About Brand Potential

Brand Potential is a brand transformation agency with a mission to turn today’s brands into brands of the future. Operating across London, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, the agency offers a seamless blend of research, design, strategy, creative development, and reputation management. With a footprint across Europe and beyond, they work with global brands to unlock new market opportunities, drive innovation, and craft standout brand identities.

The Challenge

Following a period of rapid expansion, Brand Potential faced an urgent need to strengthen their senior leadership team. They sought to appoint an Innovation Director capable of leading major innovation and strategy projects and expanding the agency’s capabilities across new European markets like Italy, France, and the Nordics.

The brief was exacting:

• Find an experienced, hands-on leader who could translate complex consumer insight into commercially viable innovation strategies.

• Identify someone confident working with C-Suite clients, able to take control in high-pressure environments like workshops and client immersions.

• Secure a candidate who could not only deliver, but inspire, bringing fresh thinking and energy into a newly evolving, collaborative leadership culture.

Adding to the complexity, the Innovation Director needed to fit seamlessly into Brand Potential’s tight-knit, ego-free environment; a major shift following the company’s transition away from founder-led leadership.

Our Approach

Nicholson Glover moved quickly, leveraging deep sector expertise and an expansive network within brand innovation, strategy, and design.

• Targeted search: Focused on professionals with 5–8+ years’ experience across consumer brand innovation, both agency and client-side.

• Nuanced screening: Prioritised candidates who combined strategic acumen with creativity, commerciality, and the ability to “get into the trenches” on project delivery.

• Speed with precision: Sent 7 carefully matched CVs within 6 weeks of the briefing, ensuring every candidate met the brief’s nuanced criteria.

Throughout the process, we stayed in close communication with Brand Potential, providing advice, market insight, and strategic guidance to ensure every step of the recruitment journey was smooth and efficient.

The Result

Within 10 weeks, Nicholson Glover successfully placed an outstanding Innovation Director into the business. The client quickly recognised the quality of the match, referring to the new hire as a “superstar” only weeks after they joined.

The new Innovation Director has since:

• Taken ownership of high-profile innovation and strategy projects.

• Relieved pressure from the senior leadership team, allowing them to refocus on growth.

• Brought new energy, ideas, and structure to Brand Potential’s evolving European expansion efforts.

Client Testimonial

“Rudy is super responsive and well connected, always introducing relevant candidates. He has a very strong understanding of our particular business and the type of nuanced and specialist new team members we look for — no easy task!”

— Tom Lovett, Founder & Chief Operating Officer at Brand Potential