Campaign Chemistry cover art

Campaign Chemistry

Campaign Chemistry

Written by: Campaign US
Listen for free

About this listen

 On Campaign Chemistry, a podcast from Campaign US, we pick the brains of creative alchemists, business wizards and marketing geniuses behind the world’s greatest brands. Economics Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Campaign Chemistry Rewind: Revisiting our conversation with NBCU's Karen Kovacs

    Campaign Chemistry Rewind: Revisiting our conversation with NBCU's Karen Kovacs
    May 6 2026

    On this weeks edition of Campaign Chemistry Rewind, we revisit an episode featuring NBCU's Karen Kovacs, which originally aired in April 2025.

    With the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics on the horizon, NBCUniversal is preparing for one of its biggest upfront seasons yet. In this episode, Luz Corona sits down with Karen Kovacs to unpack NBCU’s multi-platform strategy — from the cultural dominance of Bravo to the growing importance of Telemundo in reaching Hispanic audiences. They also discuss lessons from past campaigns, how news continues to anchor audience trust and why emerging sports talent may be the future of brand storytelling.


    campaignlive.com

    Music - Take you Out by Lucid Tides, courtesy of Triple Scoop.

    What we know about advertising, you should know about advertising. Start your 1-month FREE trial to Campaign US.


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    32 mins
  • Campaign Chemistry: Hyatt’s Ana Tomicevic

    Campaign Chemistry: Hyatt’s Ana Tomicevic
    Apr 30 2026

    In an era when we are more connected yet more distracted than ever, the greatest luxury isn’t just a five-star suite — it’s quality time.

    This week on Campaign Chemistry, we sit down with Anna Tomicevic, VP of global brands for Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection. With a career spanning from Marriott to overseeing 11 distinct brands at Hyatt, Tomicevic has a front-row seat to the shifting tides of the travel industry.

    From the rise of “zero-proof” cocktails for Gen Z to the integration of AI in trip planning, Tomicevic shares how Hyatt is moving beyond “table stakes” hospitality to curate experiences that actually matter — whether that’s sound healing, swimming with turtles or leaning into the conversation card trend to facilitate conversation. We also dig into the brand’s Time Here Is Worth More campaign, inspired by Hyatt’s Time Rich Report, which revealed a staggering 82% of travelers are craving more quality time.

    The sound bite

    "We are in the industry of happiness."

    The key takeaways

    1. AI is transforming the discovery phase across travel. Consumers are increasingly turning to generative AI such as ChatGPT for travel inspiration and initial research. Marketers must monitor how their brands show up in these AI-driven search engines and reshape their top-of-funnel discovery strategies accordingly.
    2. Anchor complex portfolios with a master brand. Managing 11 different brands within a single portfolio can dilute messaging. Hyatt used its loyalty program, World of Hyatt, as a powerful master umbrella to connect these diverse offerings and present a clear, unified value proposition to the consumer.
    3. Do the research. Hyatt didn’t guess what its consumers wanted; the brand partnered with Wakefield Research to uncover hard data points (i.e., 82% of people crave more quality time and they spend over 17 hours a week mindlessly scrolling on screens) and it directly fueled its Time Rich campaign.
    4. A great marketing campaign shouldn’t just be an advertisement. It should actively reshape the product experience. Hyatt used the Time Rich campaign as a platform to physically alter on-property guest experiences, focusing on real-world presence and connection.
    5. Audit and amplify what you already do well. Sometimes you don’t need to invent a new product; you just need to market the existing ones better. Through an internal audit, Hyatt discovered incredible, on-brand experiences already happening at their properties — like swimming with turtles or sound therapy under a sacred tree — that it simply wasn’t talking about enough.
    6. Use strategic partnerships to enhance the brand mission. To execute its goal of fostering human connection, Hyatt is developing specific partnership pillars. For example, the hospitality brand is partnering with a brand to introduce “connection cards” with conversational prompts at their resorts, actively giving guests a tool to put their phones down and connect.
    7. Adapt to generational behavioral shifts. While all-inclusive resorts are famous for free alcohol, younger generations are shifting toward lower alcohol consumption. Forward-thinking marketers track these demographic shifts and adapt their offerings, which is why Hyatt is actively expanding its “zero-proof” beverage space to meet this new consumer demand.
    8. Meet the consumer where they are. Recognizing that modern travelers rely heavily on community forums, Hyatt began testing native ad placements on Reddit to insert itself authentically into the travel discovery conversation.
    9. With 70% of U.S. households streaming their content, CTV is a vital channel for lifestyle and travel brands. Hyatt leaned heavily into CTV for its recent campaign and saw massive engagement, hitting a 99% video completion rate.
    10. Standard search bars can be limiting and frustrating. By upgrading its website with an AI-powered search function, Hyatt allowed users to search by specific desires — such as “lazy river” or “golf course” — reducing friction in the booking process and catering to highly specific traveler intent.


    campaignlive.com

    Music - Take you Out by Lucid Tides, courtesy of Triple Scoop.

