Harsh truth: everything you know about community is outdated.

Let’s get to the heart of a word marketers love to throw around, but rarely define.

This week, join us LIVE from the stage of the Brand Advocacy Summit: London — kicking off a four-part mini series from the day with a heavy hitter.

Verity sits down with Lucy Murray (Brand Director @ Free Soul), Emily Mitchell (Marketing Director @ Tropic Skincare), and Paul Hickey (Group Director @ SAMY Alliance), to unpack what brand love actually looks like in 2025.

Together, they cover:

• The 3 Truths Behind Community: From off-the-grid connections to consumer-run spaces, find out what today’s best brands know.

• Real Talk on Events, Activations & Intimacy: Smaller, meaningful events trump 400-person spectacles. You know this, so hear the real best practice for acting on it. When the time comes, scale doesn’t have to mean soulless, either.

• What Listening Actually Looks Like: Learn how Tropic’s 20k-strong ambassador base & Free Soul’s biggest Advocates guide product and marketing decisions – no red tape needed.

• Why Emotional Connection Still Wins: From Free Soul’s community-built retreats to grassroots wellness events (touching grass, wholly included), discover what keeps customers coming back.

• Social Listening with a Human Lens: Hear how SAMY Alliance challenges traditional sentiment tracking with one goal; to get under the skin of what audiences really think.

This one is for any brand that wants to build community beyond a hashtag & follow back.

No fluff. No filter. Just what works.

This episode is in partnership with SAMY Alliance; a global network of creative and data-driven marketing agencies helping brands grow through cutting-edge insights, human connection, and digital innovation.

You can learn more about these good folk here: https://samy.com/en/

Chapters

00:00 – What Is Community in 2025, Really?

03:48 – Free Soul’s Ground-Up Community Strategy

06:01 – When Wellness Events Build Real Belonging

08:56 – How Tropic Skincare Co-Creates With Its Ambassadors

10:27 – Listening Without Red Tape (And Acting On It)

12:15 – Why Social Listening Needs a Human Lens

14:01 – Tropic’s Infinite Purpose (And How It Drives Loyalty)

16:04 – Building Emotional Connection at Scale

18:35 – The Tangible Impact of Products Like Free Soul’s

21:33 – Personalisation & Segmentation That Actually Resonates

22:50 – Accountability: The Ultimate Signal of Community

24:27 – When Customers Speak To Each Other

27:00 – Copied Community Strategy? Blinkers On.

28:55 – Authentic Customer Stories: The Real Advocacy Engine

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Lucy, Emily & Paul:

On Lucy’s LinkedIn

On Emily’s LinkedIn

On Paul’s LinkedIn

There’s no brand magic without brand meaning.

The biggest names in beauty know this.

This week, Verity sits down with Coryn Brisbane (Brand & Marketing Consultant | ex-VIEVE, Charlotte Tilbury, Flannels, Glossybox) to talk brand values, internal Advocacy, and what happens when beauty brands scale too fast, too superficially.

With a powerhouse CV and a fierce belief in brands that live their values, not just listing them, Coryn’s sharing unmissable insider advice from the industry’s front-lines.

She’s led product launches, like Pillow Talk Mascara and Airbrush Bronzer. She’s scaled brands from startup to sell-out. But her insights go deeper than shade names and social content. This is about embedding brand from the inside out; and protecting it (flexibly) at all costs.

Hit play to learn how to:

• Challenge Surface-Level Values: Coryn breaks down how to tell if your brand pillars exist only on paper, or are actually embedded across the team.
  

• Build Employee Advocacy That Lasts: From EGC to onboarding, Coryn shares why Charlotte Tilbury got it right – and how to recreate that magic.
  

• Avoid the Short-Term Trap: See firsthand how chasing quick wins chips away at long-term trust (and what to do instead).
  

• Reframe the Role of Brand Teams: Brand isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s the function that unifies every customer touchpoint. Ignore it now at your brand’s future peril.
  

