Podcasts about Landor Associates

Philip VanDusen is a branding consultant serving SMBs and entrepreneurs based in New Jersey, USA. As a thought leader, Philip shares his expertise in marketing, design, and entrepreneurship on YouTube to his 295k subscribers, in the Brand•Muse newsletter, the Bonfire mastermind community, and on the Brand Design Masters podcast.Philip has led creative teams in both global branding agencies and global corporations — serving as VP of Design for PepsiCo and Old Navy, and as Executive Creative Director at the iconic branding firm Landor Associates. Past clients include a host of Fortune 100 companies.In today's episode of Smashing the Plateau, you will discover how to navigate significant career changes and master the art of branding from a seasoned expert. Philip and I discuss:His reflections on what he might have done differently in his career [00:00]How he transitioned from a corporate role to entrepreneurship [02:13]The concept of career being more like a web than a ladder [02:52]Starting out in branding and the progression to where he is now [03:42]The importance of experiential learning over formal education in some fields [04:58]Dealing with imposter syndrome and the fear of uncertainty [06:18]The shift from working in real life to digital environments and adapting to new technologies [08:42]Advice for corporate refugees transitioning to their ventures [10:02]Establishing credibility and authority when starting new [11:39]The vital role of community in supporting career transitions [12:35]The importance of visual branding and consistency across platforms [14:01]How to start building a personal brand even before fully defining your services [16:35]Exploring the potential of digital content to attract and retain clients [21:06]Learn more about Philip VanDusen:WEBSITEhttps://www.philipvandusen.comBONFIRE MASTERMIND:https://philipvandusen.com.com/bonfireBRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER https://www.philipvandusen.com/museCREATIVE PROFESSIONAL COACHINGhttps://philipvandusen.com/oneononeBRAND CONSULTINGhttps://philipvandusen.com/brand-consultingLINKEDINhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/philipvandusen/YOUTUBEhttps://www.youtube.com/c/philipvandusenThank you to our sponsor:The Smashing the Plateau CommunityGain immediate access to exclusive, streamlined strategy advice from our podcast experts by subscribing now – your journey to success is just one click away!

The powerful storytelling & branding within commodities can destroy categories. Richard shares his thoughts on standout brands like Liquid Death and provides behind-the-scenes details on successful projects like Seabrook and Horlicks. This conversation dives deep into the nuances of maintaining brand identity and leveraging creativity to break through saturated markets. Richard emphasizes the importance of understanding business problems before jumping into creative solutions, a strategy that has guided Brandon Consultants in their work with established consumer goods brands. They discuss the significance of seamlessly blending emotional storytelling and clear communication in packaging design, illustrated through examples like the evolution of Seabrook's packaging and the transformation of Horlicks from sleep aid to relaxation beverage. Moreover, the episode touches on the trends in today's packaging industry, emphasizing the need for maintaining brand integrity while staying current in a rapidly evolving market. About the Guest: Richard Brandon Taylor is the co-founder of Brandon Consultants, a branding and design agency. With extensive experience in the Middle East and the UK through significant agencies such as WPP's Brand Union and Landor Associates, he has honed his expertise in growing iconic brands. Richard specializes in finding creative solutions for businesses in commoditized categories, combining a strategic approach with creative execution. His background in client service, strategy, and commercial understanding makes him a valuable leader in the branding industry. Key Takeaways: Branding in Commoditized Markets: Creativity is key to standing out in saturated markets, as illustrated by successful brands like Liquid Death and Seabrook. Emotional Storytelling: Packaging must convey a story that resonates with consumers emotionally, making products like Horlicks not just about sleep, but about relaxation and comfort. Client Insights: Understanding the client's business problems is essential to creating effective design solutions that drive growth and solve underlying issues. Trends in Packaging: The rise of bold, provocative packaging and the importance of balancing trends with long-term brand integrity. Category Disruption: Potential for innovation in traditionally dull categories, such as water, toilet tissue, and cleaning products, through unique storytelling and design. Notable Quotes: "I love challenger brands that do that… just use creativity and you might find a way." "You see the challenges that have been faced internally within the organization by looking at their packaging." "Brands need to have a heart, brands still have to have a truth to them that people buy into." "We've always looked at what's the business problem trying to solve, how can brand help that, and then how can creativity help brand." "It's really interesting, you can tap into the culture of a nation through a supermarket." Resources: Richard Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbrandontaylor/ Brandon Consultants: https://www.brandon-consultants.com Evelio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eveliomattos/ Download your own free sustainable packaging guide: https://idpdirect.com/design-guides/ Explore the dynamic world of branding and packaging with Richard Taylor in this episode. Don't miss out on these valuable insights, and stay tuned for more enlightening content from the podcast!

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.     This week, I'm listening back on a conversation with Allen Adamson and I wanted to share it with you too.    Allen is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding and the Co-Founder of Metaforce. He is also a published author with multiple marketing titles including Shift Ahead, Brand Simple, and The Edge. Prior to co-founding Metaforce, Allen was the Chairman of  North America of Landor Associates, a global branding firm. Before joining Lander, Allen was an executive at Unilever and held senior management positions at Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B. Allen is also a sought-after industry commentator and has appeared on shows such as NBC's Today Show and Fox Business Network's Closing Bell.     THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… individuals who are trying to build a memorable brand with advertising, social media, product design and user interfaces to convey a story which resonates with employees and customers.     TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE… find your relevance! Get out of your marketing bubble and don't wait for things to go wrong to step on the gas and shift your strategy. Once the marketplace signals your misstep, it's too late. Shifting ahead to success is all about being proactive and attentive and learning not just to listen passively, but to watch actively and ask the right questions!    WHAT I LOVE MOST… I loved talking about what “brand” truly is and how we can better understand it. It is one of the most misunderstood concepts in business and sales today. Everyone is chasing after what they think it means, and often this leads to a sense of disingenuousness.    Running time: 29:54    Subscribe on iTunes     Find Tiffani Online: Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn     Find Allen Online: LinkedIn  Twitter  Metaforce   

In this episode, we are honoured to host Cheryl Giovannoni, CEO of the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST). Cheryl brings a wealth of leadership and industry experience to the podcast. Born and raised in South Africa, her impressive career includes leading some of the world's largest companies in the advertising and creative industries within the WPP Group. About Cheryl Giovannoni Cheryl's journey through the corporate world is remarkable. She has held key leadership roles, including being the CEO of boutique design agency Coley Porter Bell, European President of global brand consulting firm Landor Associates, and UK CEO of advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather London. Throughout her career, Cheryl has been a strong advocate for women in the workplace, actively supporting and mentoring individuals from various backgrounds. Her passion lies in the transformative power of education and the critical role that women play in creating a more equal and better world. Episode Highlights 1. Early Leadership Experiences Cheryl shares her early leadership experiences that have significantly shaped her as a leader. Discover the key moments and insights that influenced her leadership style and her dedication to fostering diversity and inclusion. 2. Being of Service as a Leader Cheryl emphasizes the importance of being of service as a leader, differentiating it from being subservient. Learn how to strike a balance between serving the organisation's mission and values while maintaining effective leadership. 3. Connecting Everyone to Purpose, Vision, and Values Cheryl discusses strategies for connecting every organisation member to the purpose, vision, and values. Explore practical methods for aligning the team with the organization's mission to drive collective success. 4. Managing a 'Brilliant Jerk' Cheryl delves into the challenge of managing a 'brilliant jerk' – an individual who delivers exceptional results but may clash with the organization's culture. Discover how to address this issue and find solutions that maintain harmony and productivity. 5. Unique Challenges and Opportunities for Women Cheryl highlights the unique challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for women in the future. Gain insights into the evolving landscape of leadership, gender diversity, and the role women play in shaping a more equitable world. This episode provides an intimate look into Cheryl Giovannoni's inspiring journey, her commitment to empowering women and girls, and the transformative power of education. Whether you're a leader, educator, or someone passionate about making a positive impact, Cheryl's insights will inspire and inform your own leadership path. Episode Resources Find out more about Ben's new, Delegation Mastery course and master this skill once and for all. https://mailchi.mp/ben-morton.com/dm Buy 4000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman: https://amzn.to/3shNbZ5 Visit Ben's website:...

