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Hey CMO, Is Your Organization Holding Back Your Brand’s Full Potential?  

How CMOs can break down silos, align cross-functional teams and activate their entire organization to deliver maximum brand impact and sustainable growth. 

As a CMO, you’re under growing pressure to deliver measurable growth and revenue from your brand investments, especially if you’re (re)launching the brand. 

The challenge is that while you’re being asked to do more with fewer resources, traditional Marketing functions often only control a fraction of the levers needed to maximize brand impact. In today’s complex environment, operating in such a silo is no longer viable – the entire organization must align and work together to deliver on the brand promise. Leading CMOs are connectors and orchestrators, working with multiple departments and the executive teams to point all the elements of your organizational DNA – strategy, purpose, values, behaviors, employer brand, CX and more – in the same direction. While this sounds straightforward, the reality is far from simple. You’re navigating a maze of existing frameworks, competing priorities and political agendas that must be simplified and negotiated – meaning you rarely start with a blank slate or direct path forward.  

So, how do you ensure your organization is aligned to deliver maximum brand impact?  

Design to Align 

Alignment is the critical foundation. When the core elements of your strategic framework are aligned with your brand strategy – or designed into it – everyone in the organization can drive in the same direction. This cohesion not only sets the stage for delivering on brand and customer promises but also fuels sustainable growth. Our latest Brand and Demand research underscores this, revealing that 89% of leading marketing organizations have a clear growth and brand strategy. These organizations know where they are going and share a common vision of how to get there, proving that alignment is essential for long-term success and partnership. 

Start Early with Other Functions 

The best CMOs focus on cross-functional relationships, with 84% of marketing leaders viewing themselves as organizational orchestrators who enable a modern, connected organization. To set the stage for success, it’s crucial to begin the alignment journey as early as possible by involving all functional and business unit stakeholders in the strategic brand exercise. Invite them to provide input upfront, ensuring the strategic components of their domains contribute meaningfully to shaping the brand strategy. This collaborative approach not only strengthens the brand’s foundation but also balances the tension between leveraging existing organizational strengths and adapting to market opportunities uncovered by the revised brand strategy. 

Stay Close Throughout  

Maintain close engagement with stakeholders throughout the brand strategy development and activation processes. Regular collaboration ensures the core functions and business units co-create activities that they need to own on their own roadmaps to reinforce and deliver against the brand values within their spheres of influence. This sustained alignment keeps momentum moving in the right direction across the organization. 

Select Priority Paths for Organizational Activation 

You have choices to make. Aligning an organization requires prioritization. The specific paths you take will depend on your brand ambitions and the current level of organizational alignment with your brand strategy. For example, if your brand stands for ‘innovation and speed,’ are your customer processes designed to deliver on those values accordingly? Is HR recruiting talent that embodies this mission? Is Finance easy to work with? Are Operations and R&D living up to the promise your advertising claims?  

From our client work, we see that typically, there are five paths to consider as you activate the organization and drive an aligned growth effort behind a new brand. Depending on your context and ambition, you may choose to focus on one as a priority or a combination of these:  

1. Functional Alignment

Equipping leaders across functions and business units with the tools needed to align on strategies and plans is essential for supporting brand strategy and driving growth. For instance, Vistra, a global corporate services firm, successfully aligned leadership across the entire C-suite and business units to embed a new brand strategy. This included defining associated values and behaviors within a newly merged global organization, ensuring alignment across all functions – from front office to back office. 

2. Employee Ignition (EX → CX)

Activating the brand internally is crucial for inspiring and enabling employees to live up to the brand promise, especially by reinforcing customer-facing behaviors. Embracing an always-on change management mindset is key to this effort – acknowledging and leaning into the challenges of transforming internal culture to align with the brand’s external vision. By focusing on customer and consumer centricity, organizations can ensure that their employees are not just aligned with the brand promise but are deeply committed to delivering it in every interaction. Nike provides a strong example of this approach. The company conducted extensive research into global Employee Experience (EX) best practices and experience design for retail store employees to help create the best environment where employees consistently deliver the brand promise directly to customers. 

3. Employer Brand

A well-defined employer brand and employer value proposition (EVP) can help retain and attract top talent who resonate with your brand’s promise. UBS exemplified this by bringing their global brand campaign, ’Craftmakers,’ to life internally. By aligning their EVP with the campaign, they not only strengthened their talent attraction efforts but also ensured alignment between their corporate and consumer brand strategies.  

4. Signature Moves and Change Management

Bold actions can reinforce a revised brand strategy to external audiences, but their success hinges on effective change management within the organization. T-Mobile demonstrated this through their game-changing move to eliminate customer contracts, embodying their ‘Uncarrier’ brand promise, disrupting and redefining the entire industry and underscoring their commitment to a customer-first approach.  

5. Culture Transformation

Sometimes, a revised brand strategy calls for a deep cultural shift across the organization. Kia’s brand transformation, driven by their pivot to electronic vehicles (EVs), is a prime example. Competing with premium brands like Audi and BMW required a closer focus on customer needs, sparking a fundamental shift in their organizational mindset and culture to prioritize innovation and customer-centricity. 

Figure 1: Potential organizational alignment pathways mapped to CMO’s brand ambition 

Hopefully, paths 1 and 2 are foundational when launching any brand repositioning aimed at creating significant impact. The remaining paths depend on the nature of your strategy. Are you looking to make bold changes that disrupt your industry that demand deeper organizational and cultural change? Or are you focused on refining your brand positioning to attract more customers? Perhaps it’s more about attracting the right front-line talent to bring your brand to life, or evaluating how your employee experience shapes the customer experience. There’s no need to tackle all five paths at once. The key is to be strategic and intentional about which areas to prioritize to drive real, tangible impact through a unified brand vision.  

To help you navigate this journey, we offer tailored discovery workshops for executive teams, designed to guide decision-making and foster collaboration, co-creation and alignment from the outset. By integrating this approach into your brand development, you can accelerate brand efforts and ensure the rest of the organization works in harmony and isn’t competing with or stifling the brand impact you could be making. It requires some focused effort along the way, but the old adage holds true here: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” 

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FINAL THOUGHTS

If you face challenges aligning your brand and organizational efforts or if you look to create meaningful long-lasting change, now might be the opportune time to leverage our expertise. We specialize in helping CMOs lead their organizations through complex transformations, ensuring that every element of your business is aligned to drive brand success. Contact us to explore how we can help you unlock your brand’s full potential.  

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Moving at the Speed of Growth: 5 Steps Toward Rapid Innovation in a Volatile Market

Growth requires proactive, strategic efforts to anticipate customer needs and adapt swiftly to ever-changing market forces.

This article was originally published on Chief Marketer.

Listening to the media speculate over what’s hindered corporate growth in recent years can feel a bit like a game of Clue. Was it the Fed in D.C. with the high interest rates? The many geopolitical conflicts? The techies in Silicon Valley with the never-ending disruption? Or just fickle customers with their constantly shifting preferences?

But in conversations with senior leaders across industries, it’s become clear that the real threat is far more insidious—and it’s coming from inside the house. A structural bias against bringing innovations to market quickly, coupled with a lack of clarity and confidence from the C-suite, is preventing companies from generating and sustaining growth.

The reality is that most businesses today simply aren’t built to meet the rapidly shifting demands of the marketplace. With leaders under constant pressure to show quarterly gains, organizations are incentivized to emphasize the short-term. Moreover, in a post-pandemic world, market opportunities are coming and going faster than companies can shift to meet them, leaving CEOs discouraged and unsure of the path ahead, while long-term strategies go obsolete before they can be acted upon.

This reality is borne out in our own research: 34% of business leaders told us their firms overemphasize short-term results, and 37% said their organization has no long-term planning process. “You’re constantly in this space of change,” one executive told us. “Plans are abandoned almost as soon as they are made. There’s no real plan because things just sort of happen.”

However, organizations that possess a few key capabilities and cultural attributes can build the muscle memory to launch new products, services and experiences, devise new business models, and execute other types of growth strategies in a timely, repeatable way. At the heart of this approach are five key capabilities that businesses must develop to unlock and sustain growth in today’s volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous marketplace.

1. Form Cross-Functional Go-to-Market (GTM) Teams for Speed to Market

Many organizations assign growth initiatives to specific departments, such as marketing or product development (“Go invent me something new!”). This approach can slow down the process, leading to missed opportunities and delayed market entry. Instead, companies must form cross-functional GTM teams that build speed and agility into the process end-to-end: Speed to insight, speed to strategy, speed to impact, and speed to capability.

