Laura Jones: 00:10
There's this stubborn business myth that creative strategy and brand strategy belong in the corner over there. When the serious strategy work, the business strategy gets done elsewhere. But what if brand strategy could actually lead the business transformation? I've invited Katerina Baradas today, global brand director at EDP, to help us unpack this myth. With a really interesting background spanning civil engineering and cinema studies, she's not your average brand leader.

Laura Jones: 00:43
And at EVP, she's unveiled the We Choose Earth brand signature. That's not just a tagline. It is backed by €25,000,000,000 investments, with 95 of that going to renewables. That's not marketing fluff. That's business transformation.

Laura Jones: 01:04
I'm Laura Jones, and this is Opinion Party, the podcast where we dispel the most pervasive myths in modern marketing. Marketing. Welcome to the party, Catarina.

Catarina Barradas: 01:13
Hi, Lara. Thanks for your invitation.

Laura Jones: 01:22
Absolutely. So, let's start out with your fascinating background from civil engineering to film school, cinema studies in New York. And now brand leadership. Walk me through that. How did you get from point a to point b?

Catarina Barradas: 01:36
Well, I was 18 at the time when where you have to choose your career or where you're going to study. Quite young. So, my choice was like, I like maths, I like physics, I come from a civil engineer or engineer's family, my dad, my grandfather, my uncle. And I think it was just meant to be. Well, it wasn't a passionate choice, but now when I look back it gave me a lot of interesting learnings that I now use in my career.

Catarina Barradas: 02:09
So, it gave me decision making process and fast decision making, a structured mindset, resilience because it was really hard to study engineering when you're not very passionate about it. And gave me, you know what I say, like it's my credibility, because pretty much I can say and do whatever I want, because when you check on me, she's a civil engineer. After that I realized that civil engineer was fine, was great, it was a great profession, I did it for a while, but I was liking passion, I was liking creativity, I like human beings, I like to understand connection, behaviors, and I like most of all storytelling. So that drove me to the film school in New York, and that opened up horizons, my mindset, my creativity. And actually, it was really important in project management because film is quite an organized enterprise that is put together for a project.

Catarina Barradas: 03:16
And everybody knows what they're doing, their role, their position, their hierarchy. So, for me it was a lot of learnings from that. And then I entered into a company, company, I did film for a while, but then I knew that I needed, you know, some more business skills, so I did an executive MBA in the way to learn, you know, strategy, to learn financials, to learn, you know, management leadership. And then I was able to put all together when I was invited for the, you know, entertainment sector and media sector to be a marketing director for the Fox Entertainment channels, and then Disney, and then this major role that I have at EDP in a completely different sector, a much more structured sector, the energy sector, where I bring all my knowledge that stayed back there from the engineer background, and I bring together the storytelling and the creativity, and I think it makes perfect sense right now. I think when my young 18-year-old didn't see any sense, but now looking back, it's I think my different profile, my different path, my different career makes a lot of sense, and it makes me maybe a different professional.

Laura Jones: 04:38
That is quite the narrative arc. Very, very impressive and well told, I'm sure, thanks to your filmmaking skills. Let's get into business strategy and, more importantly, brand strategy. Now I know you at EDP have really championed the brand strategy being at the heart as it relates to business goals. So, what is that connection?

Catarina Barradas: 04:58
Well, so EDP has been evolving throughout its history, always in alignment with the business strategy. When I joined the company in 2020 EDP had just announced a new business plan, saying that they will be all green by 02/1930, carbon neutral by 02/1940, really ambitious goals and changing their business plan from scratch. And we realized that we had an amazing brand designed by Sagmeister, but was already 11 years old, and was disconnected from the business proposal and the business commitment. So, we realized, and we understood by then that we needed to go under a rebranding. So, we had the business narrative, and we know, and I believe that the brand has to convey that business narrative.

Catarina Barradas: 05:49
For me it was the biggest challenge of my career, to rebrand an energy company, is the most valuable brand in Portugal, and that was a lot of responsibility and a huge challenge. But it was an amazing process because it was not just about the rebranding, was about the narrative, the coherence between the business narrative, the people's narrative, so the culture and internal purpose, and then the brand to go out and position ourselves as a renewable energy company. And it was a long process, it was a yearlong process with three phases, like we started by interviewing almost 2,500 stakeholders, from internal stakeholders to opinion leaders, regulators, investment banking. For me it was the best onboarding ever, because I met it was COVID time, so we were working online and I would jump in calls and meet the head of innovation of EDP that had never seen me before, and I'd say, hi, I'm Katharina, I'm the new head of the global brand, leading the rebranding. And that was not only amazing for me because it gave me a deep understanding of the business, of the company, how proud people were of the brand and of working for EDP, and how great was my responsibility leading that process, and that I had to have it right in the end.

Catarina Barradas: 07:24
And then so we started to work the internal narrative, so the people narrative, the purpose, our energy and heart drive a better tomorrow, that's our internal purpose. And then build a consistent briefing to a design company that would design the new brand, and then a creative agency that would deploy and develop our narrative looking forward. So we worked with Pentagram, a design company based in London, because we needed somebody with fresh eyes to look at, you know, because EDP is such a huge company in Portugal, I needed somebody from the outside with a global perspective, with a different it was a very diverse team, men, women, we had a Portuguese creative designer, Brazilian creative designer, somebody from Asia. So, all that diverse team was looking for the first time of the brand to a to a brand with a really strong legacy, but with new business proposals and how could we come out with the best brand, not only design, but narrative for the future. And so, after one year, we have our new brand, so it's been with us for the last three years, since 02/2022.

Catarina Barradas: 08:48
And I think it has positioned us as a leader in the energy transition, so it's been I think a very fortunate ride and was an amazing I mean the process was so intense it was such a big learning of the company, of the business, of the future goals, of the commitment, of the challenges that we have as a planet, as humanity, climate change. And knowing and learning that I was working for a company with a real clear purpose to lead the energy transition, to create superior value for all stakeholders, for me, it makes me really, you know, not only proud, and I think it was the biggest challenge of my life, I think.

Laura Jones: 09:33
Incredible. That was quite a journey. It sounds like such a thoroughly thought-out process involving multiple stakeholders from all parts of the organization as well as customers. It was almost like the world's perfect trailer for the brand strategy. Can you describe the brand for us?

Laura Jones: 09:51
What was the outcome of all

Catarina Barradas: 09:52
of that? So, the brand so it was really fun the first time I saw the brand design with all the strategy behind it. And the pentagram was presented to us and said, well, this was all based in nature, on circle economies. So, the circularity of nature, circle economies, the circular movement of your wind turbines, because we have a lot of wind turbines. And so, they came up with a spiral, our spiral, which is open and transparent, and the colors are bright because they are the colors of innovation, of nature of innovation, and colors of our people.

Catarina Barradas: 10:32
And then it's open because we invite all stakeholders and partners to help us in the energy transition, that we cannot do it alone. So, we need a lot of partnerships, the most innovative minds and companies to work with us to lead the energy transition. So, I think the brand really conveys that, and then the brand signature, which is we choose ours, is the reason why we do everything that we do in the company. And it's our motto, it's our driver, it's what drives our people, it's what we use when we are hiring, so we are always looking for the like-minded, and we have this claim that earth is calling you to work with us, are you answering the call? And I think it's very clear for everyone in the company what the new brand stands for.

Catarina Barradas: 11:26
And it was a full transformation, it was not just a logo, a new logo design, it was full transformation from the business to the people's narrative, and then to the brand to embrace everything and really convey us in the right way, in the way we differentiate ourselves in a very crowded space of sustainability and how we position ourselves to the world.

Laura Jones: 11:53
Incredible. And you operate across many different markets. Correct? Yep. And those markets have such varying responses to things like sustainability and energy.

Laura Jones: 12:03
How did you adapt the positioning to the cultural nuance of that, and what were some of the things that you learned?

Catarina Barradas: 12:10
Well, the I think the right word was just what you mentioned, adaptation. So, we have these we are all for, you know, coherence, consistency, and we have this global narrative and global strategy, so global campaigns, but we call it a global approach. So, headquarters defines the global brand strategy, but then we really listen to the markets, to their specific needs. So US will have completely different geopolitical situation and business needs from South America, from Asia, so you really listen to those teams and I think my drive is and my team's drive is we are here to help business development and we are here to help teams on the ground to, you know, to drive business, to find new projects, to open projects in new communities, and so what we give them is tools and the consistency how they should engage in those communities, but we really need to listen their insights. So, if the “We Choose Earth” is not working in the US, instance, it's our brand signature, we keep consistent, but we will be speaking more about the benefits of the transition for the community.

Catarina Barradas: 13:33
You know, job creation, community development, how we will invest in certain community projects that leverage that community and brings really benefits for the community. So, we always listen, so it's a global approach, very clear which are our target groups, so we have corporate stakeholders, we have communities, we have our clients, and then we have our internal stakeholders. And then we divide the target message for each target group. And I think like that we've been able to adapt narrative, keeping its consistency, but really fostering and helping the people on the ground on the different markets to develop business and take the best out of the brand.

Laura Jones: 14:23
Sounds like a really inclusive approach. Approach. So, in your time at EDP, you have done something amazing. You mentioned a word earlier before that I want to double click into, transformation. You have been so effective in elevating this brand strategy into all areas of the business.

Laura Jones: 14:42
It's actually driving billions of dollars in investment. How did you get the organization to see something like brand as the driver for all of this?

Catarina Barradas: 14:53
I think the way we are organized internally, we have a leadership team, so we have a CEO and then four EBD members, and one of the members, she comes, she was my former boss at the Fox entertainment channels, and she really understands, you know, the power of brand, the power of storytelling, the power of, you know, clear messaging, consistency in career. And so, we are very aligned. So, it's very helpful when you have somebody that sits in the board level and forces the brand. And I think the biggest shift that I saw happening in the ADP was from the beginning of the process of the rebranding, where the CEO he was very humble to say, I don't understand anything about brand. My background is finance.

Catarina Barradas: 15:48
And but he was really humble to sit and to learn and to listen from us, the specialists, to explain him how important the brand was, and the rebranding was. And I remember when I first presented the brand to the board, the new brand, him saying that there was a discussion because they were putting some of course, rebranding always brings some skepticism and everybody thinks that they know how a brand should be done. So, I never give my opinion on finance matters, but everybody gives an opinion regarding brand matters or marketing matters. And I remember listening to their discussion while I was there waiting to finalize my presentation, and one of the board members said: Listen, this is one of the most impactful things you're going to do at the organization. It's not the business plan that we presented in 2021.

Catarina Barradas: 16:43
This is the moment of the transformation. Everybody will remember this moment. Because we were discussing the way we would present the brand to the company. And for me that was a pivotal moment when I understood that finally those five people were aligned, engaged, and understood the importance of the movement that we were about to make and to present. And so, the strategy how we presented the brand was also really interesting because we had everything ready to go live in a certain moment of time.

Catarina Barradas: 17:19
Geopolitical situation changed. This was 2022 February, Russian and Ukraine conflict started, and suddenly we had to postpone everything because the energy prices were spiking, and it wasn't the moment. So, we postponed anything, and we changed the strategy, and that that shift in strategy was really interesting because instead of doing a big bang, a big rebranding, we decided that we were going to engage internally first. So, employees would be the first to see the brand, and we would present it as a narrative like I explained it. So, it would be a global digital event with some people physically seated in Lisbon because there was COVID time so we could not have a lot of people broadcast to the world, to all the four corners where EDP is present, and we had these five EBD members because he has to be top down, right?

Catarina Barradas: 18:14
And we had each one of them their business strategy for their role, and then the people narrative, the internal purpose, and then the brand was presented. And so, for the employees it was this is really the transformational moment that we've been working, and we've been engaging for the last year. And that change, engaging the organization first, doing it inside out, was crucial for not only employee engagement, people were very proud of the new brand, even the most resistant ones, because there's always resistance. A couple days later I found, I received a phone call, I love the brand, but I prefer the red. I said, you understand that doesn't make sense anymore.

Catarina Barradas: 19:03
But on that afternoon, I remembered that all teams' backdrop was already with the new brand because we presented the brand to the employees first, we only changed, re brand the digital assets, and then we started the process of rebranding all the physical assets: stores, fleet, dams, wind farms, solar farms across the world. Because we knew that couldn't be a process of one day, so wake up one day and everything was rebranded, not only because we didn't have the resources, not only teams, because teams have to focus on business, and then so we needed to prioritize the needs of the rebranding. And we knew that was a long-term project. Immediately we had all digital rebranding and then a long-term project. So, I think the rebranding process brought consciousness to the leadership team how important the brand is and how important it is to internal engagement and stakeholders understanding of the business.

Catarina Barradas: 20:09
So, because they look at our brand and it's clear that we are a global energy company leading the energy transition, and that's our, you know, that's what our brand stands for.

