CULTURE
OUR PEOPLE,
OUR PURPOSE
AND OUR PLACE
It was Leo Burnett who once said, “Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business.” Man that guy could turn a phrase. And he was right.
PEOPLE
CORE
TEAM
Steve Bast
Principal
Phil Goldberg
Director Of Account Services
Jenni Padgett
Director Of Insights + Strategy
Matt Link
Associate Director Of Insights + Strategy
Kristen Katzman
Sr. Manager, Insights + Strategy
Andy Iverson
Advisor
Otis Bast
(In Memoriam)
RIDGEBACK LAB POINTER?
HIVE
TEAM
We operate with what we call a hive, which includes the individuals below. In the interest of transparency, absolutely none of them work at Nucleus Marketing Lab full-time. In fact, most of them have their own companies or work elsewhere. So we don’t share a PPO health plan.
We don’t do corporate team-building retreats together with company T-shirts. We didn’t even do a group photo shoot so our headshots would match. However, they are an eclectic bunch of sharp people who are awesome collaborators in a wide variety of disciplines. That’s why we tap members of the hive on a project-by-project basis and provide the glue to band together these coalitions.
One other note about the hive: Everyone is on equal footing. There are no Senior Vice Presidents or Eminent Global Strategic Officers or Group Creative Maharajas for North America. Everyone has the same incredibly simple title: Contributor, meaning contributing to your project.

Bernard
CONTENT

Bob
CREATIVE/DIGITAL

Chris
CREATIVE/DIGITAL

Chris
DIGITAL

Chris
CREATIVE

Christine
CREATIVE

Dan
PROMOTIONS

Dave
CREATIVE

Gary
MARKETING
AND STRATEGY

Greg
CREATIVE

Jackie
INTEGRATION/PR

Jeff
RETAIL

John
MARKETING
AND STRATEGY

Jon
CREATIVE

Katie
BEHAVIORIAL ECONOMICS

Lisa
PR

Liz
PAID MEDIA

Madison
MARKETING

Marni
MARKETING
AND STRATEGY

Matt
DATA ANALYSIS

Mike
CREATIVE

Milton
INSIGHTS

Nathan
VIDEO CONTENT

Rebecca
MARKETING
AND STRATEGY

Ryan
VIDEO CONTENT

Sam
VIDEO CONTENT

Shannon
CONTENT/PR

Susan
INSIGHTS

Susie
PR
BLOG, NEWS &
RANTS
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OUR
MISSION
We strengthen brands with enlightening insights into their customers and thoughtful creative that resonates with their customers.
OUR
VALUES
OVER DELIVER, AFTER DELIVER
We like how our business helps your business. Call us fans of capitalism. To that end, we stay hungry to help and are restless when it comes to ideas that improve your brand’s capacity to forge meaningful connections with its intended customers.
BE ACCOUNTABLE
The details matter. The deadlines matter. The client discussions matter. We do what we say we will, when we say we will. We find this surprisingly simple rule makes it easy to work with us.
BE INVESTED
We’re going to want to know what makes your operation go and what makes your customers tick. So we will be signing that NDA and then getting our hands dirty. If you like vendors to keep their distance, we might not be your huckleberry.
A place for both Actions and Words
Our Office
Our own office space for Nucleus is comfortably ensconced within a whole new brand we developed:
MIXTAPE CREATIVE COWORKING
Situated just outside of Scottsdale in Northeast Phoenix, we designed several thousand
square feet of collaborative space around three key attributes:
Stylish
Slightly Offbeat
Versatile
After all, the world now knows you don’t need to be in an office every single day
but when you’re at one, it might as well have the right vibe.