This team should include members from finance, HR, technology, design and strategy. Empower these teams to launch new products quickly, with a clear mandate to deliver specific, measurable results. Because all relevant functions are represented from the start, all critical factors are addressed earlier—so products launch faster and more successfully.

Real-world example:

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Chick-fil-A continued to innovate drive through and home delivery at the speed of light. It required partnership of multiple teams across strategy, store operations, marketing, digital, HR and finance—even working virtually. One big learning: in the face of disruption, how powerful it was to have all of the functions working together seamlessly to solve a major business issue. It’s a learning that has carried forward propelling Chick-fil-A’s growth and innovation.  

2. Build a Coalition of Stakeholders for Informed Decision-Making

Effective growth execution requires more than just speed; it requires informed decision-making. This can be challenging in large organizations where decision rights are often unclear and political dynamics can delay progress. To overcome these obstacles, build a coalition of stakeholders across the organization. Align them on the growth strategy and their interdependent roles in delivering it. Their clarity and shared vision will set them up to collaborate. You’ll get faster, more informed decision-making.

Real-world example: 

T-Mobile’s game-changing transformation to save (and turn around) a business included tough decisions such as eliminating contracts along with a rolling thunder of other moves. The change required C-suite collaboration around a shared set of data-driven inputs and a scenario-driven business and marketing plan.

3. Make GTM Innovation Business as Usual

To be ready to respond to new market opportunities that keep coming faster, innovation needs to become a core business capability. This means that the processes and competencies necessary for launching, operating and scaling new products need to be integrated into the organization’s everyday operations. It also means senior leaders need to cultivate a culture of risk tolerance, so the impulses for growth and organizational resilience stay in balance.

Real-world example: 

Amazon is continually experimenting with GTM innovation, from its inception through the present day, including the acquisition of Whole Foods and its physical retail experiments with Five Star stores and Amazon Fresh. All are designed to take advantage of consumers’ constantly shifting needs.

4. Move at the Speed of Markets

The companies best poised to capture growth opportunities ahead of competition will be faster in three interconnected phases: insight, strategy and market execution. They will prioritize deeper understanding of customer needs, rapid translation of insights into strategic priorities, and swifter implementation. The key is to build an organization that is agile, adaptable and capable of scaling its operations to meet growing demand.

Real-world example: 

Pfizer recently launched its ambitious “Pfizer for All” consumer-facing platform, a first for the company. There was roughly 15 months between the launch of an earlier idea in early 2023—vaccine-finder VaxAssist—and the launch of the far more ambitious platform, Pfizer for All, in August 2024. The approach helped test and learn before scale, working through what consumers, patients and channel partners want and need. It shows a commitment to going rapidly to market, learning fast from what works and what doesn’t, and doubling down on where there’s traction.

5. Embrace AI to Enhance Growth Capabilities

From tracking customer preferences to developing rapid prototypes, AI can help businesses move faster and more efficiently. Focus AI on improving existing capabilities and creating new opportunities in customer engagement and operational efficiency, as is the case with Walmart. The focus should be on how AI can be integrated into your company’s overall growth strategy to drive sustainable results.

See original article on Chief Marketer here.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Growth is no longer a byproduct of past successes; it’s a result of deliberate, strategic efforts to understand and meet the evolving needs of customers one step ahead of the competition. External forces will always be in flux. By moving at the speed of growth, companies can build an organization nimble enough, creative enough and innovative enough to stay ahead of the curve.

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RESEARCH

The Multiplier Effect: A CMO’s Guide to Brand-Building in the Performance Era

Research from WARC, Prophet, Bera.ai, System1 and Analytic Partners reveals how advertisers are missing significant revenue-generating opportunities.

We are excited to introduce a new WARC research report, “The Multiplier Effect: A CMO’s Guide to Brand-Building in the Performance Era” that Prophet contributed to in partnership with experts from Analytic Partners, BERA.ai and System1. The report is based on data and insights from this first-of-its kind coalition to highlight why it’s critical to get balance between brand and performance marketing investment right – or risk leaving revenue-generating opportunities on the table. Download a free copy today.  

Infused with data and insights from our report “Brand and Demand: Marketing’s Greatest Love Story” this research explores the gap in how companies approach advertising: the silos between brand and performance across creative, media, budgeting and measurement. 

Through our data and analysis, we found that the strongest returns from advertising investment come from using brand equity as an accelerant for commercial performance. By fully integrating this investment in brand equity with performance tactics, you can unlock growth and maximize the return on your spend. 

Read this report if you are a marketing or business leader looking to build brand equity and turn your performance marketing into a high-impact growth driver.  

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Today’s marketers are under increasing pressure to deliver measurable value from their investments. We empower CMOs to build marketing organizations that not only meet these demands but also drive uncommon growth. Get in touch with our team for help developing holistic marketing strategies that integrate sustained brand and demand investment to create and deliver value.  

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Building a Sustainable Business Innovation Capability

Innovation is hard and often requires a particular model for success: active, hands-on capability building. 

Half of CEOs rank new business building as a top three priority, and in the current economic environment, incumbents are advantaged over startups with relatively easy access to capital. While they are advantaged financially, they are often disadvantaged by their operating model. As Arthur W. Jones famously said, “All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get.” Many organizations reach a point where they realize that what got them to where they are is not what will ensure their future success.  

To win in today’s market, big companies need to move at the speed of growth. That means they need to experiment boldly, then convert successes into new capabilities at scale. They must learn to move faster at every step of their business innovation process: speed to customer insight, speed to strategy, speed to market, speed to impact, and – finally – speed to a new capability that can operate as a new, scaled business. 

What sets today apart is the rapid evolution of generative AI, altering the business terrain “slowly and then all at once,” to echo Hemingway. This swift progression presents equal parts opportunity and threat, yet instilling a sense of urgency around such technologies remains a challenge. The slow erosive impact of past technological advancements, like digital commerce and big data analytics, often desensitizes leadership to the acute needs of the moment. The dilemma persists: Is the best method to pursue widespread innovation across the organization, or should innovation be quarantined in specialized units?  

Many organizations have tried at least one of these methods in the past, and many have vacillated between them. At 3M, they tried to infuse innovation across the organization, but ended up with too many SKUs, without business rationale to justify a slew of new product innovations. More recently, the pendulum has swung the other way and their CEO has announced they need to accelerate new product development again. To insulate innovation from a potential drag from the core culture, American Family Insurance set up Tenney 110, a corporate venture studio stationed outside the core business. After a stint investing in external Insurtech startups, American Family Insurance leaders better understood gaps in the market. Further, they realized an in-house studio would enable them to bring their “unfair” advantages to the table to better serve their stakeholders (e.g., data, talent, capital, technology, access to customers). However, when funding and resources became constrained, and leadership did not provide adequate support from the top, the assets that made an in-house studio advantageous could no longer overpower the corporate inertia. 

In fairness, this is a dilemma that has been felt both by clients and consultants seeking to aid them. Clients have tried many methods, and they haven’t been alone in those endeavors. Over the years at Prophet, we’ve delivered ‘culture of innovation’ engagements for a company’s core business, and we’ve also helped to design centralized innovation functions that have subsequently struggled. 

What do organizations – both clients and consultants – that have tried both methods realize? That innovation is hard work and sometimes it requires a very particular model for success: active, hands-on capability building. Capability building means framing a clear ambition, an operating model and an organization designed to reliably enable the delivery of business innovation, in collaboration with the core business.  

To do this work, we bring our innovation expertise across the Human-Centered Transformation Model. This includes many ready-to-use frameworks that have proven successful in organizations of varying sizes and industries. These frameworks are highly durable, meaning that more effort can be spent on the unique innovation challenges and opportunities within a specific organization rather than reinventing the wheel when it comes to innovation methodology and capabilities. 

DNA

We define the organization’s DNA as the core ambition that should not change, ensuring everyone is aligned on the same target destination and direction of travel. This is an essential, yet often overlooked, foundational element. When an organization has a DNA problem, employees do not understand where they are going or when they will get there.  

A recent study reveals few companies have established a meaningful link between innovation and their overall corporate strategy or strategic intent. For many companies, innovation is perceived to be an expensive, time consuming, non-essential activity. Aligning around a clear and compelling ambition for innovation within or outside the enterprise can remedy this disconnect.  

“If innovation is not rooted in moving the purpose forward, then it exists for its own sake. Anything that exists for its own sake must continually justify its existence. And that lends itself over time to subjective scrutiny because the people around it can’t see how it’s moving our purpose forward.” 

Michael McCathren, Sr. Principal, Enterprise Innovation, Chick-fil-A 

Framework 1: The Ambition Template

The Ambition Template aligns the organization around a specific, measurable, transformative and timebound target destination. We unpack each part of the ambition with x-rays, and those x-rays then lead to KPIs. With this template, everyone understands what outcome is expected from innovation activities, and by when. 

