Brands: Past, Present, and Future

Brand & New

This is the third episode in the “Women Leaders Series,” a collaboration between Brand & New and The Women’s LeadershIP Initiative. It brings together women leaders in diverse roles and representing various organization types in the brands and IP ecosystem. These women are at the forefront of industry trends and the conversation around how the landscape for women leaders is being shaped today.

Our guest today is Dr. Joanna Seddon, Founder and Managing Partner at brand consultancy Presciant, where she specializes in helping clients maximize the financial potential of their brand and marketing strategies.

Before founding Presciant, Dr. Seddon was Principal and Global Managing Partner, Brand Consulting, at Ogilvy for 10 years. At Ogilvy, she developed a new focus on branding in M&A and brand architecture and portfolio strategy.

Dr. Seddon was previously the founder and CEO of Millward Brown/Kantar’s global brand consulting practice. In this role, she was responsible for the development of fresh approaches to brand and marketing strategy. This included the creation and implementation of the BrandZ Top 100 ranking of the world’s most valuable brands, published annually in the Financial Times.

Prior to joining Kantar, Dr. Seddon was a founding partner and Executive Vice President for Worldwide Strategy at FutureBrand, pioneering the integration of brand strategy and brand identity.

Notably, Dr. Seddon is also CEO of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) since 2022, leading the trustees of the Marketing Accountability Foundation and MASB staff.

Dr. Seddon has more than 20 years of experience in providing strategic recommendations with measurable financial impact to leading clients worldwide and is recognized as a global expert on brand positioning, brand architecture, brand valuation, branding in M&A, brand and marketing investment, brand measurement and ROI and growth strategies.

Dr. Seddon holds a Doctorate from Oxford University and is well known as a speaker and writer on brand strategy, brand valuation, and marketing ROI issues. She is the author of The Brand in the Boardroom, which won the WPP top Atticus prize, and has also collaborated with Jim Stengel, former CMO of P&G on several books, including Grow and Unleashing the Innovators, an analysis of how to infuse innovation and modernity into established brands by taking them into new areas and partnerships.

Resources:

• About Joanna Seddon
• The Marketing Accountability Standards Board
• The Brand in the Boardroom (Ogilvy, 2014)
• Intellectual Property Reporting for Brands Presidential Taskforce Report (INTA, 2024)
• International IP Accounting Standards Board Resolution (INTA, 2022)