A co-founder of the firm, Martyn was formerly director of verbal branding at Landor Associates (New York) and account director at Interbrand (London and New York). His client experience includes Goldman Sachs, Avaya, Delta Air Lines, Eli Lilly, Ford Motor Company, Pfizer, American Express, Gillette, and Procter & Gamble. An MA in modern languages and social psychology from Cambridge University, England, he has taught the first course in branding at Georgetown University’s MBA program.
Apart from starting TippingSprung, of course … They say you never forget your first time, and my first branding project was definitely one to remember. Rebranding a global $8 billion life sciences company was definitely a tough first assignment, but I’ve always been proud of creating Zeneca (now AstraZeneca) as my first-ever brand name.
With two small kids, most of my "spare" time is now spent at tea parties with dinosaurs and dollies. But back in the day, I spent a lot of my spare time acting and directing plays. I also performed stand up comedy in New York, appearing on the same bill as Chris Rock on one memorable occasion.
Boat Building for Dummies
I love a great story, which is why I’ve spent so much of my life in bookstores and theaters. And that’s why I love branding, because the best brands have great stories to tell. What we do is help companies tell their stories in a way that builds strong, meaningful and valuable relationships with their customers.
Don’t want to upset anybody by playing favorites. But a few of the brands that feature prominently in my life and that make me smile are Mini, Apple, Virgin Atlantic, Tivo, Whole Foods, and Pampers.
I cut my branding teeth at the world’s largest branding agencies, both of which are now owned by holding companies. I realized it was time to leave when I found myself spending more time on internal agency politics, billing issues and creating proprietary processes than on solving client problem. Then came the tough part – finding a business partner whose name was also a motion-related verb.
One of the world’s largest breweries wanted to introduce a new “exotic” beer into their largest local market. The scope of the project was to collect beers from all round the world and determine which would be the best addition to their portfolio in terms of taste, positioning and consumer appeal. The strangest thing about this project is that I don’t remember anything about it.
Take your pick – for an industry that’s all about communicating clearly and effectively, it amazes me how much meaningless jargon and noise are generated by marketers and their consultants. I make a conscious effort to avoid consultant-speak, in the hope that I can create a new paradigm in communications.