Six years ago, Kia Netherlands stood on the verge of a major brand transformation. Since then, the brand has introduced a new global identity, strengthened its position in electric mobility and became market leader in the Netherlands. For Maaike Aarts, Manager Communications and PR at Kia Netherlands, that growth was not driven by one single factor, but by the ability to bring a global strategy to life locally supported by the right mix of products, a strong dealer network and consistent visibility. Now that the EV market is becoming more crowded, the challenge is shifting: Kia needs to move from being known for strong electric products to being clearly understood and actively considered as a brand. From Brand Renewal to Market Leadership In 2021, Kia launched its new global brand identity, with a new logo, visual identity and the slogan “Movement that inspires.” For Kia Netherlands, that transformation came at the right moment. The brand had long been associated with value for money, but the ambition was to broaden that perception and position Kia more clearly as an innovative frontrunner in sustainable mobility. That did not mean leaving value behind. Instead, the meaning of value changed. Maaike now sees Kia’s pricing as broadly in line with competitors, which means the difference is no longer about being the cheaper option. It is about what customers get for that price: strong equipment levels, clear model packages and a complete proposition. In that sense, Kia has broadened value from affordability alone to quality, innovation and what the car offers in everyday use. The launch of the EV6 provided a strong proof point of that broader positioning, helping to make the brand shift more tangible for consumers. It was Kia’s first car developed as a fully electric vehicle from the start, with strong range, fast charging and a high battery capacity. At the same time, demand for EVs was growing and Kia was able to keep delivering cars while many competitors faced supply issues. “To me, brand growth is how all element come together consistently over time,” Maaike explains. “Product is a very important part of it, but it only works when it comes together with the right communication, media and market context.” In 2022, Kia Netherlands became market leader for the first time, a result of several factors coming together, and it has held that position since. “To me, brand growth is about how all elements come together consistently over time.” Finding Local Space within a Global Strategy One of Kia Netherlands’ ongoing challenges is balancing global consistency with local relevance. Campaigns are developed for many European markets at once, which means they are rarely fully tailored to Dutch consumers. Rather than trying to change everything, the local team looks for the spaces where it can make a difference. Social media is one of those spaces. Kia Netherlands works with a local social strategy that differs from the European approach. This sometimes creates tension with corporate identity guidelines, but Maaike sees it as necessary when the local strategy performs better. “As long as you can substantiate it, you get quite a bit of room,” she says. “Research also helps create that freedom. With campaign pre-testing, we can show Europe which small changes improve relevance in the Dutch market. Sometimes the campaign assets remain the same, but a different sentence or edit can make communication more effective.” Strong market and brand performance also gives the Dutch team credibility. As one of the stronger Kia markets in Europe, the Netherlands has more room to influence how European and global work is translated locally. From Product Strength to Brand Meaning As the EV market matures, staying ahead is becoming increasingly challenging. Competitors are rapidly closing the gap with strong electric products, while technical features such as range and charging speed are no longer differentiating, they are expected. This raises the bar for Kia; to maintain its position, the brand must continue to grow and evolve beyond product alone For Maaike, the key question is therefore what Kia should stand for in people’s minds beyond its cars. “When people think of Kia, what should immediately come to mind? Defining that clearly is both critical and complex.” One way to strengthen the Kia brand is by looking beyond the car itself. Maaike points to developments such as Kia Charge and vehicle-to-grid technology, which show how EVs can play a broader role by storing energy and potentially returning it to homes or the grid. In a market where core functionalities such as range and charging speed are becoming standard, these kinds of innovations help demonstrate that Kia is not only building electric vehicles, but actively shaping the wider role those vehicles can play in people’s lives. For Kia, the next phase of growth is therefore not only about launching new products, but about sharpening the associations the brand wants to own. The product portfolio is strong, with EV models across multiple segments, but the brand now needs to clearly define what makes Kia relevant and distinctive in a more mature EV market. Maaike sees the biggest opportunity in the middle of the funnel. Awareness is already strong, but familiarity and consideration still need to grow. “The biggest growth is in that middle piece,” she says. “From awareness to, okay, I am really going to consider it.” Kia’s growth has also been supported by a strong dealer network, which remains a crucial part in the customer journey. Customers arrive at the dealer well-informed, with expectations already shaped by the brand. The in-dealer experience must therefore consistently deliver on that promise. Kia supports its dealers through marketing programmes and co-investment, to ensure the network contributes to brand strength and continued growth. Reach, Relevance and the Next Phase of Growth Media remains essential, but it is becoming more challenging. Media costs continue to rise, audiences are increasingly fragmented and budgets do not automatically grow with ambition. For Kia this means being more deliberate in how reach is deployed. TV and radio still play a crucial role in building the brand and driving demand, but impact now depends less on how much media you deploy and more on focus and consistency. At the same time, precision is becoming just as important as scale. Through CRM, first-party data and always-on activation, Kia is strengthening its ability to convert interest into action. In a very competitive market, the challenge is balancing short-term commercial pressure with long-term brand building. A single campaign is rarely enough to solve a short-term model issue, and not every campaign should be designed to drive immediate results. This forces the team to make clearer choices about where to invest for immediate return and where to build future brand value. Kia has also learned that in brand communication brand and product need to stay connected. Attempts to communicate purely on an abstract brand level around “Movement that inspires,” without a clear link to the car, proved less effective. “For us, credibility comes from showing the product within the brand story. Once the car is part of it, the message becomes clear.” AI is also entering that search for relevance and efficiency at scale. Kia is exploring its use in areas such as website service bots, reporting, content adaptation and performance marketing, including ways to make ongoing creative assets feel more local and context-specific. At the same time, Maaike remains cautious. Data privacy, regulation and internal guidelines all shape what is possible, and she does not see AI replacing strategic or creative judgment at this stage. “I still believe that a very large part of creation is, and will remain, human work,” she says. Kia Netherlands’ rise to market leadership was built on a combination of strong products, local adaptation, dealer strength and consistent visibility. Maintaining that position will require the same discipline, but with a sharper focus on brand meaning and relevance. In a market where many brands can offer strong EVs, Kia’s next phase of growth lies in turning awareness into familiarity, familiarity into consideration, and consideration into a clear and compelling reason to choose the brand. “For us, credibility comes from showing the product within the brand story. Once the car is part of it, the message becomes clear.”