Laura Jones: 20:19
That story is just you would have never thought that something like a geopolitical situation would have actually, in some ways, given you time to pivot the strategy as well as launching internally is a really big part of that because you need to kind of have that understanding from the inside for everyone else outside to really be aligned. So that is so fascinating. But were you worried at points? I mean, that's a great The

Catarina Barradas: 20:51
night before the launch, the event, I was texting, you know, my boss because she was the one that was going to be the brand. And I said, listen, we can be fired. And she goes, yes, both of us. And I said, yes, I know. We need some courage to do this.

Catarina Barradas: 21:08
And I said, well, yes. And I was and the CEO said, texted me I might not read the news for the next four days because we were expecting, you know, probably backlash from the news. Never know how people will react to a rebranding. But I think doing it the way we did, so internally first, and then we also engaged in that afternoon with some of the most important opinion leaders from the media. We called them in and explained strategy.

Catarina Barradas: 21:43
So, they wouldn't receive it as rebranding, so a lot of money put behind and for no reason at all. And they really understand the transformation that the company was going through, and the reason why such a bold move at that period of time. It was nice to explain to them, listen, our logo has been alive for eleven years. It did its job. It's over.

Catarina Barradas: 22:10
Our company changed, so we really need this, and it was clear for everybody. Smart. Super smart. So, you said you never know how people are going to react, but surely you did loads of research that led you to that point. And I bet there are a bunch

Laura Jones: 22:27
of skeptics out there. So, what were some of those points that you were maybe expecting a little bit more, and how did you overcome them? You are an energy company. You are talking about sustainability. That can be a tricky situation.

Catarina Barradas: 22:39
So, I think what we do, and because of that, I mean, one thing I have clear, we cannot never be accused of greenwashing. So, what we do is that we are always very conscious of what we put out, and we have this model that says we walk the talk, meaning that first we implement projects and then we tell the story about the project. And the projects have to make sense, and they have to be really aligned. So, I'm in a very comfortable position because my company is already 95% renewable, and all the sustainability metrics that we put out on the market. We are listed companies, so we have everything really measured and in place by the book.

Catarina Barradas: 23:33
There's a lot of scrutiny of our actions. And when we speak about sustainability, we have everything in place to speak about sustainability on the renewable space, on the energy space. What we have to make sure is that first, we are very coherent and consistent in the projects that we put money behind, so they have to be aligned. When we say we choose Earth, the projects have to comply with that, because it's a huge responsibility. And when we tell the stories of the project that we already implemented, we always make sure that those projects comply with everything that we are telling, you know, to investors, to analysts, to everyone, to journalists.

Catarina Barradas: 24:22
So, we really, we are really careful to not only what we do, although we are an innovative company, we have a lot of innovation. Sometimes innovation fails. That's part of being innovative. But we always tell the stories in a very truthful way. First, because the projects are already implemented.

Catarina Barradas: 24:43
So, I know what happened. I know what we did on those projects. And we engage with the teams on the projects for them to tell us exactly what they are doing, how they did it, and how we tell the story. So being I think reputation is really key in this sector. So, and brand is reputation, and brand is what people say what other people say the brand it is.

Catarina Barradas: 25:10
It's not what we say what we are. And so, we are always very careful in how we address skepticism, the way we address the way how we are responsible for the truth. And yes, only stories that really happen are being told. Walking the talk. Love that.

Catarina Barradas: 25:32
Love that. And so, you've launched this brand. Right?

Laura Jones: 25:36
You have this big global splash. It's out there. But as we well know, brands are not stagnant. The minute you put it out there, the brand is constantly evolving and changing. So, what is your strategy to keep all of your stakeholders constantly apprised of the latest innovations, the evolution of the brand, reacting to certain other moments that are happening, current events?

Laura Jones: 26:01
How do you manage that?

Catarina Barradas: 26:02
So first, we need to be really attentive. So, the energy is a key sector. Right? So geopolitical has a huge interference in our business and our brand. And local markets, they're really different realities.

Catarina Barradas: 26:20
So, what we do is that we revise the strategy every year. Sometimes we have to shift what we decided, like in January, in March, because the world changed. And we know that we've been evolving from so we started out with a very a narrative very focused on, you know, the climate and the planet, etcetera. And we've been learning that people are really keen to understand what's in it for them, what is the economical benefit of the transition. Because you say all these energy jargons and people don't understand.

Catarina Barradas: 27:01
So, energy transition, what does that mean? So, for us it's very clear that we have to have simple stories, simple messages. We have to translate the energy jargons into simple and clear message. Green energy for clean energy. As in clean energy is clear.

Catarina Barradas: 27:17
It's the air that you breathe. We need to explain the need for electrification because the planet needs that, but we nearly really need to address what's in it for the people and for the communities. Am I creating jobs? Am I creating value? Am I lowering the energy build of a family?

