Latest news and views from LockSmith

The Billion-Dollar Benefit of Strong Stakeholder Management Skills: Lessons from the Most Successful Brands

Building a business case for creativity involves showing how brand-building principles can lead to tangible commercial impact. That’s why we created The Key to Unlocking Brand Building—a comprehensive, two-part guide packed with the latest case studies of commercially successful brands and the role creativity played in driving those results, as well as practical tips to help you implement these learnings in your business.

When Creativity Drives Commercial Impact: 3 Strategies To Bring To Your CFO

Building a business case for creativity involves showing how brand-building principles can lead to tangible commercial impact. That’s why we created The Key to Unlocking Brand Building—a comprehensive, two-part guide packed with the latest case studies of commercially successful brands and the role creativity played in driving those results, as well as practical tips to help you implement these learnings in your business.

From Bland to Brand: The Skills Your Team Needs to Grow in Commoditised Categories 

For many brands, the risk is no longer one of being overlooked – it’s one of complete irrelevance. The internet has pushed the marketplace to a depressing sea of sameness: the trend for ‘averaging’, an outcome of our algorithm-first culture which aesthetically optimises everything from hipster cafes to brand logos, is inadvertently making brands look and feel the same, catapulting us to a dangerous middle ground of global ubiquity where all differentiation is lost. Indeed, Marketing Effectiveness experts Adam Morgan and Peter Field have famously warned us that this extraordinary cost of dull is costing businesses big money: 18.9 billion dollars, or the equivalent of the GDP of Greece to be precise.  

Getting the barn in order​ with Yeo Valley

Founded in 1994 on a family farm in Somerset, Yeo Valley is one of Britain’s leading organic brands and a well-established player in the British dairy category. ​

The business kicked off 2022 with a bang: a superstar new Brand Director, ex Diageo and ex Fever-Tree Niall McKee, and big, bold growth plans.​

The challenge for Niall was to build belief at senior levels in the role marketing should play in driving that business growth – and then come good on that promise!​

To deliver on that growth, Yeo Valley needed to invest in the people behind the brand. That’s where LockSmith came in.​

Unlocking Better Value Propositions​ for Tate & Lyle

We  were commissioned to create some bespoke training that would enable Tate & Lyle’s Marketing and Sales teams to be able to start with the consumer, understand the customer and take this knowledge to create added value propositions based on insight. LockSmith came on board to improve this capability across the global business at Tate & Lyle, putting consumer and customer insight in the driving seat as a key driver of long-term growth.​

Lighting a fire for briefing​ for Vodafone

We came on board to help Vodafone unlock the full potential of its marketing team by improving briefing capability, one of the most critical skills in marketing.​

The Credible Marketer (IV): Beyoncé, Country music & Innovation

IIt’s April. Spring. Renewal, growth, and fresh beginnings. Marketers up & down the country are tending the buds of 2025 brand plans. Data is being nurtured into insights, insights into breakthrough innovations. New growth opportunities are being unlocked.

The Credible Marketer (III): Emily Maitlis & Authentic Leadership

I was so excited at the return of one of my favourite childhood programmes I made the whole family sit and watch it with me. My boys are 9 & 10 and we’re at that tricky stage where finding anything we all want to watch is near on impossible, and crow barring them away from YouTube takes serious effort.

The Credible Marketer (II): The Gladiators & Strong Brands

I was so excited at the return of one of my favourite childhood programmes I made the whole family sit and watch it with me. My boys are 9 & 10 and we’re at that tricky stage where finding anything we all want to watch is near on impossible, and crow barring them away from YouTube takes serious effort.