Methodology
I view brand as a living asset, something that must be protected, but also adapted to thrive in new environments. My approach combines strong governance with a willingness to test, stretch, and evolve guidelines so they remain relevant in emerging digital spaces. For me, effective brand leadership means ensuring consistency without stifling creativity, and anchoring every decision in audience insight and platform behaviour.

Case Study: Evolving ACCA’s Brand for Digital Relevance
When I joined ACCA, 42 markets were creating content that frequently deviated from brand guidelines. Rather than policing from the centre, I worked collaboratively with regional teams to build alignment. This meant introducing a process where markets channelled content through their Customer Marketing Managers and into my team for quality control and optimisation. To foster buy in, I launched a monthly digital marketing call to showcase market best practice, giving local teams visibility and recognition while reinforcing the benefits of adhering to brand principles.

At the same time, I strengthened relationships with the central brand team, inviting them into our weekly content calendar calls and giving them visibility of real-time market activity. The brand team’s campaigns were often built from research and thought leadership produced by the professional insights team. While the research was robust, I saw opportunities to increase its commercial and digital impact. I facilitated greater collaboration between the professional insights team, brand, and sales/marketing to ensure that campaign concepts were informed by research and optimised for execution across digital channels. This included adapting long-form videos into shorter, platform-native formats, refining messaging for digital audiences, and aligning topics with both brand priorities and market needs.

Outcome

• Increased brand compliance across 42 markets by creating a collaborative, centralised review process, helping to build “one global team” that operates in an integrated and aligned way.

• Facilitated stronger collaboration between professional insights, brand, and sales/marketing, ensuring research-led campaigns were both commercially effective and digitally optimised - translating thought leadership into market-ready, impactful communications.

• Improved the effectiveness of brand campaigns in digital channels by refining formats, messaging, and platform suitability, strengthening ACCA’s relevance in evolving digital landscapes.

• Established new feedback loops between brand and digital teams so campaign concepts were informed by executional realities and performance data, enhancing agility and adaptability in delivering the 2025 strategy.

• Built cross-functional trust by replacing a top down enforcement model with a collaborative governance approach, reinforcing ACCA’s inclusive and collaborative culture.

• Evolved ACCA’s digital brand presence to be more authentic, audience aware, and platform-relevant, particularly in emerging spaces like TikTok and Instagram strengthening visibility and resonance with future members to support long-term pipeline growth.