This episode of 'Let's Talk Marketing' explores the intersection of investment crowdfunding and digital marketing strategy. Host Katya Allison interviews Jason Fishman, CEO and Co-Founder of Digital Niche Agency (DNA), about how founders can use marketing — not just legal filings — to successfully raise capital through regulated crowdfunding campaigns. Jason unpacks why most founders treat crowdfunding as a finance problem when it is, in fact, a marketing exercise. From building his 8-Point Strategy Plan to driving traffic to offering pages and converting retail investors, Jason shares the frameworks, tools, and mindset shifts that have helped DNA raise over nine figures across more than 500 campaigns. This conversation is packed with tactical insights on audience targeting, creative testing, funnel optimization, competitive analysis, referral partnerships, and how to think about timelines and projections with realistic expectations.

• Most founders complete their legal filings and assume investors will find them — Jason reframes the entire crowdfunding process as a marketing campaign, walking through the real traffic and conversion math required to hit a raise goal.
• Jason's 8-Point Strategy Plan functions as an algorithmic roadmap built before the campaign launches, so founders know exactly which levers to pull — and what to do if results are not appearing.
• A competitor marketing audit is one of the most underused tools in campaign planning. The top issuers are broadcasting exactly which ads, channels, and creative formats are working — and Jason explains how to read and use those signals.
• Creative is the variable that separates good Meta campaigns from great ones. Between custom audience uploads, pixel retargeting, and a proprietary database of 1.8 million historical crowdfunding investors, DNA builds targeting infrastructure most founders don't know exists.
• Launching with 4 to 10 audiences and refreshing creative every one to two weeks keeps retargeting from feeling repetitive and creates a sense of momentum — the feeling that something exciting is always happening with this company.
• Live webinars with founder Q&A have become one of the highest-converting tools in the playbook. Jason shares how some campaigns have brought in over a million dollars within 24 hours of a single event.
• The most expensive mistake founders make is reading early data as a verdict. Jason shares real examples of campaigns that appeared to be failing at week three and became category leaders by month three — and explains the projection framework that keeps teams from pulling the plug too soon.
• Jason closes with the one thing he would do differently: build referral partnerships on LinkedIn earlier and more systematically. He shares a specific daily outreach structure — with acceptance and response rate benchmarks — that any marketer or founder can start using immediately.

Most brand conversations stop at logos and color palettes. JP Lacroix, President and CSO of SLD, one of North America's leading design consultancies, goes much deeper — and his core argument might reframe how you think about every marketing decision you make. The reason your brand isn't growing probably has nothing to do with your ad spend.

About the Guest JP Lacroix is the President and Chief Strategy Officer of SLD (Shikatani Lacroix Design), a global brand and design consultancy he co-founded 35 years ago. SLD has led transformational brand programs for Dairy Queen, Midas, U.S. Bank, Regions Bank, and dozens of major Canadian brands. JP is also the author of Think Blink — a framework built on the idea that consumers make brand decisions in a split second, and that great design is what wins that moment.

Key Takeaways

• Your brand doesn't have an awareness problem — it has a relevancy problem. Every brand, regardless of industry, faces the same core challenge: staying emotionally connected to the people it serves. Starbucks isn't struggling because people forgot about them. They're struggling because they stopped being the preferred place and became just the convenient one. Losing emotional connection is a slow leak — and no media budget can patch it.

• Consumers decide in a blink — simple, ownable design is how you win that moment. JP coined the "Blink Factor" in 1993 after a Pizza Hut focus group where customers kept saying they looked for "the Red Roof" — not the name, not the menu. In a world where people see over 40,000 marketing messages a day, instant visual recognition isn't a nice-to-have. Tide's bullseye. Pizza Hut's red roof. You know them before your brain catches up.

• Know your one emotional word — it's the foundation everything else is built on. Before storytelling, before design, before any campaign — you need to know the single emotional word your brand owns. Volvo owns safety. BMW owns performance. Staples owns easy. The brands that can answer that question clearly? JP says they're almost always the market leaders. Go ask your customers how your brand makes them feel — and keep asking why until you hit something real.

If you've ever wondered why your brand feels like it's stuck — or why customers know you but don't choose you — this episode is the conversation you didn't know you needed.

This episode of "Let's Talk Marketing" explores the transformative power of design in building lasting brand connections. Host Katya Allison interviews JP Lacroix, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Shikatani Lacroix Design (SLD), about how strategic design goes far beyond aesthetics to become a critical growth engine for brands. With more than 35 years of experience shaping Fortune 500 brands — from Dairy Queen and U.S. Bank to major Canadian institutions — JP unpacks the concept of the "Blink Factor," why emotional equity is the foundation of any successful brand, and how companies can use design, storytelling, and community-building to remain relevant in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Whether you're a seasoned marketer or a brand builder just starting out, this episode delivers actionable frameworks you won't want to miss.

• Design is a growth engine, not just a compliance or aesthetic exercise.
• The Blink Factor: consumers connect with brands in a split second through color and shape.
• Brands lose market position when they lose emotional relevancy with their core audience.
• Starbucks lost its identity as the "third place" by becoming just another coffee stop.
• The first and most important tenet: every brand must own a clear emotional word.
• Less is more — overcommunicating on packaging forces consumers to think too hard.
• Storytelling is the third tenet; brands that tell a compelling story build loyal communities.
• The Trust Ladder: incremental transformation keeps both employees and customers on the journey.
• Long-term brand sustainability comes from deep emotional connections, not discounting.
• Behavioral science is an underutilized superpower for understanding why consumers really buy.
• Research your customers by asking how your brand makes them FEEL — not just what they think.
• Owning a distinct color and shape in your category is a non-negotiable brand asset.
• JCPenney failed its rebrand by moving too fast and losing consumers mid-journey.
• Future-proofing brands means building disruption playbooks before disruption arrives.
• Tide's bullseye is the gold standard of color-and-shape brand ownership in retail.

1. www.sld.com
2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanpierrelacroix/