Bruce Campbell on Branding
What's in a brand?
Bruce is a living legend.Former creative director at some of the most iconic ad agencies including Hal
Riney, TBWA Chiat Day and Ketchum. Chief Creative Officer at Salesforce for decades. I remember the first time I ever met Bruce. He flew out to a startup I was working in suburban Waltham to do a customer photoshoot of me for Salesforce. It's a good thing I didn't know that much about him but I was already intimidated; he seemed larger than life.
Just about everything I learned about branding I learned from him. And I wasn't alone there. Bruce though gruff used to occasionally deliver a lunch n learn on the topic. He taught me that branding wasn't about a logo or a company name. As succinctly as I can remember his answer, branding is about the emotional connection an organization or person makes with a customer. It's the sum total of all those experiences or interactions. It's the most important thing and it can be lost in a second.
Over his 24 years at Salesforce, he was a keeper of the brand. I remember quite vividly during one of the years when I was leading Dreamforce. We were intent on making it huge, and it was undergoing some significant growing pains. The crowds, the wait times and more were threatening the brand currency we were building with prospects, customers and partners. That year, Bruce sent me a Chatter post I've kept to this day: It read: "Is Dreamforce getting too damn big?!" He made me hyper-focused on trust and the customer experience.
