I help leaders and organizations discover what makes them matter - and build from that center outward. Like Dolly Parton said: “Find out who you are, and do it on purpose”.

Across nearly four decades in brand and business strategy, I’ve worked at the intersection of creativity, culture, and commerce - helping companies find clarity, coherence, and conviction in an increasingly fragmented world.

Before advertising, I began as a qualitative researcher, spending years in homes, markets, and communities around the world. That experience shaped my belief that strategy begins not with frameworks, but with people. Having listened to thousands of stories first-hand, I learned how brands live in real lives, and how culture and commerce meet in the everyday.

During my fourteen years as Chief Strategy Officer at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, one of the world’s most respected and creatively demanding agencies, I helped shape work for brands that defined eras. W+K demands originality, courage, and conviction - and that experience instilled in me a deep respect for craft, collaboration, and the relentless pursuit of better. It taught me that great strategy isn’t just analytical but imaginative - a creative act in its own right.

My career has seen me living and working in London, New York, São Paulo, and Amsterdam - experiences that built a global fluency and perspective that continue to shape how I see brands, people, and culture.

I’ve worked with some of the world’s most iconic and exacting brands, including Coca-Cola, Heineken, Meta Reality Labs, Samsung, Evian, Decathlon, Miele, Instagram, Electronic Arts, Milka, Allianz, Amazon Music, Lux, Booking.com, Kelloggs, Ray-Ban, Ørsted, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1, The Glenlivet, Novartis, Guinness, and Uber - each with its own story, challenges, and ambitions.

Today, through my consultancy emdub, I partner with founders, CEOs, and CMOs to help them articulate their true superpower and bring it to life - not as slogans or campaigns, but as living systems that align belief, behaviour, and business.

My method is simple: Clarity over complexity, truth over theatre, discipline over jargon. Through dialogue, cultural decoding, and the design of narrative and behavioural systems, I help organizations move from noise to coherence - from saying they believe, to showing it in everything they do.

I’m not a consultant in the traditional sense. I’m a partner, coach, advisor, co-pilot, side-kick, producer, shrink, co-conspirator, and fire starter. An outsider on the inside - helping leaders see themselves more clearly, act with greater conviction, and build brands that don’t just compete, but endure.

Contact:
martin@emdub.co