Gerety Talks Creative Strategy

Gerety Talks Creative Strategy on Tuesday, March 15th with Kit Altin, Sarolta Gal and Laia Abellán Ponce de León

Just like the award show, the Gerety Talks series puts some of the marketing and creative industry’s true changemakers in the spotlight – and at the centre of the conversation – with the aim to drive progress within the industry on a global scale. The series will bring together agency and brand leaders from around the globe for a refreshing take on what leadership looks like.

Kit Altin, chief strategy officer, The Gate Worldwide, UK

Kit is known for having the most extraordinary career path in the industry due to her entrepreneurial spirit. Her career spanned from set designer and builder, to community manager for Iron Maiden, to Head of Innovation and Global Planning Director at Leo Burnett London; here she led strategy on the global fabric care portfolio for Procter and Gamble, as well as devising the world-first responsive multiplatform campaign for the London 2012 Olympics sponsorship by McDonald’s.

Currently Kit is chief strategy officer at The Gate, where in 3 years has helped to transform the strategic and creative output, create a unique working culture, and win a record-breaking number of awards in the history of the agency, positioning The Gate as top performing UK small agency at D&AD and Cannes in 2021. This year, she was also distinguished with the Drum Strategy team of the year award. Kit has a clear growth mindset and has been pivotal in building The Gate’s client roster.

Kit’s no stranger to building businesses from the ground up and one of her passions is communication that changes the world for the better. She co-founded a successful agency – Change – to do just that. Change was internationally recognised and highly awarded for its innovative and effective campaigns, and Kit was named by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising as a Woman of Tomorrow for her pioneering work with Change.

Kit is also renowned for her commitment to help building careers and is a leading member of the D&AD faculty, designing and delivering some of their most popular masterclasses, raising the skills bar for individuals, agencies, and brands. She has judged prestigious award shows such as D&AD, D&AD New Blood and Effies, and regularly speaks at industry events and conferences.

Sarolta Gal, strategy director, DDB, Hungary

Sarolta has been working in various fields of marketing for more than 25 years. Starting her career as a marketer at Kraft Foods (now Mondelez) where, as a marketing director she led the whole marketing operation of the company.

As a marketing professional, Sarolta found herself always more excited about and engaged with the process of strategic thinking and planning than about implementation. This led to founding her own consulting business with a profile of marketing and brand strategy consulting for multinational companies in various sectors. In 2008 Sarolta took a job in advertising and has been working as a Strategy Director ever since, currently at DDB. Sarolta is fascinated by the evolution of the understanding of customer choice dynamics and brand growth in general and the role creativity plays in those.

Laia Abellán Ponce de León, head of CS DACH (Interim), Meta Creative Shop EMEA, Germany

Brand strategist – driven by a curiosity for people and puzzles.

Passionate about helping brands deliver better personal experiences and products that connect and grow at the speed of culture.

Laia started her career as brand strategist at FCB Barcelona and has since worked for McCann-Erickson Madrid, Scholz&Friends Hamburg, Heimat Berlin and DDB / VOLTAGE Berlin, before joining Meta Creative Shop early in 2019.

With 15 years of experience leading brands and teams through transformation and acceleration projects, Laia has led brand repositioning efforts for global players such as Coca-Cola, Ferrero, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom and lastly, for Volkswagen. As DDB Executive Strategy Director for Volkswagen, she was part of the team leading the Volkswagen New Brand Design and the Global Agency Pitch. Since joining Meta, she has been dedicated to helping the eMobility, CPG and Fashion e-com industry boost their social-first strategies with platform innovation.

Laia is committed to being an ally and helping make a more equal workplace and society. As a mentor to younger talent, Laia is dedicated to female empowerment. In particularly, she is raising awareness and shaping inclusivity around the otherwise often invisibilized Pregnancy & Infant Loss, Childless & Childfree communities. In 2021 she was part of the team leading the launch of The Compassionate Pad, the world’s first pad designed with the physical and emotional needs of those experiencing pregnancy loss in mind.

Always on the lookout for better ways of connecting business and brand strategy, Laia holds an Executive MBA by ESADE and has been teaching and mentoring new talent at the Business School ESDEN.