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Expert Roundtable: The Brand vs. Demand Marketing Dilemma

Three senior experts from PepsiCo, Suntory and WARC share their perspectives on how marketing drives sustainable growth by integrating brand and demand. 

For over a decade, the role of the marketing organization has undergone a continuous evolution. It has become a growth engine with the expectation to drive greater revenue for existing businesses while also identifying, sizing and pursuing new sources of growth.  

Under intense competition, businesses in Asia and across the world are faced with an urgent need to identify new growth pathways within saturated markets. Meanwhile, the pressure for financial performance, combined with the rise of digital technologies and AI, as well as the stronger capability to quantify results in demand marketing, have made the tension between long-term brand building and short-term demand generation increasingly evident. 

Today’s marketers are being asked to do more with less. Balancing long-term brand building with short-term demand generation has become a pressing issue.  

We interviewed three senior marketing experts from PepsiCo, Suntory Global Spirits, and WARC to share their insights about balancing brand and demand marketing: 

Yan Rives 
Marketing Director, Suntory Global Spirits 

Lizzie Li 
Consumer Insights Director, PepsiCo   

Jenny Chan
Editor, WARC

In today’s market, do brands today still need to communicate clear values or a point of view? 

Jenny: Amid fierce competition, brands need strong values more than ever to build a competitive edge. Consumers are reevaluating their consumption priorities and expect brands to align with their values. A brand’s attitude must not only stay true to its DNA but also keep pace with the times. Brands need to understand the differences between subcultures, ensure authenticity and differentiation, and express empathy and understanding toward consumers. 

Lizzie: I completely agree. Many brands today chase short-term performance but overlook the fact that short-term gains are built on long-term brand equity. Brands need to continuously reinforce and solidify their values to remain resilient in a fast-changing market. Simply put, short-term gains cannot exist without long-term brand building. 

Yan: I believe every brand needs a clear value proposition, but not every brand needs a point of view, which must be authentic. My take is: if you don’t have a genuine point of view, don’t fabricate one. We have seen numerous brands take stances on social issues but come across as insincere. If a brand truly has a set of core beliefs and knows how to bring them to life — in a way that is authentic and true to your DNA — that’s when it becomes a powerful brand strategy. 

What is your perspective on the strategy of dominating a specific sub-category for all relevant consumers, as opposed to initially focusing on a distinct group of target consumers? 

Jenny: These two approaches are complementary. On one hand, identifying and capturing a key group of consumers helps brands expand market share and build associations. On the other hand, focusing on sub-categories enhances brands’ competitiveness in specific sectors. However, brands need to establish multiple category entry points (CEPs), including emotional and occasional associations. By broadening these entry points, brands can more easily become the top choice in consumers’ minds. 

Yan: I think it’s important to align your strategy with the brand’s resources and market realities. In highly competitive environments where hundreds of brands vie for limited opportunities, it may be more reasonable for niche brands with limited resources to focus on winning with specific channels or consumer groups, rather than attempting to boil the ocean. Another factor to consider is whether your brand has the potential to gain unprompted advocacy — i.e., whether your customers already promote your brand on your behalf. This is often more effective in capturing niche audiences than large-scale advertising. 

Lizzie: I believe the increasingly niche sub-categories are the efforts of brands seeking growth when they have little choice in a saturated market. Truly sustainable growth requires balancing both types of strategies — starting with specific audiences and addressing their needs that are more universal before expanding to a wider audience, creating traction across different audience groups. This strategy combines focus with scalability. 

During an economic slowdown, when consumers are more cautious in their spending, how should brands adjust their marketing strategies? 

Yan: The answer to that question depends on what you’ve been doing in the past. If your sales have been mostly fueled by brand equity, you’ll be fine – think Hermès reporting surging growth quarter after quarter.  Cautious consumption is about searching for better value, which is not always equivalent to a lower price. The famous “lipstick effect” as well as the latest reports on China’s shopper behavior across various product groups, suggest that consumers want to reward or treat themselves even more when the future is no longer as certain as it used to be. 

