Culture Isn’t a Channel: Jägermeister’s Kea Kleihauer on Earning Relevance
The Subthread
March 20, 2026
“If a brand says they are culturally relevant, they probably aren’t.” Kea Kleihauer laughs when she says it, but it is an accurate statement. Culture, she argues, is not something a brand can simply declare itself part of or can buy its way into. It has to be earned over time by a willingness to listen, not lead and be “useful”.
“You have to have an actual purpose of working with culture. It's not something that you can just buy, like your media budget,” Kea says. “It’s not a marketing channel.”
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