Solving brand challenges
with insightful storytelling
Brand & creative strategist with an industry-proven track record of developing insight-driven creative campaigns, brand & immersive events, brand refreshes, marketing campaigns, product development & launches both in the UK and globally. Experienced in researching and translating complex data, trends and cultural behaviours into insightful brand strategies that drive engagement, growth, and measurable results. I combine my strategic thinking with creative ideation, commercial awareness, cultural trends and a passion for solving brand challenges with insightful storytelling. My experience spans B2C, B2B, PR & earned media, with a deep understanding of the nuances of each and guiding & supporting agency and client teams to measurable success.
Key skills
Translating insights into clear strategic implications and actionable opportunities + Qualitative and quantitative research & workshops + Combining data, cultural trends, consumer & audience behaviours into formative actionable thinking + Commercial & brand problem solver, translating business objectives into clear communication strategies
+ Brand and product messaging frameworks + Strategic development of new business pitches and RFP responses + Writing focused briefs that unlock creative ideas that deliver on business objectives + Ensuring strategic integrity during the creative process + Mapping end-to-end consumer and commerce ecosystems + End-to-end content strategies
+ Presenting strategic thinking to c-suite audiences
Key sector experience
• Automotive • Beverage • Charity • Energy • Financial services • FMCG • Gaming • Restrictive sector • Technology & Innovation
Brand storytelling highlights 2022-25
Lynx: Experiential & sampling strategy
Role: Senior creative strategist
Brief: Change perception of the Lynx brand & convince 1.3M GenZ males to sample the new Lynx ‘as fine as the finest fragrance’ - showing measurable engagement and conversion.
Insights:• Gen Z & millennial males over-index on brand affinity when they believe they have self-discovered a new fragrance @Euromonitor. ≈70% of UK GZ/M’s say that they have social anxiety post covid (impacting on the expected traditional brand ambassador sampling approach) GZ/M’s believe Lynx is a sub standard fragrance… and would be unwilling to try a branded free sample @DesktopResearch.
Strategy: Don’t sample - Surprise & Entertain
To overcome preconceived perceptions of the brand we should create unbranded self scenting portals that introduce our audience to the new Lynx scent unexpectedly & excitedly.
Davidoff: Global brand & product strategy
Role: Senior global brand & product strategy lead
Brief: Increase brand share and profitability by repositioning the Davidoff brand and its product portfolio. Connect to and resonate with a new YAS global audience.
Insights: Legacy brands need to evolve their origin and product stories to remain culturally relevant. The understanding of modern-premiumness is highly nuanced especially amongst young adults in Eastern Europe, KSA & Taiwan.
Strategy: Introducing Modern Premium
Use cultural & consumer insights to evolve the brand origin story and product architecture RTBs to connect with a new modern-premium focused young-adult global audience.
Twitch: Brand & marketing strategy
Role: Senior brand strategist
Brief: Create a marketing & sales strategy that convinced global brands that Twitch is more than a ‘gaming platform’ - activating new advertising, partnership & sponsorship opportunities
Insights: Language, especially platform-slang, can become an intergenerational barrier without context and explanation - resulting in a misunderstanding of the depth and breadth of the Twitch content being created. Older brand & marketing managers believe this ‘Twitch-language’ is only games orientated.
Strategy: Decoding the language barrier. Revealing the potential.
We turned the top 10 googled twitch language-queries (that we knew brand managers were googling) into s series of ‘Understanding the Twitch community’ short educational films that revealed the larger content creations, decoded the platform-slang and revealed mass-marketing brand opportunities.
Davidoff: New product launch strategy
Role: Senior global brand strategy lead
Brief: Davidoff is not connecting to Taiwanese YAS - lacking brand-empathy, cues of modernity & product features that connect with their audiences values and lifestyles.
Insights: Taiwanese YAS are looking for a product that delivers less negative-effects for self and others. YAS feel ‘old fashioned’ when compared to their vaping peers.
Strategy: For the first time ever: Nothing less then everything.
Change existing perceptions of Davidoff from old-fashioned to modern-premium - by positioning it as: New, Fresh & Progressive. And, being the first brand to include ‘all the new innovation into one product’.
Fitbit: New brand & product strategy
Role: Senior creative & brand strategist
Brief: Work alongside Fitbit’s brand, product & leadership team to help define their new brand purpose (+ brand archetype, product logic and comms framework). Fitbit has a lot of ‘data’ that required analysing and quantifying into actionable insights.
Insights: Wellness is no longer confined to one category or routine. It now shapes how consumers eat, move, think, and car for themselves. @Mintel. 40% of (wearable) consumers engage in four or more categories or products and services as part of their wellness routine” @Mintel.
Strategy: Shift away from fitness to holistic well being
We positioned Fitbit for anybody and everybody - a holistic health partner for your total everyday health, emphasising a balanced living rather than isolate metrics.
Pokemon: Immersive experience game launch
Role: Senior creative strategist
Brief: Create a successful immersive-experience product launch for the new ‘Pokemon The Hidden treasure of Area Zero: The Teal Mask’ - That drives excitement, positive reviews & early downloads.
Insights: Gaming influencers are increasingly experiencing “event fatigue” from traditional game-based brand activations - creators are seeking experiences that offer unique content opportunities @Mintel.
Strategy: Less game launch. More 101 Matsuri moments.
To overcome event-fatigue we will re-create the in game ‘Matsuri’ (Japanese village festival experience’ that will introduce 101 unique instagrammable cultural moments.
Strategy should solve a clearly defined problem, be built from an insight, be culturally aware and make the complicated simple
My Process
Research >
Depending on the projects time and budget projects begin with either quantitative desk research or workshop qualitative research - To create a series of impactful hypothesis
Strategy & Concept
development >
Guiding, supporting & collaborating with the creative teams to ensure the creative builds upon the research and creative strategy with creative briefing that helps instigate creative wow
Narrative
storytelling >
The best creative still needs to be supported by a persuasive deck - I use my author & journalism side hustle experience to help create decks that win pitches and wow clients
Evaluation
& learnings
Test & Learn! - Strategy shouldn’t be seen as the beginning & end of a project, - instead it should be seen as an evolving & growing of a brands DNA - Writing case studies that help attract new clients & grow existing accounts