Hanna Riberdahl - Brand Marketing Sweden

Marketing has gained more tools, more data and more channels than ever before. Yet for Hanna Riberdahl, CEO of Brand Marketing Sweden, the central challenge is not whether marketers can do more, but whether they are creating more value. As the independent trade organisation for Sweden’s marketers, Brand Marketing Sweden works to strengthen the role of marketing, improve effectiveness and support companies in building long-term, profitable growth. In a landscape increasingly shaped by AI, performance metrics and short-term pressure, Hanna believes marketers need to reclaim their strategic role: not as a production unit, but as a business function that understands markets, customers and future growth.

FROM SVERIGES ANNONSÖRER TO BRAND MARKETING SWEDEN

For many years, Brand Marketing Sweden was known as Sveriges Annonsörer (‘Sweden’s advertisers’). It was a well-established name with strong recognition in the Swedish marketing industry, but over time it also became a limitation. As Hanna explains, the word “annonsörer” increasingly gave the impression that the organisation mainly represented media buyers or companies that purchased advertising space. In reality, its work had become much broader.

Changing the name was therefore not just a cosmetic decision, but a strategic one. Brand Marketing Sweden wanted to be relevant not only to large media buyers, but to the full spectrum of marketers, including B2B companies and organisations where marketing is about much more than paid media. That made the rebrand both necessary and difficult. “It is a challenge in itself to dare to change,” Hanna says. “You can hold on to a name because there is a lot of history and value in it, which is usually the normal thing to do. But when the name becomes a barrier, you have to listen to that.”

Today, Brand Marketing Sweden represents nearly 400 member companies and a network of more than 5,000 marketers across 26 industries. Growth remains important, not as an end in itself, but because more members allow the organisation to reinvest in knowledge, tools and industry-wide initiatives. From effectiveness frameworks and handbooks to transparent media measurement and AI recommendations, the organisation’s work is designed to help marketers navigate a more complex reality.

“You can hold on to a name because there is a lot of history and value in it, which is usually the normal thing to do. But when the name becomes a barrier, you have to listen to that.”

THE PROBLEM WITH LETTING TECHNOLOGY LEAD

For Hanna, one of the biggest challenges facing marketing today is that the function has become too technology-led. Digital tools, data and AI all have value, but efficiency is not the same as effectiveness. The risk is that technology starts defining the purpose of marketing, rather than supporting it. “We have become very technology-focused in what we do,” Hanna says. “When we let technology, or the possibilities that technology gives us, define how we work, it makes me nervous.”

Over the past years, many marketing departments have been pushed into a more tactical role: producing campaigns, managing channels and reporting efficiency metrics. Instead of contributing the market dimension to business strategy, marketing risks becoming a production unit.

This also makes it harder to prove the true business value of marketing. Digital platform data may look positive, but it is not always transparent or independently validated. “There is no real transparency in the data we get from Google, Meta or TikTok,” Hanna says. “Often the data looks good, but it does not match the reality in the company’s own business systems.”

For Hanna, this is where the value of marketing and brand becomes most important. Short-term activation may protect immediate sales, but it does not necessarily build future demand, pricing power or profitable growth. When brands train consumers to wait for discounts and promotions, they may secure volume today while weakening the brand’s ability to command value tomorrow.

“When we let technology, or the possibilities that technology gives us, define how we work, it makes me nervous.”

FROM DATA-DRIVEN TO INSIGHT-DRIVEN

One of the clearest shifts Hanna calls for is a return to insight-driven marketing. In her view, many organisations have become good at collecting data on what people do, but much less good at understanding why they do it. “We have data on what people do, but not why,” she says. “Working insight-driven is something completely different from working data-driven.”

That distinction matters. Data can show clicks, searches, purchases or exposure, but it rarely captures the full context of people’s lives, needs and decision-making. A person may click on something, watch something or search for something, but that does not fully explain who they are or what they need in different situations.

For Hanna, this loss of market orientation is one reason marketing has lost some of its strategic influence. Instead of being rooted in customer understanding, category dynamics and market opportunities, too many decisions are driven by dashboards and advanced analytics. “We get more and more data, but become more and more uncertain about what value it actually contributes,” she says.

MARKETING NEEDS TO SPEAK FOR THE 95%

A recurring theme in Hanna’s view of brand growth is the distinction between the small group of customers who are in-market today and the much larger group who may buy in the future. Sales teams naturally focus on those already close to purchase. But marketing has a broader responsibility. “Sales meet the 5% who are in the market,” Hanna says. “They define customer needs based on those who already know us and are interested in us. But marketing has to define the other 95% that sales have not met yet.”

This is why Hanna believes marketing cannot simply be a support function for sales. Supporting sales is important, but it is not enough. If marketing only responds to existing demand, it fails to create future demand. The work of marketing is also to understand people who are not currently buying, identify the situations in which a brand could become relevant, and build the memory structures that make the brand come to mind when the need arises.

That makes salience, consistency and emotional communication central to growth. When a need appears, the brand needs to come to mind. This does not happen through rational product messages alone. “You need to be persistent, consistent and create memory structures, and you do that best through emotional, entertaining communication.”

“Sales meet the 5% who are in the market, but marketing has to define the other 95% that sales have not met yet.”

AI, JOMO AND THE NEED TO CHOOSE

AI is high on the agenda for almost every marketing organisation, and Hanna does not dismiss its potential. She sees clear value in using AI to analyse large amounts of data, support insight work, explore price elasticity or accelerate innovation. But she is concerned about the amount of attention given to the technology itself, rather than to the questions it should help answer.

She believes many marketing departments have fallen into FOMO: the fear of missing out on the next tool, platform or trend. Her preference is almost the opposite. “I would like them to talk more about JOMO, the joy of missing out, because you have to be able to choose things away as well.”

The challenge is to know what not to do. “The trick is to dare to choose things away,” Hanna says. “Dare to focus, hold a line, be persistent and be able to explain internally why those choices are smart.” AI can support this if it is used with purpose.  But using AI simply to produce more content, for more channels, at a lower cost, risks reinforcing the very problems marketing already has.

“Dare to focus, hold a line, be persistent and be able to explain internally why those choices are smart.”

RECLAIMING MARKETING’S STRATEGIC ROLE

Looking ahead, Hanna sees three connected priorities for marketing. The first is to handle technology and AI with more strategic discipline. The second is to strengthen marketing’s position as a business function. The third is to rebuild the strategic work inside marketing itself. “How do we move from being a tactical production unit to becoming a strategic partner for the business?” she asks. Marketing does not need to own every part of the business. But it does need to influence decisions around product development, distribution, communication and pricing. The function must bring the market and customer perspective into the decisions that shape growth.

This also requires better alignment across organisations. Shared KPIs can help different functions understand how they contribute to the same business goals. But those KPIs need to reflect what marketing can actually influence, not only external factors or short-term volume swings. Hanna points to brand penetration, new customer acquisition and situational relevance as examples of metrics that can help marketers make a stronger internal case.

For Hanna, the future of marketing depends on restoring that direction. The answer is not to reject technology, data or AI. It is to put them back in service of strategy, insight and growth. Marketing needs to understand the market, create value for customers, build memory structures before people are ready to buy, and prove its contribution to profitable growth.