Spona Speaks: Recent Episodes
Spona
Spona Speaks (formerly The Top Digital Podcast) is a show that explores the digital world through the eyes of the people who are making cutting-edge digital services.
In this episode of Spona Speaks, we sit down with Damir Ciglar, the founder and CEO of Imago Ogilvy, Croatia's most internationally awarded advertising agency. Damir shares his journey from the beginning doing computer graphics in the early '90s to building a creative powerhouse that blends artistic vision with strategic impact. We talk about the philosophy that drives Imago’s success, the importance of creativity with purpose, and how Damir is passing his knowledge and experience to the next generation of leaders. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about the evolution of advertising and the future of creativity.
In this episode of Spona Speaks, Ana will take over the hosting duties from Gary. They reflect on the unique paths that have brought them to Spona, from Ana's Canadian upbringing and Croatian roots to Gary's travels in the US and his agency experience. Together, they talk about the latest trends in digital agencies, share insights on working with international clients and give advice on how to embrace curiosity and authenticity in storytelling. Listen to the fresh perspectives Ana and Gary bring to the podcast.
Unspoken Truths in Branding: Bethany shares her experiences and insights into branding by uncovering the unspoken truths that resonate with consumers. She illustrates this with examples like WhyGolf?, a brand focused on golf training products that tapped into the frustration many golfers feel, turning it into a unique selling proposition.
Understanding Target Audiences: Bethany emphasizes the importance of thorough market research in understanding target audiences. She recounts a story where assumptions about a product’s target market were overturned by feedback from grandparents, leading to a highly successful campaign.
Simplicity in Branding: Garry and Bethany discuss the power of simplicity in branding, highlighting the need to distill complex messages into clear, concise, and relatable concepts. They explore examples of brands that have mastered this, like Nike, Apple, and Klarna.
Building Superfans: Bethany stresses the importance of turning customers into superfans by fostering strong emotional connections with brands. She explains that while brand awareness is crucial, building deep customer loyalty leads to long-term success.
Challenges in Branding: The conversation also delves into the challenges of balancing brand awareness with immediate revenue generation, particularly in today’s fast-paced market. Bethany discusses the need to educate clients about the long-term benefits of investing in brand-building activities.
Personal Insights: Bethany shares her personal interests in being a food show host or music video producer, highlighting her passion for combining entertainment with functionality, a trait she believes aligns with her career in advertising.
This two-part episode features Bethany Wilcox, cofounder of Unusual, an LA-based advertising, creative, and branding agency.
In this episode, Bethany speaks with Spona's Garry Mendez about the importance of simplifying branding and communication to maximize impact, the need for market research, and unspoken truths to uncover pain points and win over consumers.
This is the second half of a two-part conversation with Van Rais, founder of the consultancy Hello-Better. In part one Van told the story of how he came to behavioral science and how it's tied to his work as a designer. In this episode, we dive into some of the case studies that show just how linking behavioral science with design has helped his clients.
In part one of a two-part conversation, Van tells us about what shaped his vision for Hello-Better, a new type of consultancy that builds brands but isn’t a traditional branding agency at all. In part two we’ll tackle how Van and the Hello-Better team apply their approach to client work to get results.
If you’re wondering if your company could run more efficiently, this episode is for you. You’ll hear about how payment processing company Bluezone works and the many ways they’ve helped businesses improve their bottom lines.
Learn more about Bluezone
Our episodes usually feature interviews with agency leaders or clients. This episode gives you a look behind the scenes at Spona as we talk with members of the Spona staff. We’ll talk about what they do at Spona and discuss how their career paths led them here.
Whether you'd like to work with Spona (or for Spona), or you're just curious about the people behind the company, this episode is for you.
Joshua Chin may be young, but he's a master of a tool that, by internet standards, is ancient: email marketing.
Email marketing continues to figure prominently in a lot of marketer's plans for one simple reason: it works. In this episode we explore some of the keys to success in email marketing and look at the email marketing KPIs that you should be measuring if you want to win with email.
When the founders of Rivian Electric Automobiles wanted to launch a new automobile brand, they turned to Rejouice, a venture agency based in Paris and San Diego. We've got all the questions. We wanted to know what was the experience like building a new brand in the automotive industry, what it's like working with, essentially a software company that makes trucks, and what exactly is a venture agency, anyway? Rejouice founder Guillaume Hamon supplied us with the answers in this look at the life of an upstart California agency that focuses on working with upstart clients.
