Shows
The Voice of ExperienceFrom OMG to OK: Turning Healthcare Taboos into Memorable ExperiencesCultural shifts are changing how we discuss health issues, so what's the next revolution in healthcare marketing? In this episode of the Voice of Experience, Elke and Max hone in on the normalization of taboo topics and the role of experience in fostering open discussions. What conversations are still too taboo for public discussion, though, and how do Elke and Max see those eventually coming to the fore in the years to come? All that and more on today's VoX.
2025-08-2021 minThe Voice of ExperienceBranded for Life: The Science of Memorable ExperiencesMotivated memory is at the heart of this episode of VoX. Elke and Max are joined by Ryan Monkman, who is pursuing his PhD in psychology with a focus on cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oregon. They discuss Ryan's journey into memory research, why marketing strategies can benefit from understanding memory science, and how AI and machine learning are becoming valuable tools in memory research.
2025-07-3130 minThe Voice of ExperienceExperience Not Included: The Cannes Category CrisisIn this episode, Max and Elke dive back into Max’s time in France for the Cannes Lions Festival, tackles the event’s general oversight in recognizing experiential marketing, featuring insights from Shelley Elkins' open letter and a discussion on the future of marketing driven by live moments.
2025-07-0821 minThe Voice of ExperienceLive from Cannes 2025: How the Lions Show Us The Future of Creativity, Purpose, and InnovationJoin EJ and Max live from the 72nd edition of the Cannes Lions! Explore the latest trends in creativity, purpose-driven advertising, AI, and the evolving role of creators. Dive into insightful discussions on sports, community engagement, and storytelling. Don’t miss this exciting and inspiring episode!
2025-06-1925 minThe Voice of ExperienceRisk and Resonance: The Future of Experience MarketingThe Voice of Experience is back with a special guest, as GMR Chief Creative Officer Krista Hansen joins Elke and Max for an insight-laden discussion on the future of experience marketing. What does it mean to balance human intuition with data-driven insights as part of a healthy creative process? Is failure truly inevitable in a successful creative career? The group examines these questions and more in this episode.
2025-05-2922 minThe Voice of ExperienceCoachella 2025 – A Weekend of Music, Mayhem and MEMORIESIn this episode of "The Voice of Experience," we dive into the spectacular brand experiences at Coachella 2025 through Elke's first-person view after attending. Explore how iconic brands blended physical and digital engagements, embraced collaborations, and created unforgettable memories. From AI-driven interactions to genuine human moments, discover the power of funflation and why brands are now crucial to the Coachella vibe. Tune in for insights on event marketing and the future of brand engagement.
2025-05-1323 minThe Voice of ExperienceGreenwashed and ConfusedEarth Month 2025 is coming to an end, and in a special edition of The Voice of Experience, Elke and Max are joined by guests Fran Sutter and Alla Dragoun to peer in to intersecting worlds of brand marketing and sustainability. Where is the gap between a company espousing sustainability-first values and the behavior of its brand(s)? What’s the line between effective sustainable brand experiences and greenwashing? How would this group of deeply experienced event marketers advise festivals on how to implement truly impactful sustainable practices?
2025-04-2923 minThe Voice of ExperienceTariffs, Tension, and Trepidation – Oh My!Marketers know that economic uncertainty usually means uncertain marketing budgets. But that doesn't mean that marketing tactics, especially live experiences, are any less important than normal. On the latest episode of the Voice of Experience podcast, Elke and Max talk through how to elevate human connection in marketing in the absence of more traditional, budget-centric tactics, and how individual marketers can think about breaking new barriers in their own creativity and ingenuity to overcome a lack of funding.
2025-04-2121 minThe Voice of ExperienceWhy So Serious: Brands, Experiences and HumorWhen was the last time a brand made you laugh? Not chuckle, not stop and smile, but truly gave you that deep-in-your-gut kind of laugh that you can't control? For Max and Elke, it feels like it's been a little while, so on this episode of the Voice of Experience, they talk through the differences between being humorous and being funny, their own experiences leading campaigns that were more the latter than the former, and how today's cultural marketplace could stand to have more laughs infused by brands. Even if this episode doesn't make you laugh, it'll definitely make...