Lizzie: Absolutely. The market is oversupplied and consumers are more rational, But rationality doesn’t mean they only care about functionality. If a brand only offers functional benefits, there are too many generic, white-labeled alternatives, making it impossible for brands to charge a premium. Therefore, brands increasingly need to solidify their core assets, build emotional connections with consumers, and create a competitive “moat” around the brand. For example, while there exist many cheaper alternatives to Uniqlo, its brand philosophy of “LifeWear” resonates deeply with consumers, who still choose to buy its products. 

Jenny: I’d like to add that even during a consumption downturn, brands shouldn’t rely solely on price cuts and discounts as a tactic, as this harms long-term brand loyalty. Consumers nowadays are reevaluating the balance between price, quality and service. The key question becomes: is your product truly worth its price? If the answer is yes, consumers will still find it valuable even during a downturn. 

What are the key challenges in integrating brand building and demand generation? What are the experiences of your organization?  

Yan: The key challenge is — and has always been — reaching the right balance in building physical and mental availability. At Suntory Global Spirits, we start by leaning on growth truths that are deeply integrated into our three-year and annual planning. Those truths provide directional guidelines on the split between demand creation and demand conversion, specific to brand life stage and nuances of the specific market. We deploy a cross-functional approach for course correction and continuous improvement, providing a forum to address topics beyond mere performance management, such as consumer feedback on innovation, challenges in specific channels, and the impact of marketing activities.  

Jenny: I think the biggest challenge is balancing short-term and long-term strategies. Treating brand building and demand generation as opposites limits overall marketing effectiveness. From company culture to budget allocation and creative processes, we need to “do both,” fundamentally shifting away from an either-or mindset. 

Lizzie: Integration of brand and demand is a very difficult challenge. It requires brands to create more comprehensive evaluation criteria — not just focusing on sales data but also tracking brand health. In terms of talents, besides specialists, we need more generalists. Marketing leaders also need more space for regular assessments and reflection. 

What role does consumer insight play in the marketing organization? 

Yan: Insight is a starting point for the work of marketers. Synthesizing insights into briefs or recommendations has become increasingly difficult as the number of sources has proliferated. It’s amazing how AI makes this process both easier and more complex at the same time. In a world of data abundance, qualified insights teams, strategists, as well as senior marketers who can foster high-quality judgment within the organization, are more important than ever. 

Lizzie: The insights department is a core capability of any organization, driving the shift from a manufacturer-centric view to a consumer-centric one. In a complex market, we need to cut through the noise, identify key insights and synthesize them to create tangible growth opportunities for the organization. Data alone doesn’t speak; its true value comes from human interpretation. Staying curious and adopting an outside-in perspective is essential to truly understanding consumer needs. 

Prophet’s research demonstrated that pitting brand against demand marketing limits  impact. Organizations that adopt an integrated approach are more likely to drive outstanding business results. We identified six key actions: 

  • Ensuring brand and demand teams share strategy and focus on business outcomes 
  • United by a passion for delivering against customer needs 
  • Integration is not about compromise, but about being great at both, and combining creativity and logic to get there 
  • The best organizations know it won’t be easy – they expect to fail sometimes but enjoy the ride 
  • Thinking long and short-term at the same time with measurement systems that track both 
  • Marketers are inside of, and part of, organization ecosystems working closely with CEOs, CFOs, CTOs and sales 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Prophet’s team of brand and marketing experts helps you develop holistic marketing strategies that integrate sustained brand and demand investment to create and deliver value.

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MAKING CULTURE POP

Unlocking the Power of Culture for Your Business

A guide to creating cultures that energize employees and unlock uncommon growth.

In today’s fast-changing business landscape, culture is no longer a soft, secondary concern—it is a strategic asset that can make or break an organization’s success. Prophet’s report, “Making Culture Pop” presents a fresh and actionable guide for leaders seeking to harness the power of culture to drive sustainable growth, energize employees and navigate transformation with confidence.