BODY 

Next, we align the organization to the vision by co-designing a fit-for-purpose operating model, governance, processes, systems, and tools. If an organization has a body problem, then it feels too hard to get things done. 

 “A corporate innovation function must have disciplined governance and operating models so executive stakeholders have continuous engagement with how the team is driving applied impact.” 

Mark Jamison, Senior Vice President, Visa Inc. 

Framework 2: Innovation Capability Model 

The innovation capability model ensures the organization is building the capabilities needed for always-on innovation, from inspiration and investment to portfolio management and governance. Each of the 11 capabilities are based on underlying services. For example, the inspiration capability included safaris to learn innovation best practices, a speaker series to connect internal business leaders to external thought leaders, and hackathons to regularly source new ideas across the organization. 

Framework 3: DERPA 

Based on the innovation capability model, we determine the critical disciplines needed to progress new ideas through funding stage gates towards MVP and launch (or being halted as quickly as we can determine that it will not generate enough business value). Those skills include design, engineering, research, product management and analytics.   

Framework 4: Pods 

The operating model includes a studio of multidisciplinary “pods” each in charge of progressing a single idea and staffed with relevant disciplines. In addition, there is a portfolio management function in charge of determining which new ideas move into a pod, as well as inside-out and outside-in inspiration functions in charge of sourcing new opportunity areas for future innovation.  

Framework 5: H2A 

The hypothesis-to-action process, run in two-week sprints, ensures that all ideas are assessed fairly and killed as quickly as possible to re-allocate funding to more promising ideas.  

MIND  

Mind work includes the skills and competencies that the organization needs to operate the body. If you have a mind problem, you don’t have the right people to run the processes and contribute content and subject matter expertise.  

“The talent that you select is the single most important decision that an organization can make. It is a very different talent profile to drive true innovation versus managing a core organization. They need to be able to take risks, be analytical to make data-driven decisions, embrace diverse people and diverse experiences and be comfortable challenging the status quo.” 

Lisa Rometty, CEO, Zerigo Health 

Framework 6: Basadur Innovation Profile 

Mind work often includes using the Basadur Innovation Profile to increase awareness of how individual and collective preferences for different parts of the innovation process can impact the work and continuously delivering just-in-time teaching of new skill problem solving skills. This may include opportunity mapping, design research, business design and rapid prototyping and testing. At the end of each quarter, we codified our learnings and shared new methods for use within and beyond the innovation organization. 

SOUL 

Finally, the Soul motivates individuals inside of the innovation function by forging new rituals to work productively while also ensuring team health. If an organization has a Soul problem, employees don’t believe leadership is committed to transformation because their behaviors do not reinforce the ambition. Important leadership behaviors include separating process from content and championing agile ways of working for business activities, adding increment planning, sprint kickoff meetings and daily standups serving as forums for process discussion, and sprint closeouts and office hours provided adequate time and space to solicit feedback on work products.  

“There’s a certain amount of irreverence and risk tolerance that innovation leaders need to have. You have to be able to be strategic, but still be able to quickly pivot and flex, with a dogged determination to push through barriers. And you know you’re going to have barriers! You need to have team members who see barriers more like a speed bump or sales objection rather than an unchallengeable stop sign – a problem to be solved – and that’s a unique mindset.” 

Boris Pluskowski, Managing Director, Head of CXO Platform, HSBC 

Framework 7: SCARFS 

Innovation brings new ways of working and often sees employees working at pace and at the edge of their capabilities. As such, regularly checking in on team health and how individuals are processing the experience is essential. Our team uses the neuroscience-based model known by the acronym SCARF to evaluate how teams are doing across six key elements of psychological safety, satisfaction and productivity. We have improved it for innovation purposes, adding a second “S” to understand the individual and collective sustainability of our pace. 

While all these practices are essential to collective success, one of the most critical practices is that our team doesn’t design and walk away. We think of key roles within the operating model as “2-in-a-box,” meaning a member of the Prophet team is paired with a client so that learning and application is in real-world work, not merely a theoretical application in a workshop. This approach allows everyone to win and learn.  

“Innovation leaders build trust and credibility in an organization by delivering outcomes and the 2-in-a-box model is an accelerant.  By pairing innovation experts with talented insiders, the learning pace and time to results are exponentially faster with higher quality.” 

Diane Teed, Principal, Innovation, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Working together this way allows our clients to close the gap between learning and application, keeping them moving at the speed of growth and converting day-to-day and sprint-to-sprint successes immediately into new capabilities at scale. 

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REPORT

Bridging Brand and Demand: How to Unlock Competitive Advantage in Commercial Banking

The commercial banking industry is facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. From rising client expectations to rapid technological shifts, staying relevant demands more than just keeping up—it requires a bold, client-first approach to growth.

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Part 1 of Our Exclusive 3-Part Series on Driving Growth and Relevance in Commercial Banking

This first installment uncovers the critical strategies to align brand-building and demand generation efforts, unlocking sustainable growth in an era of constant change.  

Key Learnings: 

  • Why the gap between brand-building and demand generation limits growth—and how commercial banks can bridge it.  
  • Actionable insights to enhance client engagement and position your bank for sustainable growth.  
  • Key strategies to differentiate your organization in an increasingly crowded market.  

What’s Next?

Future articles in this series will dive deeper into reimagining client experiences, rethinking product architectures, and fostering cultural alignment to position commercial banks for long-term success. 

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Get started today by downloading this report and take the first step toward driving meaningful growth and relevance in commercial banking. Contact our team to learn how we can help you successfully integrated brand and demand marketing strategies that lead to uncommon growth. 

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2024 Brand Winners and Losers

From Walmart, Nvidia, YouTube, Bitcoin and the WNBA to Jaguar, Boeing, Starbucks, Ticketmaster and X.

2024 was another year in which brands surprised, delighted, shocked and disappointed us. From major tech players making headlines to beloved brands stumbling, it’s been another year that shaped the landscape of business and culture. Whether it was Nvidia becoming synonymous with AI, Apple’s new AirPods destigmatizing hearing aids, Logan Paul bringing down Mike Tyson and Netflix simultaneously, or Coca-Cola ending the year mired in greenwashing and AI controversies, 2024 was a year to remember.

This year may have officially marked the beginning of the end for some “legacy” brands, with Red Lobster, Bed Bath & Beyond, TGI Fridays and Spirit Airlines all operating under Chapter 11, facing massive downsizing and losing brand relevancy by the day. Many would argue that it’s time Ticketmaster joined them. The platform found new ways to alienate consumers with the fallout from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour debacle and, more alarmingly, the silence surrounding a massive data breach affecting 560 million users. In fact, 2024 was the year data breaches became chillingly routine, with companies like Disney, The BBC, Microsoft and Dell scrambling to contain damage to both their systems and reputations. Even trusted institutions like Columbia, Harvard and The Washington Post faced PR crises, proving no brand is untouchable.

Elsewhere, collaborations and comebacks stole the spotlight. Crocs teamed up with Post Malone, UGG strutted down Fashion Week runways and Birkenstock joined forces with Gucci, sparking speculation: are dad Merrells next? Abercrombie & Fitch transformed into a leading fashion and stock icon, while Victoria’s Secret tried to recapture relevance with #bodypositivity, and Gap saw its Met Gala denim moment revive buzz. On the M&A front, UBS emerged victorious with its Credit Suisse acquisition and equally successful “Banking is our craft” positioning strategy, deployed globally, featuring Lewis Hamilton, June Ambrose and a very cool horologist experiential event.

2024 also saw Ozempic continue to be the king of weight loss (really type 2 diabetes), while Wegovy, Trulicity and Tremfaya all caught fire tied to their relentless advertising, memorable jingles and bottomless pharma ad budgets. Volkswagen tugged at heartstrings by relaunching its nostalgic electric minivan, while Jaguar misfired with a rebrand that had critics questioning its future. And Mattel? After its Barbie triumph last year, it stumbled spectacularly with the “Wicked Dolls” packaging debacle, accidentally directing kids to a pornography site.

Even giants like Apple weren’t immune to missteps. Its ill-conceived iPad Pro Crush campaign—which featured creative tools crushed under an industrial press—backfired spectacularly, alienating artists, creators and loyal fans alike before being swiftly pulled with a public apology.

Women’s sports had a banner year, with the Olympics, WNBA and NWSL driving momentum for female athletes and edging closer to long overdue equality. Let’s hope 2024 is remembered as the year the tides truly began to turn.

