Gene Geraghty (Landor & Fitch) “Brand Transformation Can Raise Value for Multinational Companies” | comp

Having navigated communications and advertising giants such as Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann Eriksson, Ogilvy and Naked Communications and even working as Director of Content Development at British television ITV, Gene Geraghty Ten years ago in Landor as Head of Business in London, she was later promoted as President of Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea for short in English), and finally appointed Global CEO effective January 1, 2020. She is also part of the Executive Committee of WPP. Landor merged with Fitch in 2021 and now controls an empire that has won more than 400 creativity and design awards across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

In an interview with five daysJane Geragtje, Global CEO of Landor & Fitch, stresses that the path for brands to continue to add value to companies listed on financial markets is still very long. “We believe that brands are a critical component of the business model. Their transformation can raise the value of companies in the markets. He stressed that large companies must remain constant and without changes in their main business in order to be recognized globally and at the same time be relevant to their immediate environment and the city in which they exist.”

This is one of the objectives that prompted the company to achieve another milestone in its internationalization strategy by opening a studio in Madrid yesterday afternoon, located in La Matriz, The campus opened by its owner (American giant WWP) in November 2019 It currently employs 3,000 people. This study will serve as a basis for further expanding its footprint in Europe, where it already has a presence in Hamburg, Paris, Genoa, Milan, London and Oslo. Landor & Fitch currently has 1,200 employees worldwide and has 26 offices in 20 countries.where he has done work for Apple, Accenture, BBVA, Bang & Olufsen, Kellogg’s, Lego, Nike, and P&G, among other large multinational companies.

Landor & Fitch is a subsidiary of the American giant WPP, which includes communications agencies (BCW, Hill + Knowlton or Ogilvy) or data analysis companies (Kantar). In 2022, it invoiced €16,819m and had an EBITDA of €1,583m. WPP started even before the pandemic Aggressive deleveraging policy, which led to a significant debt reduction, from 4,662 million euros at the end of 2018 to 2,914 million euros at the end of 2022, which means an adjustment of 38% in the aforementioned period. In parallel, it returned approximately 3,963 million euros to its shareholders between dividends and share buybacks.

The economic impact of the brand

The consulting firm patented an investigation in which it dared to quantify in an analytical way The economic impact of the brand on the large companies of the two stock market indices (FTSE 100 and S&P 500). The study shows in the first that 25% of the value of the index is integrally linked to the brand, giving the latter a value of $600,000 million (550,000 million euros), while in the second it amounts to 33%. The report finds that if this latter percentage is achieved in the case of the FTSE 100, the value of these companies’ brands would increase by $200,000 million (183.346 million).

Geraghty points out that the growth of traditional business lines and the drive of new ones, such as the metaverse or artificial intelligence, will force consulting to grow in the future. The executive does not, at present, prioritize any method of increasing staff or business and asserts that in the future it will do so through organic growth and through the purchase of competing companies. We already did that in 2015 We bought a majority stake in the ManvsMachine design studio in London. We then introduced Fitch into the family in 2021 and The last company we acquired was AMPa sound identity creation agency, also specializing in artificial intelligence, which will help us help companies listen to the voices of their brands and see how they can improve their business.”

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