This podcast is with brand and marketing guru Allen Adamson and sheds light on the world of branding in business and how it applies to the music industry.

Allen Adamson is a noted industry expert in all disciplines of branding. He’s worked with a broad spectrum of clients in industries ranging from packaged goods and technology to health care and financial services, to hospitality and entertainment, as well as brands in the non-profit sector. Given his perspective and depth of experience, Allen has helped his clients not simply understand, but, more critically, put into play strategies that enable them to shift ahead of the market and the competition, generating long-term value and increased brand equity.

How organizations do – or do not – stay relevant is the subject of Allen’s most recent book, Shift Ahead. Using fascinating first-hand accounts and detailed case studies, Shift Ahead explains how the best organizations recognize when it’s time to change direction, and how they pull it off while bolstering their brands. Following the approach of Allen’s previous books, BrandSimple, BrandDigital, and The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands That Lead – which are used in universities across the country – Shift Ahead offers up practical and readily applied lessons learned.

Prior to Metaforce, Allen was Chairman, North America of Landor Associates, a global branding firm. Under his leadership, the company partnered with a wide array of iconic brands, including Accenture, GE, Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, HBO, Marriott, MetLife, P& G, Sony, and Verizon. Before Landor, Allen was an executive at Unilever, responsible for leading marketing for a number of major packaged goods brands. Previously, he held senior management positions at Ogilvy & Mather and DMB&B.

A sought-after industry commentator, Allen has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CNBC’s Squawk Box and Closing Bell, and Fox Business Network. He is often quoted in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, USA Today, the Washington Post, and Forbes, for which he also writes a column on brand strategy. He is a frequent guest lecturer at New York University’s Stern School of Business, the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, and the Harvard School of Continuing Education. Allen is a member of the American Management Association and speaks on brand and marketing strategy for a range of professional organizations, corporate events, and at industry conferences.

Allen received his BS from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Aaron Bethune.