Rita Clifton CBE

Rita Clifton CBE is a keynote speaker, writer & practitioner on all aspects of brands, branding and business leadership.

Rita has been called ‘The doyenne of branding‘ by Campaign magazine, ‘Brand guru‘ by the Financial Times, and the Daily Telegraph described her as ‘The Brand Leading the Brands‘.

Graduating from Cambridge, Rita started her career in advertising, becoming Vice Chairman and strategy director at Saatchi & Saatchi in its most successful period.

She was London CEO and then Chairman at the global brand consultancy Interbrand over a fifteen year stint. Rita has advised a wide range of leading global businesses and brands, as well as start-up businesses of all shapes and sizes.

In 2013, Rita also co-founded the brand consultancy BrandCap, which has performed amongst the 1% most successful UK start-ups. She is a regular commentator across all media, including CNN, BBC, Sky and social channels, as well as a columnist. She was recently a business mentor and judge on the CNBC award-winning TV series ‘Pop Up Start Up’.

Rita is also the author of the best-selling books ‘The Future of Brands’ and two editions of The Economist ‘Brands and Branding”.

She is a non-executive director of a number of businesses, including ASOS, Nationwide Building Society and Ascential plc. Her previous board roles have included Emap, Dixons Retail plc and Bupa.

Her non-profit boards have included being a Trustee of WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature), being Chair of the leading environmental charity The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), and she has also served on the UK Government’s Sustainable Development Commission.

In the 2014 New Year Honour’s list Rita Clifton was honoured with a CBE for services to the advertising industry.

Rita has been recognised in the Debrett’s 2015 list as one of Britain’s 500 most influential people.

Keynote Speaker:

As a speaker, Rita Clifton delivers keynote speeches on all aspects of Branding and Marketing, including:

• Personal and Nation Branding
• Branding in the Digital Age
• How to Build a World Class Brand

Branding for Survival, Branding for Growth

In these uncertain times, any business needs to look at every means, every element to retain its position and survive – and, of course, ideally to thrive. This means examining every aspect of both customer and employee experiences, every innovation initiative and every opportunity for efficiency. The brand lens is quite simply the most efficient and effective way to organise any business, of any size and stage, and whether nationally or globally ambitious. This new speech by Rita Clifton looks at those companies which have used brand thinking to make businesses work better all-round, as well as those who have failed because they have paid too little attention to brand issues. She uses cases and examples of smaller growth stage businesses as well as some of the world’s leading brands, from consumer to B2B, from established sectors to digital ninjas.

Other topics include:

• Leadership
• Corporate Reputation
• Communicating Sustainability