For nearly two decades, Erwin Flores has worked at the intersection of global strategy and local relevance, first as Head of Planning at LOLA MullenLowe in Madrid, where he led worldwide brand strategy for Unilever’s Impulse Ice Cream portfolio (Magnum, Cornetto, Fruttare, Cafe Zero) across markets as different as Europe, Asia, Latin America, and North America; then in London, where he extended that same strategic grammar to Unilever’s Spreads and Oral Care categories and to new-business pitches across the MullenLowe network. Now back in Rome, in nearly ten years of strategic work on Toyota and Lexus, Erwin draws on this experience.
Synopsis:
This talk examines what it actually means to build a brand that can travel: either via a single universal message spanning across continents and cultures, or a strategic architecture disciplined enough to hold its shape while being reinterpreted, market by market, category by category, age group by age group.
Using mainly his experience in the IceCream category, Erwin explores the recurring tensions of multicultural strategy: standardisation versus adaptation - global ambition versus local truth.