In this episode, we sit down with Partnerships and Sponsorships Strategy Lead, Senior Manager Perla Bloom, to explore what it really takes for a brand to earn a genuine place in culture, rather than just borrowing attention from it. Perla brings a career that spans gaming (including Battlefield at EA), FMCG and travel, plus her own newsletter where she tracks cultural movements rather than fleeting trends, and she draws on all of it to unpack why "brand love" is largely a myth and what should replace it. We dig into what makes a partnership genuinely ownable versus interchangeable, how brands can lean into core fandoms as a trusted channel instead of avoiding them, and why platform choice should follow a brand's natural storytelling style rather than chasing wherever the audience currently is. Using examples from Nike's approach to niche sports communities, Fern's partnership with folk music culture, and Red Bull's evolution into a media company in its own right, Perla lays out a framework for building brand relevance with real depth. So tune in for more on the difference between brand love and brand attention, a clear-eyed take on how to choose (and skip) cultural moments and platforms, and a guide to building content people actually talk about away from the feed.
00:00 – Introduction
1:50 – Why writing the newsletter revealed a skill Perla didn't know she had.
3:55 – What The Odyssey's cultural takeover tells us about audience psychology.
4:40 – Why core fandoms are a trusted channel, not a risk to avoid.
5:45 – How empowering existing fan creators builds a new lease of life for a franchise.
7:05 – What it means to give fans a literal seat at the table in game development.
7:50 – Why brand loyalty and brand fandom are not the same thing
10:15 – How to expand a brand story without replacing what fans expect.
12:35 – What "being additive to the fan experience" actually looks like in practice.
13:35 – Why “ownability” matters more than hype, and what brands get wrong about mental availability.
16:05 – How Nike stakes an ownable claim in niche sports like calisthenics.
23:45 – What does it mean to add depth to a brand: the case for (and against) getting on Substack.
26:05 – How Red Bull became a media company in its own right.
28:36 – Why shared cultural references work even for people who've never seen the source material.
30:05 – Why reactive marketing vs. long-term strategy dos and don'ts need to be set long before the trend hits.
32:40 – The mindset shift Perla thinks marketers need over the next five years.
34:55 – Closing thoughts.