2025-04-0322 minThe Voice of ExperienceAI, Creativity and Self-EsteemThe influx of AI tools available for marketers has rapidly changed how human-centered creativity drives brand campaigns and the ideation required to build them. In this episode of The Voice of Experience, Max and Elke dig in to how this rapidly-changing landscape is impacting creativity, with Max believing that AI is ultimately an enabler in unlocking the next great wave of human creativity and that AI cannot and will not be a replacement technology for human insights in experiences and marketing. To hear about that, and more, check out the latest VoX.
2025-03-2023 minThe Voice of ExperienceDick Moves By BrandsEven the best brand marketers make mistakes, but could you spot when a brand is deliberately making moves that take advantage of their customer loyalty? In this episode of VoX, Elke and Max are joined by a special guest, GMR Marketing CEO Tyson Webber, to discuss what's the line between an honest mistake and a "dick move." As we find out along the way - the line is different for everyone.
2025-03-0722 minThe Voice of ExperienceVoX Observations - Super Bowl 59 and PGA Phoenix OpenThe season of major live US sports events is in full swing, and The Voice of Experience is back with live observations after Max attended Super Bowl 59 and Elke attended the PGA's biggest party event of the year at the Phoenix Open. How has Waste Management continued to drive new cultural shifts in golf after a decade-plus of sponsoring this PGA event? Why does Max think the attendee experience for this New Orleans Super Bowl had a dampened vibe, and how might that translate to cities hosting future Super Bowls or the 2026 World Cup? Join us on this episode...
2025-02-2121 minThe Voice of ExperienceThe Human Connection CrisisStarbucks’s recent reversal of its so-called “Third Place” policy, which defined their brand for decades, has sparked a lot of debate on the role brands are playing in human connection. In this episode of “The Voice of Experience,” Elke and Max discuss how traditional third places/spaces are being displaced, what types of experiences are stepping in to fill that void, and how brands can leverage the growing threat of boredom and loneliness to turn loyal customers in to community builders.
2025-01-3122 minThe Voice of ExperienceCES 2025 Recap: Max's View From VegasNothing marks the start of the new year quite like another edition of CES! Max was live on the ground in Vegas all week taking in the sights and sounds, and in this edition of The Voice of Experience he talks through everything with Elke. Will the future of advertising really be "bots marketing to bots?" Is the rapid proliferation of AI leading to a lack of trustworthiness in the technology? Was a flying car the weirdest thing Max saw on the show floor? And what's the one thing Max will remember at this CES five years from now...
2025-01-1425 minThe Voice of ExperienceInside The Voice of Experience StudioFor the final episode of 2024, Max and Elke go through a myriad of personal and professional insights in to their individual worlds. Find out about their earliest and strongest memories, what brand has won their heart forever, and so much more. It's our gift to you as we wrap up year one of The Voice of Experience!
2024-12-2025 minThe Voice of ExperienceThe Best Brands of 2024 - Experience StyleThe end of the year means best of lists, and all the controversy and conversation that comes with them. In the latest episode of the Voice of Experience, Elke and Max talk about GMR’s own best of list – the annual GMR Brand Experience Index. How did the Top 25 brands for this past year make memories better than the rest, and why are Jersey Mike’s and Humana particularly unique cases in the Top 5? Our comments are open, and Max and Elke want to hear from anyone curious about these rankings, no matter how strong your feelings are. So check...
2024-12-0423 minThe Voice of ExperienceUnhinged Brands & the Impact on Memory MakingWe’ve all experienced an unhinged brand before and can immediately recall what we loved about them – maybe it’s Slim Jim immortalizing Macho Man Randy Savage’s demand for us to snap into one of their meat sticks; or maybe it’s social media 1.0 era Wendy’s giving a follower free chicken nuggets for life because they got 1,000,000 likes on a tweet. In this episode of the Voice of Experience, Max and Elke step into the world of Nutter Butter TikTok and other 2020s-era unhinged brands and ask themselves “who does this marketing appeal to?” and how can you take a brand...
2024-11-0820 minThe Voice of ExperienceBreaking Down Austin City LimitsAs festival season wraps up around North America, data scientist Mary Willcock joins the show about her experience attending Austin City Limits. And, since ACL is a two-weekend festival, Elke jumps in with her own experience in Austin, which she attended the weekend prior to Mary. Alongside Max, the group compares and contrasts things like how sustainability and waste management showed up across the festival, fashion trends for attendees, and, of course, their favorite brand activations.
