Brain Driven Brands

When a PepsiCo-trained behavioral scientist crashes the studio, things get weird…and wildly useful. In this episode, Will Leach walks us through the emotional math behind why customers buy, why brands plateau, and why most marketers have their goals entirely backward.

We dig into why value ≠ "saving money," how DiGiorno tricked America by anchoring against delivery pizza, why buyers change personalities between Monday and Friday, and the surprising reason your brand matters way less than you think.

Come for the spicy takes on Coke vs Pepsi, stay for the "Batman vs Utility Belt" analogy that will permanently change how you write ads.

If you've ever wondered why your logical pitches flop, why people buy cowboy hats during burnout, or how to outmaneuver giants without outspending them — this episode is a masterclass in real human behavior, not the stuff your personas pretend.

Most marketers are using AI to replace their thinking instead of sharpen it—and it's showing. In this episode, Sarah and Chase break down why lazy prompting is the reason your creative feels stale, your tests flop, and your "winners" die in two weeks.

They'll walk you through 50 wild "what if" experiments that flip marketing psychology upside down and show you how to use AI as a thinking partner, not a content mill.

Here's a taste:

• 🤯 What if checkout pages showed how long you've wanted that product—and how long you'll regret not buying it?

• 💡 What if loyalty programs rewarded you for not buying something outside your goals?

• 🧠 What if your product photos had to include one realistic flaw—on purpose?

• 🧍‍♀️ What if brands made you "prove" you're worthy of a discount?

It's a crash course in using AI to break your own biases, surface hidden insights, and create ideas that actually stick.

Listen if: you're tired of cookie-cutter AI advice and want to see how behavior science meets chaos in the best possible way.

(By the end, you'll never ask ChatGPT to "write me 10 headlines" again.)

Sarah and Nate dive into one of marketing's strangest scientific findings: launching [secret product] can make your brand 20% cooler. So which product is it? No hints on this one…you'll just have to listen and find out!

2025 was a weird year for marketers..an avalanche of AI hype, output obsession, and soulless creative cycles. In this episode, Sarah and Nate dissect the biggest missteps brands made this year and what needs to change before 2026 hits.

From mistaking outputs for outcomes to realizing AI isn't ready to think for us, they break down why "volume" culture is killing creativity and how to rebuild your strategy around clarity, authenticity, and actual human intelligence. Expect hard truths, some laughter about naming cows "Ribeye," and a challenge to run your own "What Could Go Wrong?" meeting before the new year.

Ever seen an ad so bizarre you couldn't look away? A woman eating a boiled egg for 90 seconds. A cigarette brand that never showed the cigarette. A $40M Burger King campaign about a guy named Herb who'd never eaten there.

In this episode, Nate and Sarah play Two Truths and a Lie: 1980s Ad Edition and then break down why the strangest, most nonsensical ads of the decade actually worked.

We'll talk about:

• 🧠 Semantic Closure — why your brain can't stand an open loop.

• 🧩 Processing Fluency — how confusion turns into curiosity.

• 💀 Fear vs. Wonder — and why one still sells better than the other.

• 🎭 The Burger King campaign that cost $40M (and flopped for all the right reasons).

It's a crash course in how to make people think about you later — even if your ad makes zero logical sense in the moment.