Ed Lopez Co-founder and CBO at Strut

9 min read . 22/08/2023

Strut levels up: Brand Specialist Masterclass with Marty Neumeier

Strut’s Creative Director, Ed Lopez talks about becoming a Level C Certified Brand Specialist.

Over the past few years, Marty Neumeier’s whiteboard series of books have been like the holy grail to me and the work we do at Strut, so when I heard that Marty and his Level C co-founder Andy Starr were on tour and running a Brand Masterclass in Glasgow, I was could not believe my luck.

What is Level C?

A is for Apple, B is for ~~Ball~~ Brand and C, at least in the case of Level C, is for Chief.

We are all familiar with the title CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and CCO (Chief Commercial Officer). Even CFO (Chief Financial Officer) has its place in the “C” suite but what about a CBO (Chief Branding Officer)?

A typical CEO is all about the bottom line (think Tim Cook, CEO of Apple). If these guys are busy watching the bottom line then who’s building the brand? Well, that’s just the question that Marty and Andy have been asking themselves for the past several years and that is one of the main reasons for setting up Level C. The company has an ambitious goal of bringing balance to the boardroom through the introduction of a new breed of CBOs.

If you need a poster child for the role, then look no further than Steve Jobs. Steve was a prime example of a CBO. Yes he had the title of CEO but he was less concerned with the day to day running of the business and much more focused on using design thinking to build and manage a succesfull brand. A visionary and natural disrupter, he was able to innovate by reimagining the way we use and interact with products, services and the Apple brand.

The Venue

The Masterclass was held at fellow creative agency MadeBrave®’s studio in Glasgow. The studio is very spacious and provided a highly creative space. The location was ideal as it was very central and easily accessible to anyone living in Scotland as well as providing a second chance at the Masterclass to those who missed London the week before.

The Hosts

I think Marty’s reputation as an internationally recognised Brand Guru says it all and he did not disappoint. One thing that did stand out was how much Marty is willing to share. Nothing was off limits. He welcomes awkward questions and provides valuable real life experience in discussion. I knew very little about Andy but he is friendly, knowledgeable and extremely helpful, particularly during group exercises. Both guys were great at pushing for more when coming up with ideas that were perhaps a little safe. The would often say: “yeah that’s a little crazy but is it crazy enough?”.

The Attendees

I have attended a lot of workshops over the years but the unique thing about the Level C Masterclass was its ability to attract a high level of talented and enthusiastic people. Each and every person I spoke to had something to bring to the mix and I made some excellent connections. I am perhaps a little biased but my team (SpaceHop aka the bean bag crew) were particularly awesome.

The Course Content

I don’t want to give too much away as it would be unfair to the guys at Level C and to future attendees of the workshop but I will give a flavour of the type of things we covered.

Day 1

After several slides to get us in the mood, we jumped right into a Myers-Briggs style personality based icebreaker where we were split into 2 teams and asked to compliment and verbally abuse the other team’s personality traits. It worked really well and got everyone loosened up and feeling relaxed.

The rest of the day is a mixture of slides, discussion and group exercises that focuses on the five key disciplines of DIFFERENTIATION, COLLABORATION, INNOVATION, VALIDATION and CULTIVATION that are covered in Martys book, The Brand Gap. There is also a lot of crossover from his other books as well.

When the class had finished. The whole group were invited out for an informal dinner and drinks (optional and not included in the cost of the course) where we had a chance to ‘chew the fat’ in a relaxed environment. This was a nice personal touch and gave everyone a chance to get to know each other.

Day 2

The second and final day was more “full on” in terms of group exercises. One thing that I really liked was how each of these were connected. The work you do on every exercise relates to each other so you care more about these as the days go on and find yourself refining things each time which you wouldn’t do had they been done in isolation. We would do our group work, present to the rest of the class then reconvene as a class for more slides and discussion.

The day ended with the exam (more on this below), presentation, book signing, relaxed chat and some drinks.

Note: The Masterclass does cover many of the topics that are in the books and you may feel you already know this BUT Marty does a great job of sharing more detail and provides examples of where these have and can be applied in the real world.

The Video

Gareth and Liam, two attendees on the course and founders of Fresh movement, a fresh new start-up focusing on LIVE video and interactive content, used this as this as the perfect opportunity to shoot a live interview with Marty and Andy where they discussed Level C’s story, purpose and much much more. Check it out below.

The Exam

Day two closed with a nerve-wracking exam that Marty and Andy took great pleasure in teasing the hell out of us all by tapping into our nerves with comments like: “Are you guys terrified about the exam? Good. You should be. It’s near impossible to pass!”.

Thankfully, due to engaging content, memorable visuals, interactivity and well executed delivery, the exam was a breeze.

“Brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organisation.”
Marty Neumeier

The Certificate

The icing on the cake was the beautifully designed certificates personally signed and presented by Marty and Andy. Selfies are encouraged at this stage – so Instagramable darling!

In a nutshell

So how would I sum up the course? I would say if you are in the business of branding, then this is one not to be missed. See below for a summary and score of how I rated the course.

Location:
10/10 – Spacious, creative environment and very accessible
Course Content:
10/10 – If you are familiar with Marty’s Whiteboard series you will already be familiar with the majority of content of the course but it is great to hear Marty explain it in his own words and he provides deeper meaning into each lesson. There was plenty of time built in for detailed discussion. The course is made up of a series of connected solo and team exercises, slides and discussion. There is an exam but if you pay attention it’s not difficult.
Food & Drink:
10/10 – Lunch will vary from place to place but what was provided was very tasty. Doughnuts were a welcome bonus. Teas and coffee was freely available and a few drinks were enjoyed to celebrate ‘graduation’.
Calibre of attendees:
10/10 – There is a prerequisite of the course that attendees should be College degree or have equivalent work experience which seemed to ensure a good mix of industry professionals – all of whom were of a high standard.
Value for money:
10/10 – Excellent value for money. The team went above and beyond.
Overall:
10/10 – This is an excellent course. It is refreshing, practical and instantly usable.

Discover Level C