Introduction In recent years, DVJ Insights has done a lot of research into what marketers consider to be the most important KPI to determine the success of marketing. What most companies have in common is that success is mainly measured by a brand's sales or market share. Still, it is difficult to direct marketing based on sales. It is often preferred to use various brand KPIs that have the most influence on sales in order to achieve growth.

In just over a decade, Schysst Käk has grown from a small Swedish start-up founded by brothers Amir and Alex Kheirmand into a fast-growing food company that expects to reach close to SEK 800 million in turnover. Built around the idea of making kebab easy to prepare and enjoy at home, the brand has effectively created its own category, ”Home Kebab”, in Swedish grocery retail. For Alex Kheirmand, Founding Partner and Chief Commercial Officer, the growth has not come from inventing something entirely new, but from spotting a clear white space, packaging it into a complete concept, and executing every detail with discipline. Now that the brand has become highly known in Sweden and is expanding across the Nordics, the challenge is shifting: how do you grow the home kebab occasion further without losing the focus that made the brand successful in the first place? Creating a Category Around the Weekend One of the questions Schysst Käk had to answer early on was what category it actually belonged to. At first, the brand was measured against ready-meal players like Dafgårds and Felix, but that did not fully capture the role Schysst Käk wanted to play. Its real competition was closer to pizza, tacos and other weekend meals: the foods people choose when they want something easy, tasty and a bit more fun at home. As Alex explains, “That is more where we are. Where we see that our products are most safely consumed, mostly at weekends. And then suddenly it becomes interesting: if people do not eat our stuff, what do they eat instead?” This has helped Schysst Käk define its growth opportunity beyond a narrow product category. The company is trying to build a new home-eating occasion around street food and weekend meals. Alex’s ambition is for home kebab to become part of the same mental shortlist as other familiar weekend rituals: “I want that connection: say ‘movie’ and people think popcorn. I want that if you say ‘weekend,’ people think of us with home kebab.” “I want that connection: say ‘movie’ and people think popcorn. I want that if you say ‘weekend,’ people think of us with home kebab.” Execution as the Growth Engine When Alex looks back at what made the brand grow, he points less to the idea itself and more to how it was executed across every touchpoint. Kebab products already existed in Swedish grocery stores: kebab meat, sauces, pita breads and wraps were all available. What was missing was a complete, easy-to-shop, well-packaged concept that made the meal feel natural at home. “When push comes to shove, I would say it is an okay idea but top marks in execution.’’ That execution mindset runs through the entire business, but in very practical ways: product quality, packaging, pricing, shelf placement, distribution and communication all have to work together. The product has to taste good, the packaging has to stand out, the price has to be accessible, and the items need to be easy to find together in-store. The same discipline applies to communication. Schysst Käk is not trying to win creative awards for the sake of it; it focuses on consistency, reach, frequency and commercial impact. As Alex puts it: “Our KPI in the end is sales and that the brand grows. We do not need fireworks in that way.” Balancing Brand and Distribution A recurring theme in the interview is the close relationship between sales and marketing. At Schysst Käk, the two are closely linked, both physically and in how they cooperate. This helps the company keep mental and physical availability in balance: building demand while making sure the products are visible, well-distributed and easy to find in-store. One of the brand’s most important early choices was to build its own sales force. At the time, Schysst Käk had already invested several million of its own money and was close to running out of funds. Many people advised against hiring its own salespeople because of the cost of cars, employees and national coverage. But for Schysst Käk, it was essential to have people in-store who truly understood the concept and could represent it properly. “We just said: we have to do it. It was strategic, and it is one of the best things we have done. We would never have done it differently.” Fast Innovation, Close to the Market Innovation at Schysst Käk does not come from formal brainstorms. Alex says that few things make ideas lock up more than announcing a brainstorming session. Instead, ideas can come from anywhere: customers, employees, family, friends or everyday observations. What matters is that the company is able to act quickly when something makes sense. The upcoming launch of light sauces shows how that works in practice. Consumers had started asking for lower-calorie versions of the brand’s popular sauces, and because sauces are already a major strength for Schysst Käk, the team moved quickly. The idea was discussed in December, the first tests came in January, and ICA and Coop agreed to make an exception to get the product out before summer. “It could absolutely be that. Or someone at the swimming pool noticing: why does this thing not exist? But what I think is the key is that it is easy to come with something good and we can just say: nice, let’s run with this.” This speed is supported by keeping many capabilities in-house. Schysst Käk handles much of its strategic, creative and production work internally, while using agencies mainly for media buying in channels like TV, outdoor and radio. That gives the team short lead times and strong control over the brand. At the same time, Alex stresses the need to challenge their own choices regularly: “Everything is on the table right now. Usually in October or November before the budget is set. We question everything, all media purchases, all creative executions, everything is on the table.” ‘’What I think is the key is that it is easy to come with something good and we can just say: nice, let’s run with this.” Growth Without Losing Focus Fast growth has also created challenges. One of the biggest has been production: Schysst Käk has often grown faster than suppliers could keep up with. Another challenge is focus. With success comes opportunity, and with opportunity comes the risk of starting too many things at once. Alex explains, “The problem for us is that when things go as well as they do, we have so many opportunities, and that creates a risk that you become unfocused instead.” For now, the company is focused on the Nordics. It has expanded to Finland, Denmark and Norway with the same core concept, but under local brand names: Super Safkaa in Finland, Super Kræs in Denmark and Super Mønsj in Norway. The lesson is that the concept is scalable, but the brand language is not always directly transferable. The Swedish name Schysst Käk does not translate