As we approach CHARGE Europe (17-18 October), we’ve been asking our top speakers and partners to reveal their approach to branding in energy. In this article, we speak to Rune Kirt, CEO and Partner of KIRT x THOMSEN.
The interviewers are Friðrik Larsen, Founder and Owner of CHARGE and Natalie Bacon, Content Director at CHARGE.
What should the audience expect from your workshop at Charge Energy Branding this year?
You should expect to open your mindset of why collaboration is becoming so important in the energy transition. And get a snap view of how new tools, methods, and competencies can be used in pursuing energy innovation successfully, thus resulting in eg. shorter time-to-market, new visionary innovation, more competitive products, and an accelerated green transition. We will showcase and discuss the Power of Design and Visual Storytelling, and you will interact with us.
What do you think are the biggest opportunities today for energy companies relating to brand innovation?
For many years, we (society, organizations, and industry) have focused on linear thinking and silo-based development. The trends shift towards a new circular economy where value chains, sectors, and professions become interlinked and – successful – collaboration is a necessity. This opens new opportunities for integrating new competencies. Going from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) to STEAM = being in the Arts; humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts, design, and new media.
How do you see your clients use the power of design and visual storytelling to pursue energy innovation?
Science tells us that we as humans understand an image 60.000 times faster than a written sentence. That’s the power of visual storytelling and we see our clients using this as a great medium to create better access to finance/investors and efficient collaboration across value chains/sectors/professions. Put on top design’s ability to look into future scenarios while developing new product innovation with a holistic mindset and an iteration-based co-creation process.
What advice would you leave brand and marketing leaders going into 2023/24?
Collaborate very close with R&D! Lots of the stories are already in creation inside your company. This sounds easy: just put forward the innovation from R&D. It is not easy because the devil is the detail, and if loose the details, you lose the engineers as brand ambassadors. At the same time, you need to elevate the innovation and show what is the big vision and change, to communicate to the many stakeholders in the process, from internal management teams to industry partners, to politicians, to citizens. Think BIG while keep your feet on the ground. Utilize the power of design and visual storytelling.
