Capel Group

We were thrilled to welcome Ralph van Dijk (Co-Founder, Salio Sonic Strategy) to the latest Capel Academy session, diving deep into the often-overlooked power of sonic branding. In this global session for talent within our Agency Network, we explored how the world’s most successful brands build long-term audio equity that connects with audiences on a deeply emotional level. It was a powerful reminder that audio is the catalyst that makes your entire campaign work harder, it is quite literally an unfair advantage hiding in plain sight. By moving away from one-off creative decisions and building a structured "Sonic Code™ ," brands can establish instant, consistent recognition across every touchpoint. The Capel Academy’s Guest Speaker Series is all about bringing diverse perspectives, challenging conventional thinking, and inspiring excellence within Capel Group. Here are some quick snippets from the session. 

For global enterprise brands, the hardest thing to earn is continuous trust. For major international hospitality brands, handing over the keys to an entire regional portfolio requires immense confidence. When Accor transitioned 22 properties across Japan to its Grand Mercure and Mercure brands, they needed a partner they could trust with a high-stakes regional rollout. That is why they partnered with Eat Creative. As a boutique strategic and creative consultancy with over 25 years' experience bridging cultures and growing brands, Eat is uniquely equipped for this level of market complexity. This landmark project proves why global leaders trust Capel Group's agencies: we combine decades of deep, specialised experience with the senior, founder-led accountability required to deliver on a global stage. Congratulations to the Eat team on earning and delivering on that trust so beautifully. Read their full case study here: https://lnkd.in/g_ZAaTUt

AI is changing how marketing teams create, test and scale work. But speed is not the same as distinction. As more brands adopt the same tools, the risk is that more work starts to feel interchangeable. The advantage will sit with teams that know how to use AI without losing the strategy, specificity and craft that make a brand recognisable. We asked leaders across Capel Group’s network where human judgement still matters most. Victoria Tang-Owen (鄧愛嘉), Creative Director & Co-Founder of Thirty30 Creative, shared this view: “AI expands creative possibilities, but human judgement and craft give work direction, specificity and emotional resonance.” That is the balance clients need now. Automation can support the process. It can open up options, accelerate workflows and help teams move faster. But brand differentiation still depends on senior judgement: knowing what to make, what to reject, what feels true to the brand and what will connect with the audience. Capel Group gives clients central access to founder-led specialist talent across brand, communications, design, production, experience and consultancy, helping them use new tools without losing the craft that makes the work distinctive.

The intersection of sport, fashion, youth culture, and commerce requires a completely specialised approach to retail architecture and experiential design. One Fine Day Design (OFD) is a specialist consultancy creating immersive retail and brand experiences for global sports and sports fashion brands. Led by Kevin Gill, the team designs experience-led commercial environments for category leaders and multi-brand retailers to drive customer engagement and growth. Operating out of Manchester, they create cutting-edge physical environments for trend-setting apparel and luxury brands, including Puma, Represent, and Prodirect (PDFC). By blending historical heritage, storytelling, and elite customer interaction, OFD successfully transforms traditional transactional retail spaces into world-class brand experiences and immersive cultural hubs. Explore how Capel Group's global agency network can help your global brand turn traditional brick-and-mortar spaces into powerful cultural destinations: https://onefineday.design/

True experience-led design starts with a story that shapes how guests connect with and remember a physical space. Keane, a hospitality and F&B design consultancy within the Capel Group agency network, was recently awarded 'Highly Commended' for Best Narrative-Driven Concept Design at the Commercial Interior Design Awards. For over thirty years, they have advised, created, and delivered brands, spaces, and destinations that people fall in love with. Their award-winning work demonstrates how spaces turn into immersive experiences by grounding structural design in a clear story. It is a perfect reflection of our wider global agency network capability: specialists in their field, delivering high-calibre work for international brands. Congratulations to the Keane team.

Fantastic to see the Capel Group talent pool growing! Congratulations to Joyce Craddock and the Eat Creative team. We are looking forward to accelerating our momentum together and achieving great things ahead.

The way people discover brands is changing. Search is becoming more fragmented. AI summaries are reshaping how information is found. Broad reach alone is no longer enough to build trust. For clients, the question is becoming sharper: what kind of content earns attention when audiences are filtering more, clicking less and expecting more substance? We asked leaders across Capel Group’s network for their view on what is working now. Mike Roberts, Chief Creative Officer at Keane, put it simply: “It’s still those moments that make you pause, think, smile or cry - building an emotional response to content, whether good or bad drives saliency and therefore impact.” AI can accelerate production. But trust is still built through judgement, craft and storytelling that feels specific to the audience and the moment. Across Capel Group, clients can access specialist agency talent across brand, communications, design, production, experience and consultancy. The value is not just more content. It is sharper content, shaped by people who know how to make it matter.

For luxury hospitality brands, every detail has to carry the standard of the experience. Carbon recently partnered with The Ritz-Carlton on flagship creative assets for its international Stellar Dining Series, an annual programme bringing distinctive culinary experiences to major APAC markets, this time including Tokyo, Kyoto and Guangzhou. The work combined cinematic live action with immersive 3D animation to capture the atmosphere, craft and premium character of the series. It is a strong example of Carbon’s creative and production expertise in luxury hospitality: storytelling built with the same attention to detail as the experience itself. For Capel Group, it shows the value of the network in action. Specialist founder-led agency talent, delivering high-calibre creative work for ambitious international brands.

An organisation is only as strong as the people behind it. In an increasingly digital workplace, the real challenge is not just setting direction, but ensuring that people across the organisation feel informed, connected and part of something meaningful. Within Capel Group, Open Communication Group plays a central role in making that happen. Open is a change agency that combines strategic thinking with creative execution to connect and engage employees. They help organisations make complex topics feel simple, and large organisations feel more human, turning strategy into communication that people can understand and act on. With teams in Copenhagen and Cape Town, Open partners with global organisations to bridge silos, strengthen culture and support transformation at scale. Their focus is on creating solutions that make a real difference for employees, wherever they are, and helping organisations navigate change in a way that is both clear and meaningful. Taking a holistic, cross-functional approach, Open works across strategy, HR, IT, communications and leadership to ensure alignment and lasting impact. By integrating this capability into our network, we strengthen our ability to support clients where transformation truly happens: Among people. Helping organisations create clarity, build engagement and drive lasting change from the inside out. Read more: www.weareopen.eu Kristina Palitzsch Malther | Peter Braasch | Bo Bregnholt

Founder-led agencies are at their best when senior talent stays close to the work. Capel Group was built to help that talent play bigger. We connect founder-led agencies through a global network, giving clients access to specialist capability across brand, communications, design, production, experience and consultancy, all through one central point of access. For agencies, it creates greater reach and shared strength. For clients, it means ambitious work shaped by the right specialists, without losing the agility, craft and accountability of independent agency teams. - Michael Ashton, Chief Operating Officer of Capel Group