well, and the company also believes kebab is a local category that needs to feel native in each market. As Alex explains, it is “the same concept in all four, but different brand names.” “The problem for us is that when things go as well as they do, we have so many opportunities, and that creates a risk that you become unfocused instead.” The Next Challenge: Growing the Occasion In Sweden, Schysst Käk already has very high awareness, with Alex estimating aided awareness at about 90%. That changes the growth task. The challenge is no longer simply making people aware of the brand, but getting them to eat home kebab more often and to place it on the shopping list. To do that, the brand needs to broaden beyond its core audience of families with children, while staying focused on the occasion it wants to own. Media fragmentation makes this harder. Younger audiences can be reached through platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, but Alex questions the quality of those contacts: “We can reach them. But it is just one swipe away.” Schysst Käk’s future growth will depend on the same principles that built the company: owning the occasion, keeping sales and marketing close, and executing every detail across product, shelf and communication. “I think we need to be on top all the time in everything. Leave no gaps. We must have the best product, the best sales force, the best relationship with customers.” Its story shows that brand growth is not always about inventing a completely new product. Sometimes it is about recognising an existing behaviour, turning it into a simple and desirable concept, and then executing it relentlessly. For Alex, the next phase is not just about making Schysst Käk bigger, but about making home kebab a more regular part of the Swedish weekend while keeping the focus that made the brand successful in the first place. “I think we need to be on top all the time in everything. Leave no gaps. We must have the best product, the best sales force, the best relationship with customers.”

Customer-centricity has always been the Foundation of Great Innovation Innovation has never been about technology alone. The most successful innovations emerge when companies identify and address meaningful customer needs. Whether it is simplifying everyday tasks, removing friction from experiences, or enabling entirely new ways of solving problems, the underlying principle remains the same: consumers do not buy innovations because they are technologically sophisticated. They buy them because they solve problems that matter. This principle explains why customer-centric innovation has become a cornerstone of growth strategies across industries. The ability to understand unmet needs, frustrations, aspirations, and emerging behaviours is often what separates successful innovations from costly failures. Technology may enable innovation, but customer understanding determines whether innovation creates value.

Marketing has never been more complex. Consumers move across countless channels, attention is fragmented, and businesses face constant pressure to deliver short-term results. Yet for Héctor Rivero, Senior Marketing Manager at McDonald's Spain, the fundamentals of brand growth remain remarkably simple: understand people, define a clear message, and stay consistent over time. In this conversation, he shares why marketing should be viewed as a company-wide capability, why short-term pressure is often the biggest threat to growth, and why brands may need to embrace simplicity in an increasingly chaotic world. Marketing is more than Communication Having built his career across large consumer brands and now leading menu and brand strategy at McDonald's Spain, Héctor has seen firsthand how marketing has evolved from a communications function into a discipline that touches almost every part of a business. One of the biggest misconceptions Héctor encounters is the tendency to equate marketing with advertising. While communication remains an important part of the discipline, he believes it represents only a small piece of what marketers actually do. For Héctor, marketing begins long before a campaign is launched. It starts with understanding consumer needs, identifying opportunities in the market, analysing competitors, and aligning stakeholders across the organisation. Only after all of that work does communication enter the picture. Marketing’s increasingly cross-functional nature means that marketers need to collaborate closely with finance, operations, innovation, leadership teams, agencies, and, in multinational businesses, colleagues across international markets. Success often depends as much on influencing and aligning others as it does on consumer-facing activities. “If we reduce marketing to communication, we’re left with a very small piece of the puzzle and ignore everything that happens before and after.” “If we reduce marketing to communication, we’re left with a very small piece of the puzzle and ignore everything that happens before and after.” The Power of a Single Message When discussing brand growth, Héctor acknowledges the importance of traditional measures such as market share, share of voice, and top-of-mind awareness. However, he believes some of the most valuable indicators are often the slowest moving. Metrics such as affinity, brand love, and the extent to which consumers associate a brand with specific attributes can reveal whether a brand is building genuine strength over time. The challenge is that these indicators require patience. They cannot be changed overnight. According to Héctor, successful brand growth depends on identifying a clear message and remaining committed to it over a long period of time. “If you really want to move the needle, you need a message, a very clear message, and you need to be very, very consistent and persistent with that message.” For Héctor, short-term thinking is one of the greatest barriers to sustainable brand growth. Forecasts, quarterly targets, and commercial pressure can quickly distract businesses from their chosen direction. The challenge is not only creating the right strategy but maintaining it when pressure increases. “If you really want to move the needle, you need a message, a very clear message, and you need to be very, very consistent and persistent with that message.” Learning from Cultural Change Throughout his career, Héctor has seen how quickly consumer behaviour can evolve. One example comes from his time at one of Spain’s best-known toy companies. Around a decade ago, they recognised that children were rapidly moving away from traditional television towards YouTube and digital content. The company reacted early by investing heavily in content creation and finding new ways to stay present in children's lives. At the time, influencers barely existed, but children were already spending hours watching online content. The strategy helped the company maintain awareness during a period of significant media disruption. However, Héctor believes the company later faced a more fundamental challenge. While children's media consumption habits changed, so did their relationship with play itself. As digital entertainment became increasingly