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Our Story
Our Story
Ten years ago we started EffectiveBrands based on the insight that global marketing leaders new to the job had few resources to turn to for support on how to do their job well. There was no book to read, no peer council to join, and no specialized consultancy to turn to. Today, to our knowledge, we are still the only marketing consultancy specifically focused on unleashing global marketing potential.
It was in September 2000, that our two original founders met for the first time in the American Hotel in Amsterdam to discuss the key challenges brands were facing in a rapidly converging, interactive and globalizing economy. Three months later they met again, this time in New York and that same week they flew down to Brownsville, Texas, kicking off a week-long coast-to-coast trip in an Airstream trailer to thrash out what it would take to build a global marketing consultancy that could add value in this exciting field, and create a fun work environment too. Interestingly, they actually spent the first two days of the trip discussing the company’s values and ways of working, focusing on HOW they would want to work together, and agreeing what kind of company they wanted to build.
Today, these Values; Challenging, Global, Inspiring, Balanced, and Passionate still guide every EffectiveBrands team member in everything we do. It took the growing EffectiveBrands team another year and a handful of big global marketing projects with founding clients to zoom in on what has become our sweet spot and Purpose ever since: Unleashing Global Marketing Potential.
A decade later we have a lot to celebrate. We are incredibly proud of the fact that in March 2011 we celebrated our 10th anniversary in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with a team of almost 60 people from all over the world, including 22 nationalities. In 2002 we started the Leading Global Brands™ study to focus on what it takes to win in global marketing. To date over 250 global brands, 2,500 global brand leaders and 21,000 global marketers and their colleagues have contributed to this study.
In 2005 we were co-founders of the Global Brand 50, a council that allows the leaders of global marketing organizations to share best practices and exchange insights with peers in a non-competitive environment. In September 2010 we launched now best-selling global marketing leadership book, THE GLOBAL BRAND CEO – Building the Ultimate Marketing Machine – at our first Global Marketing Leadership Summit hosted at the World Expo in Shanghai, China. Similar Summits have subsequently very successfully been held in Amsterdam, London, Singapore, Portland, New York, and Sao Paulo.
