Consultants

Ralph Ardill Brand Experience Consultancy
Ralph Ardill, 40, is Founder and CEO of the Brand Experience Consultancy. Originally anticipating a career as a footballer or a guitarist, he instead did a degree in physics and geology. After an MBA at Warwick University came a job as a business analyst at Laura Ashley followed by a three year stint as a product manager at CBS Records (now Sony Music Entertainment), during which time he became increasingly interested in design. From CBS he joined Sampson Tyrell (now Enterprise IG) as an Account Director, where he developed and implemented a two-year global corporate identity for Castrol, which ironically he titled ‘Framework for Imagination’. Ralph joined Imagination in 1993, working with a think-tank team called Brand Development that was charged with dreaming up the future of Imagination’s business. Ralph decided to encapsulate the way they were starting to think about brands, communication and design in a book titled ‘Experience’. The book was part of the development of Imagination’s Brand Experience offer, for which Ralph has pioneered and which has now become a global industry in its own right. During his time at Imagination Ralph was also responsible for leading a number of groundbreaking experiential programmes for the likes of Coca-Cola, Tate Modern and London Underground. Ralph also led the development of the highly successful and critically acclaimed Guinness Storehouse, in Dublin, which has become Ireland’s number one visitor attraction and one of the world's most admired Brand Experiences. In April 2005 Ralph left Imagination to set up The Brand Experience Consultancy as a new and independent business looking to help brands explore and exploit their potential in the engaging Experience Economy.