Andi Davids Of Bulletproof: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand
As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Andi Davids.
Andi Davids is Global Head of Strategy at Bulletproof, an independent brand creative agency with studios in London, New York, Singapore, Amsterdam, Sydney and Shanghai.
As a strategist, Andi spots connections in complexity. She loves to unpack the way that people form meaning in their lives, elevating brands beyond recognizable identities to dynamic reflections of human experience. She’s used this approach with some of the world’s most iconic brands including AB InBev, Deloitte, Heinz, Mars, PepsiCo, the UK Government, and the United Nations.
Combining consultancy with academia, Andi leads the latest discussions on media, marketing, semiotics and the psychology of communications. She’s a guest lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and has previously lectured at Goldsmiths, King’s College London, London College of Communication, Oxford Brookes University, and the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht.
Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I was brought to this specific path through a combination of passion, nerve, instinct, and luck. Looking back on my childhood interests — an obsessive curiosity about the world, an incessant love of reading and a keen eye for design — it’s clear I was made for this career. But this career wasn’t made for people like me. A first-generation college student from a family of truck drivers, support staff and military personnel. I didn’t have a network to leverage or savings to lean on, so I had to be scrappy, taking any odd job and applying for every scholarship that might bring me one step closer to my goal. Needless to say, the eighteen years it took me to break into agencies were filled with several professional detours, from astrophysics to non-profits to academia, and a lot of rejection.
But then, one day, it happened. And not in a way I’d expected. I was offered an in-house contract leading a global rebrand. One I almost didn’t take. The industry wasn’t particularly sexy, and the culture wasn’t a natural fit. But my gut told me to go for it. So, I did. My first task was to tender for agencies, and two minutes into one of the most formidable chemistry sessions I’ve ever attended, the Head of Strategy interrupted me to ask, ‘Why aren’t you sitting on this side of the table?’. Two years later, when I graduated from my MBA, I wrote them on LinkedIn to ask if they had a seat free.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My first role as an expatriate was leading an in-house rebrand for an organization in Paris. Eager to make a good impression, I’d arrive at the office early, head straight to my desk, and crack on with the day’s tasks — just as I’d done for many years working in the States. But about two weeks into the job, I still hadn’t received everything I needed to begin the discovery phase. This was despite sending several polite emails to the President, who happened to be the project’s gatekeeper. I was flummoxed. She was the one who’d employed me. Surely, she’d want me to make progress?
A very kind colleague finally tipped me off. “She doesn’t like you”, they said. “Every day you come to the office and get right to work. You never ask her out to coffee. You haven’t taken her to lunch. You don’t stop by her office to say hello. You make requests via email!”
It was a foundational lesson in marketing: know your audience. The efficiency-driven work ethic I’d perfected in America was seen as aloof in France’s relationship-driven professional culture. The emails I’d sent in San Francisco to save time were viewed as dismissive in a city that lunches to save face. The next day, I stopped by her office to say hello. The following, I asked her to coffee. The day after that, I arrived at work (early of course), to find the files I needed waiting for me on my desk.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Oh, that’s easy: Hustle & Heart.
Early in the interview process at Bulletproof, I noticed that our meeting rooms were named after nineties hip-hop artists. I quickly learned this isn’t just nostalgia. Sure, Bulletproof has its roots in street art, but hip hop is about more than that. It’s about challenging the status quo. It’s about succeeding when others have underestimated you. Most of all, it’s about community.
A lot of agencies claim to be fiercely independent, but we live it. Bulletproof was born from the underground. And we bet on the underdog. It doesn’t matter if it’s one of the world’s most beloved consumer brands, a 150-year-old corporate entity or a new-to-world business. We bring a challenger spirit to every project. And we champion our people. Whatever your background, if you have a good idea, we’ll help you realize it.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We’re always working on exciting projects, both in and out of the studio. In addition to helping our clients build meaningful brands, we’re committed to our people making a meaningful impact. Our founder, Gush, has often spoken of sewa: the selfless service of others without reward. And that’s a huge part of our philosophy. We donate our pitch fees to charity, which amounted to £113,000 last year. We build schools in less privileged parts of the world. And we partner with Shillington Education in New York, London and Sydney to offer a full Diversity in Design scholarship. All of this is tied back to one of our three key values: people make the difference.
Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
The aim of branding is to be timeless, to build enduring associations. The aim of advertising is to be timely, to drive immediate attention and action. Brands are grounded in fundamental human experiences. These experiences — generosity, masculinity, imagination, etc. — persist, but the ways in which we practice them change over time, and our beliefs about them shift as culture evolves. So, to maintain relevance, brands must be adaptive, adjusting their positioning, portfolio, and identity in line with social attitudes, consumer behaviors and contemporary aesthetics. Advertising, meanwhile, is opportune. It translates a brand’s fundamental human experience into a message that will resonate with consumers in a particular time and place.
A good analogy is champagne. The liquid that makes up a House’s non-vintage is a blend of grapes, the ratio balanced year after year, so the taste experience is familiar no matter the growing conditions. This flavour and aroma profile becomes the House style. That’s branding. But the House may also release a vintage in a dated bottle, made with exceptional grapes from a single year’s harvest, as the ‘highest expression’ of its vineyard at that point in time. That’s advertising.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
Both play a role in successful marketing. Advertising is tactical and ephemeral. It drives immediacy, leading to short-term sales upticks. Brand building is strategic and sustained. It builds lasting relationships with individuals, communities, and culture to drive long-term business value. Most importantly, brand building creates meaning independent of products or services, allowing a company to evolve their offer in line with shifting market forces.
Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.
