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September 2026
Where Alumni, Brand, and Belonging Meet
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For new Big Ten Club members Greg and Jacob Pollack, USC and the Rose Bowl are not simply affiliations. They are part of the family story.
Both are "Double Trojans" of USC Marshall and USC Annenberg, remarkably holding the same two USC degrees in reverse order (fittingly called "Flip Flop" in their household), and together account for four of the eight USC degrees in their immediate family. The father-and-son duo have never missed a USC home football game together and, for more than two decades, have made the Rose Bowl Game an annual tradition, whether or not their Trojans are participating. Earlier this year, they made that connection permanent with a dedicated brick beneath The Rose in Pasadena. That same belief in identity, community, loyalty, and belonging has shaped the way they think professionally. Greg and Jacob lead Partnership Brand, a Los Angeles-based boutique consultancy built for brands ready to see what others have not yet discovered. Their work begins with a defining question: Where is your next customer already living, traveling, dining, gathering, aspiring, and belonging… and what would make your brand feel naturally at home there too? That is the space Partnership Brand works to uncover… they identify the cultural worlds, communities, experiences, and complementary brands those audiences would trust, then create the partnership, concept, experience, or repositioning, that bridges the two to feel inevitable. |
That philosophy extends through brand partnerships, cultural collaborations, experiential engagement, brand reimagining, and The Concept Bar Studio, Partnership Brand’s creative destination for developing the bold, lifestyle-aligned ideas designed to create those coveted “why-hasn’t-anyone-done-this-before?” moments.
Greg and Jacob have also just unveiled a completely reimagined Partnership Brand website, thoughtfully designed as an expression of their work itself: cinematic, immersive, idea-driven, and intentionally different.
For fellow Big Ten alumni who lead companies, build brands, or own businesses, the invitation is simple: if you suspect there is an audience, partnership, or opportunity your brand has not yet been introduced to, Greg and Jacob would love to meet you and explore what might be hiding in plain sight. And, of course, fellow Trojans especially are always encouraged to say hello.
They can be reached directly at [email protected] and [email protected].
Big Ten Club members may also particularly enjoy Jacob’s newly published feature, The New Scoreboard. The Shifting Goalposts., found directly on the new Partnership Brand homepage.
Against the backdrop of NIL, revenue sharing, and the transformation of college athletics, the article asks a larger question: How can universities turn the things competitors cannot copy... their athletes, alumni, traditions, communities, place, and identity... into their greatest strategic advantage? And therein lies the connection to Partnership Brand itself.
The article's underlying idea is not limited to athletics: enduring advantage is built from the things that are distinctively, authentically, and irreplaceably yours. For a university, that may be its alumni, traditions, athletes, and place. For a business, it may be its heritage, audience, community, relationships, point of view, or the unexpected cultural spaces in which it has the credibility to belong, endure, and reinvent.
Finding those advantages, connecting them in ways others have not, and turning them into new opportunities, is very much the vision behind Partnership Brand.
Join us in welcoming Greg and Jacob to the Big Ten Club of Southern California! Fight On!
Greg and Jacob have also just unveiled a completely reimagined Partnership Brand website, thoughtfully designed as an expression of their work itself: cinematic, immersive, idea-driven, and intentionally different.
For fellow Big Ten alumni who lead companies, build brands, or own businesses, the invitation is simple: if you suspect there is an audience, partnership, or opportunity your brand has not yet been introduced to, Greg and Jacob would love to meet you and explore what might be hiding in plain sight. And, of course, fellow Trojans especially are always encouraged to say hello.
They can be reached directly at [email protected] and [email protected].
Big Ten Club members may also particularly enjoy Jacob’s newly published feature, The New Scoreboard. The Shifting Goalposts., found directly on the new Partnership Brand homepage.
Against the backdrop of NIL, revenue sharing, and the transformation of college athletics, the article asks a larger question: How can universities turn the things competitors cannot copy... their athletes, alumni, traditions, communities, place, and identity... into their greatest strategic advantage? And therein lies the connection to Partnership Brand itself.
The article's underlying idea is not limited to athletics: enduring advantage is built from the things that are distinctively, authentically, and irreplaceably yours. For a university, that may be its alumni, traditions, athletes, and place. For a business, it may be its heritage, audience, community, relationships, point of view, or the unexpected cultural spaces in which it has the credibility to belong, endure, and reinvent.
Finding those advantages, connecting them in ways others have not, and turning them into new opportunities, is very much the vision behind Partnership Brand.
Join us in welcoming Greg and Jacob to the Big Ten Club of Southern California! Fight On!