Gareth Kay 'Creating tangible value from intangible assets'
Feb 3, 2025
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Gareth Kay, a Partner at The Intangibles and a veteran in the creative industry, shares insights on leveraging intangible assets for brand success. He emphasizes problem-finding over problem-solving and the significance of brand behavior over mere storytelling. The conversation highlights the challenges brands face in the age of AI and the importance of crafting positive narratives. Gareth also discusses the macroeconomic forces influencing businesses today and how collaboration can unlock immense value. His extensive experience provides a fresh perspective on modern brand strategy.
The surge of intangible assets now represents 90% of the S&P 500's value, necessitating a strategic focus on brand management and customer engagement.
A new consultancy model merges management consulting, advertising creativity, and private equity urgency, promoting innovation and effective problem-solving in today's volatile market.
Deep dives
Understanding Intangible Assets
Intangible assets have surged to account for an astonishing 90% of the S&P 500's value, highlighting the crucial role they play in modern business strategies. This shift has positioned brand management, intellectual property development, and customer engagement at the forefront of corporate objectives, making them not just a CMO's concern but a priority for CEOs as well. Businesses are now realizing that effective management of these assets is essential for sustained growth, prompting an increased focus on harnessing their potential. This paradigm shift underscores the need for companies to adapt their strategies and embrace innovative consulting firms that specialize in maximizing intangible asset value.
The Evolution of Consultancy Models
The emergence of a new consultancy model aims to address the fragmentation of skill sets across various business functions, resulting from traditional silos. This approach integrates the strategic rigor of management consulting, the creativity associated with advertising, and the urgency found in private equity to create a comprehensive service offering. By merging these distinct capabilities, consultancies can foster innovation and effective problem-solving for brands facing complex challenges in today's market. This tri-bid model promises to unlock additional value for clients, positioning consultancy as a critical partner in navigating the ever-evolving business landscape.
Navigating Change and Volatility
The current business environment is marked by unprecedented unpredictability and volatility, affecting how brands manage risks and make strategic decisions. Companies must now contend with various macro forces, such as societal changes, economic disparities, and technological advancements, which necessitate agile and informed approaches to brand management. As organizations strive to navigate these complexities, the perception of a brand's purpose and its alignment with societal values becomes even more critical for long-term success. An effective risk management framework is essential for businesses to protect their intangible assets and capitalize on growth opportunities amid changing circumstances.
Creativity as a Competitive Advantage
Creativity is emerging as a vital competitive advantage in the business world, particularly as companies adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics. Organizations that foster an innovative culture are not only able to generate original ideas but also create a collaborative environment that encourages creative problem-solving. Examples of brands effectively leveraging creativity, such as Cadbury's humorous new packaging designed for sharing, demonstrate how understanding consumer behavior can enhance brand resonance. Additionally, companies like PayPal are successfully transforming their offerings by harnessing creativity to pivot from traditional roles to more expansive financial technology solutions.
This episode of The New Abnormal features Gareth Kay, Partner at The Intangibles 'the transformation consultancy for the intangible world'. He's spent over two decades working in, and learning from, some of the best creative companies in the world.
In that time, Gareth realized there is no ‘one way’ to shape and deliver valuable brands that create sustainable demand, but there are some principles that hold true: that problem-finding is at least as important as problem-solving; that being interesting is as important as being right; that great brands are built by their behavior not just their narrative; that the biggest risk facing many businesses is the false division between ‘brand’ and ‘product’; that a strategy is only as good as the work it delivers.
(By the way, he makes a return to the podcast, having been one of my first guests when I set the series up, back in 2000 during the first weeks of the pandemic).
Gareth has earned himself a stellar reputation in the marketing world, and in this interview he discusses leading-edge thinking about the business context of today and how to unlock value for the world's most ambitious equity firms and brands...
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