1. Know the business you’re really in. News flash, it’s not your product or service. The classic example of this is Kodak who, despite inventing the first digital camera, believed they were in the paper and chemical trade rather than the business of memories. Had they better understood their role in people’s lives, they could have moved brand thinking upstream, reimagining their products, their business model, their industry and how all three translate into relevant value propositions.
2. Build Sensory Brand Worlds. Studies have shown multi-sensory experiences affect mood, attitude, and memory more deeply than words or visuals alone, and that brands are up to 70% more impactful when three or more senses work together. Boutique hotels and membership clubs are brilliant at this. Take the TWA at JFK. From the characteristic clicking of the Sunken Lounge’s split-flap message board, to the lush shag carpeting in the replica 1962 living room, to the aviation-inspired tipples served aboard a 1958 Lockheed Constellation airplane, it’s a feast for the senses, and well worth a layover.
3. Get phygital. The linear path to purchase is long gone. It’s no longer a clean split between comms and pack, but about creating a holistic consumer journey through a brand. A cohesive ecosystem that delivers a brand’s purpose consistently across a range of physical and digital touchpoints, offering a lasting impression that remains long after engagement.
4. Develop an identity that’s fit to flex. From brand collaborations to avatar skins, visual identities are having to stretch in endlessly new ways. Brands, therefore, need to strike the right balance between driving iconicity and encouraging interactivity. That means developing a brand identity system with enough consistency to build enduring associations, and enough flexibility to adapt to different channels, consumer needs and cultural moments.
5. Focus on your fans. The Byron Sharp school of philosophy — marketing to everyone, everywhere, all the time — is not only an inefficient use of resources, but it also keeps a brand from developing deeper relationships with people. Know who you’re selling to. Discover their motivations, uncover their desires, and identify their passion points. Doing so will allow you to develop more relevant propositions, more impactful identities, and more compelling experiences. Nike is brilliant at this. Yes, they exist to ‘bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world’, but they carve out niches within sport to offer a sense of identity and build community.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
Patagonia, hands down. The company was founded so people could explore wild places, so it’s in the brand’s best interest to protect wild places. Its purpose, ‘we’re in business to save our home planet’, is ambitious, and its commitment to it is admirable. From giving away the company to a charitable trust in a bid to fight climate change, to creating virtual travel experiences with Oculus to reduce the environmental impact of tourism. They back up the brand promise with both action and innovation, driving believability and brand love.
In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand building campaign? Is it similar, is it different?
I think it’s important to clarify that brand building isn’t a campaign. It’s a sustained strategic and creative effort; a continuous negotiation of culture and commerce. For that reason, we consider three measures of success when building Bulletproof brands.
The first is growth. At the end of the day, what we do isn’t just about decoration, it’s about dollars. We want to see a return on ideas. We always say, ‘if you don’t grow, we’ve failed’. And for that, we of course look at metrics like sales, penetration, share, and revenue, but we also look at internal measures, like talent acquisition and retention.
The next is standout. We are experts at creating iconic brands. Unmistakable identities that drive standout on shelf and in mind. And for that we consider metrics like awareness, recognition, recall and distinctiveness.
The final measure is fandom. Market relevance isn’t enough to drive success; a brand needs to be culturally resonant. 98% of the world’s population has teeth, making toothpaste a relevant product for most people. But we don’t necessarily see TikTok flooded with images of fluoride-filled tubes. Slap a Supreme brick on there, however, and all of a sudden toothpaste has meaning. It’s a status symbol. Something in the bathroom you want to share besides mirror selfies. And for that we measure affinity, engagement, loyalty, NPS and overall reputation.
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
We create digital-first brand identities, ensuring they’re responsive to all platforms, including social media. But we also consider how a brand’s purpose will translate into content and online behavior. Nobody needs to follow an airline on TikTok or a fast-food chain on Instagram. Brands need to make it worth consumers’ time. Ryanair and KFC are both standouts in this respect. They get the platforms, they get their followers and they consistently deliver content that’s both entertaining and on-brand.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Oh man, as a person with a long background working with NGOs, non-profits and charities, there are so many causes I’d like to champion. But if I have to get specific with one, I’d say addressing the ideological divide. The amount of polarization that exists in the world is staggering, and the way current narratives circulate is exacerbating a sense of ‘us versus them’. To combat this, I’d teach media literacy training and critical thinking in schools from a young age. I’d apply the same rules of balanced journalism to social media feeds. But most of all, I’d encourage people to act with curiosity and kindness. Ask why. Seek common ground. When engaging in a debate, be more focused on learning than winning.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Don’t run away from a situation, run towards an opportunity. This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned, and it applies to pretty much all aspects of life. When we’re unsatisfied and our focus is on making an exit, we tend to make decisions we later regret. This means we either settle for less than we want or deserve, or we compromise our integrity. So, when you’re presented with a new or different option, be honest with yourself. Does it really excite you, or are you just looking to get away from where you’re at? If it’s the former, go for it. If it’s the latter, you’ll likely end up in the same situation in the not-too-distant future.
We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have a lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them.
Since this is an exercise of imagination, I’m going to suggest we do brunch instead, expand the guest list, and reopen Oakland’s famed Brown Sugar Kitchen so I can share soul food with Dolly Parton and Lil Nas X. Dolly is a legend. Not only is she one of music’s most successful artists, she’s a philanthropist, a humanitarian and an absolute business force. She’s maintained relevance for more than five decades. She transcends generations and political divides. And she just radiates love. Lil Nas X is the future. He’s redefining genres, industries, and notions of identity. He implicitly gets culture, knows how to use social media and isn’t afraid to court controversy. And he just radiates confidence. Both came from modest backgrounds to own the world stage. Both have challenged the status quo to champion diversity. Both are unapologetic and unwavering about who they are, what they believe in and how they show up in the world. And as a result, both have built incredible brands.