Catarina Barradas: 27:39
Am I helping businesses to be more sustainable? More wind, electrification, mobility. So, we really focus on the energy solutions that we have for each stakeholder, and that's where we leverage our innovation, our business, and our stories. And, yeah, that's how we do it. So, a lot of attention to the geopolitical, a lot of adaptation, a lot of embrace change, so my team knows that what we are saying today, it might not be true tomorrow, although we keep very consistent.

Catarina Barradas: 28:17
And our I think our motto, brand signature, our why, it's always there. And the business objective is there, so we are already 95% generating energy from renewable sources. So, and then we, you know, then we engage innovation, we bring in technology, we bring in, you know, all the new solutions into our creativity, into our projects. We something that we do regularly is that we are always speaking with the teams, innovation teams, social impact teams, sustainability teams, to learn from them what are the projects that they're doing, and what are the best projects to tell story, because not all projects are story oriented. I cannot tell the story of preservation of biodiversity in a solar park, because it's hard to tell.

Catarina Barradas: 29:19
We do that, it's everything right, and we do wonderful projects every time we do a solar installation, take care of the biodiversity, we do everything better than we are supposed to do. Then there's really interesting projects on robotics, you know, how we find new solutions to install solar panels, to maintain our wind turbines without endangering our employees because it's really high. We put robots going to the to the highest to the height of the of the wind turbine. So that's what we do. We engage with all, you know, main teams in this innovation space, sustainability space, and social impact space,

Laura Jones: 30:11
and learn from them and tell those stories. Everything you just said really feels like the ethos of IRG, which we're both members of. And we know as part of that, CMOs should have their beyond marketing. And you certainly, through all of these initiatives, have shown how important marketing can be to driving business decisions. One last question before the party's over.

Laura Jones: 30:37
What advice would you give to other CMOs who are trying to elevate what they're doing to the board level, to the business level? How should they think about engaging with their stakeholders and leveraging brand for business decisions?

Catarina Barradas: 30:50
Well, I think having a close relationship with CEO, if you are a CMO, you should engage directly to the CEO. If you are, in my case, I'm the brand and the marketing responsible for the company, I really engage with executive board member that has the role of the CMO, and she's completely aligned with me. We you have to be really open to the rest of the company. You cannot sit alone and doing your strategy without alignment with what the business is doing, with the strategy looking forward. So, you have to anticipate the strategy, or at least know it beforehand, then set strategy.

Catarina Barradas: 31:38
Engage with all these different stakeholders, in my case it's very important to engage with innovation, people in development, our HR department, social impact, sustainability to understand what projects they are doing and how can we tell the stories. You have to make them see the importance of telling the stories because then they feel really proud when they see either in social media or in television a story about their project, you know, and make them part of that storytelling, that process. Be very open. I think you should have an amazing team, lead with authenticity, make sure people understand that brand is reputation, so you really need to be careful how you address the brand, you need to be truthful, you need to be and you need to make a voice inside the company, you need to find your way to be respected and to be trusted. And yeah, so I always try to learn fast.

Catarina Barradas: 32:48
I'm a curious learner. I'm always reading I'm always, you know, reading about geopolitical that I didn't need that much when I was in the entertainment sector. Now it's key to anticipate what the company will be shifting to, so be ahead of trends, and then be nice. Be nice internally. Don't be arrogant.

Catarina Barradas: 33:11
I don't know anything. I know I love to learn from my peers, so besides learning from of course the leadership team because they always know more. But my peers, you know, the head of sustainability, the head of social impact, the head of innovation, their teams, they know more about their project than I do. So, I need to learn from them and make my team collaborate. So be nice and collaborative.

Catarina Barradas: 33:34
I think that's my best advice. I don't have anything else to say.

Laura Jones: 33:39
I love that. Be nice and collaborative. It has been such a fun time with you, Katerina, on opinion party. Thank you so much for joining. If I had to sum up our conversation in a word or two, it would be a lot, but so much goodness.

Laura Jones: 33:55
And, really, thank you for everything that you're doing for the IRG community and for the earth.

Catarina Barradas: 34:01
Thank you. Thank you, Laura.

Laura Jones: 34:03
Yeah. Thank you so much for joining Opinion Party. If you want to learn anything more deeply about what you heard today, you can check it out in the show notes. And remember, everyone's invited to this party, so make sure you subscribe and like wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining.