In this mastermind episode of Building Brand Advocacy, we break down the Advocacy Maturity Model, a strategic framework for diagnosing exactly where your brand sits on the advocacy spectrum and the precise steps to move from passive mentions to a fully activated community-led growth engine.

Think of it as your strategic advocacy playbook, the kind of session your brand team needs to align on advocacy as a core brand lever rather than a marketing afterthought.

Inside this episode:

• The 5 stages of brand advocacy maturity and how to identify which stage you're at right now

• Why most brands plateau at stage 2 and never break through to genuine brand love

• The structural shifts your team needs to make at each stage of the model

• How to turn community-led growth into a measurable brand asset

• The metrics that actually matter when tracking advocacy momentum

If you’re a marketing leader trying to restructure your team's advocacy strategy, this episode gives you the framework to stop guessing and start growing with intention.

🔔 New episodes every Wednesday — subscribe so you never miss an episode.

FOLLOW US

Subscribe: www.youtube.com/@buildingbrandadvocacy

Instagram: www.instagram.com/building_brand_advocacy

TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@building.brand.advocacy
Verity: www.linkedin.com/in/verityhurd/

In this episode of Building Brand Advocacy, Verity sits down with Grace Andrews to unpack the real shifts happening in social right now and what forward-thinking brands are doing to stay ahead in 2026 and beyond.

Grace brings a sharp, strategic lens to one of the most underutilised growth levers in marketing today: employee advocacy. We go deep on why building brand growth from the inside out isn't just about brand culture but something much bigger.

We then go onto discuss how to build an effective and experimental content eco-system as well as understanding how to navigate YouTube as long form presence is growing within the digital landscape.

In this episode, we cover:

• The evolution of social trends shaping brand strategy in 2026

• A strategic framework for building genuine employee advocacy

• How to drive real brand growth through your people not just your paid channels

• Effective content experimentation strategies that actually move the needle

• Why YouTube is the deepest, most underrated content channel for brand building

• The trends smart brands are already preparing for in 2026/2027

CHAPTERS

00:00 Episode Trailer

01:30 Meet Grace Andrews

02:23 2024 Trend Check

06:52 Employee Advocacy Basics

09:20 Building The Employees Advocacy Infrastructure

14:52 Ownership And Founder Role

17:11 Incentivising Employee Advocacy

19:22 Building A Content Experimentation System

22:29Dummy Social Channels for Safe Testing

24:09 Case Study of the Shameless Network

28:48 YouTube vs Social Scrolling

31:29 Where YouTube Fits into Teams

33:48 Low Lift YouTube for Brands

35:30 Future Creator Brand Partnerships

Whether you're a founder, marketing lead, or brand strategist — this conversation will change how you think about where your next wave of growth actually comes from.

🔔 Subscribe to Building Brand Advocacy for weekly conversations with the people reshaping how brands grow.

CONNECT WITH GRACE

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graceandrewsss/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@graceandrewsss

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@graceandrews7

FOLLOW US

Verity: https://www.linkedin.com/in/verityhurd/

Subscribe: www.youtube.com/@buildingbrandadvocacy

Instagram: www.instagram.com/building_brand_advocacy
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@building.brand.advocacy

In this episode of Building Brand Advocacy, we're unpacking the seismic shift happening in marketing right now: is branded entertainment replacing paid ads?

We dig into why the smartest brands are investing in long-form content, storytelling, and entertainment-led campaigns, and how this changes everything from team structure to ROI measurement.

What we cover:

• Should brands have Global or local social media accounts

• The perfect niche to scale strategy

• Branded entertainment vs paid ads

• The Redbull playbook

Whether you're a founder, a marketing lead, or a brand builder trying to do more with less — this is the episode that reframes where your budget should actually be going.

🔔 New episodes every Wednesday — subscribe so you never miss an episode.