• Ask Better Questions, To Build Smarter Brands: The best marketers don’t just have answers – they ask the right questions. Start with “Why?”
  

If you’ve ever felt like your team’s running a hundred miles an hour without a clear direction, this one will hit home.

Listen. Challenge. Build Advocacy from the inside out.

Chapters:

00:00 – Why Team Advocacy Beats Surface Values

02:22 – Building Strategy from Brand Pillars

05:13 – What Brand Storytelling Should Really Do

08:20 – Employee Advocacy: What It Looks Like (When It Works)

11:31 – How Charlotte Tilbury Built Belief Internally

13:35 – The Danger of Chasing Short-Term Wins

15:15 – Staying True to Your Brand as You Grow

18:35 – The Influencer Myth That Still Hurts Brands

22:11 – How to Nurture Creators for the Long-Term

27:10 – Why Brand Teams Are Not “Nice-to-Haves”

31:20 – What Founders Get Wrong About Community

36:45 – Defining Community (And If You Even Have One)

39:10 – Turning Insight Into Product Innovation

42:46 – Decipher: A Case Study in Customer-Led Branding

45:08 – The Question Marketers Should Ask More Often

48:30 – The Real Way You Build Brand Advocacy

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Coryn:

On LinkedIn

What happens when you build brand love from the ground up – and actually mean it?

You get an approach that’s part Nike discipline, part Bugaboo heart, and it works.

Dives into the tactical how of scaling a brand through hyper-local community building, influencer relationships that last years, and turning your customer service team into your brand’s secret weapon.

Paul sits down with Jeanelle Teves (Chief Commercial Officer @ Bugaboo | ex-Nike) to unpack the brand’s standout growth in North America, hearing exactly how they’re rewriting the rulebook for consumer-first marketing.

Jeanelle’s expertise in blending brand heritage, innovation & Advocacy offers a masterclass in what today’s fashion, beauty & lifestyle brands should be laser-focused on.

Turn this one up to learn how to...

• Niche Down to Scale Up: Bugaboo’s local-first strategy is a sharp reminder that deeper beats wider. Jeanelle shares how focusing on key territories and growing real-world communities supercharges digital brand perception, and why brands spreading themselves too thin risk irrelevance.

• Build Advocacy That Outlasts Campaigns: From long-term creator relationships to micro-level community events, Jeanelle lays out why the future is loyalty over reach; and how Bugaboo turns everyday parents into lifelong Brand Advocates.

• Mine Your Service Team for Gold: Forget surface-level insights. Bugaboo’s customer service team solves more than problems – they’re shaping product development, content strategy, and sales. Jeanelle explains how integrating service into marketing unlocks growth most brands miss.

• Let Creators Lead, Their Way: Authenticity is more than a buzzword. Jeanelle breaks down Bugaboo’s philosophy of letting creators share stories their way – without rigid scripts – and how that trust translates into Advocacy that’s credible and contagious.

This is a rare look at what it really takes to build brand equity in a crowded market – straight from a leader who’s done it at the top.

Listen. Note-take. Implement.

Chapters

00:00 How Engagement Builds Real Community

02:06 Brand Lessons from the School of Nike

05:40 Designing Products Around the Consumer

09:52 Customer Listening: Where The Insight Starts

11:43 Making DTC Work

12:12 Bridging Customer Service & Product Innovation

17:13 What Modern Parents Really Want

20:52 Why Awards Still Shape Consumer Trust

22:32 Turning Advocacy into a Marketing Engine

24:31 Driving Community Through Local Events

27:01 The Impact of Personal Connection

28:32 Building Your Personal Board of Directors

30:13 How Strong Relationships Drive Loyalty

32:37 Meeting Consumers Where They Scroll

35:05 Localisation that Scales

39:31 Double Down on Core Communities

45:04 Sustainability as a Non-Negotiable Brand Value

Rate & review Building Brand Advocacy:

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Connect with Jeanelle:

On Bugaboo's US Instagram

On Bugaboo’s Website