Welcome to episode #901 of Six Pixels of Separation - The ThinkersOne Podcast. Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation - The ThinkersOne Podcast - Episode #901. Navigating the ever-shifting landscape of branding is challenging. Few understand this terrain better than Allen Adamson. With extensive experience in both corporate and academic settings, he offers a unique lens through which to understand the challenges and opportunities that today's businesses face. Allen has contributed to the success of global players such as GE, Johnson & Johnson, and FedEx, with a focus on identifying and delivering what truly matters to audiences. His latest book is Seeing The How - Transforming What People Do, Not Buy, To Gain Market Advantage. Allen makes the compelling case for customer experience as a strategic differentiator. His insights arise from years of multi-sector experience, beginning in the supermarket aisles of Unilever, progressing through advertising firms, and culminating in senior leadership at Landor Associates. As an adjunct professor at NYU's Stern School of Business and Cornell University, Allen shares his insights by adding academic rigor to practical expertise. He's not just a thought leader... he's a practitioner dedicated to actionable solutions. His past books include, BrandSimple, BrandDigital, The Edge, and Shift Ahead. He serves as an expert witness in litigation concerning brand assets and has the trust of media outlets ranging from CNBC to The New York Times. Co-founder and managing partner of Metaforce, Allen brings together a consortium of top-tier industry talent, tasked with identifying and executing high-impact customer experiences. In this episode, we delve deep into the transformative potential of aligning customer experience with brand promise. It's a conversation for anyone invested in the future of building a smarter business through branding and market leadership. Enjoy the conversation... Running time: 54:06. Hello from beautiful Montreal. Subscribe over at Apple Podcasts. Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Six Pixels of Separation. Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook. Check out ThinkersOne. or you can connect on LinkedIn. ...or on Twitter. Here is my conversation with Allen Adamson. Seeing The How - Transforming What People Do, Not Buy, To Gain Market Advantage. BrandSimple. BrandDigital. The Edge. Shift Ahead. Metaforce. Follow Allen on LinkedIn. This week's music: David Usher 'St. Lawrence River'.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the Co-Founder of Metaforce, Allen Adamson.Metaforce, the marketing and brand consulting firm co-founded by Allan, is dedicated to helping clients tell their stories effectively. They work with B2B companies, both enterprise and small businesses, whose narratives are not sharp or memorable. Their mission is to help these companies craft a creative story that captures their audience's attention and makes them want to know more.Allen emphasized the importance of storytelling and compelling communication in marketing. He pointed out that simply being aware of a product or company is insufficient to generate interest or engagement. Instead, businesses must convey a clear message about their product or service and how it can benefit their target audience.One common mistake Allan highlighted is the tendency of marketers to prioritize awareness over message clarity. Many marketers jump straight to increasing awareness through platforms like TikTok or viral marketing without first defining and expressing their unique value proposition. Allen cautioned against this approach, as it often leads to forgettable advertisements that fail to resonate with consumers.To overcome this challenge, Allen suggests businesses step out of their comfort zones and seek diverse perspectives. He encourages marketers to surround themselves with people who see the world differently and are unafraid to challenge their ideas. By doing so, businesses can gain fresh insights and avoid becoming complacent.Allen also emphasized the need for continuous learning and adaptation in today's rapidly changing business landscape. He advises businesses to stay curious and slightly paranoid about the potential obsolescence of their offerings. Companies can stay ahead of the curve by constantly exploring new experiences, engaging with different people, and staying informed about industry trends.Key Points from the Episode:Metaforce as a marketing and brand consulting firm that helps clients tell their story effectivelyFocus on helping clients define and communicate their story clearly and crisplyWorking with B2B companies, both enterprise and small businesses, to craft a captivating storyExample of weak stories and how they can be transformed to be more compellingImportance of identifying the most compelling aspect of a product or service to grab audience attentionParallel between this approach and movie trailersEmphasis on storytelling and effective communication in marketingCaution against prioritizing awareness over message clarityAbout Allen Adamson:Allen Adamson is a renowned branding expert with a diverse background spanning various industries. With experience in consumer goods, technology, healthcare, financial services, hospitality, and entertainment, he excels in helping clients identify and capitalize on opportunities in their markets. His latest book, "Seeing the How," published in May 2023, emphasizes the importance of the consumer experience as a competitive advantage in today's marketing landscape.Adamson's extensive knowledge is rooted in his career on both the agency and client sides. He began at Unilever, gaining insights into consumer perspectives before moving to agencies like Ogilvy & Mather and Landor Associates, where he partnered with global brands. He also contributed to non-profit organizations such as the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.As an educator, Adamson has served as an Adjunct...

ALLEN P. ADAMSON is a noted expert in all disciplines of branding. He has worked with a broad spectrum of consumer and B2B businesses in industries from packaged goods to hospitality, technology to healthcare. His previous books, including BrandSimple and, most recently, Shift Ahead, are used as textbooks in higher education business programs nationwide.After holding senior management positions at Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B, Adamson joined Landor Associates, a full-spectrum brand consultancy, and eventually rose to chairman. Under his leadership, the company partnered with global brands including Accenture, GE, Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, HBO, Marriott, MetLife, P&G, Sony, and Verizon. Additionally, he guided non-profit organizations such as the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. For the past several years, he has been an adjunct professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, where he also serves as the brand expert-in-residence at the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship.A sought after industry commentator, Adamson has appeared on ABC News, NBC's Today, CNBC's Squawk Box and Closing Bell, and Fox Business Network, and is often quoted in publications including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, and Forbes. He is co-founder and managing partner of Metaforce, a disruptive marketing and brand consultancy that takes a multidisciplinary, channel-agnostic approach to driving growth. https://allenadamson.com/seeing-the-how-book/

Seeing the How: Transforming What People Do, Not Buy, To Gain Market Advantage by Allen Adamson About the Book: Among today's most successful businesses are those that have significantly transformed our daily routines.  This focus on the consumer experience, not solely on the product, has enabled them to drive remarkable growth and customer loyalty and, in many cases, to create totally new marketplace categories. Seeing the How invites you to reimagine your brand, company, or idea through the lens of consumer experience.  It gives today's disruptors a path to offering consumers a new and better way to do what they do, clearly demonstrating how to see opportunities, and how to seize them to great advantage.  Two years ago, Zoom was unknown to most, six years ago, Netflix was a DVD delivery service.  We ride in Ubers and stay with our families in Airbnb homes. We share Spotify playlists, refresh our closets with Bonobos, and pamper our pets with Chewy.  We set up meetings with Calendly and pay bills with Venmo.  The speed with which these disruptions to how we do things, and the enormous profits that come with changing daily routines, is breakneck and only points the way for other industries to carve out market dominance.  Seeing the How combines data-driven research on consumer behavior, behavioral psychology, marketing analysis, and storytelling to provide a framework to help identify the methods by which business leaders can make these experience disruptions possible.  Allen P. Adamson, an expert in branding, experience creation, and innovation strategy offers businesses a step-by-step guide to breaking into the market based on the tactics of the biggest experience disruptors, including Netflix, Apple, Warby Parker, and Stitch Fix.  These businesses speak to market segments and consumers that are diverse and far-flung. What they share is the extent to which they are experience disruptors. Their successes derive from their ability to make the stuff of daily life different, better, and easier.  Successful experience disruption is the de facto new competitive advantage across all categories.  With Seeing the How you'll have the strategy necessary to bring your disruption to life, command market segments, and cultivate consumer loyalty. About the Author: For more than 30 years Allen Adamson has helped launch, nurture, and reinvent brands, ranging from startups to nonprofits, to companies known worldwide, in categories including packaged goods, technology, healthcare, financial services, hospitality, and entertainment.   His philosophy, substantiated time and again, is that a successful brand stands for something that is both different and relevant - and simple for consumers to understand. A noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding, Allen has worked on the agency side for several iconic firms including Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B, and on the client side for Unilever.  He was chairman of Landor Associates, a global brand consultancy where, under his leadership, the company worked with brands including Accenture, GE, Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, HBO, Marriott, MetLife, Procter & Gamble, Sony, and Verizon. Allen's four previous books are Brand Simple: How The Best Brands Keep It Simple And Succeed; Brand Digital: Simple Ways Top Brands Succeed In The Digital World; The Edge: 50 Tips From Brands That Lead; and Shift Ahead: How The Best Companies Stay Relevant In A Fast-Changing World, (which was featured on The Marketing Book Podcast on episode 163 in 2018). Allen has also written a column on branding for Forbes for 20 years. Allen is now co-founder and managing partner of Metaphorce, a consultancy that takes a disruptive, multidisciplinary approach to marketing challenges. He's also an adjunct professor at the Berkeley Center for Entrepreneurship at NYU Stern School of Business, where he earned his MBA. And, interesting fact: he originally wanted to be a filmmaker! Click here for this episode's website page with the links mentioned during the interview... https://www.salesartillery.com/marketing-book-podcast/seeing-how-allen-adamson 

Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design a brand strategy and design agency serving SMBs and entrepreneurs. Philip previously served as VP of Design at PepsiCo and Old Navy and as Executive Creative Director at Landor Associates. As a thought leader, @PhilipVanDusen shares his expertise in brand building on YouTube to his 255k subscribers, in his Brand•Muse newsletter and on the Brand Design Masters podcast. Philip brings to his clients, followers and audiences a unique blend of expertise gained from leading brand-building initiatives from both the client-side and agency-side perspectives. Learn more about Philip VanDusen: https://philipvandusen.com

We discuss how brands, strategy, differentiation, positioning is evolving in the new fast-paced era of marketing with brand expert Allen Adamson.  Allen Adamson is an expert in all disciplines of brand. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce, a marketing and brand consultancy. For the past several years, Allen has been an Adjunct Professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. He also served many years as the Chairman, North America of Landor Associates, a global brand consulting firm where he worked with many iconic brands across industries.  Allen's newest book, Seeing the How: Transforming What People Do, Not Buy, To Gain Market Advantage to be published in 2023, focuses on the consumer experience as a competitive advantage. His previous books, BrandSimple, BrandDigital, The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands that Lead, and, most recently, Shift Ahead, are used as textbooks in higher education business programs across the country. https://www.metaforce.com Follow Allen Adamson on LinkedIn  If you have any questions about brands and marketing, connect with the host of this channel, Itir Eraslan at LinkedIn 

What You'll Learn From This Episode:With the right approach, small and medium sized businesses can make use of the same sort of intellectual rigor that makes big businesses super strong brands.Lots of companies don't really go about their branding in a very thoughtful wayYour brand needs to communicate the three R's, which is being recognized, being remembered, and being revered.Related Links and Resources:Phillip's Gift to you:9 Brand Design Elements You Absolutely Positively NeedURL:https://philipvandusen.com/freebieSummary:Philip VanDusen, is a creative entrepreneur and owner of Verhaal Brand Design a branding agency based in New Jersey, USA.  As a thought leader, Philip shares his expertise in marketing, design and entrepreneurship on YouTube to his 255k subscribers, in his Brand•Muse newsletter, on the Brand Design Masters podcast and in his Brand Design Masters Facebook community.In his career, Philip has lead creative teams on both the client-side and agency-sides of the street— serving as VP of Design for PepsiCo and Old Navy and Executive Creative Director at the iconic branding firm Landor Associates. Past clients include a host of the Fortune 100.Learn more here: https://johnnybeirne.com/.