dominant, children spent less time playing with physical toys. This created a much bigger challenge than simply adapting to a new media channel. Looking back, Héctor believes brands need to understand deeper cultural shifts, not just media habits. “The challenge becomes: how can a brand overcome that situation? How can it adapt and move beyond it?” For him, remaining culturally relevant means understanding how consumers' lives are changing and ensuring the brand evolves alongside them. Relevance, Participation and Credibility When asked whether communication, innovation, or experience represents the biggest growth opportunity, Héctor rejects the idea that brands should choose between them. Instead, he argues that all of these elements should work together towards a common goal: remaining relevant. That starts with understanding the context in which a brand operates and defining the role it plays within consumers’ lives. Increasingly, consumers no longer want brands to simply broadcast messages. They want participation, interaction, and in some cases even co-creation. At the same time, relevance must be supported by credibility. For Héctor, credibility goes beyond honesty in product claims. It also means remaining authentic to what the brand genuinely represents. Brands that suddenly try to adopt personalities or values that do not fit their identity risk creating disconnect rather than engagement. “Many brands want to be something they’re not. They try to be cool and modern and end up looking like a grandfather pretending to be a rapper.” Consistency once again becomes critical. If a brand promises something, consumers expect that promise to be maintained over time. In an era where consumers can instantly share opinions and feedback, losing credibility can quickly undermine growth. “Many brands want to be something they’re not. They try to be cool and modern and end up looking like a grandfather pretending to be a rapper.” The Return to Simplicity Looking ahead, Héctor believes consumers are increasingly overwhelmed by the pace and complexity of modern life. “Consumers are at a point of enough. Enough saturation. Enough fragmentation. Enough movement and uncertainty. I want calm. I want peace. I want stability.” According to Héctor, this desire for simplicity will increasingly shape both product development and brand communication. This shift creates important implications for both products and communication. Brands will need to deliver clear value propositions that consumers can immediately understand. Complexity may increasingly become a barrier rather than an advantage. For marketers, this means becoming even more disciplined. Brands must have a strong understanding of who they are, why they exist, and what role they play in consumers' lives. While Héctor expects consumer preferences to remain cyclical, with future swings back towards novelty and excitement, he believes simplicity and clarity will define successful brand building in the coming years. “Consumers are at a point of enough. Enough saturation. Enough fragmentation. Enough movement and uncertainty. I want calm. I want peace. I want stability.” The Marketer of the Future As marketing continues to evolve, Héctor believes success will depend as much on personal capabilities as technical expertise. Beyond understanding positioning, insights, and communications, marketers need to be comfortable navigating ambiguity, influencing stakeholders, resolving conflicts, and balancing analytical and creative thinking. Curiosity remains essential, as does humility. “You need to be curious, ask questions, and understand why things happen. You also need humility because if your personality is too strong, it can close doors.” Perhaps most importantly, marketers need to build relationships. In a role that touches almost every function within an organisation, the ability to connect people, create networks, and bring stakeholders together has become one of the profession’s most valuable skills. For Héctor, marketing has never been just about campaigns. It is about understanding people, influencing organisations, and maintaining a clear direction despite constant pressure to change course. Those who can master that balance will be best positioned to build brands that grow for the long term. “You need to be curious, ask questions, and understand why things happen. You also need humility because if your personality is too strong, it can close doors.”

Utrecht, 26 June 2026 – DVJ Insights is proud to announce that Dennis Hulsebos has been named Young Talent of the Year at the Data & Insights Awards in the Netherlands. The award recognises young professionals in the research and insights industry who show courage, think beyond the obvious, and bring fresh and creative ways to move the profession forward. Dennis’ win continues a strong tradition of talent recognition at DVJ Insights. Over the years, several DVJ colleagues have received the same award, underlining DVJ’s track record as a place where young professionals can learn, grow and make a real impact early in their careers. Dennis received the award for his contribution to the development of new solutions and smarter processes within DVJ Insights. Through his work, he helps strengthen the way DVJ combines methodology and technology, while staying open to new ideas that make research smarter, stronger and more future-proof. At DVJ Insights, innovation is not only about new tools or technologies, but also about creating an environment where people can challenge existing ways of working and contribute to meaningful progress. Dennis represents this mindset. His work supports DVJ’s broader ambition to improve the quality, efficiency and impact of research, while maintaining a strong methodological foundation. Dennis Hulsebos: “I am very honoured to receive the Young Talent Award from the Data & Insights Network. To me, this award shows that new and different perspectives matter. Even in an industry with long-established ways of working, there is always room for new ideas and new approaches. I am fortunate to work at DVJ, a company that gives people the opportunity to challenge the status quo and turn those ideas into real impact. This recognition would not have been possible without the trust and support of the people around me, who have given me the freedom to experiment, learn and grow.” Marieke van Echtelt, Managing Director at DVJ Insights, adds: “We are incredibly proud of Dennis and this well-deserved award. Dennis brings curiosity, creativity, and a genuine drive to make things better. His work demonstrates how technology and AI can have a real impact on the future of the insights and research industry. What he has already contributed to DVJ at such a young age is truly impressive. DVJ has always been a place where talented people can develop, learn, and make a meaningful impact. We believe that combining young talent with strong technological expertise and AI capabilities alongside our deep business and consultancy experience is essential for the future of our industry. Over the years, several of our colleagues have received this same recognition, which makes us incredibly proud as an organisation.”