CONNECT WITH PAUL & VERITY

Paul: www.linkedin.com/in/paulkarcher/

Verity: www.linkedin.com/in/verityhurd/

FOLLOW US

Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulkarcher/

Subscribe: www.youtube.com/@buildingbrandadvocacy

Instagram: www.instagram.com/building_brand_advocacy
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@building.brand.advocacy

Are communities replacing influencers? In this episode of Building Brand Advocacy, Paul sits down with Nicola Gunby, co-founder of CLIQ, to talk about why the brands winning right now aren't chasing reach, they're building belonging.

We go deep on the concept of the 'third space' and why it might be the most underutilised tool in your brand's growth strategy right now.

In this episode we cover:

• The journey behind CLIQ and why Nicola built it

• What 'third space' communities are and why they matter for brands

• What it actually takes to build real, lasting community (it's not what you think)

• How brands can use CLIQ as a community-building tool

• Frameworks for measuring community impact — beyond vanity metrics

• Online vs IRL: which builds deeper brand loyalty?

This one is essential listening if you're a CMO or marketing lead questioning where influencer budgets should actually go in 2025.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

04:29 Community as the Third Place

08:19 Where Brands Go Wrong with Community

13:59 Cliq Brand Case Studies

19:21 Measuring Community ROI

26:17 Measuring Community Event Demand

28:30 Tap Into Existing Communities

29:40 Samsung Community Case Study

35:17 Online vs In Person Community

37:34 Sub Communities Strategy

41:40 Geo Local Community

44:18 Cringe Or Community

🔔 New episodes every Wednesday — subscribe so you never miss an episode.

CONNECT WITH NICOLA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicolargunby/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicola-gunby/
CLIQ: https://www.instagram.com/findyourcliq/

Is influencer marketing dead? Jordan Schwarzenberger, the man behind the Sidemen's evolution from creators to a multi-million pound enterprise, thinks brands have got content eco-systems wrong. In this episode of Building Brand Advocacy, we break down why the smartest brands are ditching traditional influencer marketing and becoming organic content engines instead.

Jordan reveals the exact content strategy that scaled the Sidemen from a YouTube group into a business empire and how any brand can steal from the creator economy strategy. We go deep on building a content hemisphere, why entertainment-first marketing beats ads, and how to turn community into customers through brand advocacy.

In this episode we cover:

• Sidemen evolution from creators to an enterprise business.

• The opportunity for brands to become content engines.

• Why influencer marketing is dead.

• Why brands and 10 years behind in content and how to create a solution to get ahead.

Whether you're a CMO, marketer or brand founder, this episode is your blueprint for building a content marketing strategy that actually compounds.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

02:38 Building the LADBible Agency

07:16 Scaling The Sidemen Businesses

11:16 Defining A Content Infrastructure

12:27 Side Plus Membership Model

17:27 How Brands Should Be Working With Creators

20:23 End Of The Transactional Influencer Model

23:04 Discovery IS Replacing Followers

26:07 The Influencer Economy Collapse

28:33 Traditional Campaigns Are Dead

30:04 Monoculture To Micro Communities

38:24 The CMO Playbook

41:40 Contribution Marketing To Serve Then Sell

🔔 New episodes every Wednesday — subscribe so you never miss an episode.

CONNECT WITH JORDAN

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanschwarzenberger/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanschwarz/

TiKTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jordanschwarzenberger

FOLLOW US

Verity: www.linkedin.com/in/verityhurd/

Subscribe: www.youtube.com/@buildingbrandadvocacy

Instagram: www.instagram.com/building_brand_advocacy
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@building.brand.advocacy

AI for brands is already here. It’s making a shift and as marketing teams, we should be reactive. But the reality is that most brands are still figuring out where to start.

In this episode of Building Brand Advocacy, we break down the real state of AI for brands right now. What's working, what's just noise and how to make AI work for YOU without losing the human touch that drives real brand advocacy.