During this episode, Philip will speak on how social media has been changing rapidly and with the explosion of short-form entertainment, content on social media will start influencing the type of marketing and advertisement campaigns run by companies. Brands will now have to figure out a way to be informative, authentic, engaging, motivating, and most of all entertaining, all in about 60 seconds or less to sell their products and services on social media. Join us & listen to the “The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship" series by the Brand Identity Design Podcast. Guest Bio- Philip VanDusen, is a creative entrepreneur and owner of Verhaal Brand Design a branding agency based in New Jersey, USA. As a thought leader, Philip shares his expertise in marketing, design, and entrepreneurship on YouTube with his 255k subscribers, in his Brand Muse newsletter, on the Brand Design Masters podcast, and in his Brand Design Masters Facebook community. In his career, Philip has led creative teams on both the client-side and agency sides of the street— serving as VP of Design for PepsiCo and Old Navy and Executive Creative Director at the iconic branding firm Landor Associates. Past clients include a host of the Fortune 100. Philips's Website- https://philipvandusen.com/ Philip's LinkedIn secrets video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3qDGzyAUIc&t=442s Philip's Personal Brand Wheel: https://www.branddesignmasters.com/personalbrandwheel Philip's Brand Strategy Course Link: https://www.branddesignmasters.com/brandstrategy101-sales Special Thanks to Today's Speakers & Contributors: Christine O, S. Peter Lewis, Mouadh Tizaoui & Thomas Condell. Host Details: Say Hello to Jaison @ https://iamjdesigns.co/ Brand Identity Designer & Podcaster Book your Brand Strategy

Anthony Shore is one of the few people in the world who makes a living at naming things like companies, brands, products or services. He joins Tim to talk about the magic in a name, and the work that goes into creating the right name so that the right brand identity can become a household name. Anthony is an expert in naming products, branding, services and organizations. For the past 30 years, he's introduced more than 250 product and company names to the world. Many are well-known to this day. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Anthony_Shore_-_Who_is_in_a_name_auphonic.mp3 Most people don't even think about it. Where did the name of that company or product they love so much come from? Marketers and business owners know, however, that the right name can mean everything. It can mean the difference between success and failure. The wrong name can quickly put a company or a brand out of business. Today, hundreds of thousands of businesses launch each month, and each one needs a name, not to mention names for certain products and services. I've been involved in a few projects where we had to create the right name for an organization, a product or a service. While there is a process for that, the key is to start with a deep understanding of that product or service, the problems it solves, the solutions it provides, and most importantly, the emotional connection between your targeted audience and the problem itself. Once you understand that, you can then start to consider the right language that communicates that, quickly, effectively, and almost instinctively. That's what I know. But I'm not the expert on naming. One of the leading experts on brand names is Anthony Shore. Links Operative Words The Weird Science of Naming New Products, New York Times Magazine Anthony Shore's Naming Partner is a Neural Network, How Brands Are Built Anthony Shore - The Man Behind Some of the Biggest Brand Names in the World, WeTransfer.com About this Episode's Guest Anthony Shore Anthony Shore is the Chief Operative of Operative Words. Over 30 years, he has introduced more than 250 product and company names to the world. Trained as a linguist at UC Santa Cruz, his BA thesis received the Chancellor's Award and Linguistics degree Honors. As Global Director of Naming and Writing for Landor Associates, he led naming, nomenclature and brand strategy projects for Global 500 companies for 13 years. A year at Lexicon Branding and prior jobs as a photomechanical typesetter, software marketer, product manager, copywriter and door-to-door fundraiser have shaped his real-world and holistic perspective on brand naming. In 2009, he started his agency, Operative Words, to focus exclusively on what he's good at: “Six words or fewer.”  

Our guest on the podcast this week is Arthur Foliard, a creative director originally from Paris who is currently based in New York City. Arthur has travelled the world since he accepted an internship at Landor Associates in San Francisco over a decade ago. He later moved to London and worked for Pentagram before joining Moving Brands for a couple of years, rising from junior to senior designer. In 2016, Arthur tried his hand at freelancing for under a year but then was snapped up by the London design agency Koto – becoming its Design Director in 2017. He's still there today but has recently moved to the States to head up its new studio in New York. Although Arthur predominantly works in graphic design, he is also renowned for his illustration work – often merging the two disciplines to deliver stunning identities for the likes of Backmarket, Meatable, and Yubo. His illustration work, meanwhile, is instantly recognisable – often spotted on walls and billboards across London. In this episode, we talk about his adventures around the world. And what "home" means to him when he's not in Paris – how all these other places where he's lived differ from one another; their various cultures and ways of doing business. He also shares how he found himself in San Francisco straight after college. And how he coped with not being able to speak a word of English. We delve into his time at Koto and what it's like to be head of its new office in New York, which isn't even a year old. There's a bit of juicy insight into the studio's culture, how they might follow London's example and how it looks after its people. And Arthur shares why he believes everyone should be together, collaborating and supporting one another in the same room. It's a fun chat with someone who clearly isn't afraid of the future and doesn't dwell too much on the past – something many of us will find comforting during these rocky and uncertain times.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast Support the Show. Get the AudioBook! AudioBook: Audible| Kobo| Authors Direct | Google Play | Apple Summary Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I'll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening. Now on to my guest for today, Allen Adamson, cofounder of Metaforce, the “special forces” of marketing, and author of several books on branding and marketing. Allen studied filmmaking in college but realized he didn't have the drive for making films he saw in others. This realization - that you need to have both passion and talent for what you spend your life doing - has been a guiding principle. After earning an MBA at NYU's Stern School, he went to work in advertising, starting with Unilever, then moving into agency work and eventually leading Landor Associates, a global branding firm. Allen made the leap to entrepreneurship six years ago when he decided to write his next book. At Metaforce, Allen seeks first to listen and understand what his clients' problems are, and then work with them on finding a solution, rather than simply offering a service that may or may not be effective. As someone who has worked for years in advertising and marketing, Allen has found himself at the intersection of creativity and business, straddling the line between offering innovative solutions but also recognizing the constraints of budgets and deadlines. Key to succeeding in this area, Allen says, is embracing non-linear thinking. In writing his books, Allen has found he connects naturally with a community of colleagues and potential clients while also learning and then sharing what he's learned.  Now, let's get better together. Actionable Insights First, seek to understand. Listen to what your client or customer is struggling with before starting to figure out solutions. Another key factor is company culture. A consensus-driven, risk-averse company culture is not usually going to embrace anything cutting-edge.  Allen recommends that businesses focus on those one or two areas they do well to stand out, rather than trying to do it all. This means focusing on the marketing strategies that you do well, rather than trying to spread yourself too thin.  Allen's recommendations for young entrepreneurs:  Don't wait too long. Spend some time in your industry learning “on someone else's dime,” but after five or so years, strike out before it gets too comfortable. This will also give you time to try and fail, which is inevitable for most entrepreneurs.  Be honest with what you're good at and what you like doing. If you're not thinking about your business in the shower or on a run, then you probably don't have the passion to see it through. Links to Explore Further Metaforce Allen Adamson on LinkedIn Allen Adamson's Column in Forbes  Keep In Touch Book or Blog or Twitter or LinkedIn or JSYPR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Education is something that is incredibly powerful. It changes lives, communities, even countries. But education is more than institutions. It's knowledge, empowerment, and knowing how to take action on skills you learn. My guest today, Kim Caldbeck, CMO of Coursera, is using her marketing skills to make an impact on individuals to help empower them to make changes.“We did a campaign in the fall that was about rethinking possibilities and, and that, and, um, this year, uh, the campaign platform that we're really working through is, is all about that feeling. When, when, you know, you can ACE that interview, when, you know, you have the skills for the job, when you realize you can actually go dream like you could when you were a kid.”In this episode she talks about what it's like working at an institution that targets nearly anyone who wants to learn. She discusses some of the marketing tech she uses, what she looks for in success stories, and how she creates passion in her team. When you finish this episode, let me know what you think by leaving a comment on Apple Podcasts or on YouTube. Alright, let's get to it!Main TakeawaysSales is about teamwork. In the end, sales always comes down to the marketing team, and they should be working closely with the sales team to make sure they have enough potential, and knowledgeable, customers to execute on. Take advantage of internal and external talent. When you are a growing team, it's helpful to bring on external talent to make sure you are completing the jobs in the most efficient manner, but when it comes time to scale you want to bring on internal hires. Having internal talent will help make sure processes are followed, and you have more control over the end result.Look ahead. It's easy to get trapped in the day to day work grind, but you want look down the road. What will the next three years look like? What will the world be like? What goals do you have for the next three years?Key Quotes“I think marketing is an amazing field that allows you to combine that interest in understanding people and empathy and creativity and storytelling along with hardcore data and analytics and technology.”“If marketing's not doing the most effective thing to close deals, then we're not doing our job. And if sales is wasting energy by not taking the leads that we're providing, then either they're wasting energy on their side and they could be closing more deals or we're not doing our job. It's just that shared commitment to the end result.”“[When hiring] what's their why? Pretty much everyone at Coursera has some connection to our mission in a meaningful way. It is an easy one to get behind when you're trying to transform life through learning. Having people be able to articulate why that means something to them and why they're excited.”“[External vs internal teams] is definitely a nail and scale approach. I would nail with more freelance support and scale with more full-time support. But even within that, the larger equation is, how do we get the job done in the best way possible at the lowest cost?”BioKim Caldbeck is the Chief Marketing Officer at Coursera. Kim joined Coursera in April 2015 as Director of Brand and Product Marketing. Prior to Coursera, Kim spent five years at Facebook launching many of Facebook's first consumer marketing campaigns in over 60 global markets. She spent much of her time in the mobile space spearheading Facebook's internet.org launch to bring internet to the offline world, leading product marketing for Facebook for Android and Facebook for Every Phone, and developing the Facebook for Android beta program. She also spent two years in business marketing at Facebook helping advertisers build their brands and businesses in the digital world. Prior to Facebook, Kim worked in marketing at Apple supporting a network of over 100,000 app developers. She started her career in brand consulting and consumer research at Landor Associates working with many of the world's leading brands. Kim received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world's number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. 