Most comparisons between AI coding tools begin with the wrong question. They ask which model writes the best code, which assistant performs best on benchmarks, or which platform produces the cleanest pull request. Those questions matter, especially for developers who need to trust the output. But they are not enough for a business decision. Organisations rarely adopt technology because it is technically impressive. They adopt technology when it fits into how people already work, how teams coordinate, how risk is managed, and how usage can scale beyond a few enthusiastic early adopters. That is why the comparison between Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI Codex and Google Gemini should not be framed as a simple ranking of coding agents. The more useful question is how AI enters the organisation’s software work. Claude Code enters through the engineer. Cursor enters through the development environment. Codex enters through the organisation. Gemini enters through the cloud ecosystem. They all help with coding, but they represent fundamentally different adoption models.

What does it take to grow a global brand in today’s complex, fast-moving landscape? For Philip Hambach, who has spent more than 18 years at adidas working at the intersection of brand strategy, insights and data, the answer lies in balance. Balance between global and local, between product and brand, and increasingly, between human judgement and machine intelligence. In this conversation, Philip shares how adidas has evolved its approach to brand growth and how data and AI are reshaping the role of insights in driving strategic decisions. Availability with a Point of View At adidas, brand growth starts with a clear shift in thinking. “We’ve basically switched from a loyalty-based assumption of brand growth into a much more Ehrenberg-Bass school of thought,” Philip explains. Like many organisations, adidas has embraced the importance of penetration, light buyers, and availability. Yet, this is only part of the story. adidas consciously builds on top of these principles with a strong emphasis on positioning and credibility. “We still have a strong point of view on brand positioning and the concept of credibility,” Philip says. That nuance is critical in a category that is far more complex than traditional FMCG. “The category landscape within our industry has become very diverse and convergent,” he explains. Even something as seemingly simple as running is not one category. “If we say running, what is running?” Philip asks. “You have people who run marathons, and then people who do everyday running, it’s a whole different universe.” In this context, brand growth cannot rely solely on availability. It requires a clear narrative that holds together across different use cases while remaining credible in each. “The brand becomes a framework which sets the boundaries,” he explains, allowing adidas to balance consistency with flexibility across categories. “The category landscape within our industry has become very diverse and convergent. If we say running, what is running? You have people who run marathons and people who do everyday running; it’s a whole different universe” The Cycle of Product, Brand, and Investment Rather than seeing product and brand as competing drivers, adidas approaches them as part of a dynamic system. “It’s more a question of cycle,” Philip says. In periods of growth, strong products can act as the initial trigger. “When we started our journey on strong brand growth, the ignition was our lifestyle product.” As key franchises gained traction, they created a knock-on effect on the brand. Over time, however, that relationship shifts. As brand strength increases, it begins to lift performance across categories. “At the moment, we see that the brand has actually increased significantly. And that carries over into categories where the product is not so strong.” This cyclical dynamic reinforces the importance of long-term brand investment. A strong brand does not just drive growth when everything is working; it also provides resilience when product strength fluctuates. “The brand does a very good job in alleviating some of the pressures we see in the marketplace,” Philip notes. This thinking is closely linked to adidas’ recent rebalancing of its marketing approach. After a period of strong focus on digital and performance marketing, the company has shifted back towards brand building. “That was the ignition of rebalancing some of our investment into more brand messaging,” Philip explains. Anchored by the “You Got This” platform, this shift has created greater consistency across markets. “Everybody’s committed to preserving consistency on the brand level,” he says. The results have been clear: “From all the things we track, it’s a home run.” “At the moment, we see that the brand has actually increased significantly. And that carries over into categories where the product is not so strong.” Global Scale, Local Relevance, and the Role of Data If product and brand form one balancing act, global and local form another. For adidas, this dynamic has evolved into a more integrated model. “It works a bit like a pendulum, some tighter global focus, some more market focus,” Philip explains. Today, the organisation is more aligned than before. “We’ve been able to build the recipe on how to best align global and market.” Global teams provide the overarching framework, while local markets bring cultural relevance and execution. This is particularly important in areas like sports marketing. “If you want to come easier to mind in the North American marketplace, you need to give us the authority to sign local partnerships,” Philip says. At the same time, local markets are not just executors; they are sources of innovation. A strong example is a Chinese New Year product that scaled globally. “That was a track jacket adaptation from China and became a global bestseller.” This ability to connect global scale with local insight is a key driver of growth. As Philip puts it, it is less about choosing between the two and more about “smart connection”. Underpinning all of this is a rapidly evolving data and technology capability. adidas is investing heavily in integrating multiple data sources into a unified system. “We’re basically building our own conversational AI that makes us super fast in analysing all the data we need,” Philip explains. “If you want to become easier to mind in the North American marketplace, you need to give us the authority to sign local partnerships.” By combining brand tracking, behavioural data and commercial performance, the organisation is moving towards faster, more connected decision-making. This is not just about efficiency, but about changing how insights are used. Decision-making becomes more continuous, with insights embedded in everyday business processes rather than delivered as retrospective reports. At the same time, adidas is exploring the use of AI for testing and iteration. “We’re exploring synthetic users to test concept ideas and run multiple iterations at scale,” Philip explains. While this opens up new possibilities, he remains cautious about its role in creativity. “I have doubts that AI engines running creative processes end-to-end because the results average out to an average result.” In a category where distinctiveness is critical, this is a significant limitation. As such, adidas sees AI as a tool to enhance speed, scale and learning, not as a replacement for human judgment or creativity. “I have doubts that AI engines running creative processes end-to-end because the results average out to an average result.” A Continuous Balancing Act Ultimately, what emerges from Philip’s perspective is a view of brand growth as a continuous balancing act. Availability and positioning. Product and brand. Global scale and local relevance. Data and human judgement. None of these is a fixed choice. Instead, they shift over time, requiring constant calibration. What is clear, however, is that adidas has built a model that is both structured and adaptable. By combining clear strategic principles with the flexibility to respond to context, the brand is able to navigate complexity rather than simplify it. As Philip reflects, the organisation is in a strong position: “We got the agency to be well in position — we’re pretty much right.” In an environment where change is constant, that ability to balance, adapt, and stay aligned may be one of the most powerful drivers of sustained brand growth.