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The TL’DR

Breaking the Myths Around Culture Change

Culture change doesn’t have to be daunting
A strategic, people-centered approach can make it intuitive, engaging and even fun.

The power of focus
Instead of overhauling everything, the most effective culture shifts involve amplifying what already makes an organization unique.

The right time is now
Waiting for the ‘perfect moment’ to address culture is a costly mistake; the best companies integrate culture into their ongoing strategic imperatives.

Lessons from the Frontlines: What Works & What Fails 

Don’t make culture an ‘HR thing’
True cultural shifts must be embedded into business strategy and operations.

Leaders must lead
Executive teams play a critical role in setting the tone and modeling desired behaviors.

Follow the love
Culture thrives when employees are inspired, engaged, and empowered to be active participants in shaping their work environment.

A Practical Roadmap for Culture Transformation

The report outlines a simple, five-step framework for leaders to create a thriving, resilient culture: 

01
Co-create the foundations – Define and align on cultural values and behaviors that will drive success.

02
Lead the change – Equip leaders to champion and model cultural transformation. 

03
Inspire a movement – Create momentum by making culture tangible and actionable for employees. 

04
Elevate the employee experience – Align people practices to reinforce cultural aspirations. 

05
Rewire the business – Integrate cultural shifts into structures, processes, and decision-making. 

The Competitive Advantage of Culture

As industries face seismic shifts from AI, digital transformation, and evolving consumer expectations, culture remains a company’s most powerful differentiator. Making Culture Pop is an essential read for leaders ready to build organizations that not only adapt to change but thrive in it. By embracing culture as a strategic driver, businesses can unlock growth, resilience, and a shared sense of purpose that propels them into the future. 

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 Making Culture Pop: Unlocking the Power of Culture for Your Business

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Defining Uncommon Growth

Uncommon Growth is high-impact, sustainable growth that is faster, smarter, more human and more actionable—requiring organizations to increase speed to market while building the right capabilities, culture and business models to outpace disruption and drive lasting impact. 

Empowered, informed and demanding customers. Relentless tech advancement and disruption. Unmanageable data volumes. Geopolitical conflict and macroeconomic volatility. Shifting competitive vectors and intensifying regulatory oversight.  

Welcome to the new normal – about which there is nothing normal. 

But for all the change, there’s one constant for business leaders: intense pressure to deliver growth, quarter after quarter, year after year. Given today’s extraordinary challenges and complexities, however, these business leaders now recognize that yesterday’s best practices no longer apply. In other words, uncommon times require uncommon approaches to drive uncommon growth.  

So, what do we mean by uncommon growth? First and foremost, it’s high-impact growth that’s faster, smarter, more sustainable and more actionable. Breakthrough product innovations – whether from start-ups or well-established brands – are perhaps the most visible examples of uncommon growth. But these are exceedingly rare. Similarly, bold acquisitions can drive uncommon growth, but relatively few firms have the capital to pursue this option.  

In mature industries with tight margins, uncommon growth can mean outpacing the competition by a point or two. Or grabbing market share via smarter marketing, more attractive offers, better experiences or new sales channels. Or reshaping a brand or core value proposition for increased relevance to changing customer behaviors. To some extent, uncommon growth is a function of boosting returns on investments in transformation and innovation programs.   

Uncommon growth takes many forms. Consider how a leading drug store chain (CVS) transcended its successful retail heritage through a disruptive new home care business, with existing brand equity energizing its entry into an adjacent sector with a brighter growth outlook.  

A legacy entertainment brand, PENN Entertainment, shifted to an omnichannel business model to engage more customers across a fragmented media landscape. A software provider remixed its portfolio of 100+ products for delivery via a cloud-based platform for the future. There is no singular path towards uncommon growth but despite varied success, all companies need to find ways to unlock uncommon growth today and in the future.  