Our special guest today has made a career offering stories as a service. She helps leaders craft their stories to communicate and connect better through concise and compelling ghostwritten social media posts. She also writes engaging, original, and authentic Career Stories for her clients, positioning them for success and changing how others perceive, pay, partner with, and promote them. In all her work, she provides her clients clarity of messaging to strengthen their personal brands and thought leadership. A longtime Leadership Contributor for Forbes, she covers personal transformation and its impact on career growth. She also regularly creates and shares original content through her popular Illuminate Me newsletter and active social media channels. Her career spans several decades and industries, but her goal has always been the same: to help her clients identify and communicate their strengths in a creative and highly appealing manner. Before founding her strategic writing practice, she spent a decade in the marketing and communications industry, beginning her career at Young & Rubicam Advertising and culminating as a branding consultant for international firms Landor Associates and Enterprise IG. During this time, she partnered with her clients to create, renew, and strengthen their brands. She then applied her branding expertise to the world of travel and tourism, where for over fifteen years, she led and advised destination marketing organizations in California. Her engagement within the tourism industry led to her involvement with the California Travel Association, where she served on its Executive Committee and board, as Chair of its annual conference, and leader of its statewide Ambassador Council. Her love of telling a compelling story can be traced back to her college years. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film & Media from the University of California, San Diego with a minor in Communications. Welcome our featured guest, Amy Blaschka. This is an episode that is surely worth exploring every minute of their discussion. Tune in and listen. #kut2thachase #podcast #unscripted #unbridled #episode4everyone #E92 #thewildcard #satx #sanantonio #sanantoniopodcast #sanantoniopodcaster #sanantonioinfluencer --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kut2thachase/support

In this HCI "Forbes Feature" Podcast episode, where Dr. Jonathan H. Westover explores Amy Blaschka's recent Forbes article, "The One Thing That's Sabotaging Your Career Growth." Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/MoKMAJhpdg4. See the related Forbes article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyblaschka/2019/12/16/stop-doing-the-one-thing-thats-sabotaging-your-career-growth/?sh=698b41665e66 Video Overview: "You know those amazing business and thought leaders we all admire? The ones we place high upon a pedestal, touting their business acumen and wisdom?  Spoiler alert: they're not perfect, nor do they try to be. In fact, eschewing perfection in favor of progress might be the secret to their success.  Here are three ways you can stop trying to be “perfect” in your career, and instead, make progress." Amy Blaschka (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyblaschka/) has made a career offering “stories as a service.” From her degree in film to her three decades spent branding products, places, and people, to founding her strategic writing practice, Amy has always understood the power of weaving a compelling tale. She helps leaders craft their stories to communicate and connect better through concise and compelling ghostwritten social media posts. Amy also writes engaging, original, and authentic Career Stories for her clients, positioning them for success and changing how others perceive, pay, partner with, and promote them. In all her work, Amy provides her clients clarity of messaging to strengthen their personal brands and thought leadership. A longtime Leadership Contributor for Forbes, Amy covers personal transformation and its impact on career growth. She also regularly creates and shares original content on her active social media channels. Her career spans several decades and industries, but her goal has always been the same: to help her clients identify and communicate their strengths in a creative and highly appealing manner. Before founding her strategic writing practice, she spent a decade in the marketing and communications industry, beginning her career at Young & Rubicam Advertising and culminating as a branding consultant for international firms Landor Associates and Enterprise IG. During this time, she partnered with her clients to create, renew, and strengthen their brands. She then applied her branding expertise to the world of travel and tourism, where for over fifteen years, she led and advised destination marketing organizations in California. Her engagement within the tourism industry led to her involvement with the California Travel Association, where she served on its Executive Committee and board, as Chair of its annual conference, and leader of its statewide Ambassador Council. Her love of telling a compelling story can be traced back to her college years. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film & Media from the University of California, San Diego with a minor in Communications. Ranked in the Top 10 Performance Management Podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/performance_management_podcasts/ ; Ranked in the Top 10 Workplace Podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/workplace_podcasts/ ; Ranked in the Top 15 HR Podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/hr_podcasts/ ; Ranked in the Top 15 Talent Management Podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/talent_management_podcasts/ ; Ranked in the Top 15 Personal Development and Self-Improvement Podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/personal_development_podcasts/ ; Ranked in the Top 30 Leadership Podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/leadership_podcasts/

Designers know that creating the perfect logo can be a time consuming process. But even when you know what's involved, for most it's hard to comprehend how some logos can be priced in the millions. How can you justify charging so much money, just for a logo? To discover the answer, on this weeks episode Ian interviews Philip VanDusen who's worked with a host of the Fortune 100 companies, with logos in excess of $250,000. We learn what's involved with projects of this scale, how to accurately price a logo project, user research, testing and more. Philip VanDusen, is a creative entrepreneur and owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a branding agency based in New Jersey, USA. In his career Philip has lead creative teams, serving as VP of Design for PepsiCo and Old Navy and Executive Creative Director at the iconic branding firm Landor Associates. Show notes and episode transcription can be found here: https://logogeek.uk/podcast/how-can-a-logo-cost-250000/ Resources Mentioned Verhaul Brand Design Philip VanDusen on YouTube, Linkedin, Twitter Brand Design Masters Brand Design Masters Podcast Thank you to the sponsor, FreshBooks I’m incredibly thankful to FreshBooks for sponsoring this episode of the Logo Geek Podcast! FreshBooks is an online accounting tool that makes it really easy to create and send invoices, track time and manage your money. You can try it out for yourself with a free 30 day trial.

Brands are all around us, but as the times change they need to adapt to keep relevant – if they don’t they’ll soon vanish from the high street. Kodak and Blackberry for example were once leaders in their field, but they failed to shift, becoming irrelevant in a fast changing world. But how can brands prevent this from happening to them, and how can designers and agencies help their clients shift to avoid pending doom? On this weeks podcast Ian interviews branding expert, Allen Adamson to find out. Allen is the author of the new book Shift Ahead, and co-founder and managing partner of brand strategy firm Metaforce. Prior to this Allen was Chairman of Landor Associates, a global branding firm, and he also worked in senior management positions at Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B. View the show notes and transcription here: https://logogeek.uk/how-brands-shift/ Books & Resources Mentioned  Allen Adamson on Linkedin | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Metaforce Shift Ahead: How the best companies stay relevant in a fast-changing world – Buy on Amazon UK | Amazon US Thank you to the sponsor, FreshBooks I’m incredibly thankful to FreshBooks for sponsoring this episode of the Logo Geek Podcast! FreshBooks is an online accounting tool that makes it really easy to create and send invoices, track time and manage your money. You can try it out for yourself with a free 30 day trial.

Allen is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce, a marketing and product consultancy which, takes a multi-disciplinary and channel-agnostic approach to marketing challenges. Prior to this Allen was Chairman of Landor Associates, a Global communications and brand strategy consultancy.  But Allen has worked across agencies as well as on the “client side” of the industry, including at Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B as well as Packaged Goods giant Unilever.   He is also an Adjunct at NYU’s Stern School of Business. The book talks about how organizations can avoid to become paralyzed by the accelerating pace of change in markets, customer needs, technologies and the business models they power.  Or, as the sub-title says: “How the best companies stay relevant in a fast-changing world.” Together with his co-author professor Joel Steckel, Allen uses first-hand accounts and detailed case studies to explain how these organizations recognize when it’s time to change direction, and how they pull off the feat of leaping forward while holding firm to a company’s reputation, credibility, and trustworthiness. The authors present a simple framework for maintaining the balance and flexibility essential to thriving in a marketplace where change is the only constant.

Allen Adamson is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding. He is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce, NYU Stern Adjunct Professor, and the author of 4 books: BrandSimple BrandDigital The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands That Lead, and Shift Ahead: How the Best Companies Stay Relevant in a Fast-Changing World. Prior to Metaforce, Allen was Chairman, North America of Landor Associates, a global branding firm. We'll be talking about the evolution of retail, whether Amazon is a threat of not to your brand and how to zoom out and shift your direct-to-consumer brand.   ----------- FACEBOOK GROUP...CONTINUE OUR CONVERSATION The eCommerce GrowthAccelerator Mastermind Facebook Group has just launched. It is a community...    ✔️ for founders and experts passionately involved in eCommerce  ✔️ for the truly ambitious wanting to make an impact in the markets they serve ✔️ for those willing and open to help and share with other members   Here is where to apply to join the Facebook group >>http://bit.ly/ecommercefb

A conversation with Mario Utama (IG: @marioutama) of Rubicube Creative (IG: @rubicubecreative). Mario pursued BFA in Graphic Design in Academy of Art University (San Francisco) and MBA at University of San Francisco. He started his design journey at the global leader branding firm Landor Associates before founded Rubicube Creative in Jakarta. Rubicube creative is a branding and design consultant that was founded in 2008 which specializes in brand strategy, identity system, and digital interface. Its clients include but not limited to World Bank Group, Telkom Indonesia, Nestle, BMW, East Ventures, MidPlaza holding, Ciputra Group, Fore Coffee among others. In this podcast we discussed about research and strategies for brand sustainability and growth. Business inquiry: Rubicube Creative Mall of Indonesia Blok J23 Jakarta Utara 1240 Phone: 021.4586.7818 Email: mario@rubic3.com www.rubic3.com

