Senior brand thinking, inside your team.

Every so often a client walks in with a problem your team can’t crack. Not for lack of talent, but because the answer isn’t in the category, the data, or anything the client can articulate. Those briefs don’t arrive often enough to keep a specialist on staff, and they arrive too rarely to be worth losing. That’s the gap I fill: for a pitch, a project, or an account you’ve held for years that has quietly stopped making sense.

Günter Soydanbay · Brand strategist · Psychotherapist for Brands · Brussels

The questions I get handed

25

years of brand strategy

150+

brands, from startups to nations

19

countries, across five continents

To win it

When the decision turns on the strategy rather than the execution, I work inside your team on the thinking the client will judge you by.

To deliver it

When the work is yours and the brief needs a senior mind you don’t have free, I do it alongside your people and hand it over in a form they can carry forward.

What you get

A strategy your client can act on, a brief your creatives can run with, and a client who hears their own thinking said back to them, better than they could say it. Most of what I do is help people say what they already knew. They tend to call it a revelation, which is generous of them.

Your client stays yours

I work under your name, present as part of your team, and take the credit you choose to give me. Discretion is the job: a psychotherapist who discusses his patients at parties is not long in practice.

I have partnered with Günter on several projects over the last 8 years.

Allison Rietta · Creative Director, Diagonal Creative · Toronto

Over the years, I worked with Günter on numerous projects. He can blend academy-level strategic acumen with creativity, seeing the hidden potential in every situation. He is a genuine gentleman, with whom my team and clients enjoyed working.

Alper Kulak · Managing Partner, Maven Insights · Dubai

Questions you might ask

Will our client know you’re external?

That’s yours to decide. Many agencies introduce me as part of the team; some name me in the proposal. Both work.

Can you be named as an expert in a proposal?

Yes. I’ll send a CV in whatever format you need.

How are fees set?

Per project, quoted after the first call. More questions.

Where agencies bring me in most

Financial services; multi-brand groups, including FMCG portfolios; and premium B2B suppliers in manufacturing and professional services. I work in English and Turkish from Brussels, with agencies across Europe, Turkey, the Gulf and North America.

Selected work through agency partners

NATO · European Commission · Diageo · Holcim · Lonza · Carvana · KingSett Capital · Papara · Doğuş Group · Sanko Holding

See the work

About me

Trained in psychology, with an MBA, I’ve spent 25 years on brand strategy for more than 150 brands across Europe, Turkey, the Gulf and North America. I work in English and Turkish. More about me.