Sean McCarney
Co-FounderAppeared.in
Sean McCarney is the co-founder of Appeared.in, a sponsor intelligence platform that tracks brand newsletter placements, and the co-founder of the newsletter reading app Meco.Stories with Sean
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What is State of Brand?
State of Brand is a trade publication covering brand strategy and category positioning for CMOs, brand strategists and marketing leaders.
We report on the ideas, people and developments shaping brand strategy, category positioning, and how brands hold meaning as media fragments, with a particular focus on perspectives from the executives, operators and subject matter experts doing the work firsthand.
Our readership is global and includes professionals at Fortune 500 companies and leading organizations across brand and marketing. Our goal is to give practitioners a useful place to learn from their peers and give experts a credible platform to contribute their experience to important industry conversations.
Who do you interview, and why was I invited?
We regularly speak with senior executives, operators, practitioners, researchers and other subject matter experts whose experience is relevant to the topics we cover.
Our editorial team proactively identifies potential contributors based on their professional expertise, experience and perspective. You do not need to be a customer of, partner to, or otherwise affiliated with any company to participate.
Interviews are designed to surface useful firsthand perspectives rather than promote a product or company. For participants, they provide an opportunity to contribute to the conversation around their field, share lessons from their work, and build a published body of thought leadership around the subjects they know best.
There is no fee to participate.
Who publishes State of Brand?
State of Brand is published by Outlever, which produces it as one of its own media properties rather than on behalf of an outside sponsor.
The articles and interviews are produced by the State of Brand editorial team. Experts are invited because their perspectives are relevant to our coverage, not because they have paid to appear.
An interview invitation from State of Brand should therefore be understood as an invitation to contribute expertise to an editorial trade publication — not as a sales solicitation or paid placement.
Does it cost anything to be interviewed or featured?
No. There is no fee to participate in an interview or to be featured in State of Brand.
We do not charge executives, subject matter experts, or their companies for editorial coverage. There are no placement fees, participation fees, required subscriptions, or other payments associated with being interviewed or included in an editorial feature.
Our editorial team invites contributors because their experience, expertise, or perspective is relevant to the subjects we cover — not because they have paid for exposure.
State of Brand is published by Outlever, which allows the publication to produce ongoing reporting and interviews without charging the experts who contribute to our coverage.
Participation also does not require you or your organization to purchase anything from, become a customer of, or enter into a commercial relationship with anyone.
If you have been invited to speak with State of Brand, the invitation is for an editorial interview at no cost to you or your organization.
What should I expect if I agree to an interview?
The process is intentionally straightforward.
A member of the State of Brand editorial team will conduct a brief conversation, typically around 20 minutes, focused on the subject where your experience is most relevant. We then develop the conversation into an editorial feature for the publication.
Before publication, participants are given an opportunity to review the article and flag factual inaccuracies, quotation issues or important context that should be clarified.
Our goal is to accurately represent your perspective while keeping the process lightweight for busy executives and subject matter experts.
Where will my interview appear, and who will see it?
Your interview will be published on State of Brand, where it becomes part of our ongoing coverage of brand strategy and category positioning and can continue to be discovered and referenced after publication.
Our audience includes CMOs, brand strategists and marketing leaders at organizations around the world, including professionals at Fortune 500 companies and other leading enterprises.
We also make interviews easy to extend through professional networks. Contributors receive a shareable article link and professionally designed quote-card asset that can be used on LinkedIn, and stories may receive additional amplification through the publication, contributor networks and relevant professional communities.
For many contributors, the value is not simply appearing in one article. It is having their expertise captured in a credible editorial format that can be shared with colleagues, customers, peers and their broader professional network.