I’m a freelance copywriter, creative director and digital strategist.

Hello there, my name is Xanthos and Mind Hack is my creative and strategic consultancy.

Throughout my 20 year career as a freelance copywriter, creative director and digital strategist, my focus has been to help clients build a strong brand and, ultimately, to dominate their sector.

Building trust and market share

With a strong brand you don’t need to outspend competitors. You can outsmart them with precision targeted campaigns that build trust, increase market share and drive sales.

Increase the value of your business

Just as importantly, a strong brand also inspires confidence in potential investors or prospective buyers of your company.

According to research by Millward Brown, “Companies are bought and sold for vast sums of money, above and beyond the value of factories, patents and processes, on the strength of their brands.”

Put your company in the best possible position

So, in short, whether you want to attract more customers and grow your business or court potential buyers so you can sell your company for the highest price, a strong brand puts you in the best possible position.

I first started working with etc.venues, in 2017. The brief was clear and irresistibly ambitious: To transform a leading UK meeting and events company into a global brand.

My initial objective was to create a distinctive brand campaign that differentiated etc.venues from its competitors. The result was the ‘Supercharged not Superficial’ campaign which helped the business quickly win over planners and organisers with a distinctive, playful, and irreverent tone of voice..

How do you encourage the public to attend events straight after a global pandemic? Well, the first step is to remind people just how exciting events are and plant the seed that they should attend an event next time they receive an invite. The result was this poster campaign which ran across the London Underground network. It generated a serious buzz on social media with people sharing and tweeting feedback including “Best advert I’ve seen in a while. Well done @etcvenues”

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etc.venues wanted to celebrate their New York opening in style. Huge bio-degradable pink balloons were tied to landmarks across the city with an invitation for New Yorkers to take a selfie (with the balloon) and post on their social feeds. Watch the video to check out how the stunt unfolded.

At the same time, New York event planners were targeted through a trade press campaign which differentiated etc.venues’ from their competitors: hotels. The key difference being that hotels are focussed on serving leisure guests rather than the business community.

We knew from customer feedback, that one of the most appealing aspects of attending a meeting or event at etc.venues was the quality of the food. That’s probably why micro videos like these generated thousands of likes, shares and revenue.

Altogether, 25 micro videos were created. The campaign quickly helped to position the brand as ‘The Inspiration Organisation’.

In 2023, etc.venues celebrated their 30th anniversary and the business was sold to its US rival, creating the world’s leading global events’ brand. To celebrate the achievement, the company commissioned this beautiful coffee table book.

The work you see here is just a small sample that helped etc.venues achieve their objective. Last year, the UK business made headlines in the FT when it was sold in a deal worth £200 million to a US rival, creating a leading global events provider. It’s a great example of how developing a strong brand can deliver outstanding results.

If you want to truly connect with your audience and generate results, get in touch to see how Mind Hack could be your new business hack by emailing xanthos@mindhack.agency or call 07949 992884