Creativity Starts with Understanding
At Consid’s office by Stortorget in Malmö, Lia describes her role as a combination of strategist, creative, and creative leader.
“In my role, I usually take the strategic helicopter perspective, both when it comes to developing ideas and coaching the creative team, understanding why and what we should do, and ultimately assessing the creative quality of the end product.”
With experience across both B2B and B2C brands, she sees clear differences in how organisations approach communication.
B2C companies often have a stronger commercial drive tied to their own existence, making them more willing to take different, bold, and creative approaches and challenge established ways of communicating. They also tend to have a greater awareness of their customers’ unique needs and preferences, which more often results in communication that feels responsive and personally relevant.
B2B companies, on the other hand, tend to group their target audiences in relatively stereotypical ways and often focus more on what they themselves want to communicate rather than fully adapting their communication to the recipient’s needs and perspective. At the same time, there is a tendency to underestimate the value of emotional communication. Much of it looks the same, sounds the same, and follows the same established conventions, even though people make decisions with both their hearts and their minds – including in B2B.
“It’s both trendless and full of trends”
Today, the media landscape is changing faster than ever, and Lia is convinced that the strongest brands of the future will rely less on polished messaging and more on genuine relationships.
“It’s no longer enough to send out bland messages through a bombastic marketing machine. It’s disrespectful to the recipient. People aren’t passive recipients of advertising – they choose what they let into their lives. Brands will need to take a stand in order to build genuine and meaningful relationships, and that happens through dialogue, collaboration with their target audiences, and shared values with their community.”
At the same time, she sees a clear shift in how trends work.
“It’s both trendless and full of trends at the same time – a paradox that makes expression freer, more personal, and opens up opportunities for play and experimentation. I’ve talked about trends in various contexts and on different stages for more than ten years, and when AI became widespread, I wondered whether it was even worth continuing. But my conclusion was a clear yes. AI can compile and reproduce, but it cannot replace experience, intuition, and a personal perspective. My trend forecasts are based on my experience, my ability to interpret tendencies, amplify them and see connections, but also on my ability to envision where development is heading.”