    What we know about advertising, you should know about advertising. Start your 1-month FREE trial to Campaign US.


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    40 mins
  • Campaign Chemistry: Thorne’s Mary Beech and Redscout’s Ivan Kayser

    Campaign Chemistry: Thorne’s Mary Beech and Redscout’s Ivan Kayser
    Apr 23 2026
    If you are a brand experiencing massive growth, your first instinct might be to just keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing. Luckily for Thorne consumers, Mary Beech, the brand’s chief growth officer, and Ivan Kayser, the CEO of Redscout, refuse to do anything but. In this episode, we’re taking a fly-on-the-wall look at how Beech, Kayser and their teams worked together to define Thorn’'s brand identity based on two key insights stemming from their joint brand research: the importance of Thorn’'s clinical, scientific rigor and the consumer’s deep desire for personalization. They also share the secret behind their highly successful client-agency partnership, which starts with early morning breakfasts in Brooklyn, creating crystal-clear briefs and a simple golden rule: Don’t hire jerks. Both Beech and Kayser also discuss their take on the brands that have successfully transitioned from challenger brands to innovative leaders within their industries simply by "breaking the rules.” The sound bite "Authenticity comes first versus fame." The stories Lana Condor and Misty Copeland tackle once-taboo topics in Thorne’s new campaign Ciara and Thorne ‘level up’ creatine marketing with new stigma-busting campaign Thorne debuts on-the-go products through cinema-esque ad featuring Ben Shelton The key takeaways Don’t settle for complacency. Innovate for the benefit of the consumers. When a brand is experiencing high growth, the instinct is often to just repeat the exact same tactics. However, marketers should take the time to extract the underlying strategic lessons of why those tactics worked, which allows the brand to diversify its marketing mix and experiment with intentionality.Differentiate between category table stakes and true brand differentiators. Consumers will often state that certain product features like scientific excellence and rigor are essential. But what’s important to the consumer does not always fuel brand differentiation. Marketers must position the brand against the insights that actually drive preference and interest.Define the brand’s “vibe” for the upper funnel. Lower funnel marketing can easily rely on specific claims, product stats or transactional hooks. However, when shifting spend to upper funnel awareness, the messaging gets "vibier," requiring the brand to be crystal clear on exactly what they are communicating to the consumer.Design brand strategy for daily execution. A strategic positioning is useless if it just looks great on a wall or sits in a drawer. Brand strategy must have an orientation toward execution, providing tangible guardrails, messaging guidelines and tone directions so the creative teams can actually run with the work.Establish a strict “order of operations” for messaging. To maintain a cohesive strategy across all touchpoints, establish clear rules for how the brand speaks. For Thorne, the strategy was “know me, show me,” meaning the brand had to prove it had an understanding of the consumer first, and only then provide the scientific proof points in response.Target potential advocates, not just viable buyers. When conducting audience research, the goal should not just be finding out who you could target, but who you should target. Marketers should look for consumers whose behaviors, identities and motivations make them natural advocates and referrers for the brand.Prioritize relatability over sheer fame. When choosing brand ambassadors, avoid using celebrities simply as a stamp of quality or relevance. Thorne tapped into talent including Misty Copeland, Lana Candor and Ben Shelton, who have authentic stories and personal journeys of product discovery that the target audience can relate to and feel seen by.Build the brand foundation before bringing in talent. Launching a foundational brand campaign without a celeb forces the marketing team to crystallize their tone and message independently. By not letting talent become the foundation, the brand builds a strong core that subsequent ambassador campaigns can securely build upon.Treat agencies as an extension of your internal team. Brands should approach hiring agency partners with the same mindset as hiring internal employees. Rather than just chasing agencies with awards, hire nice, smart people who will make the team and the work better. As Beech states, “I don’t hire jerks.” Avoid “garbage in, garbage out” briefs. Agencies cannot be expected to work miracles if the client hasn't defined the core problem first. Marketers must take the time to thoroughly prepare a brief, defining exactly what they want out of the work and what the expected business impact should be before handing it off to creative partners. campaignlive.com Music - Take you Out by Lucid Tides, courtesy of Triple Scoop. What we know about advertising, you should know about advertising. Start your 1-month FREE trial to Campaign US. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See ...
    Show More Show Less
    50 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet