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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.

Understanding Shopper Journeys Remains a Strategic Imperative Every purchase is the result of a journey. Consumers enter that journey with pre-existing needs, preferences, habits, and brand predispositions. Along the way, they encounter a variety of touchpoints that shape their decisions – from online information and recommendations to product displays, packaging, pricing, and in-store experiences. Understanding these journeys is critical for two reasons.

For Pernella Geluk, innovation only drives brand growth when it starts with relevance and is followed through with discipline, adequate timing and entrepreneurship. As an independent marketing and innovation consultant, she helps food companies turn consumer and customer insight into concrete concepts, successful launches and long-term growth. Working mainly in FMCG food, both on the consumer side and increasingly in B2B, Pernella sees innovation not as a pipeline of new products, flavours or formats, but as a way to solve meaningful problems for consumers, customers and businesses. Brand Growth Starts with Relevance For Pernella, brand growth starts with understanding what people actually need. “Brand growth really starts with relevance. You have to understand what end users need, but also what customers in the value chain, such as retailers, foodservice partners or B2B clients, are looking for. Those needs are not always the same, but they can reinforce each other. And in combination with a clear vision and strategy, and consistent execution, you can realise sustainable growth.” That also shapes how she looks at success. Business results matter, but so do penetration, repeat purchase and brand preference. A launch that creates trial is not enough if people do not come back. “If you are really talking about brand preference, then for me it is about people coming back,” she says. “One or two purchases is more like a hype or trial. It is no repeat.” This is why product quality remains central. Communication can create attention, but it cannot compensate for a product that does not deliver. Especially in food, the experience itself determines whether people return. As Pernella puts it simply: “If the taste is not good, there is no reason to launch it.” “Brand growth really starts with relevance. You have to understand what end users need, but also what customers in the value chain, such as retailers, foodservice partners or B2B clients, are looking for. Those needs are not always the same, but they can reinforce each other. And in combination with a clear vision and strategy, and consistent execution, you can realise sustainable growth.” Innovation is about Solutions that Matter Innovation can be a breakthrough product or service, but it can also be a better format, recipe, proposition or process. What matters is whether it creates value. “For me, innovation is translating insights into solutions that truly matter. Solutions for a consumer, a customer or the company itself. You can also innovate internally. Ultimately, innovation is about making an improvement that connects to an underlying need.” As markets move faster and product life cycles become shorter, companies feel pressure to keep renewing. But more innovation does not automatically mean better innovation. “The market is changing quickly, and that continuously asks for renewal,” she says. “But it is important to bring focus and direction to that, so that we do not keep filling shelves and foodservice with wild new ideas, but with concepts that are future-proof.” One area where she sees opportunity is crossing traditional category boundaries. The shift towards eating less meat and more vegetables, for example, is not just a product challenge but also a retail and behaviour challenge. Supermarkets often separate meat, meat substitutes and vegetables, while consumers shop from routines. “Everyone has their routines,” Pernella says. “You want to consciously seduce people to try something else. But if that option is not next to it, you are asking consumers to walk three displays further.” So the future shelf could be where meat (substitutes) and vegetables come together, an overarching category aligned with current customer relevance. ‘’Ultimately, innovation is about making an improvement that connects to an underlying need.” Timing Makes the Difference Even a relevant idea can fail if the timing is wrong. Pernella has seen innovations that were not bad ideas, but simply arrived before the market was ready. While working with a food innovator, she saw how an idea around traybakes was identified years before the format became familiar to the wider market. The trend was there, but consumers did not yet understand the concept or recognise the need. “You can not only be too late, but also be too early in order to achieve success,” she explains. “Timing is crucial.” Being an early innovator requires more investment. A brand then needs to educate the market, build understanding and work with trade partners to create rotation. “You can have a good idea, but can you realise it? Not just getting the product on shelf, but also making sure rotation starts.” That makes innovation an entrepreneurial process. Research can reduce uncertainty, but it cannot remove it completely. At some point, companies need to decide whether they believe in an opportunity enough to back it. “You cannot wait until it is big, because then you are already too late,” Pernella says. “That is where you have to use your business sense.” Different Consumers need Different Innovations The food transition shows why one solution rarely works for everyone. In the shift towards eating less meat, some consumers are ready for fully vegetarian or vegan products. Others need smaller steps. Pernella says: “If we want to make this transition successful, we really need to create change and innovation on all fronts. Hybrid meat, replacing meat with tasty vegetables, more vegetarian dishes. We need to develop, inspire and move on all fronts.” The key is to segment without polarising. Trendsetters may embrace radical change, but the mass market often needs reassurance and familiarity. “You have to be careful not to make it so drastic that it starts to polarise against the large mass,” she explains. “Then they do not become frontrunners, but opposites.” “You have to be careful not to make it so drastic that it starts to polarise against the large mass.” Better Preparation Reduces Failure Many innovations do not survive for long. Pernella refers to the often-cited idea that around 80 percent of innovations are no longer on shelf after a year, while noting that this includes many flavours, variants, formats and packaging updates. That makes the quality of the preparation essential. “You can reduce failure costs by doing the preparation better. By making sure you have better insights into the real needs, by understanding the timing well, by testing properly beforehand and by involving your customer.” The biggest opportunity lies at the front of the process. Too often, companies move quickly into brainstorming, creating many ideas without enough direction. Pernella therefore works with innovation platforms: overarching themes based on market, consumer and customer insights, combined with the company’s own capabilities. Without that direction, innovation risks becoming a scattergun approach: lots of ideas, but without a structured, consumer-based foundation or a clear understanding of the target audience. That also lowers the chance that new concepts will truly land. This also requires ownership. In many companies, marketers are busy managing day-to-day priorities, and innovation is easily pushed aside. Pernella believes companies need a dedicated innovation role, or at least someone with the time and space to step away from daily pressure. “When innovation becomes urgent, you are already too late.” “When innovation becomes urgent, you are already too late.” AI can Help, but only with Direction AI can support innovation by speeding up analysis, clustering information and helping teams explore possibilities faster. But for Pernella, that speed only becomes useful when companies already know what they are trying to achieve. “AI can bring a lot of confusion if you do not have a sharp idea of the direction you want to move in,” she says. “Then suddenly everything becomes possible.” Used only as an idea generator, AI may make the existing problem worse: more ideas, but not necessarily better ones. “The problem is not generating ideas,” Pernella says. “The problem is knowing your target and what you are aiming for.” For Pernella, successful innovation is therefore not about more ideas, but about sharper choices. It is the combination of consumer understanding, timing, entrepreneurship, creativity and disciplined execution that turns innovation from a new product on the shelf into a real driver of brand growth.

Why AI Agents Make Deterministic Code More Important

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.