Brand · Reputation · Culture · Communications · Marketing · Partnerships · Music · Sport · Fashion · Entertainment · PR · Earned Media · Content · Social · Paid · Digital · Experiential · AI

CULTURE THAT CONVERTS.

I build brands that culture wants to be part of, and the commercial systems that turn that standing into growth. Brand, communications and partnerships across drinks, fashion, sport, music and entertainment, for Hendrick's Gin, adidas Y-3, BACARDÍ, Hull City AFC and Wilderness.

Standing

Two brands buy the same sponsorship, run the same media plan, sign the same tier of creators. One gets a return the other never sees. The difference rarely shows up anywhere in the plan. It comes down to whether the audience believes the brand belongs there. The badge, the creator post, the moment in the right room: all of it sits on a rate card. The belief that makes it pay back has to be earned, and people have always been able to tell the difference.

Call it standing. It gets built slowly, through the stretches when none of it is measurable and nobody upstairs is asking for it, and it is what makes the machine cheaper. It decides whether a paid funnel converts or just buys impressions, whether a launch is anticipated or explained, whether a market picks up the toolkit or quietly ignores it. Brands without it can still have the moment. They buy it, every time, from whoever bothered to build it.

That is the brand officer's job, as distinct from the marketer's: shaping what a company stands for and where it belongs, protecting its reputation in public, and building the architecture underneath, from campaigns and partnerships to pricing and measurement, that turns standing into growth.

Five problems, usually

The sector changes. The problem does not. It is usually one of these five.

Culture spend that can't prove its return

Most culture spend is rented: a logo on someone else's stage, a creator chosen by follower count. The fix starts in the tracking data, before anyone has an idea, then builds something the brand takes part in, with the measurement agreed before launch. At BACARDÍ that meant making records with artists instead of sponsoring them.

A brand that means something different in every market

Global platforms usually fail in the gap between the deck and the market lead who has to use it. The answer is a rule rather than a preference, with markets in the room while it is written. At Hendrick's, every one of 100+ markets adopted the toolkit within six months.

A reputation being written by someone else

When nothing leadership says will land, stop saying it. Trust comes back through visible action first, with contentious decisions run in the open, and leadership voices return once they will be believed. At Hull City that led to the first net-positive supporter sentiment in four years.

A budget cut, with the expectations left where they were

Decide what to stop. Put what is left into rights, access and ideas rather than media, and build on relationships so people say yes to the idea rather than the fee. That is how a Virgin Galactic licensing footnote became Y-3's biggest campaign.

An audience the brand doesn't own

Most marketing teams are handed the price and asked to sell it. The bigger lever is the commercial model itself: pricing, yield, first-party data and owned channels. When GlobalGathering lost its headliner, the answer was a new VIP tier, not a replacement act.

The Numbers

+8% - Incremental sales from BACARDÍ Beginnings, with +9pt consideration and a 12:1 return.

€30m - Earned media value from adidas Y-3 × Virgin Galactic, against €50k of spend.

£182m - NSV, Hendrick's Gin. No.1 premium gin by value, on +34% value and volume growth against a category running at 24-25%.

6.7bn - BACARDÍ Triangle impressions. 4.63bn earned.

+8.1% - Revenue per attendee after the GlobalGathering VIP tier, on 10% fewer tickets, with revenue within 0.4% of the year before.

#15 to #7 - Y-3's move up the Business of Fashion Cool Brands Index.

Four years - The gap before Hull City AFC recorded its first net-positive supporter sentiment, inside the turnaround.

Both sides of the table

Most brand leaders have only ever bought culture. I have also sold it. On the brand side at Hendrick's, adidas and BACARDÍ, buying access. On the rights-holder side at Hull City AFC, its stadium hospitality business and MAMA Group's festivals and venues, packaging audiences, inventory and experiences for brands to buy. So I know what culture costs, what it is worth and how to price it.

Most of it was also built where nothing existed: a global communications function at adidas, a first consumer app and club-owned streaming platform at Hull City, an in-house film studio at Angel Music Group, Wilderness from the founding team. And most of it happened somewhere regulated or exposed, from alcohol marketing across 100+ markets to a football club run in public.

The full stories are on The Work page.

How I work

• Diagnose before deciding. Tracking data and pre-testing first, instinct second.

• Build it with the people who will run it. Work lands when a market lead in São Paulo or a matchday producer in Hull can run with it without asking permission, and wants to.

• Agree the measure before the money. So the return can be defended in a finance meeting, not just a creative review.

• In a crisis, let actions talk first. Statements are cheap when nobody believes them. Visible change is not.

• Choose partners on belonging, not reach. Whether the brand has a reason to be there matters more than the size of the room.

• Develop leaders, not only teams. A team that works just as well when I'm not in the room.

Point of view: culture, standing and AI

AI is making it easier than ever to produce content and harder than ever to make it matter. Volume up, trust down, and standing worth more than it has ever been.

AI platforms are now part of how people find a brand in the first place. When someone asks a model what a brand is for, the answer is assembled from what other people have already said about it. Earned media by another name. Every earned strategy has meant understanding the gatekeeper before the audience, the editor, the algorithm, the arena host, and the models are just the newest one. Brands with standing get described accurately. Brands without it get whatever the internet already thinks.