When it comes to 2024, I must ask: where wasn’t Snoop? Why can’t every day be Charli XCX’s Brat Summer? Did Taylor Swift really just save Target from becoming a potential takeover target? Can Michael Cera help all brands like he did with CeraVe’s Super Bowl triumph? Did you know that Liquid Death, the audacious “water in a can” startup, is now worth $1.4B? Will we be talking about how Bluesky became the social media platform that supplanted X and Threads? Will Glicked be as popular and award-worthy as Barbenheimer?

And on a lighter note, will there ever be a feel-good reality season like we just saw on the Golden Bachelorette? No wonder the entire cast of Vanderpump Rules was dumped for new cast members. Bravo, Bravo!

With all of that being said, I once again turned to my Prophet colleagues from around the globe to get their take on 2024’s biggest brand winners and losers, and there was very little debate on which rose to the top and which sunk to the bottom. Without further ado, here are our takes on the 2024 brand winners and losers.

2024 Brand Winners

Nvidia

Nvidia solidified its dominance as a tech powerhouse, driving innovation across industries. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) remained the backbone of AI and machine learning, powering advancements in generative AI and data center growth fueled by demand for cloud computing. In gaming, Nvidia set the standard with high-performance GPUs, while its DRIVE platform gained traction in autonomous vehicle development. Strategic partnerships with top tech firms and research institutions expanded its influence, and a stellar stock performance reflected investor confidence. Balancing innovation with responsibility, Nvidia also advanced sustainability initiatives, reinforcing its role as a leader in tech and beyond.

Bitcoin

Acknowledging crypto as a legitimate investment is no longer in question. Bitcoin, the face of cryptocurrency, has become one of the most powerful brands in the world. Beyond having first-mover advantage and an incoming administration that is “crypto-friendly,” Bitcoin has finally become universally acknowledged and accepted as a store of value and a high-performing long-term investment, with both national governments and financial institutions including Blackrock and Fidelity recognizing the asset class. At the time of publishing this article, we are waiting to see if Microsoft will add Bitcoin to its balance sheet, following MicroStrategy, Tesla and Block.

YouTube

In 2024, YouTube reaffirmed its dominance in the digital landscape, emerging as a powerhouse in both short- and long-form content. With 2.5 billion monthly active users—nearly one-third of the global population—the platform secured a 10% share of U.S. connected TV viewership and saw explosive growth in Shorts, amassing an astonishing 70 billion daily views. Ad revenue surged, fueled by the skyrocketing popularity of Shorts and live streaming, further positioning the platform as a leader in content. By enhancing monetization options for creators, YouTube fostered an explosion of high-quality, diverse content that deepened viewer engagement and cemented its status as the go-to platform for creators and audiences alike.

Additionally, its strategic foray into educational partnerships with leading institutions further solidified its role as a hub for learning and innovation, underscoring its staying power in a crowded market. With plans to expand its global reach, refine monetization opportunities and foster stronger creator-audience connections, YouTube is poised to continue winning with its trinity of creators, advertisers and viewers in 2025 and beyond.

Duolingo

Duolingo soared to new heights, redefining what it means to be a cultural juggernaut in the edutainment space. Duo the Owl, its mischievous mascot, has transcended app functionality to become a global icon of humor and accountability, capturing hearts and sparking conversations far beyond language learning. This year, the brand made waves with a bold Super Bowl debut, airing a quirky five-second ad featuring a farting owl that ignited social media buzz and reinforced its irreverent yet strategic marketing approach. Duolingo kept the momentum going with headline-grabbing activations like the limited-edition “Duo Butt Briefs” and a collaboration with celebrity surgeon Dr. Miami, proving its ability to turn the unconventional into marketing gold. As Adweek aptly put it, “Duolingo isn’t just an app; it’s a blueprint for building a culture-driven brand.” By transforming education into entertainment, Duolingo has cemented itself as a global phenomenon, making learning an experience rather than a task.

TikTok

TikTok’s cultural dominance showed no signs of waning, with the platform continuing to experience explosive user growth, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials. Influencers like Charli D’Amelio, Alix Earle and Keith Lee kept TikTok at the forefront of music, fashion and viral trends, each commanding massive followings and shaping consumer behavior across industries. Beyond its influence on pop culture, TikTok emerged as a powerful tool for political campaigns, with candidates using the platform to authentically connect with younger audiences and drive grassroots engagement. TikTok also tripled its U.S. shopping sales to more than $100 million on Black Friday through its TikTok Shop e-commerce feature, drawing more than seven billion views between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Whether sparking viral challenges, fostering meaningful social discourse or becoming a social commerce challenger, TikTok solidified its position as a cultural epicenter and a brand to be reckoned with.

Walmart

Walmart demonstrated why it remains a retail juggernaut by capitalizing on e-commerce growth and innovation. The retailer expanded its same-day delivery capabilities and seamlessly integrated its physical and online stores, meeting consumer demand for convenience. Sustainability took center stage as Walmart introduced more eco-friendly products and committed to reducing its carbon footprint, a move resonating with environmentally conscious shoppers. Meanwhile, its steadfast focus on competitive pricing ensured loyalty from budget-conscious consumers, positioning Walmart as a leader in navigating economic uncertainty.

WNBA

The WNBA continued its meteoric rise, setting viewership and attendance records while securing a wave of high-profile sponsorships. Social media platforms, particularly Instagram and TikTok, amplified player narratives, creating a deeper connection with fans. The addition of Caitlin Clark, whose transition to the league brought unprecedented attention and captivated a younger audience, further solidified the WNBA’s position as a cultural and commercial force. With savvy marketing strategies and game-changing talent, the WNBA is proving it has the momentum to transform women’s sports.

2024 Brand Losers

Jaguar

Jaguar’s brand reinvention missed the mark, drawing criticism for prioritizing a diversity campaign that failed to resonate with its audience or tie back to its vehicles. The automaker’s inability to clarify its market positioning left consumers perplexed, while global sales continued to decline amidst dealership closures. In an increasingly competitive luxury market, Jaguar’s struggles and apparent abandonment of its storied history highlight the need for clear messaging and a stronger connection to its core brand identity.

Boeing

Boeing’s turbulent year was marred by ongoing production delays and quality control issues, further damaging its reputation as a reliable aviation giant, with whistleblowers and lawsuits becoming the story instead of the machinery it puts in the skies. Financial losses mounted as airlines turned to competitors to meet demand underscoring Boeing’s failure to address customer concerns. With past safety controversies still casting a long shadow, 2024 reinforced the urgent need for Boeing to rebuild trust and prioritize operational excellence to maintain relevance in a high-stakes industry.

Starbucks

Starbucks found itself at the center of labor unrest as unionization efforts and employee dissatisfaction exposed cracks in its carefully curated brand. Coupled with rising competition from boutique coffee shops offering personalized experiences, Starbucks struggled to maintain its premium image. Price hikes intended to counter inflation sparked widespread customer backlash, raising questions about the company’s ability to balance profitability with customer loyalty in an increasingly competitive market. All of this makes new CEO Brian Niccol’s promise of “my hope is we can get you a brewed cup of coffee in less than 30 seconds” seem both daunting and improbable.

X (formerly Twitter)

X continued its downward spiral with user engagement and active accounts in freefall. Under Elon Musk’s controversial stewardship, the platform faced relentless criticism for sweeping changes that alienated advertisers and long-time users alike. A sharp decline in ad revenue and a muddled vision for the platform’s future left X struggling to compete in the social media landscape. Once a cultural mainstay, X now risks becoming a cautionary tale of mismanagement and lost potential.

Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster’s 2024 was defined by intensifying consumer frustration and mounting regulatory scrutiny. Persistent issues with service fees, opaque pricing and ticket availability eroded public trust, while emerging competitors offered more transparent and user-friendly solutions. Legal challenges and customer complaints further spotlighted Ticketmaster’s systemic problems, leaving the brand on shaky ground in a rapidly evolving marketplace where user satisfaction is paramount.

FINAL THOUGHTS

One thing is clear: 2024 was one for the brand winner/loser record books. We would love to hear from you – which brands did you think were the biggest winners and losers this year?  

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NEW RESEARCH

The Rise of the AI-Powered Consumer

Discover how GenAI is reshaping digital transformation by putting consumers at the center. Our report reveals surprising insights into how consumers are adopting GenAI faster than expected and leveraging it to improve their lives. Learn how businesses can apply GenAI not just for optimization or efficiency, but to unlock consumer-centric growth and stay ahead of the curve. 

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For business leaders formulating GenAI strategies and identifying priority use cases, the time is now to raise and consider these questions:

  • How do we unleash growth with this new technology?
  • What can we do now to attract, engage and serve customers?
  • Will we be in the same business tomorrow as we’re in today?

The TL;DR on Our Findings

We surveyed more than 2,400 consumers across the globe to understand how they perceive and use GenAI, here’s what we found:

With an average adoption rate of 45%, consumers are taking up GenAI faster and at a greater scale than previous breakthrough technologies.

Typically, younger consumers show the greatest interest in new tech. But in the case of GenAI, there is strong adoption by all generations. Millennials have the highest adoption rates (53%).

“Entertainment” is the top consumer use case today. Of GenAI users, 77% believe GenAI provides inspiration and helps them discover new things.

Consumers want GenAI to give them coaching and – in some cases – make decisions autonomously. They look for support in meaningful parts of their lives.

Consumers are more optimistic than concerned: 76% of survey respondents are excited about the possibilities it creates.

Download the report to discover how consumers are leveraging GenAI today and how your business can harness these insights to create transformative growth opportunities.

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What Consumers Say

“It is the tech of the future; powered by automation and the power of us.”

MALE, MILLENNIAL, U.S.

“AI’s future technological developments can help humans create a better life.”

MALE, GEN X, CHINA

Winning with GenAI Requires a Consumer-Centric Approach

To unlock uncommon growth, brands must embrace GenAI with bold strategies and customer-centric thinking. Focus on creating value through inspiring experiences, reimagined consumer journeys, and innovative business models.

Balance near-term AI deployment with long-term transformative opportunities and prioritize building organizational infrastructure to scale effectively. By putting consumers at the heart of GenAI strategies, brands can transcend technological hype, delivering impactful, human-centered outcomes that foster trust and drive sustainable growth.

Contact our team today.

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 The Rise of the AI-Powered Consumer

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The Future of Hospitality: 4 Key Insights for Asia’s Travel Boom

Hotel brands are embracing personalization, technology and sustainability as Asia’s travel industry reinvents itself post-pandemic. 

Tourism in Asia is going through an identity crisis. By the numbers, it all looks good, with experts predicting a complete recovery, surpassing the pre-pandemic highs. However, the typical 2025 traveler bears little resemblance to those in 2019.  

Travelers in Asia now have different expectations. They have new ideas about how to enjoy life, find entertainment and spend money. They want to protect the planet. They combine work and leisure travel in new ways and crave authentic experiences over standardized hotel chains. Those changes have pushed the hospitality sector to a pivotal moment of reinvention and adaptation.  

As tourism numbers rise, the opportunities are expanding fast. Tourism brands must shift their strategy to succeed, addressing four powerful trends. They’ll need to redefine all formats for richer personalization. Thinking beyond the hotel’s physical location, brands must offer diversified experiences from retail, cultural activities to entertainment which stand true to the hotel’s brand purpose. They’ll have to find new ways to use tech, becoming more human. And they’ll need to address eco-wary travelers’ rapidly evolving sustainability expectations. 

A Look into Asia’s Travel Boom 

Asia’s impressive tourism recovery is, in large part, driven by the reopening of China post-COVID. While domestic travel expenditure has slowed since the May holiday surge (28% growth over 2019), international travel was rebounding in full force during the golden week holiday. According to Alipay, the number of transactions made by its users in overseas markets during the first four days of the holiday (October 1-4) increased by over 60% compared to the same period in 2023. Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong SAR and Singapore emerged as the fastest-growing destinations for Chinese tourists. 

Major hotel chains saw positive financial results globally, but a decrease in their China revenue. In part, that’s due to the oversaturation of the market, with chains focusing on price, and the softening of business travel. However, it’s also due to Chinese travelers’ evolving preferences that make the hostel and B&B sector more appealing. 

India is also driving the rebound, with travel industry sources reporting that outbound travelers from India spent a record $17 billion in overseas travel, a 25% jump from the prior year. In Southeast Asia, Laos and Malaysia are up 20 percent and 17 percent, respectively, in year-over-year international travel spending.  

As outbound excursions increase, countries are sharpening their offers. Japan, where visits are already well over 2019 levels, is gearing up to attract affluent tourists to lesser-known destinations, offering opportunities for an authentic experience of culture, craftsmanship and nature as a record number of foreign travelers come to the country. 

Are you Ready for the Traveler of 2025? 

Modern guests increasingly seek more purposeful, authentic and personalized experiences, prioritizing four key areas. They want: 

Diverse and Richer Formats With Personalized Experiences  

Experiential travel and cultural immersion have eclipsed the trend of checking off destinations in record time. Asian travelers are now taking their time, seeking wellness, spas, yoga activities and retreats, valuing health and relaxation in their travel experiences.  

That has also given rise to a keen interest in hyper-localized boutiques or specialized resorts, whether focused on families, skiing, or spiritual offers.  

Songtsam has tapped into this trend, with premium hotels designed to offer culturally immersive tours along the Yunnan-Tibet route. The Chinese hotel group brings together nature, outdoor adventure, meditation, village life and local countryside customs to form two “circuits” — geographically connected groups of properties that create a foundation for a multi-location trip. Over 90% of Songtsam’s employees are from local villages, guaranteeing a customer experience that reflects the area’s unique personality. 

The growing trend of traveling for concerts and festivals fits neatly into this category. Analysts estimate Taylor Swift’s recent concerts in Singapore – six shows and the only appearances in Southeast Asia – likely brought in $370 million in tourism receipts in one week. 

Cruising is also growing fast, allowing tourists to take their time and savor different regions. By 2025, cruise revenue in Asia is expected to reach $3.77 billion and grow at an annual rate of 6.17% through 2029. 

Differentiated Hotel Experiences That Connect to Retail and Entertainment Platforms 

Modern travelers don’t just come to stay – they want to do. And increasingly, retail and entertainment are part of that experience. While some inherent challenges exist for hoteliers working in mixed-use properties, when done well, guest-centric experiences create a value exchange that provides meaningful differentiation. 

Aranya Resorts has become a trendy destination for aspiring young travelers precisely because it knows how to combine commerce, culture, wellness and food with hotels and residential. It offers Instagrammable views, a concert hall, a library, diverse restaurants, luxury hotels, and retail stores that sell hip lifestyle brands. 

Even without developing properties explicitly for these connections, hotel brands can create their recipe for differentiation by partnering and collaborating across the tourism ecosystem. That may include working with transportation, credit cards, retail and experience providers. Marina Bay Sands, a luxury resort in Singapore, for example, has tie-ins with MasterCard, Singapore Airlines and the Singapore Tourism Board. These connections allow the brand to offer collaborations like fly-and-stay deals, built around culinary festivals and a Lunar New Year dragon drone show. 

Such partnerships make it easy for even mainstream properties to develop distinctive packages with less common destinations.  

Human Experiences, with Seamlessly Integrated Technology  

Travelers demand digital excellence when traveling. It’s how they prefer to book and pay for their trips.  

Forward-thinking hotels are responding by accelerating their adoption of new technologies to tailor experiences and differentiate themselves. Ji Hotel, a mid-range hotel brand by H World International, incorporates customizable lighting, sound, temperature and IoT solutions, as well as room service and delivery robots. Digital control panels are voice-enabled and connect everything to the group’s H Rewards loyalty program app. 

Since travelers are increasingly open to using GenAI to plan their travel, hoteliers such as Marriott and IHG are beginning to incorporate GenAI technology in membership programs to suggest travel itineraries, dining options and shopping spots.  

However, many IoT and AI capabilities can come off as impersonable, especially to the more socially conscious Gen Z. 

They want digital conveniences but are also in search of human connection. The trick is using advanced tech to make customer experiences feel more human. 

Regenerative Travel That Prioritizes People, Planet, and Progress

Travelers, especially younger and more affluent, are increasingly aware of tourism’s heavy impact on the local community, culture and environment. They want to travel more sustainably and are willing to pay extra for sustainable options. They want to stay in properties committed to reducing waste, shifting away from single-use plastics, preserving cultures, and giving back to communities. 

Built on a secluded peninsula on a private island, Nam Nghi is a boutique hotel catering to diverse audiences, with pristine beaches surrounded by lush jungles. Prophet designed a new positioning for the Vietnamese destination, helping it appeal to affluent nature-conscious guests. Their guests want authentic experiences that have minimal environmental impact. Centered around the positioning “Nurtured by Nature,” we delivered designs and ideas for touchpoints ranging from in-room amenities, food and beverage, and wellness options to digital apps to link them all. 

CX Management is the Top Agenda for Hospitality C-Levels

The theme in all four of these trends, of course, is the importance of customer experience. From the smallest boutique to the largest hotel chains, it’s important to obsessively measure how well changing audiences are reacting. That requires making CX a key function, not just a supporting role, and establishing a clear guiding principle – an experience North Star – to ensure consistent, relevant and unique customer experiences. The goal is no longer customer satisfaction but customer delight. 

