It’s the buzzword combo every CMO wants to crack, but few actually have.

Recorded live at the Brand Advocacy Summit: New York, this chat dives deep into what it really means to blend culture & performance – with two of the sharpest minds in brand today.

Ana Andjelic (Global Chief Brand Officer @ Esprit) and Nathan Jun Poekert (Brand Strategist & CMO Advisor) bring radically different lenses to one big challenge: how do you grow a brand that actually means something and performs?

This is a no-fluff, all-strategy conversation.

Covering:

🧠 Why most marketing is stuck in reactive chaos

⭐️ What the best brands are doing differently

📊 The missing metric: cultural impact as a KPI (& how to track it across teams)

📉 Why influencer marketing fails when measured like performance media

🎯 The rise of the "social franchise”

🧩 How to structure teams that don’t kill creativity or speed in the name of metrics

If you're a brand, a marketer, or a leader trying to build for the next decade – not just the next quarter – then tune in.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Culture x Performance (Live from NYC)

01:30 – Marketing in Chaos: What’s Really Going On

04:10 – The Story vs. The Dashboard

06:25 – Why Brand & Performance Still Don’t Work Together

08:00 – Measuring Cultural Impact: A New Index

10:15 – The Age Problem in Media Optimisation

14:30 – Forget Engagement Rates. Track This Instead.

20:40 – Virality, Creators & Brand Control

22:10 – The Social Franchise Model Explained

26:20 – Brand Safety vs. Subculture: The Trade-Off

31:45 – Why Paid & Organic Must Sit Together

36:35 – From Close Friends to Culture Clubs

39:15 – How Stanley Won Facebook Moms

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Connect with Ana & Nathan:

On Ana’s LinkedIn

On Nathan’s LinkedIn