How to Keep Calm and Brand Build

Strategic creative agency Southpaw will be holding a zoom webinar on Thursday 9th July at 11am, with special guests Imaad Ahmed, head of advisory EMEA for WARC, and Orlando Wood, chief innovation officer for System1 and author of 'Lemon'.

Tom Poynter, Southpaw MD said: “Until Covid-19 hit, 2020 was going to be the year of ‘back-to-brand’. Years of divesting in brand building (in favour of short-term goals) has eroded long-term brand health and we are amidst a so-called crisis of advertising effectiveness. Covid-19 has potentially thrown that agenda off course as brand leaders pivot to address short-term shock. Or has it? Alongside our Strategy Director, Niki Macartney, we will be debating and drawing on case studies with Imaad and Orlando to discuss how brand managers and leaders can steer their agenda back to long term brand building, to ensure growth in the post Covid-19 era. Looking at topics such as culture, consumer understanding, creativity and consistency the panel will unpack tools and tips that you can apply today.”

Panel member Orlando Wood is chief innovation officer of the System1 Group, Honorary Fellow of the IPA and author of the IPA’s best-selling and widely acclaimed publication, 'Lemon' (2019). He is also co-author of 'System1, Unlocking Profitable Growth' (2017). In 'Lemon', Orlando draws on a unique combination of neuroscience and cultural history to describe a change in advertising style that has occurred over the last 15 years and that is undermining advertising effectiveness. He also explains the steps that advertisers and agencies should take to reverse the decline.

Imaad Ahmed, is head of advisory EMEA for WARC and over the past five years has helped to grow awareness of WARC and use amongst its core audiences through a variety of content, data and digital strategies. WARC is an online intelligence service offering best practice, evidence and insights on effective advertising and marketing from the world’s leading brands. Most recently WARC have released the Creative Effectiveness Ladder at Cannes Lions Live - a guide to maximising creative effectiveness.

Niki Macartney, strategy director at Southpaw, has a client and agency background working at Unilever running their Skincare Strategy before heading agency side to work on both global and local businesses. She’s a trained neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) practitioner and has developed Southpaw’s unique methodology that allows the team to anticipate how to build long-term brand growth, through heuristics, behavioural bias analysis and consumer neuro-mapping.

With confidence in brand building quite low and the need to get back to long term brand building as soon as possible, this 45-minute webinar will equip brand managers and leaders with the tools they need to enable true brand building and fend off the pressure of short-termism within their organisations.

So, should ‘keep calm and brand build’ be the new marketing mantra and how can brands effectively get ‘back to brand’ to ensure growth in the post Covid-19 era? Join Southpaw's webinar Thursday 9th July at 11am, as they host this lively panel debate.