“Marketing doesn’t always have one right answer.” As both a branding expert and instructor at NYU Stern School of Business, Allen Adamson knows how the world of branding has changed and what’s important for students and brand builders alike to understand. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Allen Adamson Allen Adamson is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding. He is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce.co, NYU Stern School of Business Adjunct Professor of Marketing, and the author of BrandSimple, BrandDigital, The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands That Lead, and his latest Shift Ahead. Prior to Metaforce, Allen was Chairman, North America of Landor Associates, a global branding firm. Episode Highlights Part of marketing success is stepping back and looking. Today, too often we’re focused on what’s happening right now. As a result, we miss the opportunity for marketing innovation. As Allen notes, “People were standing on the street yelling for a ride forever. It took awhile to see that there was an opportunity there for brands like Uber and Lyft.” What’s changed most about branding today? “In the good old days, there were a couple of choices. Now when you watch people are viewing everywhere.” “We have too much information and not the right type.” Allen shared experiences from his time at Unilever and Pepsi, and how they focused disproportionately on Colgate and Coke. This reminded Allen of a lesson from tennis, you want to “hit the ball to where the other person is not.” How do you know when it’s time for your brand to make a shift? “If you wait for your customers to tell you where to go next you’re probably too late.” What brand has made Allen smile recently? Netflix — “The have taken over our content in such a clever way.” To learn more, go to metaforce.co and check out Allen’s new book at ShiftAheadBook.com. As We Wrap … Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. On Brand is sponsored by my new book Brand Now. Discover the seven dynamics to help your brand stand out in our crowded, distracted world. Order now and get special digital extras. Learn more. Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to Apple Podcasts and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And, if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

Biography:Philip is a highly accomplished creative leader and expert in brand strategy and graphic design for some of the world’s most successful global agencies, retailers and consumer products companies, including P&G, Gap, Inc., Petsmart, PepsiCo, GE, Chevron, Safeway, Delmonte, Diamond Foods, and Johnson & Johnson among many others.Philip has helped Fortune 100 companies and entrepreneurs alike create and revitalize brands, identities, websites and launch new products for 20+ years. He has served as VP of Design of Global Snacks at Pepsico, VP of Design at Old Navy and Executive Creative Director for the global branding agencies Landor Associates and Anthem Worldwide. Philip is currently the founder and principal of Verhaal Brand Design which specializes in strategic brand development, graphic design and marketing. Main talking points include:The importance of support and networking in the entrepreneurial journey. Offering your services to the entrepreneurial community: Becoming an expertGiving value without EXPECTING returnThis sets the premise of content marketing – giving value to the world… This helps you build a brand in your niche. Building a content library takes time Branding for the personal brandBranding is branding - it's just a question of scale. The three RsRecognisedRememberedRevered Recognition and remembrance come through consistency, colour, placement, iconography, etc… The visual components need to be consistent. Not doing this is simply limit the effectiveness of everything you do so far. How content marketing vets your leads and enquiriesStarting out with your own branding as you start your business.Smaller agencies are starting to pick up the work from the big brands by the smaller, faster and cheaper smaller and virtual agencies. The rise of the consultant and the global digital economy has had a remarkable effect in the marketing industry. Making your online presence robust“Prepare to suck" Connect With Philip:Website : click hereYoutube Channel: click here Join our Facebook Group! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“The number one reason for organizational success or failure is the ability to stay relevant. Having the wherewithal to strategically shift ahead of accelerating marketplace changes is the single most critical skillset an organization can possess.”  Allen Adamson is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding. He has worked with a broad spectrum of consumer and corporate businesses in industries ranging from packaged goods and technology, to health care and financial services, to hospitality and entertainment.  With his perspective and depth of experience, Allen has helped his clients understand and activate strategies that enable them to shift ahead of the market and the competition, generating long-term value and increased brand equity. Allen and his teams help clients identify what truly matters to the audiences they serve - what is relevant to their audiences - and to brilliantly deliver on it. How organizations do – or do not - stay relevant is the subject of Allen’s most recent book, Shift Ahead. Using fascinating first-hand accounts and detailed case studies, Shift Ahead explains how the best organizations recognize when it’s time to change direction, and how they pull it off while bolstering their brands. Following the approach of Allen’s previous books, BrandSimple, BrandDigital, and The Edge:50 Tips from Brands That Lead – which are used in universities across the country - Shift Ahead offers up practical and readily applied lessons learned.  Allen is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce (www.metaforce.co), a disruptive marketing and product consultancy which, unlike traditional firms, takes a multi-disciplinary channel-agnostic approach to marketing challenges. It was created to help leaders understand all the forces at work inside and outside their businesses in order to identify strategies yielding the highest returns. Once determining the best strategy, Metaforce’s consortium of partners, each industry experts in their fields, pivot to help clients brilliantly act on and execute customer experiences in market. Metaforce combines the best aspects of brand management, strategy, and experience consultancies to deliver solutions that ensure its clients shift ahead of the dramatic changes in the marketplace in order to meet fast-evolving customer needs. Prior to this Allen was Chairman of Landor Associates, a global communications and brand strategy consultancy.  Under his leadership, the company partnered with a wide array of iconic brands, including Accenture, GE, Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, HBO, Marriott, MetLife, P&G, Sony, and Verizon. Additionally, he provided guidance for non-profit organizations including the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, the Central Park Conservancy, and the Council on Foreign Relations, among others.Before leading Landor, Allen worked on both the agency and the “client side” of the industry.  At Unilever he was a marketing executive across a number of major packaged goods brands. He also held senior management positions at Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B.  Allen received his BS from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. http://Metaforce.coAllen's book Shift Ahead:  https://www.amazon.com/Shift-Ahead-Companies-Relevant-Fast-Changing/dp/0814438334/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=KF0DLITDZ5E7&keywords=shift+ahead+allen+adamson&qid=1552074707&s=gateway&sprefix=shift+ahead%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1-fkmrnullLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

      Welcome to the What's Next! podcast with Tiffani Bova.  This week I have the pleasure of welcoming Allen Adamson to the What's Next! Podcast. Allen is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding and the Co-Founder of Metaforce. He is also a published author with multiple marketing titles including Shift Ahead, Brand Simple, and The Edge. Prior to co-founding Metaforce, Allen was the Chairman of  North America of Landor Associates, a global branding firm. Before joining Lander, Allen was an executive at Unilever and held senior management positions at Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B. Allen is also a sought-after industry commentator and has appeared on shows such as NBC’s Today Show and Fox Business Network’s Closing Bell.   THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… individuals who are trying to build a memorable brand with advertising, social media, product design, and user interfaces to convey a story which resonates with employees and customers.   TODAY’S MAIN MESSAGE…   Find your relevance! Get out of your marketing bubble and don’t wait for things to go wrong to step on the gas and shift your strategy. Once the marketplace signals your misstep, it’s often too late. Shifting ahead to success is all about being proactive and attentive, and learning not just to listen passively, but watch actively and ask the right questions!  WHAT  I  LOVE  MOST…  I loved talking about what “brand” truly is and how we can better understand it. It is one of the most misunderstood concepts in business and sales today. Everyone is chasing after what they think it means, and often this leads to a sense of disingenuousness.    Running time: 29:40     Subscribe on iTunes   Find Tiffani on social: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn    Find Allen on social:  Twitter  LinkedIn    Metaforce

This podcast is with brand and marketing guru Allen Adamson and sheds light on the world of branding in business and how it applies to the music industry. Allen Adamson is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding. He’s worked with a broad spectrum of clients in industries ranging from packaged goods and technology to health care and financial services, to hospitality and entertainment, as well as brands in the non-profit sector. Given his perspective and depth of experience, Allen has helped his clients not simply understand, but, more critically, put into play strategies that enable them to shift ahead of the market and the competition, generating long-term value and increased brand equity. How organizations do – or do not – stay relevant is the subject of Allen’s most recent book, Shift Ahead. Using fascinating first-hand accounts and detailed case studies, Shift Ahead explains how the best organizations recognize when it’s time to change direction, and how they pull it off while bolstering their brands. Following the approach of Allen’s previous books, BrandSimple, BrandDigital, and The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands That Lead – which are used in universities across the country – Shift Ahead offers up practical and readily applied lessons learned. Prior to Metaforce, Allen was Chairman, North America of Landor Associates, a global branding firm. Under his leadership, the company partnered with a wide array of iconic brands, including Accenture, GE, Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, HBO, Marriott, MetLife, P& G, Sony, and Verizon. Before Landor, Allen was an executive at Unilever, responsible for leading marketing for a number of major packaged goods brands. Previously, he held senior management positions at Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B. A sought-after industry commentator, Allen has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CNBC’s Squawk Box and Closing Bell, and Fox Business Network. He is often quoted in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, USA Today, the Washington Post, and Forbes, for which he also writes a column on brand strategy. He is a frequent guest lecturer at New York University’s Stern School of Business, the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, and the Harvard School of Continuing Education. Allen is a member of the American Management Association and speaks on brand and marketing strategy for a range of professional organizations, corporate events, and at industry conferences. Allen received his BS from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. I hope you enjoy our conversation! Aaron Bethune.

Allen Adamson is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding. He is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce.co and the author of BrandSimple, BrandDigital, The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands That Lead, and Shift Ahead: How the Best Companies Stay Relevant in a Fast Changing World. Prior to Metaforce, Allen was Chairman, North America of Landor Associates, the global branding firm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode I talk to Allen Adamson, former Chairman of Landor Associates and currently Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Metaforce. We discuss branding and business in general, what it takes to build a strong brand in today's world, and we dive into Allen's new book Shift Ahead. Allen has previously written the books Brand Simple, Brand Digital and The Edge. Hope you enjoy the episode, and I am happy if you connect and engage with me, or directly with my guests. The episode starts at 1:13 with an introduction to Allen. We dive into Allens background, discuss how he got into branding, what he learned working for big companies such as Unilever, and what it means to Shift Ahead. You'll hear Allen share stories from his many interviews with people such as Thomas Friedman, brands such as Kodak, Nokia, Coca-Cola, Hasbro etc. Connect with Allen: www.metaforce.co Connect with Tobias www.wonderagency.com

Allen Adamson is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding. He is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce.co and the author of BrandSimple, BrandDigital, The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands That Lead, and Shift Ahead. Prior to Metaforce, Allen was Chairman, North America of Landor Associates, a global branding firm.   Watch my Celebrity interviews on my YouTube Channel! Go here> https://goo.gl/EA9x6D Connect with Bert Martinez on Facebook. Connect with Bert Martinez on Twitter.

