Branding without borders

From Chicago to London to Leeds, one truth echoed louder than any event keynote or panel discussion: no matter the size of the stage or the scope of the audience, brands and marketing agencies are wrestling with the same fundamental challenges.

Whether at the global American Packaging Summit, the national Marketing Procurement Conference, or the regional Prolific North Marketing Festival, the scale and settings may have varied but the core concerns remained strikingly consistent. Here’s 6 key insights from my travels…

The pace of change

The speed at which tech and marketing trends are evolving is mind-blowing, whether you’re a leading regional brand, a FTSE 100 business or a Forbes top 10 global brand, it’s a common challenge. To succeed we need to keep up with change and relevant trends. Consistent hot topics at all three events were Sustainability, AI, Data privacy and shifting consumer expectations.

Kory Nook, Vice President of Packaging Research and Innovation at Danone took to the stage in Chicago, with a humorous analogy between a large corporate navigating sustainable change and the challenge of raising a large family. He talked about strict rules with a first child,  realising you need to flex and rethink priorities with a second child. By the third and fourth, (I can relate as I have 4 children myself), you realise you need to break some initial ground rules. As at home, in a corporate setting, it’s not about ignoring structure, but about knowing when to refocus. Learning over time and adapting with experience. Resilience was a key mention (a requirement at home and at work) to achieve challenging goals! Kerri Clark, Vice President of Packaging at KIND Snacks, echoed this sentiment, stating big change projects need collaboration to create the scale and benefits of more sustainable practices, to ensure minimum disruption in the supply chain.

The battle for attention

From global initiatives to geo-targeted regional social campaigns, cutting through the noise to achieve consumer engagement is a shared struggle.

Paula Steenstra, Director of Design & Packaging at McDonalds, shared how they win attention by promoting culturally relevant experiences and relatable themes that their audience love. She shared success stories, such as the Minecraft x Happy Meals collaboration and Anime campaigns with Manga inspired packaging and limited edition sauces, that rolled out across 30 global markets.

Authenticity and Trust

It appears that if you’re a global brand navigating ESG commitments or a regional business focused on building community trust; the need to be honest, real and relatable is a common goal. All audiences increasingly demand transparency and authenticity to build trust with the brands they buy.

I heard marketing leaders talk about building trust within their organisations too. Ekaterina Kharitonova, Global Procurement Lead from Bayer, spoke of building deeper, strategic and less transactional relationships, and the need to regularly collaborate and communicate with stakeholders. Otherwise, there is a disconnect. Closer to home, in Leeds, Adam Zavalis, Vice President of Marketing at Asda, shared how heritage, can support and help a brand build a trusted relationship with customers. Asda proudly promotes it’s Yorkshire roots with light-hearted, northern, humour and warmth to add an element of personality to marketing campaigns. He shared how this helps Asda remain authentic and fuels distinctiveness in a crowded UK retail marketplace.

Talent and skills gaps

Across the board, it appears that all brands are juggling new tech adoption with talent shortages. AI is a big help, but everyone was keen to stress it won’t replace the human touch. At Prolific Norths’ Marketing Festival, we were onstage ourselves talking about how we use AI to reduce time-consuming admin and initial stages of project research. It’s our co-pilot, a useful assistant, but not the driver. Caroline Kaye, Design Director at Sun Branding explained why it will never replace original creative that we craft for our clients because they need original, impactful, bespoke designs. She shares more in her recent blog here.

In London at the Marketing ProcureCon conference, there was a lot of discussion about AI too. Ramzi Chaabane, Global Category manager from L’Oreal reported a 40% drop in admin tasks by effectively using AI. Justine Walsh, Marketing Procurement at John Lewis Partnership, shared how all business areas are challenged to be more agile. There is a need for a new wave of skills across all internal departments to achieve future success. She described how there needs to be a thirst for change and an appetite for learning new skills. But also, how important it is to bringing colleagues along on the journey, and how the human in the room still counts.

The ever-demanding consumer

The message from all the events, is that today’s consumers are super demanding and want sustainability and convenience, luxury and affordability, a tough ask and difficult for brands and retailers to find the right balance.

Considering the overall take up and active progression of sustainability initiatives, Megan Cox, Director of Packaging Development at Suntory Global Spirits, believes that Europe is leading on sustainability while the US consumer still wants “premium”. Michael Mizzi, Packaging Development Manager of Bel Brands, noted that consumers want recyclability, but still have a reluctance to pay for it. Sonja Dearden, Senior Print Production Manager at Lindt & Sprungli, added that being a premium chocolatier, US consumers still wanted the shiny brand wrapper, and it would be hard to switch.

Brand beyond design

The most successful brands truly own their space with genuine differentiators. The strongest brands don’t just compete – they own their category through authentic differentiators that can’t be copied. True brand value isn’t about having a slick logo, catchy tagline or mediocre packaging; it’s about delivering unique experiences and genuine value that creates emotional connections with customers.

The strongest sustainable packaging brands don’t just go green, they merge environmental responsibility with innovative materials, brilliant design and purpose to enhance the user experience from unboxing to disposal. These genuine form and function differentiators – where sustainability drives better design rather than compromising it – create unshakeable competitive advantages that resonate with conscious consumers and deliver measurable business results.

Deepali Palta, Vice President, Global Innovation and Sustainability at Kellanova, the leading company in global snacking, shared how to harness the power of a brand through purposeful packaging design. She referenced the iconic Pringles cylindrical can launched in 1968 and, invented to solve several common consumer complaints about traditional potato chips (from broken chips to staleness) and remains overall structurally unchanged and recognisable today.

Steve Hadden, Creative Director from Scotland-based agency Made Brave, says we all have a responsibility to viewing branding less as surface-level polish and start promoting its importance as a means for business transformation. He suggested that marketers should bring branding back into the boardroom and focus on what the business is and not just what it looks like. His work with First Bus, a UK based bus company that carries more than one million passengers a day and serves more than 25% of the UK population, showed how a brand can can transform and influence all areas of a business. Rather than paint a brand narrative of idealised travel, the brand refresh embraced the everyday realities of bus journeys, uncovering authentic human interactions to build trust and credibility with colleagues and customers alike.

We’re in it together

What strikes me most, across these events, is that while our contexts may differ by market, our challenges and aspirations are deeply aligned. There’s a real opportunity here: to learn from each other, be open and honest and wherever possible collaborate.  Shared challenges like sustainability pressures and shifting consumer expectations require collective solutions such as consumer education. If we pull together and collaborate, it will build a more connected, resilient global marketing community that delivers powerful results for clients and consumers alike.

Where to next?

We continue on our travels over the coming months, with the aim of meeting, collaborating and building our community, would be great to catch up if you are attending the following events in the UK or USA:

1. 3rd-4th September, 2025 – UK Pack Expo, Manchester, UK. Come and see the Sun branding Team at stand C30 and hear my talk about ‘Designing for the Third Agers’ on day one.
2. 28th Sept – 3rd Oct, 2025 – Groceryshop, Las Vegas, USA.
3. 15th-16th October, 2025 – London Packaging Week, UK. Visit Sun Branding at stand A72 and see us on stage sharing our packaging design trends insights.