Steve Lesnard is a sports and marketing expert with over two decades of experience. He is currently a global brand strategy consultant for some of the world’s most important consumer and tech brands, helping them reimagine key corporate strategies to expand growth.
Spending the last two decades analyzing and improving product development for a major athletic brand has led him to gain vast amounts of knowledge and insight into how sports affects the lives of consumers and – most importantly – how those looking to acquire new customers must come up with novel and innovative solutions to do so. Lesnard’s advantage is his outlook. He sees sports games as life-changing events in the lives of consumers. This is at the heart of what drives him as he ensures that sports enthusiasts around the world have access to the best products and services and drives brands to succeed in all aspects of business.
It is this understanding of consumers’ wishes that drives Lesnard’s success. “You always want to know your consumer, and you always want to be able to predict what your consumer would want,” he says. “And we’ve never been in a better position to actually have more access to data to actually be able to predict or be closer to delivering real personal and meaningful services to consumers.”
Along those lines, he believes that “consumers today… are completely in charge.” The field has moved away from a time when consumers sat back and waited for brands to bring them what they wanted to a time when they themselves go out and seek out what they need. “Consumers are not waiting for brands anymore, and they will find brands that will deliver their needs,” says Lesnard.
And while he believes that this is an amazing time for consumers, it also makes it a challenge for brands to situate themselves in consumers’ lives and truly understand the value that they can give their consumers. Customers “are clear on what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. And therefore, brands have a completely new challenge and truly understand what benefits they will deliver to consumers so that they can break through.”
Lesnard also actively shares his knowledge and expertise with professionals within the field. He was among the speakers at the Australia Alliance for Data Leadership Network’s ADMA Data Day 2019 conference, which took place April 2–4 in both Sydney and Melbourne.
The Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising, or ADMA, is the largest marketing and advertising association in Australia and has over 350 corporate members. This includes major financial institutions, telecommunications companies, energy providers, leading media companies, travel service companies, airlines, major charities, statutory corporations, educational institutions, and specialist suppliers to the industry such as advertising agencies, software providers, and internet companies. ADMA is also the principal industry body for data-driven marketing and advertising. It is the ultimate authority and go-to resource for effective and creative data-driven marketing across all channels and platforms, providing insight, ideas, and innovation for today’s marketing industry.
Furthermore, ADMA is a tool that helps its members navigate through the changes that have taken place over the past few years and brought on new channels, technologies, and consumer models. Its support comes through advocacy to government and regulators, education, hosting of events and awards, and helping marketers understand and apply codes of practice to ensure compliance. Also, its rich source of online and offline tools and resources helps marketers improve.
In his talk, Lesnard focused on his expertise in brand marketing. Specifically, he discussed important and timely topics revolving around the utilization of consumer data as a means of shaping brand strategy and marketing campaigns. He also touched upon current shifts in the consumer profiles and landscapes of key industries, as well as the role that brands play in enhancing the lives of their consumers.
Together with several other speakers, Lesnard discussed the importance of technology in marketing and consumer relations. More specifically, he elaborated on the topic of how contemporary data and analytics technology can serve business objectives and how data may be a useful tool in the redesign and transformation of customer communication to better predict coming trends and tendencies.
Lesnard believes that technology and data go beyond the scientific fields in their applications. He believes that they are a critical tool in the advancement of consumer understanding and brand improvement. According to him, “if you think about the key shifts that are happening in transportation in big cities for instance, there is so much congestion leading to alternative ways such as rideshare and scooters.” Lesnard also asserted that “the way cities are going to be designed in the future [will] be very different, and helping consumers through their mobility journey is going to create a completely new way to interact and offer services. Health and wellness is another big one.”
ADMA Data Day 2019 also ensured that experts shared professional insights and hands-on case studies. The ultimate goal was to showcase the best uses of current marketing tools to help international businesses, brands, and marketers expand their research to target new consumers by going outside the box and stretching beyond traditional marketing models.
About Steve Lesnard
Lesnard was raised between Paris and Corsica. He completed his business degree in Paris and went on to obtain his master’s in business administration from Babson College in the United States. He then spent some time contributing to the field of sports brand marketing by way of global sports marketing and product management. He then got into product development, which ultimately brought him to a career in brand marketing across several different areas. Lesnard spent the next 20 years becoming an expert in the areas of product development, consumer analysis, and the integration of digital technology into global brand campaigns and business development strategies.
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