Allen Adamson is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding. He is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce.co and the author of BrandSimple, BrandDigital, The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands That Lead, and Shift Ahead: How the Best Companies Stay Relevant in a Fast Changing World. Prior to Metaforce, Allen was Chairman, North America of Landor Associates, a global branding firm. What you’ll learn about in this episode: Allen’s experience and the expertise he has around branding The evolution of the term “brand,” what it has come to mean today, and why branding is all about getting your story out to the world What has changed in the branding space with the omnipresence of technology Why you need to constantly reinvent and re-sharpen your brand in today’s market Ways to know whether your branding is working or not including the most important thing for a brand to focus on The process Allen takes his clients through to determine what makes their brand different What you need to get focused on in your brand’s story if you want to get it out there One of the biggest challenges of working collaboratively as a company and who should be at the table when coming up with the brand’s story What an editorial reduction process is and why that is really the important part of branding The process Allen uses to help businesses figure out where to put their brand’s story and how to know whether the advertising channel you’ve chosen is the right one or not An example of a brand that has been successful over time and why they have been able to accomplish this Your best chance of breaking out against your competitors The danger of trying to do too many things with your brand and how to avoid that trap Why you should have a founder’s mentality Reasons brands might want to look outside the digital space to get their name out there Ways to contact Allen: Website: www.shiftaheadbook.com Website: metaforce.co

Philip VanDusen is sharing his years of brand design experience on YouTube, and doing so with much success. He has served as VP of Design at Pepsico and Old Navy and Executive Creative Director the global branding agencies Landor Associates and Anthem Worldwide. He’s helped Fortune 100 companies create and revitalize brands, identities, websites, e-commerce platforms and launch new products and businesses. Among his past clients are Procter & Gamble, Gap, Inc., Kraft Foods, Merck, Sysco Foods, GE Honda Aero Engines, Petsmart, National Geographic, Safeway, Chevron, Avery Dennison, and Levis Strauss & Co. In this 2nd appearance on the podcast, Philip shares insights, tips and advice on building a YouTube channel. He also shares examples of how others are using YouTube to make shifts (aka pivots) in their personal brands. To date Philip has 130K YouTube subscribers, and it seems he’s just getting warmed up. You may want to take notes. SHOW NOTES PhilipVanDusen.com Youpreneur Philip VanDusen’s YouTube Channel Philip’s brand • muse Newsletter Website Copy That Converts – How to Create a Customer Journey Brand•muse Interview w/Lee Jackson Philip Interviews Amy Landino Chris Ducker Libsyn John Lee Dumas TubeBuddy Lee Jackson, Agency Trailblazers Vlog Like a Boss by Amy Schmittauer Related Episode – How Philip VanDusen Got His First 10k Email Subscribers RESOURCES DIY Referral Group Email Course (FREE) ConvertKit Email Marketing Software Web Hosting by Dreamhost

Philip is currently the founder and CCO of Verhaal Brand Design which specializes in strategic brand development, graphic design and marketing. His YouTube channel where he shares his insights, trends and expertise has over 125,000 subscribers. His brand•muse newsletter is considered one of the top industry publications in in the branding arena. We discuss: What differences and similarities there might be when working as an internal and external change agent [2:38] What in the way of building brands motivated Philip to launch his business [5:38] Mistakes small to midsize companies make when building their brands [7:33] How outside agencies can help you stop talking about yourself and draw more clients in [11:10] Why initial investment in great design is better than great design at a later stage [14:34] Online tools and the type of attitude that bring consistent and recurring revenue [17:03] How to develop an evergreen content library [21:22] Two great examples of people who are not afraid to start and change [24:18] Why you should answer every single comment on your YouTube channel [27:31] Philip has helped Fortune 100 companies and entrepreneurs alike create and revitalize brands, identities, websites and launch new products for 20+ years. He has served as VP of Design of Global Snacks at Pepsico, VP of Design at Old Navy and Executive Creative Director for the global branding agencies Landor Associates and Anthem Worldwide. Learn more about Philip at Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/verhaalbranddesign/) . Brief Description of Gift a free e-book “The 9 Brand Design Elements You Absolutely Positively Have to Have” URL for Free Gift https://philipvandusen.com/direct-optin (https://philipvandusen.com/direct-optin) (http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/smashing-the-plateau) Facebook Twitter LinkedIn 0Shares

Bob Wolf is Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Wolf Design Partners, which he founded in 2006. Prior to running his own firm, Bob was Senior Creative Director at Enterprise IG, Creative Director at Anspach Grossman Portugal and Design Director at Landor Associates. Bob has an impressive number of widely recognized brands he designed including Bank of America, Lockheed Martin, Hush Puppies, Unisys, and more. Bob is also a graduate of The Cooper Union, and his work has been honored by the AGIA, The Art Director’s Club of NY and LA, Clio, Graphis, ID Magazine, Print and more.

