665: Ryan Richards - Growing People AND Companies
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Ryan Richards has paved an incredible track record of success leading brand strategy teams and departments for many of the world\\u2019s Leading Creative Agencies, Fortune 500 Corporations, and Startups. At BBDO NY, Ryan led a team and budget of 10 strategists that repositioned AT&T from a phone company to a connected everything company. In this role, he activated a $3.6b marketing budget to drive all verticals from network to enterprise to smart homes as well as their merger with DirectTV.
Driven by a desire to direct creative capabilities toward real human and social problems, Ryan co-founded innovation labs at both DDB Sydney and BBDO NY, where they would crowd-source community problems then develop customized product and platform solutions.\\xa0Ryan co-founded his record label On Point Productions which made him an easy choice to lead the team that launched Powerbeats Pro with Apple, while managing an impressive roster of 30 athletes from LeBron James to Simone Biles around the Beats Product with the creative agency Zambezi LA. It was here he also developed Venmo\\u2019s first brand strategy as it began to monetize its massive cultural platform and launched James Harden\\u2019s first signature shoe with Adidas.
In Sydney, Ryan led brand strategy for the world\\u2019s most awarded Volkswagen team, developed an industry first augmented reality platform for McDonald\\u2019s, ran strategy for the Mars Wrigley portfolio and embedded Gatorade into Cricket at DDB Sydney. At George Patterson Y&R Sydney (the first agency in Australia), Ryan led the launch of a new team for the AFL (Australia\\u2019s NFL) and created a master brand strategy and music festival for V8 Supercars (Australia\\u2019s Nascar).\\xa0Most recently, he started his own brand development agency to help post-raise startups define compellingly distinct brand narratives and develop their companies from logo through new product innovations. This has included launching a virtual mental health clinic in Canada, to helping Keurig Dr Pepper launch new products and brands that meet market needs.
At AIMCAST, Ryan is responsible for formulating a compelling brand identity and messaging that resonates with all AIMCAST stakeholders and brings AIMCAST brand engagement to the next level.
He shares with Lou - who has been working intricately with Ryan - about the changing-work environment and how AIMCAST is helping grow the people within companies and make the work environment a better place to be for everyone.
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