Each episode of Brand Retro, the Cyberdogz Podcast, dives into branding, marketing, and the meaning behind it all. Hosted by Mike Brevik, founder of Cyberdogz, the show explores how leading companies and creative consultants team up to craft game-changing products, bold campaigns, and next-level ideas across industries.
Billion-dollar brands, giant agencies, and entire departments of smart marketers still launch campaigns that fall apart the moment culture enters the room. Mike Brevik counts down the 10 worst cultural marketing fails in history, from Pampers’ confusing stork in Japan and Parker Pen’s accidental pregnancy promise in Mexico to KFC’s “eat your fingers off” in China, Mitsubishi’s Pajero, and Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner ad that was pulled in under 24 hours. He closes with a simple glocalization formula to keep your brand from getting lost in translation.
Generic marketing is getting filtered out by bot traffic, by audiences who’ve seen every hook, and now by AI inside the inbox. Mike Brevik draws on 30 years of building brands like Nike…
Tesla, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Kylian Mbappé all figured out the same thing: the most valuable thing a business owns is the reputation of the person behind it. Mike Brevik draws on 30 years of…
A 27-year-old AI researcher walked away from OpenAI and Anthropic warning that the people building AI genuinely believe it could end us within a decade. Mike Brevik takes that warning into…
Instagram’s own internal research showed its algorithm was damaging teenage girls, and Meta kept it running because the engagement was worth the ad revenue. In this Brand Retro episode…
Two of America’s most recognized brands got publicly hated within months of each other in 2023. Bud Light apologized, pulled back, and lost its 22-year run as the top-selling beer in the…
Mike Brevik goes solo to unpack why songs like Dreams, Careless Whisper, and Bye Bye Bye keep hijacking the internet decades after release. He walks through the neuroscience of why a…
In July 2026, Meta launched an AI tool that let anyone generate images using your face and photos without asking, and the backlash canceled it in three days. Mike Brevik breaks down what…
Three of the most convincing people on your feed this week were never born: a fitness influencer with 400,000 followers, a monk dispensing medical advice he has no credentials to give, and…
Christopher Nolan built real wooden ships and sailed 65-pound IMAX cameras into open water for The Odyssey instead of rendering the ocean in CGI. Mike Brevik breaks down what that decision…
What does a brand new customer get from you that your best customer doesn’t? Usually a welcome offer or a promo. Now flip it. What does the person who’s been with you for five years get?…
Why do most brands end up looking like everyone else? They pick a competitor to admire, borrow the look, and call it inspiration. Mike Brevik argues the strongest brands are built by…
A 22-year-old buying a film camera or a vintage Walkman never lived through the era that made those objects iconic, yet the pull is real. In this episode, Mike Brevik explores borrowed…
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