Northzone Operator Workshops: Branding for Growth

with Joanna Lord, former CMO of SkyScanner and ClassPass

We were delighted to have Joanna Lord lead two sessions with our portfolio companies as part of our Northzone Operator Workshop series. Joanna has a wealth of marketing experience in industry-leading tech companies such as Skyscanner, ClassPass and Porch and also advises early-stage companies on all things marketing, strategy, growth, and brand.

The focus of the first workshop, tailored to our seed companies, was around Brand Marketing and how to maximise impact on a budget. Lesson number one: it’s never too early to invest in brand! Joanna helped demystify a variety of myths that are often at the root of companies under-leveraging brand, such as “it’s too expensive” or “it’s too complicated” or “it can’t be measured”. Through her frameworks and experience, she guided the group on how they can start simple, make brand a priority and launch a number of test initiatives from day one.

The second workshop, focussed on our Series A+ companies, was around Building a Global Brand to ensure you are set up for success. Although brand-building is tough and there are is no one way to do it, Joanna shared some must-haves and best practices that can help guide new market expansion. Discussion from the group included topics such as “local or global first”, “how do you cut through the noise”, “what is the process of launching a new market” and “what are the key metrics around measuring success”.