  • CX management is not to be treated as a supporting function, but as a core function anchored in the business and brand strategy. 
  • It needs a positioning and value framework that can and must be derived from the brand.  
  • When strongly intertwined with the R&D of travel & hospitality, CX management is decisive for identifying and driving innovations.  
  • The measurement of CX urgently needs a strong development push beyond the classic satisfaction and recommendation KPIs. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

The travel and hospitality industry in Asia is experiencing a renaissance, driven by emerging trends in personalization, sustainability and tech innovations. As consumer expectations evolve, hotels must pivot and reinvent themselves to offer unique, immersive experiences that go beyond traditional services. By focusing on these key trends, hospitality brands can not only meet but exceed the needs of the modern traveler, creating lasting customer loyalty.  

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How the CEO at Curative Accelerates Growth by Meeting Consumers’ Needs

Unlock. Create. Execute: A conversation about uncovering growth by delivering better health outcomes.

Growth is rarely easy – specifically, growth driven by customer interest and market demand rather than the temporary variety driven by acquisition, cost takeout or organizational restructuring.

Because markets are moving faster than ever, we believe sustainable growth results from:

  • Unlocking compelling customer insights to inform growth strategies
  • Creating relevant, impactful growth moves
  • Executing faster and more efficiently

Through this series of interviews with healthcare leaders, we explore the driving insights, key actions and anticipated impact of their recent growth strategies.

In this edition, we sit down with Fred Turner, chief executive officer and co-founder of Curative, to learn more about his unique vision and approach to driving change in the insurance industry.

Curative is a groundbreaking healthcare services company that created and launched the first-of-its-kind employer-based health insurance plan. Founded in 2020, Curative reengineered health insurance by providing unmatched simplicity, enhanced engagement and cost transparency with a competitive monthly premium and zero additional costs. Curative is all about building the next generation of large employer health insurance – focused on preventative health and removing barriers to care.

Fred Turner is the CEO and co-founder of Curative. Under his leadership, Curative has shifted from the leading COVID-19 testing provider to an innovator in health insurance, offering plans with no copays, no deductibles and no cost-sharing for in-network care (with the completion of a baseline visit). This model has achieved a 94% member engagement rate, far surpassing industry standards. Turner’s vision is to create a healthcare system that supports holistic patient health.

What Is the Major Unlock That Informed Your Approach and Strategy for Curative?

When Curative was founded in January 2020, we initially focused on improving sepsis outcomes but quickly pivoted to supporting COVID diagnostic testing. That work exposed us to two key learnings: one, we touched every type of payer and health plan and saw cracks in the system, and two, we learned that consumers have serious fear and anxiety when it comes to healthcare expenses. That fear may prevent them from getting care, for example a COVID test, even when COVID tests are fully covered. We knew we wanted to do something that would move the needle on U.S. healthcare, something that could drive meaningful change in the system.

“Our experience during COVID made us say, the payer dynamic is a real problem with the U.S. healthcare system, and we could build a payer that can drive preventative care and better long-term outcomes.”

We saw the untapped space, where there hasn’t been innovation for decades, as the employer market, which is where 50% of Americans get their health insurance. The U.S. has run a natural experiment over the past 10 to 15 years with High Deductible Health Plans. Fifteen years ago, about 10% of plans met the American Care Act (ACA) definition of high deductible. Today, we’re closer to 60%. Did it work? The answer is a resounding no. Consumers aren’t great at price shopping, and people don’t make rational decisions, particularly when it comes to emotional subjects such as health and their finances.

“The other substantial effect when patient cost sharing goes up is the deferral of care.”

The National Bureau of Economic Research ran a study that followed a group who moved from a low deductible to a high deductible plan over three years. In the first year, you see about a 12% reduction in spending, which looks great – like we reduced healthcare spend. The problem is when you dig into what is happening, you see people putting off primary care visits, checkups and screening tests – even though in the plan design, certain preventative screening tests, like colonoscopies, were covered at $0 out-of-pocket cost. The care that gets put off is lower acuity preventative care.

“If you have a heart attack, you’re still going to go to the hospital, no matter what your deductible is. What the high deductible plan does do is prevent you from getting the checkup that might have avoided that hospitalization.”

How Did That Insight Help You to Create the Curative Platform in a Relevant, Differentiated Way?

We’re trying to approach preventative care differently in terms of the value that we assigned to it. The typical way that an insurance plan looks at loss, or medical loss right now, is every dollar spent as $1. Whether you spend $1 on preventive care or you spend $1 in the hospital, it’s still just $1. The way that we look at it is that dollar spent on a preventative visit could avoid inpatient stays, emergency room visits or specialty drug use.

“Preventative care that keeps people well is a dollar significantly better spent than a dollar on a preventable hospital stay.”

We’re committed to making an investment upfront, to getting people engaged in their care early and then seeing that payoff downstream with lower ER, hospital or specialty drug use. Most employers get stuck in this cycle of deferred care, where the population’s health is decreasing and costs continue to go up. Curative flips the script. We make it easy for people to engage upfront. The cost sharing is zero, so there are zero out-of-pocket costs, no copays and no deductibles to go and access care – as long as you engage in a preventative health visit within the first 120 days of signing up for the plan.

“If you want people to engage with care, you have to make it really simple.”

And the only way to make it simple enough that people really understand the cost to them is to make it zeros across the board. That’s the fear that any engagement in care is bad because I might get a bill for it – that’s what we have to fight. We think the only way to reset people to see a doctor if they’re sick or in a preventive manner to avoid becoming sick is to build trust that those actions won’t cost them a dime. Our philosophy, the long game, is that we will have a higher spend in the first year because people will get the care that they need. But in the second year, we’ll get back to baseline and, by the third year, we’ll actually be saving money because this population will be healthier.

How Are You Proving That Curative Can Execute Results That Employers Are Looking For?

We’re still in the process of building trust with members and employers, but the engagement piece via a preventative visit is key. We get an hour of the member’s time to do two things: one, we aim to educate them about accessing their care through a Care Navigator session. How do they make appointments? What is a deductible? What’s a copay? How do you figure out what doctors are in-network? When should you go to the ER?

“We’re demonstrating that we want them to access the care they need versus an adversarial relationship that members often have with their health plan that doesn’t want to cover what they need.”

That kicks off the relationship in a fundamentally different way and drives a higher degree of engagement. Two, members then meet with a clinician who is looking for gaps in care. If we see a pre-diabetic patient, we want to get them to a primary care physician who’s going to manage their pre-diabetes or even reverse it, rather than letting that continue to full-on type two diabetes, where, if unmanaged, could lead to major health complications that result in tremendous expense – that’s bad for the member and for the health plan. In the longer term, we expect to be able to keep rates closer to flat by managing this care over time, rather than the typical 10% increases you’re going to get from BUCA carrier every year. We’re new to the space and want to make sure that we’re here for the long term.

“It may sometimes seem like moving the boulder of the American healthcare system is impossible, but I think with a lot of dedicated, smart people chipping away at it, piece by piece, we really can make substantial change.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

Growth has become more challenging to generate and sustain driven by customer interest and market demand. Even top performers can no longer rely on their past strategies to achieve the next phase of growth. Beyond well-known barriers like tech-driven disruption and fickle customers, less tangible factors such as lack of executive clarity and short-term thinking pose significant threats. Sustainable growth now depends on unlocking compelling customer insights, identifying impactful growth moves and executing strategies quickly and efficiently. Ready to accelerate your growth? Schedule a workshop.

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How the CEO at Northwell Direct Accelerates Growth with a Clinician-First Approach

Unlock. Create. Execute: A conversation about uncovering growth by disrupting traditional models.

Growth is rarely easy – specifically, growth driven by customer interest and market demand rather than the temporary variety driven by acquisition, cost takeout or organizational restructuring.

Because markets are moving faster than ever, we believe sustainable growth results from:

  • Unlocking compelling customer insights to inform growth strategies
  • Creating relevant, impactful growth moves
  • Executing faster and more efficiently

Through this series of interviews with healthcare leaders, we explore the driving insights, key actions and anticipated impact of their recent growth strategies.

In this edition, we sit down with Nick Stefanizzi, chief executive officer at Northwell Direct, to learn more about the company’s origin and philosophy around growing its integrated care network.

Northwell Direct is a subsidiary of Northwell Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in New York. Established in 2020, Northwell Direct offers a direct-to-employer health care network of more than 31,000 providers and customized wellness programs to support employee health. This allows employers to offer high-quality healthcare to their employees without going through traditional insurance companies. Northwell Health utilizes Northwell Direct’s provider network for its own employee health benefits, ensuring comprehensive and cost-effective care for its workforce.