2024-10-2423 minThe Voice of ExperienceThe Swift/Messi Effect (Or Should It Be Messi/Swift?)Other than selling out global football and soccer stadiums on the regular, it would appear that Taylor Swift and Lionel Messi have very little in common. But for marketers, there's more than meets the eye to the global superstardom these two cultural icons share. In this episode of the Voice of Experience, Elke and Max talk about the correlation between Swiftie crowd moments at a Taylor concert and the synchronized singing and chanting you'll hear at one of Messi's games, and they talk through the signs brands need to look for to spot the next Lio or Taylor before...
2024-10-1526 minThe Voice of ExperienceAsk The Doctor: Memorability and Politics Part 2One episode about the deep connections between politics, memorability and brands wasn't enough, so Elke and Max brought back our old friend Dr. Joseph Cera to discuss the scientific angle behind it all. With deep roots in political science, Dr. Cera breaks down why political campaigns are the ultimate form of marketing, why the political arena was a trendsetter in data science access, and who actually holds the advantage in creating memories when political campaigns pit incumbents against challengers. All that and more on this "Ask The Doctor" episode of The Voice of Experience!
2024-09-2621 minThe Voice of ExperienceWhy are political moments so memorable?For many of us, there's a certain memory connected to when we became "politically aware" of how elections impacted the world around us. Maybe it's the first time you voted, or the first time you saw a certain candidate for office speak. But there's no denying that memory making is a core tenet of political action - parties spend billions of dollars on accomplishing it every election cycle. In this episode, Elke and Max share their own historical perspective on this aspect of their lives, and how the intersection of politics, brands, and memorability is so prevalent in election...
2024-09-2023 minThe Voice of ExperienceFrom VR Headsets to Beer Goggles: How Brands Reach Audiences in BarsYou don't have to be a marketer to know that most humans go to bars for emotional reasons, as opposed to rationale ones. But what makes a bar experience memorable, and how can brand be part of the fun for people versus being a buzzkill? In this episode of The Voice of Experience, Max and Elke share their best stories from working with brands on bar activations, and outline why they believe that work can be both a blessing and a curse.
2024-09-0921 minThe Voice of ExperienceLive* from Paris: The VoX Olympics RecapThe joy of the Olympics lies in the unmatched historical memories it has created for athletes and spectators to share over generations. On this week's episode, Elke talks to Max about what memories he made during his time in Paris at this year's Games, including which brands stood out with their live storytelling throughout the venues and the city, as well as what innovations he noticed that may carry over to Milan in 2026 and Los Angeles in 2028. And what was that pin Snoop was wearing? Why are pins a thing at the Olympics anyway? All that and more on...
2024-08-2724 minThe Voice of ExperienceDeconstructing Cannes 2024Max and Elke are back, breaking down the coolest and most memorable content and campaigns spotlighted at Cannes Lions 2024. Why does Max have Cannes FOMO for the first time in a while? What new jury considerations did Elke find commendable? All that and more on the latest episode of The Voice of Experience.
2024-08-1917 minThe Voice of ExperienceChick-fil-A's "The Brake Room": 2023's Best Experiential Campaign?What makes a marketing campaign award worthy? Any marketer knows that industry recognition is valuable, but the factors and decision making that go in to how that recognition is given varies from year to year. In the latest VoX episode, Max and Elke look through that lens to examine Ad Age's Experiential Campaign of the Year for 2023, Chick-fil-A's "The Break Room" in New York City.
2024-08-1217 minThe Voice of ExperienceRuPaul's DragCon LA2024: What Experiences Stood Out?The Voice of Experience is back with our first live event breakdown, as Elke details her trip to Los Angeles for RuPaul's DragCon! In a drag world that is full of authenticity and self-expression, what brands and what experiences connected in the most memorable way? And how can brands that are currently missing out properly integrate themselves into what has become one of the most unique conventions in the world? Elke and Max break it all down on this episode of the VoX.
2024-08-0517 minThe Voice of ExperienceWhat Makes a Brand Memorable?We all want to be memorable. Brands are no different, and the numbers prove it, with hundreds of billions of dollars spent annually by Fortune 500 companies collectively on marketing, advertising, communications, and more tactics to reach their desired audiences. In the debut episode of The Voice of Experience, marketing industry veterans Elke Jones and Max Lenderman break down why the science of human memory making stands out as the key factor in helping brands stand out with audiences in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
2024-07-2216 min