Global design consultancy Elmwood has appointed Paul Collins as Executive Director of Strategy & Innovation, in a role “intended to elevate the agency’s reputation for powerful and provocative brand solutions anchored in tension.” Working from the company’s New York studio, Collins draws on his experience as a strategist and marketing operator to reimagine how brand and design can enable meaningful and disruptive growth for the company’s expanding roster of worldwide clients. He is described as having “dreamer and troublemaker” tendencies. A self-confessed branding nerd, Paul “geeks out equally about innovation strategies, creative platforms, and typefaces.” If he weren’t a brand strategist, he’d “probably be a creative director. Trite but true.”
Collins’ new position sees him return to Elmwood, having worked at the consultancy previously in the capacity of both Senior and Executive Director of Strategy. In between, Paul operated out of Los Angeles as SVP, Head of Brand & Marketing at the rapidly expanding wine and spirits startup, Bev. He began his career in strategy positions at creative consultancies Lippincott and Sterling Brands.
Collins will be particularly focused on categories experiencing what Elmwood calls a ‘design deficit’, like healthcare.” He adds: “For years, healthcare leaders have been creating more seamless, intuitive, and flexible experiences within the context of value-based care. But as care becomes more digital and decentralized, we’re reaching a point of diminishing returns. Leaders need to start asking themselves how they can make healthcare experiences not only easy and intuitive, but also deeply desirable? Because, in industries where habitual engagement are key, desire will be the underlying mechanism of behavioral change.” Paul will be also work closely with Meg Beckum, executive creative director of Elmwood New York, to stretch the commercial and cultural power of the company’s offerings.
Elmwood clients include Haleon, Heineken, Danone, Mars and Unilever.