Listen now: Anthony Shore is one of the most experienced namers out there. He has over 25 years of experience in naming and has introduced more than 200 product and company names to the world. Some of the names he’s created include Lytro, Yum! Brands, Fitbit Ionic, Qualcomm Snapdragon, and Photoshop Lightroom. In 2015, he was featured in a New York Times Magazine article titled “The Weird Science of Naming New Products,” which tells the story of Jaunt, a VR company he named. And a BBC News article called him "one of the world’s most sought after people when it comes to naming new businesses and products." Anthony has led naming at Landor Associates. He worked at the naming firm, Lexicon, and now he runs his own agency, Operative Words, which you can find at operativewords.com. I had a great time talking to Anthony. He shares a bunch of knowledge, some great tips and examples, and we even got to nerd out a bit talking about recurrent neural networks. Anthony's using artificial intelligence to supplement his own name generation; it's fascinating to think about how tools like these might be used in the future. Anthony also gave a great overview of his naming process and provided a list of tools and resources he uses when generating names. Some namers I've talked to seem to prefer analog resources (i.e., books). In contrast, Anthony almost exclusively uses software and online tools*, including the following: Wordnik ("a great resource for lists of words") OneLook Rhymezone Sketch Engine (a corpus linguistics database) TextWrangler (a plain ASCII text editor) BBEdit Microsoft Excel Anthony and I rounded out the conversation talking some of his least favorite naming trends, as well as what he likes most about being a namer. I highly recommend you check out Anthony’s website and blog at operativewords.com, where he has a bunch of amazing content that goes into way more detail on some of the topics we discussed. Below, you'll find the full transcript of the episode (may contain typos and/or transcription errors). Click above to listen to the episode, and subscribe on iTunes to hear every episode of How Brands Are Built. * To see a complete list of online resources listed by namers in episodes of How Brands Are Built, see our Useful List: Online/software resources used by professional namers. Rob: Anthony, thank you for joining me. Anthony: Thanks so much for having me, Rob. Rob: One of the first things I wanted to ask you about is something I don’t talk to namers about that much. It’s artificial intelligence. So, I saw that you’ve written and talked about the potential for using neural networks and brand naming. Can you tell me a little bit about what made you start down that path and then maybe how it works today? Anthony: Sure. I love talking about this. Artificial intelligence, and really using computers in general as an adjunct to what I do, has always been near and dear to my heart. Way back in college, I created a self-defined AI major. And so, when recurrent neural networks started becoming available and accessible over the last few years, I took an interest. And a woman named Janelle Shane, who is a nanoscientist and a neural network hobbyist, started publishing name generation by neural network. And this really caught my interest. And she was doing it just as a hobby and for fun, but I could see that neural networks offered a great deal of promise. And so, I engaged with her and asked her to teach me what she knew, so that I could also use neural networks to help me create brand names, in addition to using the other tools that I use, like my brain and other bits of software and resources. Rob: And is there...how technical is it now in your use of it? Is it something that anyone could do or does it really require a lot of programming knowledge? Anthony: Well, right now I’d say it’s not for the faint of heart. The only interface that really helpful is through command line, really using a terminal. So it’s all ASCII. It’s done in Linux and there’s various and sundry languages that have to be brought into play like Python and Lua and Torche. Rob: So you’ve got to know what you’re doing a little bit. Anthony: Yeah yeah. It’s not something that’s just a web interface that you plug ideas in and it’s going to work like a charm. Now, that is right now and it’s changing constantly. I mean, even in just the few months, six months that I’ve been doing this, I’ve been seeing more and more neural networks front ends on the web pop up. But their results aren’t very good at all. But it’s clear that that’s going to change. Rob: And I saw that Janelle has named a beer I think using her neural network it’s called The Fine Stranger which is a cool name for an indie beer. Have you had any success using it yet for some of your naming projects? Anthony: I’ll say this: that neural networks have, in my use of them, have illustrated to me some really interesting words and ideas, and clients are interested in AI and neural networks as part of the creative process. But there haven’t been any names yet that a neural network I’ve trained has generated and the client said, "Yes, that’s going to be our name." But it’s only a matter of time before that happens. But I’m bullish on AI and neural networks. Rob: Well, it’s funny because, I know this isn’t the same thing, but every now and then, I’m sure you see this too, there are these doomsday proclamations of naming...the human aspect of naming dying out because computers will be able to do it themselves. What are your thoughts in terms of how people and computers will interact in the future to do this job? Anthony: Oh, without a doubt, accessible AI tools for name generation will increase everyone’s access to interesting names. But just because you are shown a word or a list of words doesn’t mean that you’re going to know, as someone in the company for instance, is this really going to be the right word? Does this have the potential to become a brand? And there’s other aspects of naming such as understanding and ascertaining what the right naming strategy should be. What should the right inputs that an AI should be trained on? You know, what kinds of words should the AI be trained on? Helping a client see how each word in a list of words could become their future could become their brand, and helping them to see the the assets and potential of each of these names. That’s not something AI is going to do. So there’s still a place for professional name developers. Rob: I want to back up a little bit and just talk more generally about about name generation. Can you just give me a 30,000-foot view of the entire naming process before we dive into some of the specific steps within it? Anthony: Yeah, sure, I’ll be happy to Rob. So, I’ll be briefed by the clients, and maybe they’ll provide me with an actual creative brief, or not, but from that, I’ll develop name objectives that succinctly capture what the name needs to accomplish; what it needs to support or connote. And once we agree on those marching orders, I’ll get into creative. Now the first wave of creative is a mile wide and an inch deep, where I explore many different perspectives of the brand, different tonalities, different styles of names, different executions. And that process takes about two weeks of creative development. At the end, there’s probably a thousand or several thousand words that have been developed. I’ll cull the best 150 names and run those through preliminary global trademark screening with my trademark partner, Steve Price. And from that, there’ll be 50 to 70 names, and I’ll present those names to the client. And I present them in a real-world context so they look less like hypothetical candidates and more like de facto, existing brands. And I present each name in the exact same visual context to really keep the focus on the name and not confound variables by changing up the color or the font. I present each name individually, talk about their implications and what they bring. And at the end the client gets feedback—what they like, what they don’t like, what they’re neutral about—and that informs the second round of creative work, which is an inch wide and a mile deep, where I delve into what was really working for them. And, it’s important to have a couple of rounds of creative because it’s one thing to agree in an abstract brief, but what clients really react to are real words, and that’s where you can really find out what’s going on, because it’s difficult for people to really understand what they like and don’t like in a name until they see them. And so that second round of work focuses on what’s working for them. And that process again is about two weeks, thousands of names developed, 100, 150 go into screening for trademark and domains, and then 50 names plus are presented to the client. And the client chooses from all of the names that’ve been presented across both rounds—typically over 100 names. They bring a handful of names into their full legal screening. Maybe there is cultural and linguistic checks that have to happen, and their full legal checks and then they choose one final name to run with. Rob: What steps do you take when you just start generating names? Anthony: All right, so once we all agree on what the marching orders are. The process looks like this: I’ll first bring up my go-to set of software and applications and resources that I use pretty much in parallel, and I bounce between them as I go through development. So, I’ll bring up I’ll bring up Wordnik, which is an important piece of software online, a great resource for lists of words. I use OneLook, Rhymezone, an engine called Sketch Engine, and various other applications. And I will use those to identify words, word parts, that are interesting to me. And so over the course of that development I will use different techniques in order to unearth every possible idea I can find. I will also go through prior projects that I’ve done through Operative Words, and if I find a good word for this project, I’ll search on my computer for all files that I’ve worked on that also contain that word, and so I’ll be able to mine from my prior work. And so, that creative process happens for about two weeks. At the end of two weeks I will have amassed thousands of ideas, and if I bring neural networks and software-based combinations and permutations there are literally tens-of-thousands of ideas in the picture. Rob: You mentioned Sketch Engine awhile ago as one of the online resources that you use. I’ve seen that you’ve written quite a bit about it and how you use it. But can you just briefly explain what it is and why you recommend it so highly? Anthony: Yes, Sketch Engine is a corpus linguistics database. So, let me explain that. Corpus linguistics is using a very large body of real-world language. That’s a corpus, and it’s plural is corpora. And using computers to sort of analyze and tag and organize what’s in there. So a corpus might be, for instance, the one I use is all of the news articles that have been published between 2014 and 2017. All of that real-world text—that’s 28 billion words—all of which have been tagged by part of speech, and it’s recorded all of the words that live next to all of the other words. In other words, it records what are called "colocations." Now, colocations are useful because you can learn a lot about a word by the company it keeps. So if there’s an attribute that a client is interested in, let’s say ‘fast’ or ‘smart,’ I can look up a word like "fast" or "smart" or any other related word, and discover all of the words that have been modified by it. So, therefore I can find an exhaustive list of things that are fast, things that are smart, or verbs related to things that are fast and things that are smart. And so, the benefit is, one, is exhaustiveness, two, is also linguistic naturalness. That is, you’re finding how words are used in a real-world context, and I believe that linguistic naturalness in names is very important for names being credible, for names being relatable, and for names feeling very adaptable. You’re not foisting ideas on people that make no sense. Rob: It rolls off the tongue, to use kind of the layman’s term. Anthony: Yes, that’s right. Rob: You’ve mentioned so many online tools, I’m just curious, is there anything offline that you frequent? Anthony: I’m typically watching some kind of movie or TV show or some other sort of visual stimulus while I’m doing my creative development. Rob: Interesting. Anthony: And those things provide visual stimulation and there is dialogue and other ideas that come up that provide an extra input to my creative process. Rob: Do you choose what you’re watching based on the project, or is it just whatever you happen to be watching anyway? Anthony: No, no, I do. Absolutely. So, with projects that are very technologically driven or scientifically driven, I’ll watch something that’s sort of technological or scientific. Rob: That’s fun. Do you ever just, you know, there’s been a movie that you’ve been wanting to see anyway, and you feel like, "Oh, that fits this project," and you put that on? Anthony: Yeah, absolutely. Rob: Another technique that I saw that you wrote about, it’s called an "excursion." Can you can explain what that is? Is that related to the idea of watching a movie while you’re doing naming? Anthony: In an excursion, you identify a completely unrelated product category. Sometimes the less related the better. And you look for examples of a desired attribute or quality from that category. For instance, if you’re naming a new intelligent form of AI, let’s go ahead and consider examples of intelligence from the world of kitchens. Let’s look for ideas of intelligence in the world of sports. By thinking through an attribute as it appears somewhere else, you are able to find ideas that are differentiated but relevant, because when you take a word from a different category and drop it into a relevant category, it immediately becomes relevant to that new category. People are very comfortable with this technique. Rob: I have a couple of tactical, logistics questions that I’m curious how you would respond to. What about the actual medium that you use when you’re writing down or documenting your name ideas? Do you do this in Excel or do you have a pad of paper with you while you’re doing all these other exercises, and you’re just furiously jotting down ideas? Anthony: I’m using Microsoft Word, by and large, for this. I also use another text application called TextWrangler. I use Excel when I’m charged with developing a generic descriptor for a new product. Rob: And what is TextWrangler? Is there an important difference between that and Word, or just, you happen to use both? Anthony: TextWrangler is a text editor. So, there’s no formatting whatsoever. It’s plain ASCII text. It has another sister application called BBEdit, and these applications are very useful when you’re working with pure text, and it has some terrific tools like the ability to eliminate duplicates, the ability to use pattern recognition, something called Grep, in order to find words that include certain patterns. So, very useful tool and an adjunct to the toolset that I use. Rob: And then the other logistical question is just about timing. You mentioned usually a two-week period of time for your first run at name generation, but I’ve heard other namers say they like to have a four-hour window to really immerse themselves in a project anytime they sit down to do name generation. Do you have any rules of thumb that you adhere to in terms of timing? Anthony: Over the course of two weeks, the process is, I will immerse myself completely in a project maybe for four hours, maybe for a day, maybe for two days, or three days even. And then I put it away. And then I forget about it, and I work on something else for a day or two, and then I come back to it. And so, I have this repeated process of immersion and then incubation and I repeat that in order to do creative work. That’s a process that’s been demonstrated and proven to help maximize creative output. Those "aha" moments—those Eureka moments you have in the shower—happen because you’ve been thinking about something and then stop thinking about it, consciously anyway. But meanwhile there’s something bubbling up under the surface that comes out when you least expect it. Rob: You’ve mentioned a lot of things that you could use if you get stuck on a project. Do you ever get writer’s block so to speak, and if so, is there anything that you haven’t already mentioned that you would use to kick yourself back into naming gear? Anthony: Sure. You know, the writer’s block happens when a client is looking for something that isn’t different. If their if their product or their brand doesn’t really have something new to offer, that’s a more difficult nut to crack. And so, in those cases, I will look at projects that are utterly unrelated in any way, or other kinds of lists. And in this way, I expose myself to words that have nothing to do with the project whatsoever. But, because of how I see words and how I think, I can look at a list and look at a word and go, "Oh, wait a minute. There’s a story there." I can see what would be related or that would be interesting. So, really, it’s a process of compelling me to look at words just in order to see what happens. It’s a little bit stochastic. It’s a little bit random, but it’s actually very useful and interesting and new ideas can come out of it, even for projects where there isn’t something wildly different under the surface. Rob: I like to ask whether there are any names or naming tropes that you see that you’re getting sick of. You know, like any other creative process, there are trends in the industry—startups ending with with "-ly," for example. Are there any specific name ideas or trends like that that you want to call out or that you wish would discontinue? Anthony: Well, Rob, there’re always trends that I wish would go away. In fact, any trends, by and large, I wish would go away, because they’re unoriginal and they don’t serve the brands that they represent. They look derivative. They look unoriginal. And what does that say about their company or their products? So, yes, I’m not crazy about the "-ly" trend that’s been going on, just as I wasn’t crazy about the "oo" trend that was happening after Google and Yahoo found success, just like I wasn’t crazy about the "i-" or "e-" prefix trend back when that was happening. You know, I’m just fundamentally opposed to these ideas because they don’t they don’t serve their clients and they, I think, reflect a company that isn’t truly original. I’m also not crazy about the trend to randomly drop consonants or vowels, or double them, because it’s clear that it was done just in order to secure a dotcom domain, and it feels like domain desperation. Rob: Right, it feels forced. Anthony: Exactly. And linguistic unnaturalness, where you do these things in order to shoehorn words in order to get a free dotcom, I don’t think serves a brand well either, because they’re immediately off-putting, they look unnatural, and they’re difficult to relate to. Rob: The last question I like to ask namers is just what your favorite thing is about being a namer or coming up with name ideas. Anthony: Well, I really love the process of identifying, exhaustively, every possible perspective of a new brand. If I’m looking at a list of a thousand potential names, those are a thousand different perspectives, a thousand different ways of framing you looking at this company. And those are a thousand potential futures. And then seeing when a company finally adopts a name that I’ve helped them with—to see how they adopted the name, breathe life into it, and then run with it, and do their own, get their own inspiration from the name. So, as an example, a while ago I worked with an architectural and design firm called Pollack Architecture, who needed a new name. And eventually, I worked with them and developed the name "Rapt Studio" for them, R-A-P-T, "Rapt Studio" for them. And they do brilliant interior and architecture work and branding work as well. Really brilliant and wonderful people. And so once I gave them "Rapt Studio," they ran with it and they called their employees "Raptors." I didn’t give them that idea. They have meetings once a week, which are called "Monday Rapture" meetings. All right. So, I love when a name can inspire a client with great ideas. That makes me very happy. Rob: That’s great. Well let’s leave it there. And I just want to say thank you again for your willingness to share some of your thinking and how you do what you do. Anthony: Well, thank you so much, Rob. You know, I really do this for selfish reasons because I hate ugly words, and names are an unavoidable part of our environment and our habitat, and wouldn’t you much rather be surrounded by beauty and gardens than blight? I feel that way about names and so I give away what I know, because I want other namers, even my direct competitors, to come up with with great names so that they can also populate the world with words that are interesting and creative imaginative, and words we like to have around. Rob: Well, you call it selfish but it seems selfless to me. I really appreciate it and thanks again. Let’s go make some more beautiful words out there. Anthony: Yeah, let’s do that. Thanks, Rob. Rob: Thank you.  

