Andy Mosmans: Branding beyond Sharp and Ritson

A brand is not merely a way to code advertising. It is a way to code an entire business

Andrew Tindall wrote an insightful reflection for The Drum on the recent debate between Byron Sharp and Mark Ritson at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2026. It showed that, despite years of apparent disagreement, both marketing thinkers actually agree on many of the fundamentals. Mental availability matters. Distinctive assets matter. Creativity matters.

Yet the debate also exposed a bigger issue.

Both Sharp and Ritson are still largely debating branding through the lens of advertising.

Both perspectives have contributed enormously to the profession. Yet both remain rooted in marketing communications.

Branding however is much bigger than that. A brand is not merely a way to code advertising. It is a way to code an entire business. The strongest brands are not simply recognised because of what they say. They are recognised because of what they are. Their purpose, culture, behaviour, innovation, customer experience and leadership all reinforce the same underlying meaning. Branding should therefore not only guide communications, but also strategy, operations, recruitment, investment decisions and stakeholder relationships.

In short: branding is not just about selling. It is about scripting a business in total, about being and becoming. About creating concepts to integratively drive a business and fuel a future.

A powerful example is Magnum. Today, Magnum has evolved into the world's largest ice cream brand and is now leading the newly independent ice cream business that has separated from Unilever. Its success cannot be explained by advertising alone. At the heart of Magnum sits a clear and consistent idea: Free yourself and be true to pleasure. That idea inspires not only consumers, but also employees, creators, partners and investors. It shapes innovation, culture, experiences and growth. The result is a brand that creates desire far beyond the supermarket shelf.

The Magnum example is particularly effective because it moves the discussion from theory to enterprise value creation. Towards coding an entire enterprise around a meaningful idea. It illustrates that a strong brand is not just a memory structure in consumers' minds, but a strategic idea capable of attracting customers, talent, capital and partners simultaneously. That is precisely the broader view of branding that sits beyond both Sharp and Ritson.

This also explains why the industry's obsession with creativity is often misplaced. Creativity is important, but it is a means, not a goal. Great brands are rarely built through endless reinvention. They are built through consistency. Consistency of meaning. Consistency of narrative. Consistency of behaviour. Consistency of expectations.

Creativity creates attention. Consistency creates meaning. And meaning creates value.

That insight becomes even more important in a world increasingly shaped by AI. Artificial intelligence is rapidly democratising execution. Content creation, media optimisation, campaign production and even creativity itself are becoming increasingly accessible and automated. As execution becomes abundant, meaning becomes scarce. And scarcity creates value.

In such a world, the real competitive advantage is no longer the ability to create more content. It is the ability to create stronger belief. The brands that win tomorrow will not simply be the brands people remember. They will be the brands people believe in. Brands that consistently express a meaningful idea across everything they do, for customers, employees, investors, partners and society alike.

The Sharp-Ritson debate asks how brands grow. The more fundamental question is why brands will continue to matter. The answer is surprisingly simple. As artificial intelligence reduces the value of execution, the value of meaning increases. As content becomes abundant, coherence becomes scarce. As creativity becomes automated, consistency becomes strategic. As communication becomes cheaper, belief becomes more valuable.

This is why branding should never be reduced to advertising. Nor to creativity. Nor to distinctive assets. Nor to communications effectiveness. Branding is the discipline of creating concepts that drive a total business, maintaining and growing meaning. A meaning that aligns customers, employees, investors, partners and society around a shared idea. A meaning that guides not only what an organisation says, but what it does and what it becomes.

Because in the end, the strongest brands are not those that win the battle for attention. They are those that win the battle for belief. And in a future increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, belief may become the most valuable asset of all.

Andy Mosmans is the founder & CEO of VENGEAN.

www.vengean.com

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