In just ten years, Bizum has become a familiar part of everyday payment behaviour in Spain. What started as a shared initiative by Spanish banks to improve the digital banking experience has grown into a brand many people now use almost automatically. For Lorena Poza Díaz, responsible for communications, marketing and sustainability at Bizum, that familiarity is both a strength and a challenge. The next phase of growth is not only about being known, but about staying relevant. From Everyday Habit to Broader Relevance Bizum was created at a moment when banks were facing new competition from neobanks and large technology companies entering financial services. The aim was to offer customers a simple and valuable digital service, while also improving the relationship between users and banks. As Lorena puts it: “Who invented Bizum? Nobody and many people at the same time created Bizum 10 years ago.” Its first use case, payments between individuals, quickly became part of daily life. The service grew through recommendation: to benefit from Bizum, you needed other people to have it too. That natural network effect helped the brand grow organically and become strongly associated with simple, everyday payments. For Bizum, brand growth is measured mainly through top of mind, spontaneous awareness, brand evaluation and recommendation. But success also brings a new challenge. The brand has become so familiar that people can start to take it for granted. “Everyday life is very good, but we like them to perceive us as something relevant,” Lorena says. “Everyday life is very good, but we like them to perceive us as something relevant,” Consistency as a Growth Driver One of the main reasons Bizum has been able to grow so quickly is the consistency between what it promises and what people experience. The brand stands for speed, convenience and simplicity, and those values need to be visible in every part of the journey: the product, the user experience, the language and the communication. “If I am telling you that I am fast and that I am convenient, my language has to be fast, it has to be clear, it has to be easy, and the user experience is also that,” Lorena explains. That principle also shapes innovation. Bizum does not aim to offer the most cutting-edge technology just for the sake of it. Its ambition is to make digital payments easier and more accessible for everyone. Sometimes that means choosing a solution that is technologically simpler, but better aligned with the role Bizum wants to play in people’s lives. This clarity is becoming more important as the market becomes more crowded. Lorena points to two forms of saturation: advertising saturation and payment-method saturation. Consumers are surrounded by messages, while the payments sector has seen many fintechs, neobanks and alternative payment solutions enter the market. In that context, Bizum needs to be recognised not only as a familiar brand, but as a brand that still offers distinctive value in new situations. As Lorena explains, the challenge is to encourage people to use Bizum beyond the context in which they first came to know it. “The brand is highly considered and valued, but of course, we now have the challenge of saying: hey, in other contexts you also have to try me, and I am no longer only payment between individuals.” “If I am telling you that I am fast and that I am convenient, my language has to be fast, it has to be clear, it has to be easy, and the user experience is also that,” Collaborations that make the Value Clear As Bizum moved into e-commerce, it became clear that simply telling people about a new payment option was not enough. People understood sending money to another person, but paying in an online shop with Bizum required a different explanation. The breakthrough came through collaboration. When Renfe introduced Bizum as a payment method on its website, the two brands created a campaign built around a shared value: speed. Renfe also provided communication channels close to the actual payment moment, making the message more concrete and relevant. “It was the campaign where things clicked, and more people started saying to us: oh, I have started using Bizum on the Renfe website.” At the same time, Lorena learned that collaborations only work when Bizum’s own values remain visible. In some partnerships, the brand adapted too much to the other party’s channels or style. The lesson was to find a shared language rather than simply fitting into someone else’s format. “We need to explore a common path of communication and codes where both of us feel comfortable, because if not, what happens is that our users do not read us, they do not perceive that Bizum is there and it will not work.” This also applies to collaborations with social organisations, such as Fundación Inocente or La Marató in Catalonia. These partnerships offer visibility, but also connect Bizum to positive values such as help and collaboration. For Lorena, that makes them valuable beyond pure reach. “We need to explore a common path of communication and codes where both of us feel comfortable, because if not, what happens is that our users do not read us, they do not perceive that Bizum is there and it will not work.” Innovation as the Next Phase of Growth As Bizum’s original peer-to-peer use case matures, innovation becomes less about improving one familiar behaviour and more about widening the role the brand can play. The next challenge is to introduce new use cases, from e-commerce to in-person payments and digital identity, while keeping the experience recognisably simple. As Lorena explains, the opportunity lies in building a broader relationship with users: “I think the focus is on that moment of innovation that brings us more use cases. So that users have a broader relationship with Bizum.” In payments, that broader role is shaped by a tension between convenience and confidence. People want the process to feel faster and less visible, but they also want to understand what is happening and stay in control. Digital identity could become one way to connect those needs, especially because Bizum builds on the verification already done by banks. For users, the promise is not just easier access, but a clearer sense of control: “At all times you have that control, and also you do not have to create a password, but with your Bizum identity and your identity in the bank, you already have access.” This innovation model is also shaped by Bizum’s structure. The company develops a shared base for the banking sector, while banks can build their own additional services on top of it. That creates a common foundation for users, while still allowing individual banks to differentiate. “What we do establish are the common basic services, and from there it is up to the entity to differentiate itself, because in the end they have to compete and offer more services.” “I think the focus is on that moment of innovation that brings us more use cases. So that users have a broader relationship with Bizum.” Building Growth through Experience As Bizum expands beyond peer-to-peer payments, communication needs to move closer to the contexts where people can actually use it. Collaborations, retail media, outdoor and physical activations are becoming more relevant, not simply as extra channels, but as ways to make new use cases understandable at the moment they matter. This marks a shift for a brand that started digitally. Bizum’s communication has naturally focused on online environments, especially as e-commerce became a growth area. But with in-person payments on the horizon, the brand also needs to show up in more physical and hybrid contexts. For Lorena, this is almost the reverse of the path many traditional brands have taken: “We are moving from digital now to what has been the traditional offline world.” That broader view of experience also shapes Lorena’s advice for brand growth. In a fast-moving and saturated world, brands are often tempted to change strategy too quickly, but brand meaning needs time to build. Positioning, role and voice must be clear, and then they need consistency. For Bizum, the brand is not only built through campaigns, but through every moment in which people encounter or use the service. “You have to give it time and patience because we live in a saturated world and not everything moves that fast, and you have to give it that space to build.” That also changes the role of marketing. It increasingly connects innovation, data, technology, sales and customer experience, but Lorena warns against making the role too technical. A modern marketing leader needs to understand data and technology without getting lost in every daily metric. For Lorena, the real value lies in keeping a holistic view of the company, the customer and the brand. “In the end, what matters more is the general analysis and not being so down in the specific data point of each day.” Bizum’s growth story shows how a brand can become part of everyday behaviour by solving a simple problem extremely well. But once a brand becomes habitual, the challenge changes. The next phase is about staying relevant, creating new use cases and protecting the values that made people adopt the brand in the first place: simple, fast and for everyone. “You have to give it time and patience because we live in a saturated world and not everything moves that fast, and you have to give it that space to build.”

