Pushing forward a progressive, sustainable agenda. Retaining and acquiring talent. Promoting positive habits and healthy mental wellbeing. These are but a few of the challenges brand leaders have to face. Across all fronts, culturally, politically, and socially, brand marketers are spinning over-loaded plates. 

Arguably, it's never been harder to be at the forefront of communications and so to help better understand the perils of the modern-day brand marketer Richard Robinson, Managing Director at Oystercatchers spoke with Visha Kudhail, Director of Business Marketing, Pinterest, EMEA, Grainne Wafer, Global Brand Director at Guinness and Ellie Norman, Former CMO at F1 to unpack some of the pressures and consider how agencies can help make their lives easier. 

For Kudhail in her role at Pinterest, where the brand often gets associated with other social media platforms, she cites mental health and well-being as the number one thing that keeps her up at night. Pointing to the fact that research proves social media has a negative impact on mental health, Kudhail wants to ensure users are a priority so that Pinterest does not fall short on its welfare responsibilities. 

Wafer pointed to the fact that you get only one shot at life which means she aims to get maximum value out of everything she does. Leading a brand like Guinness, which is rich in heritage and prestige, means she feels pressure to maintain its high standards, while also pushing a more contemporary progressive agenda. 

Alongside tackling these large social responsibilities, the leaders also have to tackle everyday work challenges such as managing stakeholders, managing up and making continual buzz with finite resources. 

Creativity for change

Creativity plays an important role in solving some of the challenges that brand leaders face and is also a huge shared passion point. For each of the panelists, creativity has been used to create great work that connects with audiences and pushes the brands beyond their single purposes.

“Creativity is huge, it's a love in every job” explained Norman who found that in her role at F1, creativity was crucial in shifting perceptions of the sport. Where F1 was once seen as a ‘billionaire boys club’ Norman went about “turning over every stone and starting again - using creativity to drive change.” With a brand logo that had not been changed in 23 years, she was able to use ‘creativity as a lever to pull to make a difference’, opening up the sport to new audiences by updating the brand, changing presenting teams or telling stories in the Netflix series’ ‘Drive to Survive’.  

Helping hand from agencies

Good agency-client relationships can improve the working lives of both parties and result in far better work. As part of this, feedback is crucial as Wafer notes that she aims to always “do justice to the creativity put in” by giving true, honest, well-thought-out feedback. A genuine partnership with safe, open communications is the key to true collaboration.

For the best relationships, Norman places importance on trust and on empowering creatives she explained that for Drive to Survive F1 handed over creative control, putting trust in the experts who were best for the job which led to great results. 

Kudhail added that: “Clients can be overprotective of the brand and agencies can be overprotective of the craft” highlighting the importance of both collaboration and cooperation built on trust and mutual respect that allows everyone to play their role. 

In teams where each member feels respected and empowered, brands and agencies can challenge one another to create the most progressive work. In telling stories and using creativity to solve problems, working as a team will alleviate some of the challenges facing brand leaders. 

Image credit @ Bronac McNeill photography