Brandroad is back.

For the first time, with international guests and bilingual episodes — in Italian and English.

This third edition is a mini-season that explores the present. What does it mean to do branding today? What are the hottest topics?

I’ve chosen four.

We start with differentiation — once everything, then suddenly nothing. We’ll discuss it with Mark Ritson, marketing and brand management consultant for some of the world’s biggest brands, founder of the Mini MBA, and one of the most respected columnists in the marketing world.

Then we move to distinctiveness, probably the single most crucial factor for brand success today. We’ll talk about it with Jenni Romaniuk, professor and researcher at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, author of Building Distinctive Brand Assets, and arguably the world’s leading expert on this topic.

Next comes brand management, to see how these ideas work in practice — how a leader runs an iconic brand today. We’ll discuss it with Carlo Colpo, Chief Marketing Officer of the Lavazza Group.

Finally, we close with creativity — now backed by more data than ever proving its essential role in brand growth and success. Our guest is Erik Kessels — artist, curator, and designer, creative partner at KesselsKramer, and a recent inductee into the Italian Art Directors Club Hall of Legends.

Welcome — this is the third season of Brandroad. And it starts on Friday.