One of the most persistent questions in advertising is deceptively simple: when should you show the brand? For years, many advertisers were taught to make the brand visible early and clearly. And in many digital environments, that advice makes perfect sense. Platforms like Google, Meta and TikTok have invested heavily in advertising effectiveness research, building large-scale meta-learnings to help advertisers improve performance. One of the most repeated recommendations is to brand early, sometimes even from the very first second.

In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, shrinking attention spans and rapid technological change, brands face a growing challenge: how to remain visible, relevant and chosen. For Fran Ares, CEO and founder of Glocally, brand growth is not about one single lever, but about staying close to the market, understanding how consumers behave, and making it easy for people to choose you. As Glocally enters a new phase with a renewed identity and broader positioning, Fran reflects on the changing role of media agencies, the impact of AI, and why brands need to become more flexible, transparent and adaptive to keep growing. From Local Specialist to Strategic Media Partner Glocally was born as a media agency with a strong specialisation in geo-contextual and proximity marketing. Its roots are in helping brands understand local differences, because while many brands have national ambitions, their commercial performance often varies by region, city or even neighbourhood. As Fran explains, “A brand can have national needs, which are obvious, but then it has differentiated commercial performance by region, and even by province.” This was the space Glocally was created to serve. Over time, however, client needs have evolved. More brands are now asking for broader, more integrated solutions that connect local intelligence with national media strategy. This shift is also reflected in Glocally’s recent rebranding. After more than ten years, the company updated its identity, website and value proposition to better reflect what it had become. “You dedicate yourself to growing brands and growing businesses, and you do not have much time to look inward,” Fran says. “The company’s own image had outgrown the materials with which we were presenting ourselves to the market.” For Fran, the rebrand is not only a visual update, but a strategic repositioning. “It is a deep change,” he explains. “It is an update of the value proposition, and we evolve from that very geo, very local part, towards a slightly more integrated proposition.” “A brand can have national needs, which are obvious, but then it has differentiated commercial performance by region, and even by province.” Brand Growth is Business Growth When asked which KPIs really matter for brand growth, Fran gives a pragmatic answer. Growth is not only measured in brand awareness or communication metrics, but in whether clients return because the work has contributed to their business. “I see this from a very pragmatic point of view,” he says. “Quantitative business growth, clients who hire us again, because they have really invested with us and we have managed to grow their profit and loss account.” That does not mean intermediate metrics are irrelevant. Store visits, for example, can be a valuable indicator, especially for brands with physical retail networks. “Sometimes that is a methodology clients feel very comfortable with, because in the end, we bring customers to the doors of their stores as a KPI.” Still, Fran is clear that brand growth cannot be reduced to one factor. Brands grow through a combination of value proposition, pricing, accessibility, sustainability, emotional connection and visibility. If one of those elements is missing, growth becomes harder. For him, accessibility is especially important. Whether through e-commerce, physical retail or another point of contact, brands need to make the consumer’s path as simple as possible. “What cannot happen is that getting hold of a brand becomes a yincana,” Fran says. “It has to be very simple for the consumer.” This is why he also points to location as one of the most powerful growth levers. Even as a media agency leader, Fran acknowledges that media investment is not always the only answer. “Location is so important that it can even make you reanalyse what your advertising budget should be.” “I see brand growth from a very pragmatic point of view; Quantitative business growth, clients who hire us again, because they have really invested with us and we have managed to grow their profit and loss account.” AI, Attention and the New Rules of Visibility Looking ahead, Fran sees artificial intelligence as one of the biggest forces reshaping marketing. The most important change, he argues, is not only how AI improves internal efficiency, but how it may change the way consumers discover and choose brands. “A brand has a very relevant challenge ahead of it,” he says. “To be chosen or selected through the conversations that consumers will increasingly have with their artificial intelligence models.” For years, brands have optimised for search, visibility and media touchpoints. But if discovery increasingly happens through AI assistants and large language models, the rules of relevance may change. Brands will need to understand how to exist in those conversations and how to become part of the recommendations consumers receive. AI will also change the work of agencies. Fran does not believe it will replace the strongest creative thinking. “In creativity, I do not think big ideas are going to be replaced,” he says. But he does see AI transforming adaptation, planning, efficiency and measurement. “A brand has a very relevant challenge ahead of it; to be chosen or selected through the conversations that consumers will increasingly have with their artificial intelligence models.” For media agencies, this could mean shifting the client conversation away from traditional media metrics and closer to business outcomes. “We will not be talking about 1,000 GRPs, or 50 prime-time spots,” Fran says. “We will be talking about how many barbecues we are going to sell to a client.” Alongside AI, attention is another major challenge. The media ecosystem is more fragmented than ever, and consumers are harder to reach. “We have a very serious problem with attention,” Fran explains. This means brands need to understand where attention actually lives, whether that is in traditional media, social platforms, influencers or new digital environments. “Sometimes an influencer captures more attention than a media outlet, even if that media outlet is highly reputable and has been one of the traditional media brands.” For Fran, this complexity makes strong media partners more important than