Something is shifting. The most ambitious brands are moving beyond the feed and into the world, because that's where attention actually lives now.
Built for Brand is for modern marketers navigating board pressure, growth targets, and digital saturation. It's for the leaders who know long-term demand starts with brand strength. Hosted by Greg Wise, Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer at OneScreen, this show explores how brand is demand — and why real-world media is more relevant than ever.
Because growth without brand is borrowed, not owned.
Building a Household Name Without VC Funding with Jacob Zuppke
What does it take to turn a niche product into a category-defining brand without a dollar of VC funding? For Whisker, the company behind Litter-Robot, the answer wasn’t choosing between brand and performance. It was making every marketing dollar do both.
In this conversation, Greg Wise (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/) sits down with Jacob Zuppke (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobzuppke/), President and CEO of Whisker (https://www.whisker.com/), to unpack how he helped turn a small pet tech company into a household name. Jacob shares how an early bet on influencer marketing sparked explosive growth, why a $120,000 commercial about cat poop became a breakthrough brand moment, and how he’s built a marketing strategy where creativity still has to drive revenue.
Greg and Jacob also explore what it takes to earn internal buy-in for bold creative bets, why physical retail and real-world partnerships build trust beyond the transaction, and what marketers get wrong when they treat brand and performance as competing priorities.
Key Takeaways:
Why brand and performance shouldn’t be separate strategies, and how Whisker makes creative storytelling work harder for revenue
How a risky, humor-driven TV campaign helped Whisker break through the noise and accelerate growth
Why real-world brand presence, from retail shelves to Detroit sports partnerships, can build credibility that digital ads alone can’t replicate
If you’re tired of choosing between building a brand and hitting your numbers, this episode makes the case for doing both.
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Jacob Zuppke
(06:13) Joining Whisker and building a category-defining brand
(09:25) How influencer marketing sparked explosive growth
(13:01) The $120K creative bet on cat poop
(19:02) Why brand and performance aren’t competing priorities
(21:27) Selling bold creative ideas without guaranteed results
(28:17) Scaling growth through TV and paid social
(30:55) Using real-world brand partnerships to attract talent
(33:35) Why physical retail builds digital trust
(39:09) How showing up IRL drives brand growth
Resources:
Jacob Zuppke on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobzuppke/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobzuppke/)
Check out Whisker: https://www.whisker.com/ (https://www.whisker.com/)
Follow Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/)
Follow OneScreen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onescreen-ai/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/onescreen-ai/)
Subscribe to OneScreen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@onescreenai (https://www.youtube.com/@onescreenai)
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://shareyourgenius.com/ (https://shareyourgenius.com/)
21 Oct 2026
When Retail Becomes Your Best Marketing Channel with Will Nitze
When no one knows your brand yet, what actually gets them to buy? Sometimes the thing that moves the customer isn’t your brand story at all. It’s the value proposition, the price, or simply showing up where they’re already shopping.
In this conversation, Greg Wise (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/) sits down with IQBAR (https://www.eatiqbar.com/) founder and CEO Will Nitze (https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-nitze/) to unpack how IQBAR grew from a Kickstarter experiment into an omnichannel business with products on shelves across Costco, Walmart, Target, and other major retailers. Will shares why the company moved beyond its original “brain food” positioning, why price itself is a form of marketing, and why sometimes the value proposition has a stronger brand than the brand itself.
Greg and Will also dig into what changes when a brand moves beyond the feed and into the real world. Will explains why brick-and-mortar has become more profitable for IQBAR than e-commerce, how a Costco pallet can function like a free Facebook ad, and why greater physical distribution makes top-of-funnel investments like radio and out-of-home increasingly valuable.
Key Takeaways:
Why brands need the humility to follow what customers actually respond to, even when it means changing the positioning they started with
How physical retail creates its own acquisition engine, turning shelves and pallets into real-world media that thousands of shoppers see without another paid impression
Why omnichannel distribution can make brand marketing and out-of-home more valuable as a company grows
If every marketing dollar has always needed to prove itself immediately, this episode makes the case for what becomes possible when your brand gets big enough to show up beyond the feed.
