Hey, "meaningful marketer!" You think hosting "service days," tithing .5% of profits or claiming "sustainability goals" make you a "brand with a mission?" How about having your CEO and marketing team walk into a gang-run neighborhood to convince these young toughs to come work for you instead of criming? That's called walking the talk - a perilous one.

We don't just drink water, anymore. We "hydrate." And with that distinction comes a host of science (pseudo and real) marketing, branding, health claims, flavors, and a clutter of choices. How does a brand break out in such a morass? Lemon Perfect is one of the hydration brands contending for attention. It has the benefit of being backed by Beyonce as well as alignments with some athlete partners. To discuss the strategy behind breaking through and selling water we have Dana Barba, who's the SVP of Marketing at Lemon Perfect. Dana joined the company in May after a lengthy career …

Long before state lotteries and betting apps, gambling was a neighborhood business. There were street corner bookies, the guy who knew the guy at the local grocery store or bar. Gambling was pretty much a local small business. Not now. As gambling goes legit in most states, sportsbooks like FanDuel and DraftKings carpet bomb major media for your bets.

In order to cut through the white noise of current marketing, new brands often find it most effective to connect with preexisting celebrities. But can you actually systematize the creation of brands that are married to star power or to cultural memes? Caravan seems to be an interesting attempt to do just that. And the company's Co-Founder, Leonard Brody, has a history of developing celebrity aligned brands. Caravan, not surprisingly, is partially backed by talent powerhouse CAA.