ever. Brands need partners who can read the market, interpret signals and make sharper choices in an environment where budgets are limited and attention is scarce. “Sometimes an influencer captures more attention than a media outlet, even if that media outlet is highly reputable and has been one of the traditional media brands.” Flexible Brands will be Easier to Choose In this fragmented world, consistency still matters, but it cannot mean rigidity. Fran believes brands need to become more flexible and adaptive, especially when speaking to different audiences across different platforms. “What we cannot do is expect society to change and adapt to a brand,” he says. “It is the brand that has to become increasingly flexible.” The same product may need one language for one target audience and another language for another. Younger consumers may be just as informed as older generations, but they are informed through very different channels, formats and cultural references. Brands need to understand those differences instead of assuming one message will work for everyone. For Fran, the challenge is to protect the essence of the brand while adapting how that essence is expressed. A brand’s positioning should remain recognisable, but its language, media choices and execution need to reflect the audience and context. “If we try to make it something for everyone, mass media, and we think that is going to work, then we will have major failures.” This flexibility also connects to a broader point about consumer relevance. Brands cannot grow if they are difficult to access, difficult to understand or disconnected from people’s needs. Growth depends on making the brand easy to find, easy to understand and easy to choose. “What we cannot do is expect society to change and adapt to a brand; it is the brand that has to become increasingly flexible.” Culture, Transparency and the Future Role of Marketing For Fran, growth is not only driven by market opportunity. It is also driven by people. Glocally’s Great Place to Work certification reflects a deliberate effort to build a culture where employees feel heard, comfortable and motivated. “There is a slightly selfish point to this,” Fran says. “You do not build a company so that on Monday morning you arrive annoyed.” The logic is simple: people who feel good at work become better ambassadors for the company. They serve clients better, contribute more actively and help shape the culture from within. “The people who work in a company are the true ambassadors.” After working with Great Place to Work, Glocally used employee feedback to guide concrete decisions. According to Fran, around 85% of the team’s suggestions were implemented. “What you cannot do is ask people, have people tell you what worries them, what they would like to change, and then continue on your own path.” This belief in listening also shapes Fran’s view of marketing more broadly. He sees marketing becoming increasingly central to business leadership, because it is the function that reads consumer, cultural and market signals. “I have always thought that companies will eventually be led by the marketing people,” he says. “And that is happening.” For him, a strong CMO should operate close to senior leadership and help guide the direction of the business. “A good CMO of a company has to be very close to management,” Fran explains. “Today, a marketing director in a company is a very strategic function, much more strategic than a few years ago.” When asked what advice he would give for sustainable brand growth, Fran keeps it simple: be transparent, listen to consumers and offer what people genuinely need. “A consumer allows a mistake, but does not allow deception,” he says. “You have to know how to listen to what the consumer is asking of you.” “I have always thought that companies will eventually be led by the marketing people, and that is happening. The people who work in a company are the true ambassadors.”

For Prasun Bose, Global Director of Insights at Essity, brand growth is no longer just a marketing question, but a systemic one. After more than eight years at the company, working on its flagship incontinence brand TENA, his role has evolved from traditional research into building a fully integrated insights ecosystem. The ambition is clear: to connect consumer understanding, market data, and business performance into a single source of truth that drives real growth. In a category shaped by stigma, structural complexity, and increasing competition, Prasun offers a grounded and honest view of what it really takes to grow brands today. Growth Starts with Penetration and Category Creation For Prasun, brand growth is fundamentally about expanding the category itself. “I think brand growth is to gain penetration and to grow the category because it’s a severely underpenetrated category,” Prasun explains. Unlike many FMCG categories, incontinence is still surrounded by stigma. This means growth cannot rely solely on winning share, it requires recruiting entirely new users. “We have realised that the only way to grow the brand sustainably is to get new users into the category who are coming into the category for the first time.” But this creates a paradox. By investing in reducing stigma and building the category, TENA also lowers barriers for competitors. This makes brand building not just about awareness, but about ensuring the brand captures its fair share of category growth. “Brand growth is to gain penetration and to grow the category because it’s a severely underpenetrated category.” A Clear Framework: Mental, Physical and Product Superiority Essity’s approach to growth is firmly rooted in Ehrenberg-Bass principles, providing a shared internal language around how brands grow. “How brands grow is quite well entrenched in the organisation now, it gives us a common language.” This has helped shift thinking away from a traditional focus on loyalty and retention, towards recruitment and penetration. Because even if existing buyers contribute a large share of value in any given year, they are not a fixed group. This insight reinforces the importance of continuously recruiting new users and building mental availability over time. “How brands grow is quite well entrenched in the organisation now; it gives us a common language.” Even within the business, differences emerge. In B2B environments, where tenders and contracts dominate, loyalty plays a relatively larger role. Yet Prasun remains clear that brand building still matters. “Brand building is equally important in B2B as it is in B2C; you cannot just relax on the fact that you have got big contracts in your pocket.” “Brand building is equally important in B2B as it is in B2C; you cannot just relax on the fact that you have got big contracts in your pocket.”