Usually, our episodes feature interviews with agency leaders or clients, but in this episode, you'll hear from Spona staff. We’ll talk about what they do at Spona and discuss how their career paths led them here.
Whether you'd like to work with Spona (or for Spona), or you're just curious about the people behind the company, this episode is for you.
Spona Speaks with Brent Woods of Percept Brand Design about their work for the Australian consulting firm, Aestra.
The case study: Rebrand for a Strategic Consulting Firm
The agency: Percept Brand Design
The guest: Brent Woods
In 2020, Rosetta Stone’s language learning tools to students who were forced to stay home during the COVID-19 shutdowns. This is the story of how that campaign came together.
This conversation with two of the key players in this campaign gives you a behind-the-scenes look into how to build a PR campaign that does good and is good for the bottom line.
To learn more, check out the full case study that highlights the success of the campaign.
TDA is now Spona and The Top Digital Podcast is now Spona Speaks. Here's how it happened, straight from the horse's mouth with Spona's COO and CTO, Lehady "Lee" Sani Agatha, and the Spona marketing team, along with Ivan Fistrić and Andrej Virant Sadiković of the branding agency, Studio Size.
Robin Dimond of Fifth & Cor tells the story of driving foot traffic and followers to a restaurant even during trying times.
A conversation about AI in your email inbox with AI expert, Tina Horvat of bonsai.tech and Rulify.ai.
We had such a good talk with Mislav Malenica or Mindsmiths when we first started the podcast. The only problem is, we didn't have many listeners at the beginning.
We've grown some since our early days on the podcast and wanted to dig into the archives and put this episode up front and center for our newer listeners. Whether you're discovering it for the first time, or relistening to a classic, we hope you enjoy this rebroadcast of one of our early episodes.
What makes a great content marketing agency? And, how do you know which one is for you? We break it all down in this Top Digital Podcast mini-episode.
Show Links:
- Post your content marketing project on TDA
- How to Develop a Content Strategy: Start With These 3 Questions from the Content Marketing Institute
- Top Tips on How to Find a Digital Service Provider from TDA
We talk with Paško Vrbat, author of "The Perfect Match: Finding Your Dream Branding Agency" about what to look for in a branding agency.
Download Paško's latest ebook here:
The Perfect Match: Finding Your Dream Branding Agency
Want to attract the best of the best agencies to work on your web design project? Listen up, because we're unlocking some of the secrets of getting the top digital agencies to work for you in this mini-episode of the Top Digital Podcast.
EuroART 93 is the proverbial little agency that could. From the small city of Sisak, in the small country of Croatia, this small agency serves big clients with big ideas. We delve into how they do it, on this episode featuring CEO, Jurica Vuković.
We discussed the recently released tool from TDA, End-to-End Project Management. Listen to this episode of the Top Digital Podcast to get a behind-the-scenes look at how this powerful new business tool came to life and how you can use it.
This interview serves as a master class in app marketing. Listen to this episode of the Top Digital Podcast with Andre Kempe of Admiral Media.
What is the role of the brand in a splintered society? Can brands find success in markets when consumers are split up into so many factions they can't seem to agree on anything? We dig into these questions and more with branding expert and TDA agency founder, Nick Platt of the London and Los Angeles-based agency, LO:LA.
What if an agency only worked for clients that aligned with their values? That's the question our guest for this episode asked a group of agency people. What happened next is what we discuss in this episode of the Top Digital Podcast.
It's all fun and games in this episode of the Top Digital Podcast as we catch up with the founder of Gameboost, a global marketplace for gaming services, Kristijan Salijević.
In this episode of the Top Digital Podcast we speak with service design consultant, Nikolina Topić CEO of the innovative consultancy, Prokotip.
If all you know about AI is what you've seen in the movies, it's time to say "hasta la vista, baby" to your old notions of AI and machine learning with our guest Mislav Malenica of the pioneering AI company, and TDA partner, Mindsmiths.
In the inaugural episode of the Top Digital Podcast by Top Digital Agency (TDA), we delve into the story of how TDA became the company it is today and the superhero origin story of its COO, Lehady "Lee" Sani-Agatha.
The Top Digital Podcast from TDA explores the digital world through the eyes of the people who are making cutting-edge digital services. New episodes start July 20, so subscribe where you get your podasts.