The Action Plan for Uncommon Growth

Unlocking uncommon growth can be as much about the “how” as the “what.” The combination of building new capabilities, securing organizational alignment and developing muscle memory can power companies to launch new products, services and experiences, devise new business models, and execute growth strategies faster and more repeatably than in the past. The priorities include: 

Increasing Organizational Velocity

Uncommon growth typically starts with speed. That means shortening the time from insights to decisions and from execution to impact. And accelerating go-to-market timelines, with faster design-build-test cycles and a quicker pace for launching MVPs and releasing updates. It’s a huge leadership challenge because most businesses today simply aren’t built to keep up with rapidly shifting market demands or seize opportunities that come and go faster than many firms can act.  

Taking the Holistic View

There are multiple levers leaders can adjust in pursuit of uncommon growth – and they should explore them all. Product and service offerings will be priorities, but product bundles and subscription models may move the needle. Refreshed customer experiences, with personalization and customization features, can drive significant value, too. New technology may be deployed to unlock new distribution channels or enhance specific touchpoints (e.g., Generative AI tools for tailoring recommendations and offers).   

Energizing the Culture to Promote Risk-Taking and Experimentation

For many organizations, that means making collaboration and co-creation (with partners and customers and across functions) the norm, rather than an exception for special projects. Similarly, innovation must be operationalized as a business-as-usual process and function (like finance and HR). These are not easy changes to enact, but they’re necessary to remove internal and cultural barriers to growth.   

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s all about speed to growth which can only be achieved through speed to insight, speed to strategy, speed to market, speed to impact and speed to commercial scale. So why are we sharing our thoughts about uncommon growth? Because that is what current conditions require, and what the future will demand.  

And because we are The Uncommon Growth Company.  

Explore our solutions and services or talk to one of our experts about how we can help you, your team and your organization unlock Uncommon Growth. 

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The Culture Pendulum: Striking Balance for Your Organization in 2025 

Discover strategies to foster a resilient culture that drives engagement, innovation and uncommon growth.  

Oscillating between extremes is a familiar pattern for organizations and the concept of the cultural pendulum illustrates how workplace values shift over time. These shifts often swing between opposing ends before eventually finding a balanced middle ground. In recent years, however, disruptions like the pandemic, technological acceleration, social movements and evolving work expectations have significantly amplified these swings. We’ve witnessed organizations shift from hierarchical to flat structures, traditional workplaces to fully remote setups, hustle culture to well-being focus, uniformity to hyper-personalization and stability to relentless innovation.   

Cultural oscillations don’t just disrupt workflows. They drive disengagement and attrition. Reports indicate that 90% of UK employees feel disengaged, with many opting for ‘quiet quitting’ a term used to describe doing only the bare minimum at work in order to prioritize life outside of it. Global turnover climbed to 20% in 2024, while the average tenure has dropped to 4.2 years.   

While change is inevitable, constant pendulum swings are exhausting, disruptive and rarely optimize the return on human capital investments. For organizations to achieve sustainable success, cultural balance is essential, leveraging the best of extremes while aligning with internal and external factors. This is not just a CHRO concern, but a critical agenda for CEOs and business leaders striving for uncommon growth. By fostering stable and resilient cultures organizations create the conditions for innovation, engagement and long-term competitive advantage.   

What Companies are Getting Wrong   

As the cultural pendulum swings again, organizations must take heed of the extremes shaping today’s workplace. 2025 presents a pivotal opportunity to find equilibrium and thrive, but the examples we’re seeing from major companies serve as cautionary tales. 

The Cost of Retreating from DEI   

Recent headlines have revealed unsettling shifts. Companies like Ford, Walmart and McDonald’s have scaled back their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) commitments, a move criticized for prioritizing short-term savings over long-term growth, equity and engagement. These retrenchments risk derailing progress and eroding trust.   

Action is critical: Rather than retreating from these crucial values, focus on ways to embed inclusivity at every level, from recruitment to performance management and leadership development. If you can no longer set goals for achieving diversity at senior levels, review consistency of career development plans, promotions and performance ratings across diverse groups as well as attrition rates. Equip your leaders with these insights to ensure DEI is at the core of all decisions to deepen engagement and create an environment where diverse voices shape the future of the business.  

