and video game launches, this conversation reveals how marketers can build lasting connections by becoming active participants in culture rather than simply broadcasting into it.

What You'll Learn:
How to shift from broadcast marketing to community-first strategy
The "Universe is Beyond" partnership framework
Why accessibility drives lifetime fan value
How to activate creator and influencer ecosystems instead of paid media
The "brand as fan" positioning
How to design cross-generational engagement through shared play experiences

About the Guests:
Jason Bunge is Chief Marketing Officer at Hasbro, where he leads global media, entertainment, brand, retail, and digital marketing strategy across the company’s iconic franchises. He joined Hasbro in 2023 after serving as the first CMO of Riot Games, overseeing marketing, publishing, and global channel strategy. Previously, he held senior marketing roles at Electronic Arts and Microsoft, including product marketing for Office 365.

Rachel Delphin is a marketing and communications leader who serves as Chief Marketing Officer at Twitch, where she led the strategic direction of PR, social media, growth and media, integrated marketing, creative, and brand teams. She joined Twitch in 2018 after communications leadership roles at Tanium, Twitter, and WIRED. At Twitch, she championed the platform’s creator community and helped shape its approach to brands, creators, and community-driven engagement.

Dan Moriarty is Chief Marketing Officer at Chicago Fire FC, where he leads branding, advertising, media, promotions, and fan engagement while overseeing marketing strategy across the club’s community and youth soccer initiatives. Before joining the Fire in 2024, Moriarty was VP of Marketing at the Chicago Bulls, following leadership roles with the Bulls and the Chicago White Sox. He previously spent five years at Hyatt Hotels and began his career in marketing and media agencies.

Host and Guest Resources:
Jason Bunge on LinkedIn
Hasbro Website
Rachel Delphin on LinkedIn
Twitch Website
Dan Moriarty on LinkedIn
Chicago Fire FC Website
ADWEEK Website

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What if purpose and performance weren't mutually exclusive while building a brand?

In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, host Audrey Kemp brings together R. Ethan Braden, VP and CMCO at Texas A&M University, and Tyler Merrick, Founder and CEO of Joyride, to explore how very different brands can turn authentic storytelling and bold marketing decisions into measurable growth.

Ethan shares how Texas A&M modernized a 150-year-old brand without losing its core values, including the campaign that generated 80 million YouTube views. Tyler reveals how Joyride used product differentiation, cultural relevance, and genuine creator partnerships to become the #1 candy at Target. Together, they unpack why purpose-driven marketing works best when it is grounded in authentic brand positioning, strong creative conviction, and a clear understanding of the audience.
From legacy institutions to challenger brands, this conversation offers practical lessons for building brands that matter and perform.

What You'll Learn:
How to reposition a legacy brand nationally by what makes you distinct
Why pulling underperforming creative can catalyze breakthrough results
The three-legged stool framework for challenger brand success
How to validate purpose-driven positioning through retail performance
The difference between hiring an influencer and building a partnership
How to maintain brand integrity while modernizing for national relevance

About the Guests:
R. Ethan Braden is Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Texas A&M University, where he leads brand, marketing, communications, and storytelling to strengthen the university’s national presence. Previously, he served as EVP and CMO at Purdue University and Purdue Global. Earlier, Ethan spent more than a decade at Eli Lilly & Company, helping lead billion-dollar brands including Cymbalta and Jardiance. His work has been featured in Fast Company, Ad Age, and The Washington Post. In 2023, he was named Content Marketer of the Year by the Content Marketing Institute.

Tyler Merrick is the founder and CEO of Joyride, a challenger candy brand that became the #1-selling candy at Target by combining clean ingredients with authentic creator partnerships. With roots in family entrepreneurship and a background in product development across multiple categories, Merrick built Joyride on a thesis of purpose-driven performance: delivering significantly less sugar and zero artificial additives without compromising taste.

Host and Guest Resources:
R. Ethan Braden on LinkedIn
Texas A&M University Website
Tyler Merrick on LinkedIn
Joyride Website
ADWEEK Website

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AI is reshaping how brands imagine, produce, and tell stories, but the most effective creative work still starts with human ideas. In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, Nik Kleverov, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Native Foreign, explores how visual AI is helping brands including Toys“R”Us, Coca-Cola, and Delta push beyond the limits of traditional production. He explains why AI should be treated as a creative accelerant rather than a replacement for human judgment, and how iterative, editor-centric workflows are changing the production process.

Nik also discusses the rise of the “generalist with big ideas,” the importance of building client trust through transparent workflows and legal safeguards, and how teams can decide when AI genuinely adds value. From impossible-to-film environments to questions of representation and bias, he offers a practical look at using AI to expand creative ambition while preserving authenticity, emotional resonance, and human authorship and meaningful brand storytelling today.

What You'll Learn:

How to position AI as a creative accelerant, not a human replacement
Why visualization and iterative workflows are replacing traditional production
The "Generalist with Big Ideas" advantage in an AI-driven market
How to build client trust through legal safeguards and transparent workflows
When to use AI versus traditional production, and when not to
How representation and bias in AI tools directly impact campaign inclusivity

About the Guest:
Nik Kleverov is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Native Foreign and a pioneering storyteller exploring the possibilities of AI in creative work. From Netflix’s Narcos title sequences to the first AI-generated brand film for Toys“R”Us, his work blends technology and creativity to push storytelling forward. A sought-after speaker, Nik is a leading voice on how AI is reshaping the future of storytelling.

Host and Guest Resources:

Nik Kleverov on LinkedIn
Native Foreign Website
ADWEEK Website
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