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Will Nitze
(05:46) Cold emails, mentors, and starting from zero
(11:58) Why Kickstarter was proof, not funding
(15:33) How Amazon built the growth flywheel
(21:08) What actually drives retail conversion
(26:38) Why brand alone does not convert
(29:01) Letting customer demand reshape positioning
(31:16) How Amazon led IQBAR into Walmart and Costco
(34:43) Building the online-offline growth flywheel
(42:24) When out-of-home starts making sense
Resources:
Will Nitze on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-nitze/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-nitze/)
Check out IQBAR: https://www.eatiqbar.com/ (https://www.eatiqbar.com/)
Follow Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/)
Follow OneScreen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onescreen-ai/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/onescreen-ai/)
Subscribe to OneScreen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@onescreenai (https://www.youtube.com/@onescreenai)
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://shareyourgenius.com/ (https://shareyourgenius.com/)
14 Oct 2026
Building Trust Before Buying Attention with Alexis Luerssen
Brand and performance spent years being treated like two different jobs. Alexis Luerssen spent two decades proving they work better as one.
In this conversation, Greg Wise (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/) sits down with longtime Match Group (https://mtch.com/) marketing leader Alexis Luerssen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexisferraro/) to unpack what more than 20 years of building brands taught her about connecting brand investment to business growth. From helping Match normalize online dating to launching community-focused brands like BLK and Chispa, Alexis has watched the marketing pendulum swing from mass-reach brand building to performance obsession and back toward a more integrated approach.
Greg and Alexis also dig into why brand and performance shouldn’t live in separate worlds, how out-of-home creates a halo across the rest of the media mix, and why building trust with a community requires more than buying impressions. For Alexis, every marketing dollar should drive something, but measuring channels in isolation can cause marketers to miss how the entire system works together.
Key Takeaways:
Why brand and performance can work toward the same growth goal instead of competing for budget
How out-of-home, events, digital, and influencer marketing can create a halo that makes the entire media mix work harder
Why understanding the community you’re trying to reach is essential to building the trust that drives long-term brand growth
If you’re still measuring brand and performance like they belong in separate scorecards, this episode makes the case for seeing the bigger picture.
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Alexis Luerssen
(01:37) Reacting to Barbie’s iconic billboard
(06:36) How Match helped normalize online dating
(14:11) Why brand and performance belong together
(19:35) What Gen Z expects from brands
(21:02) How influencers reshaped the media mix
(23:30) Using OOH to drive measurable lift
(29:00) Building brands for specific communities
(31:47) Why community trust comes before growth
(34:25) What 20 years taught Alexis about brand
Resources:
Alexis Luerssen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexisferraro/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexisferraro/)
Check out Match Group: https://mtch.com/ (https://mtch.com/)
Beyond the Billboard: Barbie Movie (https://www.thedrum.com/awards-case-study/how-kinetic-phd-drove-barbie-ken-movie-success)
Follow Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregwise/)
Follow OneScreen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onescreen-ai/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/onescreen-ai/)
Subscribe to OneScreen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@onescreenai (https://www.youtube.com/@onescreenai)
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://shareyourgenius.com/ (https://shareyourgenius.com/)
Who has been a guest on Beyond The Billboard
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Sydney Sloan
Casey Patterson
Nathan Rosenberg
Tyler Goldberg
Michelle Salerno
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
851
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
8 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 52 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
76
Social presence
0
YouTube
72
Engagement
0
Contact Beyond The Billboard
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Questions about Beyond The Billboard
Who hosts Beyond The Billboard?
Greg Wise and Charlie Riley host the show. Published by OneScreen.
How often do new episodes come out?
The show publishes weekly, based on its RSS feed.
Does Beyond The Billboard take guests?
Yes. Guests have been identified in episode analyses.
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