The Return to Office Dilemma   

Another tension point is the resistance to strict in-office mandates being enforced by Amazon, JPMorgan, PwC and others. After years of remote work, many employees expect flexibility, yet in-person collaboration remains vital for building trust and sparking creativity.   

Here’s the way forward: Rather than forcing employees back into full-time office environments, listen to your employees’ perspective on when and how they feel most productive layered on top of the needs of teams, functions and ultimately the business. There’s not a one-size-fits-all as there may be cyclical needs for teams to come together in person. Employees who are just starting off their careers, or those new to a business, may feel a greater need to spend more time amongst colleagues in-person learning how things work. Flexibility often in the shape of a hybrid-first approach balances autonomy with intentional in-person interactions is increasingly a requirement top talent are looking for from employers. Thoughtfully designed on-site events, such as brainstorming sessions and team-building activities, can create meaningful connections while preserving the flexibility employees value.   

Breaking the Cycle of Cultural Extremes   

The pendulum effect isn’t new. It impacts multiple facets of organizational culture.  Decision-making for instance, often swings between rigid top-down control to decentralized autonomy or vice-versa, sometimes losing clear direction in the process. Uber’s shift from centralized to decentralized, and then back again, illustrates the risks of extremes.   

The key to a balanced culture lies in anchoring your organization in its core values. Values-led organizations are uniquely equipped to navigate change, maintain consistency and are perceived more authentically even in the most turbulent times. The results speak for themselves. Costco’s unwavering commitment to its values has led to industry-leading retention rates, while IKEA’s steady growth is fuelled by value-driven decisions in areas like product innovation and sustainable supply chains. By prioritizing long-term impact over reactive trends, these organizations demonstrate the power of living their values.  

Unfortunately, for many organizations, values remain little more than words on a page. That’s why we work hand-in-hand with our clients to ensure values are not just defined but embedded into the fabric of the organization, influencing everyday behaviors, rituals and processes. Using our Human-Centered Transformation Model, we align every aspect of an organization with its core values, helping clients like Chick-fil-A and Encompass Health turn their values into actionable practices that drive sustainable growth and engagement.

Make 2025 Your Year of Culture Balance   

A balanced approach to culture creates stability and a much-needed foundation for businesses, especially those navigating change, growth and transformation. Let’s face it, this is something most businesses are grappling with most of the time. Creating a clearly understood and communicated view brings greater trust, tolerance and engagement that supports business performance during the most turbulent times.    

Here are our top 5 strategies to support cultural balance for the long term:  

  1. Keep culture front and center on the executive agenda: Being intentional about measuring employee sentiment, both internally and externally, is critical for understanding emerging expectations and how to respond to them. By making culture a regular agenda item, you’re more likely to make ongoing adjustments, reducing the need for major overhauls.  
  2. Stay anchored in values: Use your core values as a guide for decision-making and clearly communicate how they impact decisions that are taken. Consistently integrate these values across the employee eco-system from attraction and recruitment and performance management to rewards, recognition, promotions and development.     
  3. Prioritize employee listening: Regularly seek and act on employee feedback to create policies that reflect their evolving needs and expectations. A culture of listening builds trust, strengthens engagement and ensures employees feel valued and connected.  
  4. Develop leadership for balance: Equip leaders with the tools and skills to navigate tensions, balance autonomy with collaboration and adaptability with accountability. Strong, values-aligned leadership is the foundation for stability and engagement.   
  5. Make incremental changes: Introduce small, manageable adjustments to build change resilience and ensure long-term impact, rather than relying on one-off initiatives. This measured approach ensures resilience, reduces resistance and drives sustained impact.   

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Ready to build a balanced culture in 2025?  We specialize in helping organizations navigate complexity and build resilient cultures. Whether it’s embedding values and inclusive behaviors, designing hybrid work strategies, or strengthening leadership capabilities, our tailored solutions ensure your organization thrives amid change. 

Contact us today to make 2025 your year of balance.   

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The State of GenAI Adoption in Europe  

Essential insights for business leaders aiming to unlock consumer-centric growth and stay ahead of the curve in 2025.   

