Illuminari unites a collective of influential marketing leaders, including Les Binet, Rory Sutherland, Dr Karen Nelson-Field and Nishma Patel Robb to offer brands “cognitive diversity”.
A group of some of marketing’s highest profile experts have banded together under the name Illuminari and has set itself the mission to tackle marketing’s most important conversations and problems.
The union, or “brains trust” as it’s described is based on the premise of “delightful disobedience” and the collective of marketing leaders have been assembled for their “cognitive diversity, not just credibility”, according to a statement. They will tackle growth strategy, leadership alignment and commercial briefs.
The collective will include the likes of effectiveness experts Les Binet, Dr. Karen Nelson-Field and Orlando Wood, leadership expert and entrepreneur Margaret Hefferman and behavioural science experts Richard Shotton and Rory Sutherland.
Kerry Collinge, who alongside Anna Cairns founded Illuminari, claims the problems marketers face “need minds that can cut through noise, guide clarity and help teams make better decisions in real time.”
Marketing Week spoke to some of the Illuminari and asked one question – what is marketing’s biggest problem?
Sutherland, now president emeritas at Ogilvy UK, said marketing is being “broken by becoming excessively conformist” and there is a “massive need for an injection of the counterintuitive and the dissenting into the business”.
He feels the industry has “allowed ourselves to be framed by cost”. Les Binet, marketing effectiveness expert and founder of Binet Consulting Ltd, says AI is the “obvious challenge” and firms need “the very best human intelligence on their side” to thrive.
Similarly in a world increasingly dominated by AI, founder and CEO of The Glittersphere – and another Illuminari member – Nishma Patel Robb, says the biggest issue marketing faces is the “growing trust gap” and the “urgent need” for marketers “to make brands and communications more deeply human again”.
For Richard Shotton, “marketers still place too much trust in what their customers tell them. Uncritically accepting survey or focus group results leads to overly rational attempts at persuasion”. All of which, leads to wasted time and money.
Other members include eatbigfish founder Adam Morgan, Butterfly Effect CEO Elfried Samba and Glow CEO and #slowthefuckdown founder Emma Harris.
In addition to consultancy, the collective are available for keynote bookings, broadcast appearances, bespoke workshops, leadership alignment sessions and Live Lab sessions.
Illuminari will officially launch via a broadcast at 5pm on 10 March, bringing together Rory Sutherland, Dr. Karen Nelson-Field, Daryl Fielding, Les Binet and Peter Field to discuss whether AI has broken the holding company model. You can sign up here.
