On March 21, BrandMoney talks with Brad VanAuken, chief brand strategist at the Blake Project. Brad brings an un-equalled level of expertise in branding to clients, leading them in the collaborative discovery process that results in strong brands. Brad gained his experience as director of brand management and marketing for Hallmark Cards, Inc. and as vice president of marketing for Element K, a leading e-learning company.
During his tenure as Hallmark’s chief brand advocate, Hallmark rose to 4th in the EquiTrend national quality brand ranking and received the Brand Management of the Year award. At Element K, he moved the brand from relative obscurity in a highly fragmented market to one of the top 10 e-learning brands in the world in less than two years.
Brad’s clients range from Fortune 100 and start-up companies to not-for-profit organizations and municipalities. He has helped position Bangkok, Thailand as a global fashion capital and The Nature Conservancy as the answer for saving the last great places on earth to name a few.
Recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on brand management and marketing, Brad is a much sought after speaker, writer and consultant. A keynote speaker at some 20 major conferences a year, he writes extensively for the business press and academic journals and is regularly quoted in trade publications. He has been a guest expert on CNN, Fox News, Investor’s Business Daily, The Bloomberg Money Show as well as other notable outlets.
Brad has been the American Management Association’s featured speaker on measuring corporate brand value. He was a member of The Conference Board’s working group on Managing the Corporate Brand and APQC’s Brand Building & Communication Benchmarking Study sponsor group. He chaired the IIR Brand Masters conference and the IQPC conference on Internal Brand Building. He is a founding member of the World Class Branding Association.
He has authored two books on brand management: The Brand Management Checklist and the best selling book Brand Aid, the first comprehensive and practical, ‘how-to’ guide on building winning brands. He co-authors The Blake Project’s blog, BrandingStrategyInsider.com, one of the top 50 marketing blogs on the Internet according to Advertising Age with more than 25,000+ daily visitors.
Today’s Show also has Derrick Daye, Managing Partner at The Blake Project. Derrick has spent the past 20+ years helping organizations release the full potential of their brands. His experience is as deep as it is diverse encompassing the disciplines of advertising, branding, sales promotion and public relations. Most notably he has worked with the White House Press Corps, Johnson & Johnson and the National Basketball Association.
He co-authors The Blake Project’s blog, BrandingStrategyInsider.com, one of the top 50 marketing blogs on the Internet according to Advertising Age with more than 25,000+ daily visitors.