Paul is currently Creative Director and Partner of Woods + Woods which he founded with his wife Alison Woods over 20 years ago. Prior to starting Woods+Woods, he served as Executive Creative Director and Partner at Enterprise IG in San Francisco (formerly SBG Partners) and Design Director at Landor Associates.   He’s worked on projects for a broad range of corporate and consumer brands including Apple, Adobe, Disney Studios, Dreyer’s Ice Cream, Frito- Lay, Hewlett Packard, Intuit, Levi Strauss, Lucasfilm, Microsoft, Miller Brewing, Nestle, Nickolodean, Symantec, Tree-Top, 3M, Xerox, and more. The Embassy Suites identity he designed over 20 years ago has remained to this day. Paul was also one of the instrumental designers leading in San Francisco leading the first Bay Area tech-boom.    I first came to know Paul by following him on Instagram. He is both prolific and productive as seen in his daily output of work.   View some of the work mentioned in the podcast at: https://www.facebook.com/brandeinsteinpodcast/

Phil noticed that huge global agencies are hurting. They are losing large projects to much smaller agencies and consultancies. Noting this was due to flexibility, speed and price, Phil wanted to be on the right side of history launched his creative agency. Content creation, predominanltly through video has allowed him to create a huge audience on YouTube of over 100k subscribers and he now generates 65% of all new business leads through his channel. Bio Philip is a highly accomplished creative leader and expert in brand strategy and graphic design for some of the world's most successful global agencies, retailers and consumer products companies, including P&G, Gap, Inc., Petsmart, PepsiCo, GE, Chevron, Safeway, Delmonte, Diamond Foods, and Johnson & Johnson among many others. Philip has helped Fortune 100 companies and entrepreneurs alike create and revitalize brands, identities, websites and launch new products for 20+ years. He has served as VP of Design of Global Snacks at Pepsico, VP of Design at Old Navy and Executive Creative Director for the global branding agencies Landor Associates and Anthem Worldwide. Philip is currently the founder and principal of Verhaal Brand Design which specializes in strategic brand development, graphic design and marketing. Connect with Phillip Website - click here YouTube channel - click here The Design Taxi article - click here --- OUR EVENT: Do you want to make real change in your business? Join us at our in-person event Agency Transformation Live Meet Troy Dean; Lee Jackson, Chris Ducker, Kelly Baader, Amy Woods, Paul Lacey, Dave Foy and other legends in this fantastic conference focused on actionable steps that you can use to transform your agency. --- See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Courtney is currently co-founder and partner at Brand Zoo. He was previously Managing Director and Chief Creative Officer of Landor Associates, Chief Creative Office of Interbrand, and Partner and Executive Creative Director at SBG Partners. Courtney has incredible multi-category experience and has been responsible for some of the world’s most recognized brands including BP, Tommy Hilfiger, John Deere, FedEx, British Airways, Sea World, Transamerica, Union Bank, Williams-Sonoma and many more.   

David Wisnom III is the founder & Chief Strategist of SightCast Inc., a brand strategy and marketing consultancy. David's background in developing brand strategies covers the spectrum of brands such as UCSF, Huntington Hospital, Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Varian Medical Systems, Mechanics Bank, Wells Fargo Advisors, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola. David's accomplishments include co-authoring the book Before the Brand: Creating the Unique DNA of an Enduring Brand Identity, (published by McGraw-Hill) and most recently authoring “Rebranding the Corporate Enterprise: a Step-by-Step Guide.” Prior to founding SightCast Inc., David was Managing Director of the FutureBrand, a global strategic branding firm. David was also Executive Director of Landor Associates, the leading strategic branding firm in San Francisco and opened their Chicago office. David's current philanthropic work includes second term as past Board Chair of Community Gatepath, a 95+ year old nonprofit that provides essential services to children and adults with disabilities. Past roles include President of the Burlingame Soccer Club; Co-founder and Executive Chairman of the SMC Star Soccer Club; President of the Peninsula Civic Light Opera. David attended the Cate School and Willamette University. He spends his rare free time with his wife, two kids, and lab Macallan fly fishing, cycling, and cooking.   “If you’re not relevant to your target audience, it doesn’t matter how different you are.” - David Wisnom III What you’ll learn about in this episode: The biggest mistake people make in branding Why you need to get really clear on your audience Why a new logo is not going to fix your problems The four dimensions of a brand How to do the research needed to understand your audience Why you need to involve nonprofit boards in rebranding efforts What “point zero” looks like in a rebranding effort Why a rebrand has to provide clarity for customers first and then your team Why you should use resources differently depending on the situation Ways to contact David: Website: www.sightcastinc.com Twitter: @sightcastinc LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/wisnombrandguru Resources: Book: "Before the Brand: Creating the Unique DNA of an Enduring Brand Identity" Customer Journey: www.sightcastinc.com/seminars.html Concentric Circles Download: www.sightcastinc.com/diy-tools.html

In this episode, we spoke with Jenni Doran, Design Director of Landor Associates. Jenni has over 12 years experience in consumer brand identity and FMCG design. At the time of recording she was working with Landor Associates in Sydney and since then has Co-Founded Creative Agency Our Revolution. We spoke about packaging, mainly talking about home brands, and schools not really teaching packaging anymore. We spoke a bit about the new iTunes streaming platform, the expectation and image packaging as specialisation or career and lots more.

“I spend a lot of my time at the intersection of branding and social media.” As Global Director of Employee Engagement at Siegel+Gale, Thom Wyatt helps organizations build brands through improvements in employee engagement, corporate culture, and organizational purpose. I couldn’t wait to discuss all of this with Thom on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Thom Wyatt Thom Wyatt is the Global Director of Employee Engagement at Siegel+Gale. He has always understood that the key to business success is not just coming up with great ideas—it’s about implementing them with a powerful combination of innovation and creativity. Throughout his successful career, Thom has parlayed his experiences as a branding consultant and advertising maven—as well as his laser-focus on customer insights and meaningful brand differentiation—to exponentially grow his clients’ businesses. Before joining Siegel+Gale, Thom served as an executive director at Landor Associates, where he led engagements for a wide range of leading brands such as DC Comics, FedEx, HP, Hilton, The Home Depot, and Visa. Earlier in his career, Thom cut his teeth in advertising for Procter & Gamble, Gatorade, Colgate, and MasterCard. His work was so impressive that KitchenAid hired him as the Director of Marketing and Innovation for its parent company, Whirlpool Corporation. He was also an account director at advertising agencies Young & Rubicam and Grey Group. Thom’s work has won numerous awards including three Clio Awards, two Effie Awards, the Halo Award, the P&G Business Building Award, and the Gold Walter Award. As We Wrap … Recently our friend Alberto Downing gave us a shout on Twitter about our recent episode focused on un-branding featuring Scott Stratten. Thanks for listening Alberto! Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. And don’t forget that this podcast is brought to you by our Brand Driven Digital events series, learn more about the industry leading Social Brand Forum and our other trainings and workshops now. Save $100 by using promo code ONBRAND when you register for the Social Brand Forum. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

Welcome to episode #163 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. Allen P. Adamson wrote the best-selling business book, Brand Simple and then followed it up wit Brand Digital. He is the Managing Director at Landor Associates - a brand agency based in New York City. Adamson has some very interesting and unique perspectives on how brands thrive (and will continue to strive) in the new economy. Enjoy the conversation... Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #163 - Host: Mitch Joel. Running time: 34:16. Audio comment line - please send in a comment and add your voice to the audio community: +1 206-666-6056. Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com. Hello from Beautiful Montreal. Subscribe over at iTunes. Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation. Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook. or you can connect on LinkedIn. ...or on twitter. Facebook Group - Six Pixels of Separation Podcast Society. In a perfect world, connect with me, directly, through Facebook. Look for Media Hacks #14 next week featuring:  Chris Brogan - New Marketing Labs - Co-author of Trust Agents.  C.C. Chapman - Managing The Gray - Advance Guard. Hugh McGuire - LibriVox - The Book Oven. Christopher S. Penn - The Financial Aid Podcast - Marketing Over Coffee. Julien Smith - In Over Your Head - Co-author of Trust Agents. Six Pixels of Separation the book is now available for pre-order. In conversation with Allen P. Adamson author of Brand Digital and Brand Simple. Music from the Podsafe Music Network: New Leaf - 'Magic Carpet'. Please join the conversation by sending in questions, feedback and ways to improve Six Pixels Of Separation. Please let me know what you think or leave an audio comment at: +1 206-666-6056. Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #163 - Host: Mitch Joel. Tags: advance guard advertising allen p adamson blog blogging book oven brand digital brand simple cc chapman chris brogan christopher s penn digital marketing facebook facebook group financial aid podcast hugh mcguire in over your head itunes julien smith landor associates librivox managing the gray marketing marketing over coffee media hacks new leaf new marketing labs online social network podcast podcasting podsafe music network six pixels of separation social media marketing trust agents twist image twitter web 20