Kellie Pean and Alyssa Convertini Lindquist are the co-founders of Brand New: A Collective, a bicoastal and award-winning marketing agency with disciplines across creative, strategy, experiential production, and talent partnerships. The agency is guided by a penchant for cultural mastery, using its team’s deep understanding of culture to craft stellar campaigns and activations that drive meaningful business results.

On this episode of On Scope, the women behind Brand New join host Mike Berberich to share their founders’ story and explain how company culture is the ultimate catalyst for producing great work. Together, the trio covers the realities of being a female entrepreneur in a patriarchal society, the silent killers Kellie and Alyssa believe pull down company culture, how smaller brands can participate in and own culture without needing a massive media budget, and how brands of all sizes can engage in culture without coming off as cringe.

On “News You Might Have Missed,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger discuss a story from ANA Magazine covering key takeaways from the ANA’s latest report, “The Continued Acceleration of Principal Media.” The report shows that marketers are leveraging principal media more, despite their growing concerns. Mike and Ryan discuss why this contradiction might be occurring, highlight how marketers are still dropping the ball when it comes to media governance, and point out how misguided, top-down organizational pressure might be forcing marketers to invest in media buys that they don’t have the utmost confidence in.

As you’ll learn during this episode, culture moves quickly, and the cost of getting it wrong is real. The best marketers build stronger cultural instincts by learning from people who are doing the work at the highest level. ANA National Industry Conferences put marketers in the room with CMOs and senior leaders shaping what’s next, with practical takeaways and connections that carry beyond the event. Check out the full lineup of upcoming conferences by visiting www.ana.net/conferences.

The On Scope team would love to hear from you! If you have a topic or guest idea, you can email them at onscope@ana.net.

Rita Ramakrishnan is an executive coach with more than 15 years’ experience leading people strategy and helping neurodivergent executives turn their cognitive differences into competitive advantages. Through the years, she has developed a keen understanding of how team structures can be designed to maximize the strengths of all individuals, but especially those who are neurodivergent.

On this episode of On Scope, Rita, who is the founder and CEO at Iksana Consulting, joins host Mike Berberich to discuss what brands and business leaders can do to tap into the superpowers of their neurodivergent workforce, an increasingly critical business imperative, as more than half of gen Z now identify as neurodivergent. Together, Mike and Rita discuss the specific advantages of creating a work environment where neurodivergent employees can thrive, what steps companies can take to create this type of environment, and how those lower down on the corporate ladder can convince leadership that making accommodations for neurodivergent individuals is not about entitlement but rather about maximizing the potential of the entire team.

On “News You Might Have Missed,” Mike and show producer Ryan Dinger discuss an article from ADWEEK on the persistent gender wage gap in advertising, with a new study showing women working at ad agencies still earn 5 percent less than their male counterparts, despite ongoing efforts to achieve pay equity. Mike and Ryan acknowledge that this issue probably exists on the brand side, as well, before hypothesizing on why the industry continues to struggle to make progress, highlighting the culture they both experienced when working at agencies and speculating about the need to rethink leadership models in business.

If the conversation with Rita has you wondering how to get the most out of your own team, then you’ll want to check out the ANA’s Marketing Training and Development Center, which helps build capabilities through open workshops, both online and in-person, and certification programs. Learn more by visiting us at www.ana.net/mtdc.

The On Scope team would love to hear from you! If you have a topic or guest idea, you can email them at onscope@ana.net.

Gravity Research’s Joanna Piacenza has a knack for driving enterprise growth through research-backed thought leadership and integrated marketing strategy. As VP of thought leadership and marketing, she excels at translating proprietary research into executive-ready narratives and strategic communications.

On this episode of On Scope, Joanna joins host Mike Berberich to share recent research from her organization indicating that 2026 looks to be a year of playing it safe for marketers and explain why that just may be the riskiest move a brand can make.

Together, Joanna and Mike cover the role AI has played in marketers opting to play it safer this year, what Joanna is hearing from Fortune 500 executives about their concerns for 2026 that hasn’t shown up in public discourse yet, and her advice for how marketers can take risks without upsetting brand stakeholders.

On “This Week in ANA Magazine,” Matthew Schwartz, editor of the publication, joins Mike to spotlight an article on the proliferation of creator partnerships in marketing. Together, the pair underscore some of the best practices needed to make these activations succeed and highlight some of the KPIs marketers should consider.

If your business wants real connection, then it’s time to partner with the ANA. Become an official ANA sponsor and you will connect with the brands shaping the future of our industry, from Google and Amazon to Meta and TikTok. You can learn more about the fantastic opportunities available to you by visiting www.ana.net/sponsorship.

The On Scope team would love to hear from you! If you have a topic or guest idea, you can email them at onscope@ana.net.