Think Like Your Mum.
Dennis Claus leads strategy for EMEA at Apply Digital, the global digital experience company working with Kraft Heinz, Lululemon, and the NFL. A Belgian-born statistician turned strategist, he has spent 20 years at the intersection of data, creativity, and organisational change across three countries and more technological cycles than most.
“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is deliver meaningful experiences to people. The goal never changes.”
Dennis Claus is a Belgian-born strategist and statistician whose career has wound through data consulting, global agency leadership, startup co-founding, and corporate innovation across three countries. He now leads strategy for EMEA at Apply Digital, where he works at the intersection of digital experience, fandom, and enterprise transformation for clients including Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola, Lululemon, and major American sports franchises.
He grew up in West Flanders, Belgium, and trained as a statistician before entering advertising and brand strategy. His early career was spent in data consulting, helping companies test emerging formats like second-screen television and early streaming platforms. He led operations for a Belgian startup before moving to New York to open its American office, then joined R/GA as Group Planning Lead on Samsung’s global account.
After R/GA, Dennis moved to Amsterdam and co-founded Supermachine in Ghent. He then moved to the client side, building direct-to-consumer capabilities for one of North America’s largest apparel companies. When the innovation lab he created was shut down after three years, he took the lesson that real transformation must be woven into the fabric of a company rather than confined to a separate unit.
“Think less in terms of milestones and more in terms of momentum.”
Personalisation follows a formula. Being personal requires genuine understanding.
Most personalisation is cosmetic. A name in a subject line and a few behavioural keywords do not constitute a meaningful connection. Dennis’s test is whether the message could come from someone who actually knows and cares about you. When brands clear that bar, they earn something that algorithmic targeting cannot manufacture.
Making one person responsible for transformation never works.
Putting a Chief Innovation Officer in a skunkworks and hoping change trickles out is a well-worn failure mode. Dennis’s three-E framework distributes ownership across the organisation: executives who change incentive structures, councils of subject matter experts who build the roadmap, and shared execution teams who make collaboration structurally impossible to avoid.
Start with the ten smallest things you can do and build the flywheel from there.
The change is overwhelming and it can be debilitating. Dennis applies Dave Brailsford’s marginal gains philosophy from British Cycling to enterprise transformation. Momentum matters more than milestones. Each small win changes what the next one looks like.
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