Nick Stefanizzi is the CEO of Northwell Direct, where he is responsible for the strategy, operations, growth and financial performance of Northwell Health’s direct-to-employer organization. Stefanizzi has been with Northwell Health for 16 years, serving in various roles, including assistant vice president for HR innovation and organization effectiveness as well as director of management services for Northwell’s ambulatory network.

What Is the Major Unlock That Informed Your Approach and Strategy for Northwell Direct?

Northwell Health had its own insurance company (Care Connect) that was incredibly successful – but we were not prepared for risk adjustment, so that business venture shuttered in 2018. While that was challenging, what wasn’t lost was our belief that playing in that space was the right approach. At the same time, our organization started to grow. We’re the largest private employer in the state of New York, in addition to being the largest healthcare provider. Organically, we started to get inbound inquiries from employers saying, we’re having these kinds of challenges in our employee plan – can you help us figure this out as both an employer and a provider? We saw that we had an opportunity to do something different for the communities we serve. That was really the genesis of Northwell Direct. We then built a business around that concept, not only to meet employer needs but to disrupt the payer space.

“It’s our belief that a more direct relationship between those who provide the care and those who pay for the care is beneficial, and that today, payers have inserted themselves between those two entities.”

There’s still a role for the major carriers to play, but they don’t need to sit between us, and in fact, by working together with the employers and their employees, it’s our belief that we can better manage care and drive improvements in quality and outcomes.

We only work with self-funded employers in their benefit design. In New York state, that means more than 100 employees, and we don’t carry any financial risk, as we do not offer an insurance product. We’re on the hook for performance. Our focus is on delivering value, savings, efficiency and outcomes for our employers. The other thing we didn’t do was invest in building an insurance company. There are third-party administrators that have the capabilities needed to support an employer-sponsored plan, so why not partner instead of building it ourselves and going at it alone?

“We saw a business model that was ripe for disruption and employers who were hungry for support, grappling with the challenges they’ve had with their employee population and desperate to arrest a trend that had been moving in the wrong direction for over a decade.”

We saw an opportunity to build the platform differently with partners.

In Addition to Opening a New Line of Business, What Impact Did Northwell Direct Create for Your Key Audiences?

We’ve made a concerted effort to remove the traditional denials and hurdles in this space that don’t add value or drive for the member or material savings for the employer. While we can accommodate any benefit design requirements, we have examples of clients for whom, if their employees receive care within our tier one network, there are zero prior authorizations needed. And it doesn’t lead to higher costs. There is no statistical difference in unnecessary utilization or unnecessary testing.

“We take a clinical-first approach – what does the doctor believe is necessary?”

We trust that we have providers who are going to do the right thing by the patient and by the plan, and then manage the care intensely to make sure it’s as efficient as possible. It’s about administering consistently with the benefits plan but providing clinically oriented insights into how that benefit design can be enhanced to drive the right patient behaviors and the right patient choice of the highest quality, lowest-cost providers, and then wrapping the member with support that is integrated with and endorsed by the clinician. By taking a provider-oriented approach, our engagement levels are much higher. We’re able to share the care management information back with the provider so they can take a more holistic view. And lastly, what we can do locally that the national carriers can’t is get on the ground. If we have a member who is admitted, we will send a nurse care manager to their bedside to coordinate their follow-up care, their appointments and make sure they’re clear on what happens post-discharge. You can’t do that from a contact center across the country.

“Clinical-first, integrated care management, boots on the ground and a structural approach that is different in terms of our philosophy around denials versus provider enablement – that’s what we’re doing, and it’s fundamentally different from how carriers think about this.”

How Challenging Was It to Get the Business Running, and How Will You Execute Your Growth Future Plans?

It’s hard for health systems to get into this business because it takes investment, and health systems are struggling financially. They are under enormous pressure, there are a lot of competing priorities, and it takes a lot to stand up a new venture like this.

“You cannot do this by having somebody do it off the side of their desk.”

You have to build competency and capabilities. For example, we brought in people with skill sets that traditionally don’t exist within the health system. We’re selling an incredibly complex product in the insurance space, even though we’re not an insurance company. I have licensed brokers that work for me – that skill set and those broker relationships don’t exist in health systems. You have to invest in building the appropriate infrastructure. You need talent that doesn’t necessarily exist from within the organization, and you have to build capabilities. But you don’t need to do it all. Just pick one thing that an employer might need or have a conversation with a major employer in your region and ask what they would want help with and start there. Yes, there are competing priorities, competing investments and a tremendous amount of pressure, but I believe this strategy in the long term will alleviate those pressures.

In the next five years, we will expand the field of play and be a major regional player. There’s an opportunity to grow our network and the geographic footprint of employers we serve. In addition to that growth, we’re diversifying the ways in which we partner with employers. That means new products and services. That means rolling out digital platforms to augment our clinical capabilities. That means partnering differently, even within the insurance space. We’re going to roll out our own bundles and centers of excellence.

“I believe, fundamentally, there is a national opportunity here for health systems to partner together and for us to take the work we’re doing here, to line it up with the work that Baylor is doing in Texas, what Orlando Health is doing in Florida, what Providence is doing up in Washington and California, and for us to figure out how to stitch something together that would allow us to scale nationally.”

That’s a very complicated proposition. I don’t know exactly yet how it will come together, but I believe there are enough health systems that see this as an interesting space and that there’s opportunity for us over time to figure out how to make that possible together.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Driven by customer interest and market demand, growth has become even more challenging to generate and sustain. Even top performers can no longer rely on their past strategies to achieve the next phase of growth. Beyond well-known barriers like tech-driven disruption and fickle customers, less tangible factors such as lack of executive clarity and short-term thinking pose significant threats. Sustainable growth now depends on unlocking compelling customer insights, identifying impactful growth moves and executing strategies quickly and efficiently.

Ready to accelerate your growth? Schedule a workshop.

I’M INTERESTED IN A WORKSHOP

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Beyond Boundaries: 5 Steps for Creating Iconic Destinations 

Discover how destinations can craft compelling brands and implement strategic approaches to attract global travelers, foster emotional connections and stand out in a competitive market.  


As we approach the end of the year, tourism has shown strong signs of a full recovery with today’s travelers relishing the freedom to explore. International visitors to the Middle East are especially eager: it’s the only region to have surpassed 2019 levels, up 22% last year, according to the United Nations’ World Tourism Barometer. Europe is close behind. And while that rising tide of tourism is generating record spending, it also presents a unique challenge for every country, city and region striving to attract visitors. What makes people pick Dubai over Denmark? A weekend in Istanbul instead of three days at a spa? The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix versus Monaco? 

Even the most established and well-known destinations must actively work to attract every visitor, while new and emerging locations need to go further to gain attention on the global stage. They must build compelling brands that not only resonate with consumers but are also grounded in consumer insights, strategic rigor, creative innovation and an unwavering commitment to a unified vision. In this fiercely competitive arena, cities and countries aren’t just vying for tourists. They’re looking to cultivate a tourism base that drives economic growth and leaves a lasting impression on visitors. Often, they’re competing against regions with far larger marketing budgets. Winning requires sharply defined target audiences, inspiring first-time visitors and turning them into lifelong advocates.  

To stand out, every city, region and country must craft a unique narrative that sets it apart. At Prophet, we believe there are five critical elements that every destination should consider when building and strengthening its brand.  

1. Tap Into Travelers’ Desires and Needs 

Successful destination branding begins with a deep, authentic understanding of today’s travelers, who care more about experiences, environmental responsibility and the positive impact on local citizens. Fresh consumer research acts as a guide for destination marketers, revealing traveler preferences, perceptions and untapped opportunities. This insight enables brands to make strategic choices about which traveler segments to target and how to best appeal to them in the race to relevance – whether with luxury shopping experiences or family-friendly excursions.  

For example, the enchanting city of Istanbul, consistently a Top 10 destination. Istanbul continues to feed this fascination through research, curating experiences catering to history buffs craving a glimpse into the city’s storied past and millennials seeking Instagram-worthy moments amidst its bustling streets.  

Consumer insights also shaped our recent collaboration with the Department of Culture and Tourism as we worked to develop the destination brand for Abu Dhabi. We realized that in a world that never stands still, Abu Dhabi reawakens curiosity, inviting visitors to experience the city at their own pace. While traditional destination branding focuses on landmarks and attractions, this visitor-centric approach is rooted in four vital human passions: Inspiration, excitement, restoration and prosperity. It appeals to a broad set of travelers and showcases the Emirate’s breadth, from the Louvre Abu Dhabi to star gazing at the Al Wathba fossil dunes. The global “Find Your Pace” campaign aimed at inspiring curiosity for every type of traveler, invites them to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life and discover their ideal pace amidst the Emirate’s serene surroundings. It’s working. This traveler-focused strategy has driven impressive results, including an 82% boost in awareness and a 75% rise in consideration.   

