Shaping the Future of Brands: Takeaways from the Paradigms Brand Experience Summit in Rome

Last week Grand Public attended the Brand Experience event Paradigms in Rome. In line with their previous events, this year featured a meticulously scouted location, atmosphere, generosity and flawless hospitality in addition to the interesting and insightful speakers. We enjoyed meeting industry leaders from both the client and agency sides and talking about what the future holds for our industry.

Some of our key takeaways

Ana Andjelic is the author of "The Business of Aspiration". In addition to the book's narrative on the aspirational economy and taste communities, one idea that resonated with us was the concept of working with a cluster of smaller ideas across all aspects of a brand's presence, rather than relying on a single, large marketing idea. Ideas attuned to cultural context and quick-footed, together creating a tapestry within the same narrative, rooted, of course, in a unified brand story. https://andjelicaaa.substack.com/

Tagmrat Amaize from Collins on how ”Cultural membership” is the center of their brand model and how they build brands out of a deep understanding of people and culture. Collins is always generous in sharing cases spanning from research, insights and strategy to creativity and flawless execution. This time the rebranding of BOSE and Equinox. The latter was an incredible journey with one fundamental expression that stuck with us: If you don’t know what you believe, take a stand on what you hate. What a brave client and excellent outcome. https://www.wearecollins.com/work/we-dont-speak-january-campaign/

Leo Porto and Felipe Rocha from PORTO ROCHA argued that for brands to break through, they must let the context dictate how they act and reach their audience, with 'surprising' and 'iconic' as key elements. And their work with clients such as Sundance, Nike Run and Twitch is indeed no less than iconic with their distinctive, simple but powerful brand worlds. https://portorocha.com/

The rebrand of Figma was presented by Damien Correll at Figma. A truly inspiring brand world executed with perfection. It really put the spotlight on modern brands' need for behavioral principles instead of static guidelines, and the powerful brand expressions that stem from a playful, interactive and dynamic approach. https://www.figma.com/blog/figma-on-figma-evolving-our-visual-language/

Matt Klein, Head of Global Foresight at Reddit, explained the concept of Audience Capture and the late stage Attention Economy. What resonated with us were his thoughts on the trap of measuring faux values: that passion and resonance are hard to quantify, and the consequences of focusing solely on clicks, underlining that an audience consists of people – not just numbers. Follow his newsletter Zine: https://zine.kleinkleinklein.com/

Tony’s Chocolonely's Emma Baines shared the journey of the purpose-driven chocolate brand, highlighting its role as an inspiring challenger in an industry once dominated by old, conservative, and arguably unethical practices. She underscored how budget constraints can ignite creativity through a 'do more with less' approach. https://us.tonyschocolonely.com/

Giorgia Lupi from Pentagram shared her love of data and brought? examples of how to tell stories with data, one of them being her life with post-covid. Be sure not to miss her New York Times article:?https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/14/opinion/my-life-with-long-covid.html

Claire Houghton-Price and Kim Nystr?m from Pophouse showcased an impressive strategy of transforming music brands into eternal entertainment franchises, like KISS and ABBA. Mindblowing presentation and inspiring for all branding experts. https://pophouse.se/

The Paradigms Brand Summit was organised and moderated by Frontify. A huge thanks to Roger Dudler and Digge Zetterberg Odh and everyone else on the team. https://www.frontify.com