GenAI marks a turning point in digital transformation – one that is fundamentally different from any technology shift we’ve seen before. As a technology that augments intelligence and creativity, its capacity to revolutionize industries is infinite. Senior leaders across Europe are eager to tap into GenAI’s potential to drive large-scale efficiencies and expand capabilities. But what does this mean for consumers? Are businesses truly considering the impact of GenAI on consumer needs and behaviors?  

As European businesses race to implement GenAI, they must center their strategies around consumers, ensuring that innovation serves not only business goals but also the evolving demands of the consumer. Placing consumers at the heart of GenAI adoption is key to achieving sustainable, uncommon growth.  

Many senior leaders are excited about GenAI’s potential to drive large-scale efficiencies. Boards are focused on GenAI risks, but recognise that investments have major potential upside. Our research confirms that for businesses to win in this next wave of digital transformation, it is all about consumers.

Layla Keramat
Prophet Partner

Data from our latest research report, The Rise of the AI-Powered Consumer, highlights that around a third of German (30%) and nearly 40% of UK consumers have embraced GenAI tools in the last six months. However, Europe lags behind other regions – Asian markets like China and Singapore report much higher adoption rates, with 60% and 56% respectively. The slower adoption can be attributed to growing skepticism and privacy concerns.

One notable trend in the European markets we surveyed is the younger demographic leading the charge. Millennials (ages 28-42) have shown the highest adoption rates, with 53% actively engaging with GenAI tools. In comparison, GenZ (ages 16-28) lags behind by 3 percentage points. Their lower enthusiasm stems from concerns over the relevance and accuracy of GenAI’s output. With millennials holding the most purchasing power today, businesses need to act now to meet their needs, or risk falling behind.  

Putting Consumers at the Heart of AI Innovation 

For GenAI to drive meaningful innovation, companies need to understand how European consumers are interacting with the technology. Our research shows that more than half of European consumers surveyed (and global consumers) use GenAI for both professional and personal purposes, with personal usage rates hitting 90%.  

The leading use case of GenAI is entertainment – creating memes, songs and other content to share with family and friends. This trend offers brands an opportunity to engage with consumers in playful, creative ways. Take Zalando, the German e-commerce giant, for example: they’ve introduced the Algorithmic Fashion Companion (AFC), a GenAI-powered tool that provides personalized fashion recommendations, resulting in a 40% increase in average basket size.  

European consumers also expect more from brands adopting GenAI. In the UK and Germany, over 70% of consumers want to use AI during the pre-purchase phase, showcasing the growing demand for AI-powered product and service exploration. Moreover, 73% of respondents view brands using GenAI as innovative, while 77% say GenAI sparks new product discoveries. It’s clear that consumers want AI to do more than just entertain – they want it to help them make informed choices.  

AI and Ethical Responsibility 

In Europe, there is a heightened demand for accountability and transparency when it comes to GenAI. Nearly 66% of German consumers express concerns about the ethical use of GenAI, a sentiment echoed across other European markets. Moreover, 82% of global consumers expect brands to disclose when they are using AI in their services.  

The reason for this concern is clear – privacy and data security remain top priorities for European consumers. Two-thirds of consumers cite these as primary barriers to greater GenAI adoption. This is especially pronounced in Germany, where privacy laws and concerns about data misuse are particularly strict. Consumers expect businesses to take the lead in creating ethical frameworks and transparent policies for AI usage, with 80% of global respondents agreeing that it is the responsibility of companies to develop clear guidelines for GenAI.  

As businesses in Europe look to unlock the full potential of GenAI, they must balance enthusiasm with caution. There is certainly a growing appetite for innovation, but the key to success lies in ensuring that these technologies enhance the consumer experience in ethical and responsible ways. This means taking seriously the need for transparency, privacy protection and clear ethical guidelines. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

For European brands to thrive, they must center their GenAI strategies around consumer needs, build trust and foster long-term loyalty. By doing so, they can position themselves for uncommon growth.  

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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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Bridging Brand and Demand in Commercial Banking

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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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