Fernando López-Quero - Strategy & Innovation

After nearly two decades working across media, strategy, creativity and business, Fernando López-Quero has developed a broad perspective on what truly drives brand growth. Having worked with brands across sectors ranging from banking and energy to luxury and entertainment, he believes growth is rarely the result of a single discipline or KPI. Instead, it comes from connecting brand, culture, media, data and creativity into one coherent strategy. In this conversation, Fernando shares why marketers should move beyond short-term optimisation, why context matters as much as creativity, and why the future belongs to organisations capable of orchestrating people, channels and ideas rather than managing them in isolation.

Brand Growth requires Connection, not Optimisation

Fernando describes strategy as an exercise in connecting disciplines that are often treated separately. Throughout his career, moving between agencies and industries has reinforced one central belief: successful strategy is built by bringing together different perspectives rather than becoming increasingly specialised. “The strategic approach is based on connecting dots that sometimes do not seem so obvious, and from that connection something different and new emerges.”

That same philosophy shapes how he thinks about brand growth. While marketers often search for one defining KPI, Fernando argues that no universal metric exists. The right framework depends on the maturity of the brand, the competitive landscape and the business context. Instead of relying solely on awareness or campaign efficiency, brands need a broader perspective that combines differentiation, relevance, consideration and long-term commercial effects. As he explains: “We shouldn't only focus on top-of-funnel metrics. We need to evaluate the entire brand-building process without taking shortcuts.”

Fernando believes many organisations still oversimplify measurement because of the constant pressure for efficiency. Reach, ROI and ROAS all have their place, but they only tell part of the story. He points to the relationship between Share of Voice and Share of Market, alongside search behaviour, as examples of metrics that can provide a richer picture of future growth than campaign delivery metrics alone. Ultimately, he believes brand growth should be assessed through a balanced framework rather than a single number. “If I could invent one KPI, it would measure how rich and complete a brand's ecosystem really is.”

“We shouldn't only focus on top-of-funnel metrics. We need to evaluate the entire brand-building process without taking shortcuts.”

Context is what makes Brand Relevant

Looking across the many categories he has worked in, Fernando sees one common denominator among successful brands: they understand the context in which they operate. Brands do not grow in isolation. They grow within society, culture and people's everyday lives, and that broader understanding gives meaning to a brand's value proposition while making creativity genuinely relevant rather than simply distinctive. “We often underestimate how important it is to understand the broader societal context. But that's exactly where a brand lives.”

This perspective also shapes how Fernando thinks about one of marketing's most talked-about topics: attention. While many marketers treat attention as another metric to optimise, he believes it should instead be understood as the result of context. People's emotional state, surroundings, intentions and motivations all influence whether they pay attention in the first place. As he explains: “If you don't connect attention back to the context—to the things that actually influence whether someone pays attention—then we're not really doing our job properly.”

Ultimately, this is why Fernando believes the brand proposition should always come before media planning or creative execution. Investment, innovation and creativity only become effective when a brand has a clear reason to exist and a proposition that genuinely resonates with consumers. Without that foundation, even the best media strategy or creative campaign will struggle to create sustainable growth.

“We often underestimate how important it is to understand the broader societal context. But that's exactly where a brand lives.”

From Data Collection to Better Decision-making

Although data has become central to modern marketing, Fernando believes many organisations are still asking the wrong questions. “Data is truly used either to learn or to support your decisions. If the emphasis is too much on supporting your decisions, I am not sure you are really using the data to learn.” For him, the real value of data lies not in the volume collected, but in its ability to improve strategic thinking and decision-making.

The same applies to the industry's growing focus on data platforms. Fernando welcomes richer data ecosystems but argues that owning more data does not automatically lead to better decisions. Too much attention is paid to how data is collected and integrated, while too little is paid to how it shapes strategic choices.

He illustrates this with a recent Louis Vuitton campaign inspired by the social media format "What's in my bag?" Rather than using social data to optimise media performance, the brand used it to understand culture. By translating a popular social behaviour into an offline campaign, Louis Vuitton showed how data can help brands understand people, not just optimise campaigns.

“Data is truly used either to learn or to support your decisions. If the emphasis is too much on supporting your decisions, I am not sure you are really using the data to learn.”

The Future of Media is Orchestration

For Fernando, media fragmentation has fundamentally changed the role of both marketers and agencies. Consumers no longer think in terms of media channels; they simply engage with experiences that provide information, entertainment, utility or solutions. As a result, almost anything capable of capturing attention can become part of a brand's communication ecosystem. “Strategies should move towards understanding the brand universe and adapting it appropriately to each of those media or channels.”

Rather than trying to be present everywhere, brands need to understand what makes them unique and deliberately choose where they should appear and where they should not. “There are brands that are very clear about what makes them unique and how their brand universe should exist… you know where you should be and where you should not be.”

Fernando believes this also changes the role of media agencies. Instead of focusing primarily on paid media optimisation, agencies should become orchestrators that connect data, creativity, innovation and strategy. In an increasingly fragmented landscape, success depends on building one coherent brand universe across every relevant touchpoint. “You need to work on consistency over time, as well as coherence across all those channels in an orchestrated way.”

“There are brands that are very clear about what makes them unique and how their brand universe should exist… you know where you should be and where you should not be.”

Human Judgement remains the Competitive Advantage

Artificial intelligence was another recurring theme throughout the conversation. Fernando sees enormous potential in AI but believes marketers should resist the temptation to hand over strategic responsibility entirely to technology. While AI can solve increasingly complex tasks in seconds, it cannot define a brand's authenticity, purpose or long-term direction.

Looking ahead, Fernando believes successful marketing organisations will need balanced teams made up of what he calls thinkers, doers and feelers: people who understand strategy and data, people who excel at execution, and people who understand culture, emotion and human behaviour. That philosophy is also reflected in the advice he gives young strategists. Don't become dazzled by AI. Learn to truly understand data, gain experience across different disciplines and avoid specialising too early. Ultimately, Fernando believes the strongest strategists will be those who can connect ideas, people and disciplines into one coherent whole.