Finally the world has accepted that there is no such thing as above the line and below the line. Is it going to take as long for folks to catch on to the fact there is no separation between strategic thinking and creativity? And let’s take that a step further. That there is no separation between strategy, idea and execution? The world of communication will be ruled by hybrid thinkers and doers. I proudly call myself a hybrid.
Liesbeth helps clients make their brands more contagious and their customers more satisfied through strategic and creative branding concepts. She also has her own brand of yoga products for children; Yogaga (yogaga.ca), has launched the mobile app ididit! designed to set, share and celebrate goals (ididitapp.com) and is the a co-founder and editor of DIY blog The Motherboards (themotherboards.ca) .
Prior to entrepreneurship, Liesbeth was Creative & SVP for LAUNCH!, a division of CIM (currently Mosaic / Acosta), one of Canada’s largest experiential and promotional advertising agencies. She has been responsible for spearheading promotional campaigns for notable clients like OLG, Pepsico, Microsoft, Parmalat, Loblaws, Revlon and Colgate Palmolive, just to name a few. Under her 5 year leadership the Agency won more than 30 awards for it’s body of work.
Prior to CIM / LAUNCH! She held the position of Creative Director and partner of advertising & promotional agency EINSTEIN dAdO in Mexico for over 6 years. She spear headed award winning advertising campaigns for notable brands such as Ford, Absolut Vodka and Jose Cuervo .
Prior to that Liesbeth held the position of Regional Director of Strategic Planning for Saatchi & Saatchi in the Middle East where she was instrumental in the development of ground-breaking campaigns for P&G’s Pampers which won the prestigious Proctor and Gamble, Best Business Building Award for the Middle East and Africa Integrated Campaign. She got her start in the business at Bates Worldwide in Poland, after which she moved on to Saatchi & Saatchi Warsaw where she worked worked on a variety of accounts for global brands (Pepsi, Calsberg, and Texaco) and National Clients (Okocim beer, ERA GSM mobile network ), followed by a one year assignment for Saatchi & Saatchi Turkey to launch 3 new Procter & Gamble products.
Liesbeth is born and raised in The Netherlands where she got her degree in business from the University of Arnhem.
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I have pretty much touched upon every category in the past 20 years. Below a limited selection.
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Inspiration, motivation; Art. Nature. My partner and children. Running. Yoga. My dogs. Brands.
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If the strategy is not creative I don’t call it a strategy.
I help Clients and agencies by taking some time upfront to dive into the brand, the customer and/or consumer and/or the shopper.
This kind of discovery does not have to take months. Very often I have some chats with stakeholders to uncover the info / issues / opportunities that are already there. For promotional branding work, I dig into existing brand work and campaign development to lay a rock solid foundation for promotional work and a seamless extension of a longer-term big idea into a promotional / experiential / social concept.
It’s time well spent.
Clients, brands and agencies widely vary, but I have a bit of my own method to tackle most of these very different projects.
It comes down to taking relevant universal truths and often existing unique brand insights and translating those to the “real world” in the most surprising and contagious way possible. Make the fluffy emotional end benefit statements relevant for a consumer on the street, on the smart phone and in the store to make them say there and then: hey I should buy AND I will buy again.
Those “call to action insights” are core of the strategy. They might include direction on where to talk to the consumer/shopper, what to say / offer, how to talk to them and (through partnerships / sponsorships / social networks) with whom.
Sounds simple? It is and it isn’t.
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If the concept is not strategic it is not going to sell which sooner or later will get YOU fired
You get away with cute concepts for a bit. Especially when you win some awards which always makes clients feel special. However, my experience has taught me that eventually creativity for creativity sake gets you sacked. Hence my approach to creative pie in the sky but deliberately aimed at a pre-determined part of the solar system.
If strategic direction is religion number one, then executional awareness is number two. Promotions and experiences miserably fail when the concept is not just a clever idea, but a clever execution to match. Clients want consumer engagement and interaction and they want scale one way or the other.
Promotional and experiential concepts should surprise, engage and become contagious. They SHOULD be award-winning.
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I bill a non-negotiable hourly rate but can be convinced about a project fee if that is strongly preferred.
20% of my billings get donated to charity.