In this episode, we cover:

The current state of AI for brands

How to make AI work for you and your team today

How AI will reshape marketing resources and team structures

Practical ways to use AI in your day-to-day work life

Using AI to create real efficiencies across your content and marketing ops

How to build, scale, and manage an AI team from scratch

CHAPTERS

00:00 Build Your AI Native Dream Team

02:32 Manager of Infinite Minds

03:54 Onboarding and Feedback Loop

09:49 Future Proof Marketing Roles Form AI

15:14 Building AI Agents into Your Workflow

22:30 Repurposing Content With Agents

25:54 Scaling To 11 Agents

31:58 AI Native Mindset Shift

34:45 Create A Preference Sheet for AI

38:34 Training Cadence And Growth

Whether you're a brand team trying to do more with less, or a marketing leader figuring out how to upskill your team, this episode is your AI starter kit.

🔔 Subscribe to watch our new episodes every Tuesday.

CONNECT WITH PAUL & VERITY

Paul: www.linkedin.com/in/paulkarcher/

Verity: www.linkedin.com/in/verityhurd/

FOLLOW US

Subscribe: www.youtube.com/@buildingbrandadvocacy

Instagram: www.instagram.com/building_brand_advocacy

TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@building.brand.advocacy

In this mastermind episode, Sophie Miller (founder of Pretty Little Marketer) breaks down the exact tactical steps she’d take to build a high-engagement community from scratch in 2026.

If you’re a brand, marketer or founder trying to turn followers into a real community engine, this episode is a step-by-step guide to catapult your community strategy.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

00:00 Introduction to community building

00:56 The Platform Strategy

05:06 Step 1: Connection Point

08:19 Step 2: Mission Sentence

11:09 Step 3: Connection To You, Connection To Each Other

16:24 Step 4: Thin Content

🔔 New episodes every Wednesday — subscribe so you never miss an episode.

CONNECT WITH SOPHIE

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiealicemiller/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophiemillerrrr/

Pretty Little Marketer: https://www.linkedin.com/company/prettylittlemarketer/

FOLLOW US

Subscribe: ⁠www.youtube.com/@buildingbrandadvocacy⁠

Instagram: ⁠www.instagram.com/building_brand_advocacy⁠

TikTok: ⁠www.tiktok.com/@building.brand.advocacy⁠

Verity: www.linkedin.com/in/verityhurd/

Are you building a real community around your brand or just spending budget on meaningless partnerships and vanity metrics?

In this episode of Building Brand Advocacy, Verity sits down with marketing consultant Lauren Spearman who has worked with Global brands including Benefit Cosmetics, MADE.com, Trinny London to unpack what genuine advocacy looks like today vs. a decade ago and why most influencer strategies are still stuck in 2014.

We go deep on how to move from fabricated, performance-led “community” to truly invested brand advocates who buy, refer, and defend your brand online.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Evolution of brand advocacy over the last 10 years

• How Benefit Cosmetics build a ‘warm’ brand through effective influencer strategies

• How to find organic advocacy in your existing community

• How to build real relationships with your influencer partners

• What went into creative authentic advocacy at MADE.com

• The work behind Trinny London Tribe

CMOs, brand and social leads, and anyone tired of pouring budget into influencer campaigns that don’t convert into real advocacy, retention, or revenue, this episode is for you.

CHAPTERS

02:37 Netmums and Real Community

06:24 Inside Benefit Cosmetics

12:20 Employee Advocacy in Action

19:33 Benefit Mascara Maldives Launch

21:37 Reframing advocacy at MADE.com

24:52 Building the Advocacy at MADE.com

30:28 Brand Advocacy vs Performance

34:26 Treating Creators as True Partners

37:26 Behind the Trinny Tribe Community

40:36 Quick fire and Wrap Up

🔔 New episodes every Wednesday — subscribe so you never miss an episode.

CONNECT WITH LAUREN

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenspearman/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenspearman/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@spearmanlauren

FOLLOW US

Verity: www.linkedin.com/in/verityhurd/

Subscribe: www.youtube.com/@buildingbrandadvocacy

Instagram: www.instagram.com/building_brand_advocacy
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@building.brand.advocacy