Keynote Speakers

Patrick Hanlon

General Session Keynote

Monday, June 30, 8:30AM-9:30AM

When Patrick Hanlon served as Executive Vice President, Creative Director and writer at various advertising agencies working on famous brands like Absolut, UPS, John Deere, Disney, Ford Motor Company, Nickleodeon, Pepsi International, General Motors, BellSouth, LEGO, Sears, Montblanc and IBM, he faced an industry conundrum. While it was easy to explain how Coke had become a brand after 100 years of advertising and marketing efforts, it was inexplicable how Starbucks had become a brand in a fraction of that time, with virtually no advertising.

Hanlon decided to find out why. The result led to Primal Branding, a new look at the way brands are created, sustained and propelled. Primal Branding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company and Your Future will be published by Simon & Schuster, January, 2006. Marketers everywhere herald this provocative new look at traditional branding as "not the same old branding B.S.".

In related news, Hanlon has been a guest speaker at Parsons School of Design, Syracuse University, Advertising Federation and elsewhere. He has been a guest lecturer for "Strategic Branding: Building, Leveraging and Protecting Brands" at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management Strategic Branding Program. He wrote the preface to How To Succeed In Advertising When All You Have Is Talent, his work for Absolut vodka is included in Absolut Book and Campaigns!. He has also been a guest writer for ADWEEK, and his ads have been featured in The One Show, Archive, Advertising Age and more. His 2003 Super Bowl spot for H&R Block with Willie Nelson was a Top 10 spot in consumer polls.

Hanlon is Chief Executive Officer and founder of Thinktopia, an idea task force whose slogan is, Better thoughts through thinking. Clients have included Samsung, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy and others.

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