Emotional diversity - embracing multiple emotional states simultaneously in an ever-changing and increasingly complex world - is one of the most common feelings experienced by many consumers today. As a result, brands must do what they can to leverage their mechanisms to gain a more accurate emotional understanding and deepen the brand experience in ways that go beyond a new font or a new logo. This will include everything from thinking differently about design, to bringing a more creative and immersive mindset to everything, to understanding what is possible as the future of Web3 unfolds.
With that in mind, I'd like to talk to one of the few people I've met who gracefully navigates the worlds of art, marketing, and business. Following the release of his award-winning book, The American Experiment , I had the privilege of sitting down with Brandon Ralph to discuss the trends described above, as well as the launch of his new agency, The Unquantifiable, designed to solve today's problem. the most serious marketing challenges through the strategic combination of IQ and EQ.
Brandon Ralph has been a creative category and leader in the creative industry for over 20 years and has been named the trusted creative collaborator of some of the most influential people of the modern era, including Anna Wintour, Arianna Huffington, Lenny Kravitz, Tina Brown , Thomas. Maier and Harvey Speva. He is a co-founder of Code and Theory, director of experience and featured artist at Equinox. He is currently the founder and CEO of The Unquantifiable. Here is a summary of our conversation:
Billee Howard: Tell us about your background and American experience?
Brandon Ralph: My journey began in Long Island, NY where I grew up affluent in a middle class neighborhood raised by a single mother. He insisted that I see America as a land of possibility and opportunity. After losing both parents at the ages of 18 and 19, I was forced to drop out of New York University and pursue a career in marketing. Soon after, I founded Kode en Teorie in 2001, which became one of the largest digital and creative startup agencies.
This juxtaposition of education involving personal loss and professional growth profoundly influenced my journey into what I call the American Experience, which aims to explore America's changing culture . My work offers a broad and diverse view of the country and allows audiences to re-examine the various embodiments of American patriotism and everyday life. My drawings and sculptures convey a sense of timelessness, looking to the future and the past. The end result is sometimes a collection of moments separated by years, or, alternatively, separated by land lines. Viewed together, they offer a glimpse into themes of landscape and culture at a time in our country when the idea of what made someone American was hotly debated.
Work has been awarded worldwide and exhibited internationally. In 2022 I became a Leica brand ambassador and the book was recently selected for sale at MOMA.
Howard: What did you learn that stood out the most to you as an artist and marketer?
Ralph: It goes without saying that art and marketing success share a fundamental foundation of the power of images to engage audiences, regardless of the medium. What I have learned, which can sometimes be a delicate dance, is the balance between overt and hidden messages, prompting the audience to ask questions, make them feel certain things or change their perspective.
With the art I create and the brands I want to continue working with, a bold image or strong design is now in play. I believe the next wave of big brands will differentiate themselves with highly nuanced and unified experiential journeys as our physical and digital worlds merge. Brands have many opportunities to deliver elegant experiences across channels, to reach audiences overtly or covertly on an emotional level, leading audiences to an irrational and inexplicable love for brands facilitated by the technology that connects our worlds. physically and digitally at moments that matter to customers.
Howard: Tell me about The Unquantifiable and how you came up with it and what's the purpose?
Ralph: In the summer of 2018, I talked to Harvey Spevak, the president of Equinox, about joining them. At that time, it was the first time I had heard this title. To be honest, it makes me uncomfortable. We spent hours talking about how historically separate creative roles can be confined to traditional assets, and how CXO roles can fundamentally and culturally change the way companies bring these disparate pieces together through a single lens to bring the end result to the experience . .
In 2020, I see white space in the market to create an agency that drives the brand experience, follows design and ignites technology. Our vision is to embody all the hidden and distinctive features of the brand's DNA that deepen commitment, loyalty and love. It combines the inherent tension between rational and irrational consumer behavior to reach target countries through a strategy of cohesive experiences driven by distinctive and compelling storytelling, IP and technology. As a result, grades are placed between IQ and EQ in an immeasurable way.
Howard: How do you see Web 3 fitting into The Unquantifiable's vision?
Ralph: Over the last 20 years, there has been an iterative innovation model that follows the principles of Web1 (access to information) to Web2 (creation and sharing of information), and it is clear that this will change. brands and consumers on Web3 (Owner). data and information).
We believe that the next wave of businesses will have the opportunity to build a more equitable relationship with their customers by allowing their digital assets (IP, data, loyalty, coins) to be included in their portfolio as our physical union and digital. Our services help to understand and stay at the forefront of innovation with a pragmatic approach to see how these new technologies fit into our clients' strategy and roadmap.
As such, while not every brand has Web3 on their minds, we are at the start of the next wave and thus receive a strategic investment from Web3's largest venture capital fund, Liberty City Ventures. Our partnerships provide a single source of integrated information that gives clients access to more than 70 portfolio companies. It educates and informs our clients, where appropriate, about our strategy, creativity and execution to stay at the forefront of technology.