2. Transform Perceptions and Challenge Old Ideas 

Tourism can be a significant driver of economic growth, generating revenue and creating jobs. By shaping positive perceptions, destinations can attract more visitors, strengthening local economies. For instance, Saudi Arabia’s “Visit Saudi” campaign has challenged global perceptions through stunning imagery and captivating storytelling, presenting the Kingdom’s diverse landscapes, cultural heritage and modern marvels. Through visually striking and compelling narratives, Saudi Arabia has successfully repositioned itself as a must-visit country, welcoming over 100 million tourists in 2023 – a milestone it initially didn’t expect to achieve until 2030.  

3. Personalize Experiences 

As today’s consumers increasingly seek tailored experiences, destinations must move beyond generic marketing. Oman has positioned itself as a haven for intrepid adventurers and luxury seekers, with rugged landscapes and tranquil oases that offer a sanctuary for discerning consumers looking for authentic encounters. While Jordan’s eco-tourism and Morocco’s culinary and scenic offerings attract diverse traveler types. By appealing directly to specific preferences, these brands create authentic, memorable experiences that resonate deeply with visitors. Cultural nuances add depth to these campaigns, helping destinations inspire one-of-a-kind vacations.  

4. Create Emotional Connections 

Emotion lies at the heart of every memorable brand, especially those offering transformative travel experiences. Destinations like Egypt understand they’re marketing emotions, not locations. By repositioning its ancient wonders as symbols of adventure and luxury, Egypt has redefined its appeal.   

The best brands use every sensory opportunity to stoke these emotions with powerful visuals and well-thought-out verbal expressions, evoking powerful feelings of relaxation, awe or excitement to make their destination unforgettable.  

5. Embrace and Respect Local Culture 

Sustainable destination branding must respect and preserve local culture, which is increasingly valued by conscientious travelers. This interest fuels demand for immersive experiences, from visiting local farmers to shopping with native designers. People want to see more than a hotel lobby or the view from a tour bus. They want to know who the local people are, so cultural immersion and local tours remain a top priority. 

To strike the right balance, destination brands need to avoid clichés, celebrate authentic local heritage and emphasize respectful, sensitive marketing. By focusing on authenticity, brands foster meaningful connections, cultivating understanding between visitors and local communities, creating a win-win for travelers and locals alike.  

FINAL THOUGHTS

A visitor-centric approach, creatively inspired and powered by consumer data, can unlock many opportunities. Destinations that stand the test of time and drive economic value creation understand their target audience and carve out a unique position in the market. Unlocking relevance, ensuring authenticity and building connections is the route to success.  

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How To Get Back on a Growth Track in 2025

As businesses across Germany face ongoing economic challenges, our latest blog explores five essential strategies to help your organization realign, strengthen from within and forge a resilient path back to growth in 2025.

As we approach 2025, global economic challenges persist, with growth projections remaining modest and some even predicting a third consecutive year of mild recession. Across Germany, businesses in core industries are feeling the pressure of high interest rates, waning consumer demand and market volatility. In response, many firms are turning inward, prioritizing operational efficiencies over expansion. Yet, a focus solely on cost-cutting and efficiency poses deeper challenges for business leaders: how to sustain employee motivation and engagement, preserve hard-won progress and lay a solid foundation for a return to or even new versions of growth.

To guide your organization back to a growth track in 2025, here are five essential strategies: 

1. Re-Set Your Narrative With an Updated Story of Value

Challenging times can send out mixed signals – both internally and externally. Now more than ever, organizations need a unifying narrative that resonates deeply with employees and offers customers a clear, differentiated value. Especially in today’s recessionary climate, as we’re currently seeing in Germany, articulating your value in a way that is authentic and optimistic is essential.  

“When top employees and valued customers feel a compelling sense of purpose, engagement rises.”

When top employees and valued customers feel a compelling sense of purpose, engagement rises. Prophet’s new leadership tool, The Story of Value, brings tangible and intangible business assets into a distinctive and inspiring narrative. It crystallizes the unique value the business offers to shareholders, customers and employees. It simplifies a complex business into a compelling statement of value, creating a common language that inspires executives and employees internally while resonating with the market externally. 

Companies using the Story of Value tool are integrating it across critical areas, such as: 

  • Enhancing marketing and sales effectiveness through sharpened value propositions. 
  • Aligning corporate communications around a distinctive market narrative focused on core value. 
  • Strengthening the employee value proposition and modernizing foundational corporate assets (e.g., purpose statements, values, brand positioning) for a more cohesive culture. 
  • Arming finance, corporate development and IR teams with stronger investor day and roadshow presentations. 

2. Unlock the Moves that Propel Impact 

Now is the time for pragmatic innovation. In any business, there are actionable moves that can drive significant, measurable impact – whether by challenging a competitor or seizing a gap in the market. Identify actionable strategies based on customer needs and market opportunities that can be measured, optimized and scaled. Here are some examples of growth-oriented moves:  

  • Vision: Formulate a clear and reachable north star that every team member can rally around. Articulate the positive impact for individuals, the organization and society.  
  • Portfolio: Optimize your product portfolio for efficiencies.  
  • Marketing: Tap into new segments or double-down on loyalty with your most profitable audiences. 
  • Distribution: Test new routes to market, like direct-to-consumer models.  
  • Operations: Streamline processes and refine operational models.  
  • Talent: Foster mentorship between experienced employees and new hires in key areas like generative AI. Mentors provide guidance, while mentees bring fresh perspectives, benefiting both parties and building motivation through shared growth. 

3. Nurture Your Leadership and Team Collaboration  

Leadership teams, much like individuals, are dynamic ecosystems that require constant nurturing. Our proven method surfaces hidden challenges and fears, enabling leaders to address these openly and build a strong foundation of trust. This trust is essential for cultivating a high-performing leadership team unified by shared goals. 

Our annual Catalysts research shows that successful transformations hinge on genuine collaboration, where enterprise and individual goals are seamlessly integrated. High-functioning teams that shift from a siloed mindset to a team-oriented approach foster mutual accountability and alignment while also benefiting customers and the bottom line. 

The basis for this work is Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model (HCTM), a comprehensive, people-centered approach designed to fuel growth across the organization. It’s built on the premise that organizations, like people, consist of interconnected elements: DNA, mind, body and soul. 

For leadership teams to thrive, they should follow a similar model where trust, collaboration and a shared sense of purpose are cultivated to drive meaningful outcomes.  The Human-Centered Leadership Team Effectiveness Model emphasizes that addressing all dimensions of the human system is crucial to unlocking potential and achieving impactful, sustained outcomes. 

4. Invest in Your Brand – Inside and Out 

In challenging economies, the power of a strong brand becomes ever more evident, underscoring the critical need to invest in it for continued growth. Yet, this imperative often isn’t fully recognized across the executive team. Without broad leadership commitment to brand investment as a strategic priority, efforts to secure and sustain resources can encounter resistance, limiting the brand’s potential impact on overall business outcomes. Market experience and research consistently show that established brands tend to grow market share in down economies, as customers seek reliability and stability. For instance, brands that increased their share of voice during the 2008 recession grew market share 4.5 times faster than those that did not. Investing in your brand drives business value through three key lenses: 

  • Revenue and margin: A strong brand enhances customer choice, loyalty and price premium.  
  • Valuation: Brand equity bolsters enterprise value and shareholder return. 
  • Talent attraction: A reputable brand strengthens the talent pipeline and reduces talent acquisition costs. 

5. Implement an Agile Change Management Strategy  

Returning to growth demands a robust, people-centered change management strategy that addresses both the cognitive and emotional dimensions of the team. Leaders need to be equipped to guide teams through the complexities of change, dealing with underlying thoughts and feelings to build trust, resilience and alignment.   

To be effective, change management requires a holistic approach that considers multiple dimensions. Define clear actions within each area to maintain a comprehensive focus, rather than concentrating on just one or two aspects. Navigating transformation is complex and demands a balanced strategy that meets organizational needs while empowering the people driving them. Skillful coordination is essential. Bringing in an experienced partner like Prophet, who excels in orchestrating comprehensive change initiatives can be invaluable in helping your organization thrive in today’s challenging business environment. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

The path to growth is within reach through clear narratives, strategic moves, leadership focus, brand resilience and well-executed change management. Let’s talk about how Prophet can help get your business back on track in 2025. 

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