Helping big brands build their cultural competitive advantage
Helping big brands
build their cultural
competitive advantage
The evidence is overwhelming : a culturally relevant brand has a competitive advantage.
Traditional brand strategies are struggling because they are running on 20th-century logic. I call it the Corporate Algorithm: the invisible internal systems that reward caution and predictability over true innovation. In an era of AI-filtered homogeneity and widespread team burnout, playing it safe is your biggest risk. In today’s volatile, multi-generational and fragmented landscape, those systems narrow perspective, dilute ambition and slow relevance, long before the data reflects it.
To change your business outcomes, you have to change your inputs.
A pioneer of the culture-led brand blueprint, Leila Fataar has a rare ability to speak and translate the languages of culture, corporate and entrepreneurship.
Her 3 decades of experience includes senior leadership role inside global organisations adidas and Diageo giving her a unique perspective that sits at the intersection of culture, leadership and commercial decision-making.
The evidence is overwhelming : a culturally relevant brand has a competitive advantage.
Traditional business strategies are struggling because they rely on 20th-century inputs to address 21st-century complexities. To move the needle, we must redesign the internal machinery that drives your business and brand.
Leila Fataar is a champion of cultural relevance as a business growth driver, partnering with global organisations on a bespoke basis to equip them with the skills, capabilities and confidence they need to create world-class modern Culture Led brands.
Brought in part-time, project-based or around key business priorities, Leila Fataar confidentially works alongside big brands and legacy businesses to unlock cultural relevance from the inside out.
The outcome: Protecting brand legacy, growing audiences, and future-proofing the business.
The outcome: Protecting brand legacy, growing audiences, and future-proofing the business.
Brought in part-time, project-based or around key business priorities, Leila confidentially works as a retained senior strategic advisor alongside big brands and legacy businesses to unlock cultural relevance from the inside out.
Leila’s work sits upstream of execution, at the point where judgement, confidence and direction are set. Rather than adding more output, she focuses on changing the quality of decisions upstream by:
— Bringing external cultural reality into internal conversations
— Challenging The Corporate Algorithm
— Reframing risk, relevance and opportunity before they harden into plans
— Strengthening conviction around where to lead, not just what to optimise
That means your brand playbook and organisational set up needs to evolve to both survive and thrive in this era of uncertainty. This can help mitigate risk for today and tomorrow, enabling faster, smarter and informed decisions for both long & short term business-critical priorities.
Doing it right means that expected and unexpected shifts in the world that impact ALL brand audiences - from technology to politics, sports to gaming, music to fashion, inclusivity to climate, AI to privacy issues and more - are efficiently and credibly identified and addressed in the right way before it becomes a crisis or a missed growth opportunity.
SERVICES
01
Advisor: Leadership Teams
02
Advisor: Brand Teams
03
The Cultural Reset
04
Cultural Branding
01
Advisor: Leadership Teams
02
Advisor: Brand Teams
03
The Cultural Reset
04
Cultural Branding
01
Advisor: Leadership Teams
02
Advisor: Brand Teams
03
The Cultural Reset
04
Practice (Platform13)
Bio
Deep strategic and executional creative & cultural brand building expertise and a seasoned entrepreneurial business leader with a 30 year wealth of international hands-on experience of lifestyle, FMCG and sportswear brands, both through her own independent practices and in senior positions brand side at adidas and Diageo.
Within this time, she has consistently delivered innovative brand activity whilst crafting a careful balance between commercial needs, legacy building and resonance with multiple audiences for and with big brands, making her the ideal resource for organisations in these transformative times. A pioneer of the culture-led brand blueprint, she has spearheaded an approach from the boardroom to the billboard that positions cultural relevance not only as a marketing strategy, but also as a key business growth driver.
Deep strategic and executional creative & cultural brand building expertise and a seasoned entrepreneurial business leader with a 30 year wealth of international hands-on experience of lifestyle, FMCG and sportswear brands, both through her own independent practices and in senior positions brand side at adidas and Diageo.
Within this time, she has consistently delivered innovative brand activity whilst crafting a careful balance between commercial needs, legacy building and resonance with multiple audiences for and with big brands, making her the ideal resource for organisations in these transformative times.
A pioneer of the culture-led brand blueprint, she has spearheaded an approach from the boardroom to the billboard that positions cultural relevance not only as a marketing strategy, but also as a key business growth driver.
She has an intangible way of reading what’s relevant in the world, blended with the rare experience of launching and running two independent owned full service companies and in senior positions at two global corporates across a variety of categories, territories and brands gives a unique outsider approach with insider knowledge:
- to translate the languages of entrepreneurial, corporate and cultural
- to unlock credible solutions to brand challenges today
- to understand what resonates for brands and their audiences
- to be proficient in brand transformation both externally and internally
- to rapidly uncover and implement culturally relevant activity (proactively and reactively) that cuts through the noise with purposeful intent
She has an intangible way of reading what’s relevant in the world, blended with the rare experience of launching and running two independent owned full service companies and in senior positions at two global corporates across a variety of categories, territories and brands gives a unique outsider approach with insider knowledge:
- to translate the languages of entrepreneurial, corporate and cultural
- to unlock credible solutions to brand challenges today
- to understand what resonates for brands and their audiences
- to be proficient in brand transformation both externally and internally
- to rapidly uncover and implement culturally relevant activity (proactively and reactively) that cuts through the noise with purposeful intent.
