Level Up Your Brand

A podcast for business owners who want to build brands that actually mean something.

The podcast

Built for business owners who are done with vague branding advice.

Most branding content falls into one of two camps. Either it's so high-level it could apply to anyone and therefore helps no one, or it's so focused on aesthetics that it skips the thinking underneath entirely.

Level Up Your Brand is neither.

Martin Sully is a brand strategist, designer, and founder of Snapper Studio in Newcastle, NSW – a studio built on the belief that strategy comes before aesthetics, every time. He works with business owners across Australia who are done letting their brand drift.

Episode by episode, he's covered the full arc of building a brand from the ground up: the foundations, the values, the audience, the differentiation, the promise, the experience, and the voice. Then he started inviting guests who are doing it properly and asking them to show their working.

The episodes are short, opinionated, and occasionally feature beetroot juice. There are no sponsors, no fluff, and no five-minute intros before the content starts.

If you're building something that actually matters, this is the podcast for it.

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a man wears headphones and talks into a podcast style microphone

Start here

The Brand Strategy Series

If you're starting from scratch or want to understand how brand strategy actually works from the ground up, start here.

Martin Sully built these eight episodes as a complete framework – each one feeds into the next, covering everything from brand foundations to finding your voice. By the end you'll have a clear picture of what your brand stands for, who it's for, how it's different, and how to talk about it like a human being.

Work through them in order. They're short. They're dense. They'll change how you think about your brand.

Brand Foundations

What branding actually is, why it's every decision your business makes, and the six foundations you need before anything else.

Intentional Alignment

Martin Sully walks through the five pillars of intentional brand alignment – reputation, values, mission, vision, and brand promise – and how to build them without a $6 billion marketing budget.

The Art of Repelling Customers

The counterintuitive first step to finding your ideal customers is getting clear on who you absolutely do not want.

The Art of Attracting Customers

Stop targeting everyone and reaching no one. Martin Sully walks through how to build customer personas that actually help you find your dream customers – including Brian the Explorer.

When the World Zigs, Zag

Martin Sully unpacks the BBH black sheep campaign, brand differentiation, SWOT analysis, and why giving your brand a villain might be the most fun brand strategy exercise you'll ever do.

Improve Your Customer Experience with a Solid Brand Promise

Your brand is worth nothing if you can't uphold a promise through every customer interaction. Martin Sully shares four practical ways to build the culture that makes your brand promise real.

Crafting Your Customer Experience

Memorable, unexpected, consistent -- Martin Sully shares two practical methods for mapping your customer journey and turning every touchpoint into a brand moment worth talking about.

Finding Your Brand's Personality

Martin Sully shares three practical tricks for uncovering your brand's personality and tone of voice – including the This Not That game that gives your brand genuine depth without going too far.

Dip in anywhere

Standalone Episodes

These three episodes don't follow the series – they stand on their own as focused deep dives into specific topics. Dip in wherever they're relevant to where your brand is right now.

A Designer's Guide to Choosing Brand Colours

Stop picking brand colours out of thin air. Martin Sully walks through the thought process behind choosing a colour palette that actually works for your brand.

When's the Right Time to Rebrand?

From cringing at your brand name to apologising for your website – Martin Sully shares 20 signs it might be time for a rebrand, plus the story of how Snapper Studio came to be.

Design Trends in 2023

Martin Sully reflects on 2022's design predictions, shares six trends to avoid in 2023, and makes the case for why chasing design trends is the wrong move for your brand.

Season 2

Guests, Deep Dives and a New Name

After a 10-month break, the podcast came back with a new name, a new identity, and a new format. Less framework, more conversation. Martin brings in guests who are building genuinely interesting brands and asks them how they actually did it – then occasionally wanders off into something unexpected like scent branding or the disturbing history of the word branding itself.

This is where the show gets good.

Scent Branding

After a 10-month break, Martin Sully returns with one of branding's most overlooked tools – scent. How smell triggers memory, why it outperforms visual recall, and how small brands can use it.

Branding's Dark History

Branding has a genuinely uncomfortable past – from branding irons to Nazi imagery to neoliberal capitalism. Martin Sully unpacks it all and asks what comes next.

Never Give Up with Jess Hodge

Jess Hodge started Resourceful Living because she couldn't find a sustainable coffee table. Now she's recycled 20 tonnes of plastic and powered 54 homes with the energy saved.

Baking Core Values into Your Business with Rebekah McCutcheon

Rebekah McCutcheon built Fit Test Australia from sole trader to a team of eight. Here's what she learned about values, authenticity, scaling, and owning your mistakes publicly.

Rebranding Happiness with Declan Edwards

Martin Sully sits down with Declan Edwards – the happiness guy – to explore emotional branding, personal brand building, and why happiness needs better marketing. Plus tomatoes.

Book a discovery call to bring your vision to life.

Reach out today to start your branding journey with our expert team at Snapper Studio.

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