Rob Campbell | Mischief-maker | Head of Strategy | Chief Strategy Officer, Colenso BBDO (New Zealand)
Get ready because a true rockstar is coming to DK festival. We’re not kidding – Rob Campbell literally worked with Metallica and used to be a session guitarist for some of the world’s most well-known pop stars. He is not only known for rocking it out on a guitar – he’s a global expert who has gotten brand strategy down to fine art.
In a career spanning over 30 years, he has worked at the world’s most iconic brand agencies like Wieden+Kennedy, R/GA & Colenso. He was the head of strategy at all of them and has led strategy across America, Europe, Asia, and Australasia – basically all the continents. He also won awards for everything from the global Olympic ad campaign to airport lounges people want to miss their plane to stay in. He spoke at global events from Cannes to Music Matter, and also judged ad awards for creativity & effectiveness.
But the thing Rob is most proud of is that he has been called an asshole by the members of Metallica. Who can beat that? And now this asshole will grace the DK stage. Considering he has three layovers just to get to Croatia and take our centre stage, you know he will make it worth your while.
Nothing Is More Commercially Effective Than Being Culturally Ridiculous
There are many ways to describe Rob's talk at DK2023. One could say it’s an ‘investigation into why so many brands fail to connect to audiences despite having more data, research and marketing spend than at any point in history.’ Or a more controversial path can be taken with ‘What if the tools and processes of modern marketing are wrong?’ And while both of those questions will feature within Rob's talk, he is most definitely not afraid to say it like it is so the real narrative is – if you want to be culturally and creatively powerful, stop being so bloody boring.
