Physical space earns belonging. Every experience serves two audiences at once. Belong first, then sell.

Cannes is a good example of why the physical works. We come here to embed and immerse ourselves in these brand worlds, and that is what brands should be trying to achieve. We don't want to be sold anything anymore. The people who truly trust and feel loyal to a brand are the ones who understand the product, the benefits and why they feel an affinity to it. What physical spaces create is a sense of belonging, and as humans that is what we are always looking for. If a brand can do that authentically, that is half the job done, because it can then sell to a captive audience that already feels understood.

We work with brands on the full 360 of that journey, and the people we talk to inside brands have changed. It used to be a visual partner or visual director. Now it is media partners, brand partners, heads of digital and experience leads, because the connection from online to offline has to be seamless. We tell brands they have to consider both audiences. Something built in the physical can also be working online. It is commercial, it is clever, it keeps C-suite happy. The return is far greater if you create something physical and then kick out a suite of assets and content to tell that story online, which opens up conversations about different markets.

It is all about starting with the audience. You have your products and your brand story, but if you do not genuinely understand that end audience you will not come across as relevant or trustworthy. Understand your audience authentically. Do your homework, do not be lazy. People can sniff inauthentic storytelling a mile off, so brands have to work harder. People expect brands to speak to them as a friend would, and if you speak to your audience like a person, that is when real success comes.

You cannot mass market and expect one story to speak to everyone. Marketing to the masses markets to nobody. Whether it is a market, an age, a demographic, even north or south of England, everybody needs to be spoken to within their slight nuances. Window displays are no longer the only moment people pick a brand up. That used to be the magazine cover. If you got your windows right, tick, done. Now people pick brands up earlier, so you have to ask what those windows are doing as a continuation of a journey.

It is a lot when you say it, but brands are leaning into it and the briefs now ask for those media plans. Mapping it out is our job, offering the strategic eye, doing interviews, round tables and focus groups to get under the skin of the audience. But not every output is relevant. You do not splatter gun and try to hit every touch point, because that may not be right for a particular campaign. It might just be mobile and social, it might be experiential. Understanding that comes from understanding the consumer and what they respond to best.

As a B Corp agency we are passionate about the afterlife of these experiences, about reuse. We did a project for Converse where everything we created for the event was then reused in store and into wholesale partners. That space served press, video, PR and training, and invited wholesale partners in to learn about the new shoe. Your audience can be segmented into retailers, consumers, media partners, PR, media and creators. For Nike and Zalando at the NBA games, the space we created became the backdrop for all their social assets. We made that space work harder.

Messages can travel really well or really badly. Things that did not travel well assumed one size fits all. What we do well is localise. There is one creative wrapper that sings from the same hymn sheet, but in each market we tweak the nuances, the right talent, the right artist, sometimes local materials, workshops. You cannot just drop a campaign and hope it lands in every market from a central hub. A global team creates the overarching narrative, and our job is translating it into multiple markets so it speaks to the local consumer.

We work a lot with Timberland and they build campaigns around people first, sometimes grassroots talent. We worked with Sloane, a street artist here in the UK, for Advice Of An Icon, and created something gritty and underground that spoke to his UK audience. The event in the States used people like Naomi Campbell or Spike Lee, who speak to an American audience. Same creative wrapper, different talent. How brands collaborate with talent can make a statement when landing a relevant narrative.

It goes back to the audience. The audience does not stop with who is in the physical space. People are consuming at home, travelling, on their way to work, static, anywhere in the world. We have to make sure these moments are readable wherever you are. Consumption is a positive thing, but the information you provide can be consumed at any moment, so you always think about that end user.

A lot changed, and I still grapple with it. I am very people first, empathic, understanding, and one thing that has changed is trying to remove myself from that slightly. Part of the job is allowing the team to work it out themselves, because I do not always have the answers, and removing yourself from the emotive environment to be a bit more business first. Some decisions go against how I personally feel, but they are right for the business. It is grappling with that personal point of view against what is right for now.

I am fortunate to have a brilliant leadership team who all bring something different. We respectfully challenge each other, we are opinionated, but you keep your integrity. The traits I look for are personability, being real, no bullshitters. As the agency got bigger I realised I cannot be friends with everybody, but the traits are that you are decent, you show up, you work hard, and we are constantly learning. I want to hire people who have a genuine affinity with the industry.

We are looking at CRM systems and what our growth function is. Historically it has been founder led, relationship building, networking, I met someone who met someone. What is a bit scary is the automated side of new business. I get so many emails and LinkedIn messages and I can tell that has been written by a bot. Automation is amazing but you have to have that personability. I want to be talking to a human. People want to work with people they get on with, and they do not want to be masked behind automation.

It is about the team you hire, and the partners you work with. We do the thinking, strategy, design and project management in house, then rely on and collaborate with our partners to deliver. I have heard of people who do not treat their partners well, and they will only deliver the way you treat them. You have to treat them as an extension of your team, respect their skill sets, and make sure the team feel motivated, supported and safe.