Want to build a brand? First create your operating system

Get Comfortable

with the uncomfortable. Cede control. Realise you are designing an experience and an interface, not a message. Open up, share creativity and create brands with partners. The more, the better. These were just some of the takeaways from yesterday’s R/GA seminar, which proposed we approach brands as operating systems, with underlying codes of purpose, design and technology, rather than attempting to navigate an increasingly digital world with the equivalent of Stone-Age tools.

progress that needs building, not a finished piece of art that needs guarding,” said Tiffany Rolfe, R/ GA’s global chief creative officer. “Luckily, there’s already a model that drives everything in the digital world — the operating system. It serves as the interface between computer and user and guides internal operations. It enables applications to build on it and function together, and it updates to work better over time.”

“Over the last 25 years, the beautiful but not always compatible worlds of brand design and tech have come together,” said Tom Morton, R/GA’s global chief strategy officer. “Back in the day, that caused friction but then the centre of gravity shifted towards technology. Today, the most valuable brands in the world — Google, Apple, Amazon, Samsung and Microsoft — are all tech brands.”

As brands have morphed into “digital creatures”, the time has come to update the branding-building model. “Today, a brand is more an iterative work in

Apply that definition to a company rather than a computer and you have, in essence, R/GA’s blueprint for designing and managing brands in a digital-first world. Morton then cited examples of brands that have already run with R/GA’s approach — literally, in the case of Nike. “We’ve been speaking about Nike as an operating system for some time,” he said, adding that it was Nike’s willingness to embrace technological innovation to create value via products such as Nike PLAYlist, Nike Sync and the Nike+ FuelBand that “really gave us a perspective on how we can build brands differently”.

“In a world defined by interfaces and experiences, a brand should be driven by its builders,” Rolfe added. “We need an open-ended design system that allows other people to build on it.”

Morton agreed: “We’re now building brands with fewer lone geniuses and more partners, who bring different approaches together to create something new. Ultimately, this is about breaking down that familiar false wall between marketing and product expertise.” evolve from a local point of view.”

Pulaar is spoken by 40 million people, but because it has no alphabet has been at risk of extinction. The Barry Brothers spent three decades building a rudimentary alphabet which Microsoft has now helped finesse. Elements were taken from Fulani textiles culture to help inform the shape of the eventual alphabet. Harris said: “When awarding the Grand Prix and Lions we asked ourselves: ‘Is it novel? Did it have impact? And is it the highest form of design?’

ADLaM was an example of how great design can make space for us as humans.”

There were also five Gold Lions: two for Japan, and one each for Brazil, Canada and Germany.

“FREEDOM is the ability to make our own choices and power is the ability to influence the choices of others,” Amanda Gorman said. “So when I think about influence it’s not necessarily that I want to mechanise the choices of other people — but I want to expand the choices they have available.” In a session examining what it means to be an icon representing a brand and a generation, Gorman talked about her rise to fame after reciting her poem The Hill We Climb at President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of visibility at a very young age and if I can use that visibility to make sure a light is shed on other people I can’t imagine a more profound use of my time,” she said.

Joining Gorman on stage were Jane Lauder, executive vice-president, enterprise marketing and chief data officer, and Anna Klein, senior vice-president, global corporate affairs and ESG communications. Lauder said gender equality and equity had been at the forefront of the company for almost 80 years: “It started with my grandmother who was mixing creams in her kitchen. Fast forward to today and when I think about the people who are making our products, our product developers, our researchers, our innovators, we have over 70% of them that identify as women.”

Gorman said she was drawn to work with Estée Lauder because she wanted to partner with a brand that shared her values and allowed her to use her power to empower others. “Your team really came with such a clean and open slate. A lot of other conversations I had, really kind of wanted me to fit into a cookie cutter traditional spokesperson role,” she said.

“I want to see a more bright and beautiful diverse range of stories in the world. I want to see more storytellers, more voices and narratives that we have yet to see in history. So I am excited for those truths to be brought to light.”