We live in a dangerously divided world where politics, branding, and capitalism collide. Fueled by social media’s immediacy, vast reach, and influence, and a society stoked by activism, we’ve never been more socially conscious, engaged, and divided. People are angry at their perception of injustice in the world and with each other. Whether brands should stay silent or speak up..

In 1988, the late great Dan Wieden had just started Wieden & Kennedy. Their first client, Nike, needed a tagline. In an interview with Design Indab, Wieden revealed the final tagline was inspired by the last words of a death row inmate Gary Gilmore who said, “You know, let’s do it.” Weiden recalled, “I remember when I read that, I was like, that’s amazing. I mean, how, in the face..

For Leadership looking to energize their company, accelerate market performance, and grow equity value and returns, we have your secret weapon. In one sense, it’s always been there. But with increased understanding of the financial return of strong brands and their intangibles, this weapon has never been more powerful. Brand audits have been around for a long time. However, they’ve traditionally..

For private equity and venture capital, how value creation happens has finally grown up. Once limited to financial engineering and operational improvements to increase value and investment outcomes, building brand equity is now the critical third leg of the value creation stool. Finally, the industry woke up to the significant power of intangible brand equity and creativity to accelerate market performance, increase equity value, and reduce risk—all drivers of investment success...

Long before digital marketing started to suffocate emotional creativity in favor of unnecessarily complex, performance-based blindness, my agency presented a TV spot for a high-end audio brand. We were excited. We had a powerful concept, and we recognized its potential to drive sales and build long-term brand equity. We presented the animatics and passed out the production budgets. It was a stroke of luck to get an..

Companies with strong internal brand cultures enjoy better market performance and higher customer loyalty and advocacy. They enjoy substantially higher employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention. And for PE/VC, strong brand cultures drive higher enterprise and equity value, improving multiples and investment outcomes...