INDUSTRY EXPERT
Highly regarded and connected, she is regularly sought out for her culture, brand and business expertise through:
- Commentary in global industry and trend publications such as Business of Fashion, Hurs, WARC, The Future Lab, High Snobiety, Vogue Business, Digiday, The Drum, adweek and Campaign amongst others;
- A keynote speaker at influential conferences such as D&AD, Apple Today, Eurobest, and more
- A panelist at top conferences such as Cannes Lions, Advertising Week, YMS, and Social Media Week.
- A judge for D&AD New Blood, and the Webby Awards, amongst others
- Guest lecturer at a variety of schools such as Hyper Island, The One School and the University of East London.
INDUSTRY EXPERT
Highly regarded and connected, she is regularly sought out for her culture, brand and business expertise through:
- Commentary in global industry and trend publications such as Business of Fashion, Hurs, WARC, The Future Lab, High Snobiety, Vogue Business, Digiday, The Drum, adweek and Campaign amongst others;
- A keynote speaker at influential conferences such as D&AD, Apple Today, Eurobest, and more
- A panelist at top conferences such as Cannes Lions, Advertising Week, YMS, and Social Media Week.
- A judge for D&AD New Blood, and the Webby Awards, amongst others
- Guest lecturer at a variety of schools such as Hyper Island, The One School and the University of East London.
INDUSTRY EXPERT
Highly regarded and connected, she is regularly sought out for her culture, brand and business expertise through:
- Commentary in global industry and trend publications such as Business of Fashion, Hurs, WARC, The Future Lab, High Snobiety, Vogue Business, Digiday, The Drum, adweek and Campaign amongst others;
- A keynote speaker at influential conferences such as D&AD, Apple Today, Eurobest, and more
- A panelist at top conferences such as Cannes Lions, Advertising Week, YMS, and Social Media Week.
- A judge for D&AD New Blood, and the Webby Awards, amongst others
- Guest lecturer at a variety of schools such as Hyper Island, The One School and the University of East London.
DEBUT BOOK
DEBUT BOOK
DEBUT BOOK
PODCAST HOST
Watch on YouTube
Remarkable careers aren’t just made… they’re shaped by personal culture, global influences, and The Culture. It takes a bit of risk, an ability to adapt and a lot of resilience.
This podcast explores the perspectives and experiences that have shaped extraordinary careers, while sharing insights and expertise across corporate, cultural, and creative spaces.
Cultural Voices, a series of unfiltered conversations with people shaping and representing culture and creativity.
PODCAST HOST
Watch on YouTube
Remarkable careers aren’t just made… they’re shaped by personal culture, global influences, and The Culture. It takes a bit of risk, an ability to adapt and a lot of resilience.
This podcast explores the perspectives and experiences that have shaped extraordinary careers, while sharing insights and expertise across corporate, cultural, and creative spaces.
Cultural Voices, a series of unfiltered conversations with people shaping and representing culture and creativity.
PODCAST HOST
Watch on YouTube
Remarkable careers aren’t just made… they’re shaped by personal culture, global influences, and The Culture. It takes a bit of risk, an ability to adapt and a lot of resilience.
This podcast explores the perspectives and experiences that have shaped extraordinary careers, while sharing insights and expertise across corporate, cultural, and creative spaces.
Cultural Voices, a series of unfiltered conversations with people shaping and representing culture and creativity.
FOUNDER
Platform13 is an independent full service cultural communications and creative production studio, unlocking cultural relevance for and building your brand through fandoms, communities & storytelling.
Headquartered in London, it was created in August 2017 to answer the challenges and needs faced by big brands in the ever-changing world of consumer behaviour, creative innovation and cultural shifts.
We translate your brand DNA into the codes of cultural fandoms, helping you break category norms in a way that only your brand can. We do this by identifying a credible role for that brand through our unique cultural positioning methodology.
FOUNDER
Platform13 is an independent full service cultural communications and creative production studio, unlocking cultural relevance for and building your brand through fandoms, communities & storytelling.
Headquartered in London, it was created in August 2017 to answer the challenges and needs faced by big brands in the ever-changing world of consumer behaviour, creative innovation and cultural shifts.
We translate your brand DNA into the codes of cultural fandoms, helping you break category norms in a way that only your brand can. We do this by identifying a credible role for that brand through our unique cultural positioning methodology.
FOUNDER
Platform13 is an independent full service cultural communications and creative production studio, unlocking cultural relevance for and building your brand through fandoms, communities & storytelling.
Headquartered in London, it was created in August 2017 to answer the challenges and needs faced by big brands in the ever-changing world of consumer behaviour, creative innovation and cultural shifts.
We translate your brand DNA into the codes of cultural fandoms, helping you break category norms in a way that only your brand can. We do this by identifying a credible role for that brand through our unique cultural positioning methodology.