I’m Andrew Nicholson, a brand specialist, with many years of experience across strategy, visual identity, communications and sponsorship.

Over two decades I’ve worked across B2B and B2C, helping start-ups, scale-ups, SMEs and large corporates bring their brands to life.

Cord has been created to help you with brand strategies, distinctive identities and impactful communication plans by bringing the essential threads together: purpose, vision, mission, and values.

What you get

A senior leader fully committed to your team and your brand, without the cost this role would normally attract if it were on your payroll.

You hire for the time you need:

一 A fixed-term project

一 Strategy sessions

一 Some time each month to ensure the strategy is on track

一 Support with coaching and developing your existing team

This means you get deep marketing knowledge, an executive-level partnership, and an experienced marketer who knows how to get things done at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire. 

Four areas of expertise

  • As Cord founder, I have over 25 years' experience working with leaders and their teams to bring out the best ideas. I’ll help you articulate your purpose, mission and values and create the brand story that ties them all together.

  • Cord helps make great work by getting deep under the skin of brands. Working across B2C and B2B with a tried and trusted process that starts with the business DNA and defining the brand purpose, proposition and values. These strands create the structures for distinctive design.

  • From start-ups and scale-ups to corporates and the third sector, I have a proven track record of translating the business vision into a compelling corporate narrative and communication strategy that transforms brands.

  • Bringing brands to life through innovative partnerships with some of the world’s biggest events. I’ve created unique stories with the London Marathon, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Edinburgh International Festival, Newcastle United and Manchester United.

How Cord works on projects

I’ll sit with your team, but with a fresh perspective too. Your project will benefit from access to decades of experience and a proven process. The hard work happens upfront to make sure your time isn’t wasted and your investment is made where it counts. Cord helps you focus on doing what makes a difference, not what’s different to do.

And if you don’t have delivery partners in place, Cord has a trusted talent network and can resource your projects by drawing on a proven pool of strategists, researchers, market analysts, proposition development experts, design and creative teams.

This fresh working approach will add strength and distinctiveness by weaving your own business’s essential threads together with Cord’s own unique strands.

The output will be tangible: a thread that can be woven through your organisation and its future. Let’s get started together.