Elevating Creative Leadership in Marketing with Amy Belledin of ARMANDO CABRAL

Aug 15

Amy Belledin is Chief Marketing Officer of ARMANDO CABRAL, a men’s luxury footwear brand that combines African artisanal textiles matched with bespoke Italian craftsmanship.

In this episode of Let's Talk Limbic Sparks, Amy reveals how hybrid creative / strategy roles in marketing help brands scale big ideas to connect emotionally with consumers. She shares insights from her experiences as she moved from art director to creative director to creative strategist to chief marketing officer, across a variety of fashion, luxury and beauty brands.

Amy talks about how she is influenced by art, and strives to create a culture and community around a brand that sparks emotional connection and brand affinity. We discuss how engaging people's hearts before their head builds relationships that have the highest lifetime value.

Key Takeaways and Soundbites:

“I love and appreciate brand experiences that are fully immersive.”

“Fashion was always the place where people were pushing boundaries, using artistic tools, using creative directors who were creating pieces of art as part of their marketing, creative plan or clothes – and I just thought that was the coolest thing ever.”

“The Creative Strategist role is about bringing in people who are really adept at merging business acumen of any retail-oriented company and really understands how to sell things, how to operationalize things, how to take something from a really little idea and make it into a really large-scale idea.”

“Hybridized roles embrace more diverse backgrounds that might be a little bit different than traditional marketing backgrounds are definitely having an impact on the brands that recognize that culture needs to be built.”

“If you want a creative team to come back with amazing creative ideas, you have to let them do what they are best at, and trust that they are going to come back to you with some really incredible ideas and approaches to solving the problem or challenge that you've outlined.”

“If the creative brief tries to solve the problem ahead of time, it denies not just your creative team, but it denies your brand the opportunity to explore something you haven't necessarily thought of yet.”

“Capturing the hearts of your consumers is really going to help you capture their head also. If you do the heart first and the head second, you're definitely looking at a relationship that is going to have a much higher lifetime value.”

“It is really important to listen to your gut, and do what you think makes the most sense.”

Here are some fun facts about Amy…

Amy Belledin is the CMO of ARMANDO CABRAL, a founder-led luxury lifestyle brand that has its roots in Men's footwear. A creative by trade, she has recently transitioned into a marketing leadership position where she leverages her background to build culture and customer solutions with art and design at the forefront. Prior to this role, Amy has held Creative Director and Creative Strategist roles at brand such as Real Self, Blue Nile, Nordstrom, New Balance and Clinique.