A day in the life of a brand strategist

I’m Melissa Andrada and I’m a strategist here at Wolff Olins, London. I originally started in the New York office, and I transferred here about a year ago. So as a brand strategist, typically what I do day-to-day is everything from facilitating client workshops, to creating strategy PowerPoints, to working and brainstorming with my coworkers on a new name or a new idea, to just thinking about what the future of brand could be. It’s a really fun, multifaceted role. It requires getting inspiration from different sources. So not just reading blogs, but also just getting out there in the world and travelling and going to museums, talking to people in other industries. And it’s really dynamic.

And a lot of what I do is just inspiring my coworkers and my clients to do more good in the world and to create businesses with more impact and more purpose. And how we do that isn’t just through numbers or through strategy documents. We work really closely with the design team to really think creatively about how we can create solutions to problems and imagine futures that people didn’t think were possible. But I think there are three things that really link everyone that works in this industry and really succeeds. And those three things are creativity, passion, and collaboration. Creativity– so the ability to think differently and find unexpected solutions.

Passion– really thinking of the work as more than just a job, but putting your heart and soul into things, and really trying to always push the brief. And third, collaboration– being able to work with people from different disciplines and backgrounds to create solutions that are really going to be universal and sustainable and long term.