In a regulated category it all gets harder before it gets easier. The advertising codes were written before generated content existed, and compliance does not get simpler as output speeds up. Most people thinking about AI in marketing have never had to make it work inside those constraints, which is where running alcohol marketing across 100+ markets turns out to be the useful bit. The real bottleneck is rarely the AI budget. It is data nobody structured, governance stuck in a policy document, and leadership that can turn a roadmap into behaviour change.

Where I add value next

The work is most useful where culture has to show up in the numbers:

• Global consumer brands. Drinks, fashion, sportswear and lifestyle brands that need to matter to the audience that matters next, and prove it in sales, share and consideration.

• Rights-holders in sport and live entertainment. Clubs, leagues, festivals and venues that need to package audiences and inventory in a way brands want to buy.

• Media, streaming and platforms. Entertainment marketing, artist and creator partnerships, and launches that need to feel like culture rather than an ad for it.

• Founder-led and investor-backed businesses. Senior brand and communications leadership for a repositioning, a growth push or getting ready for sale.

In-house as Chief Brand Officer, VP or Head of Brand. Interim or fixed-term when something needs turning around quickly. Or fractional, alongside a founding team. Teams of two to nineteen, budgets from four figures to eight, or the only person in the room.

Now

Currently working with founders, CMOs and agency teams on brand strategy, positioning, reputation and the architecture underneath them, most recently building brand, messaging and CRM from scratch for an early-stage AI business. The brief tends to be the same one as always: something needs standing up, or something needs turning around.

On The Record is where the thinking runs in public: a weekly briefing on where power and value are shifting across music, sport, fashion, entertainment, media and tech, built on one question, who is gaining control and who is losing it. Every Monday.

Earn the credibility first, then build the system that turns it into revenue.

What People Have To Say

“Vicky is the new breed of marketer; skilled at creating extraordinary experiences that bring brands to life and engage even the most cynical and discerning of audiences. And that’s just for starters. Where she really stands out is in understanding how to realize brand strategy in the experiential space - how to make the brand vivid and visceral, and how to turn brand experiences into compelling newsworthy content. These are not easy things, and Vicky delivered over and over again in the experiences she created for Bacardi in the U.K.”

Kofi Amoo-Gottfried - Global Communications Director, BACARDÍ · Global VP Marketing, Facebook · CMO, DoorDash · Forbes Entrepreneurial CMO 50

“Vicky was a star on our marketing team. She is a well rounded marketer with a keen expertise on PR, social and digital marketing. She knows how to bring brands and programs to life in a relevant and meaningful way. She had an immediate impact on the dynamics of the team in a positive leadership role. She constantly delivers results even under the most demanding pressure. Her contribution to our Virgin Galactic partnership launch was especially impactful for our brand and set a new standard.”

Kimberly Landry Wallengren - Global Senior Marketing Director, adidas

“Vicky is a great partner, as well as a skilled manager and marketer. As my global partner on the Hendrick’s business, Vicky was always very collaborative, solution oriented and was able to provide clarity when dealing with complex programs, and at times, the competing priorities that inevitably arise within global and local market dynamics. Vicky always brought sound thinking and great energy to the team, and is someone who’s opinion I trust. She is a true pleasure to work with.”

Michael Giardina - VP Marketing, William Grant & Sons

“Vicky was a star player on my team. Filled with passion, dedication, drive, and determination - she turned an event based program into a content based platform with BACARDI Beginnings. She combines years of PR, music and event experience with her innate ability to curate projects to produce outstanding results. Vicky has a thirst for knowledge and her “finger on the pulse”. In the past two years working with her she has taught me the importance of staying true to the vision, the balance between brand push and credibility, and that the impossible can become a reality. I am very proud of the work and results on BACARDI Beginnings - all thanks to Vicky’s relentless passion for the project.”

Lisa Jazwinski - Global Marketing Director, BACARDÍ

“I have known Vic in a professional capacity for many years, first working alongside her at M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment and then as part of her core agency team when she moved client-side. Vic is a highly-skilled and incredibly switched on Marketing and Comms professional, bringing both her wealth of experience and sophisticated expertise to every role. She combines high level strategic thinking with a hands-on, can do attitude. She is a true team player; when working as her agency partner she always made us feel that we were a trusted and valued extension of her team. With boundless energy and a true passion for what she does, Vic is an absolute pleasure to work with.”

Beth Noonan - Managing Partner, M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment - M&C Fabric

“It was an absolute privilege to see Vicky during our time at Bacardi, where I had a front-row seat to her talent. Watching her take complex cultural challenges and turn them into groundbreaking, earned-first platforms like transforming event-based programmes into rich content powerhouses was nothing short of inspiring. Vicky brings an elite mix of strategic foresight, creative bravery, and an unmatched ability to make brand experiences vivid, visceral, and newsworthy.“

Simon Breckon - VP, Global Brand Director | BACARDÍ and Grey Goose

“Vicky worked in my publicity team at Endemol UK. She is a talented and creative publicist who I would recommend to anyone. She is also great fun to work with and we were all very sad to lose her when she went.” Charlie Gardner - Chief Marketing Officer, Endemol

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