One on One with Roman Stikkelorum Managing Director - Verve

European Agency of the Year Director talks about how to mix brand DNA with performance marketing, becoming more human in the AI age, and how all of their employees got Covid-19 in one night.

1. Please tell us a bit about your early days. How did you start your brand design journey? 

While studying at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, I realized there was a gap in the world of branding. With the goal to bring brand and digital closer together, my fellow students and childhood friends Rindor Golverdingen, Michael Danker and I founded Verve. 

All three of us are originally trained as designers by Dutch design legends like Gert Dumbar, but decided to take a leap of faith and challenge the status quo and push for a more integrated approach to brand design. 

2. What made you decide to go independent and start Verve?

At that time, most agencies were either design/brand-focused or digital-focused, with little overlap between the two. We saw an opportunity to change that and offer a more holistic approach to branding. We began by taking on small local projects and gradually built up our team of talented designers and strategists. As we gained more experience and recognition for our work, we set our sights on a bigger goal: becoming a top European Design Agency. It was a pivotal moment for us when we achieved that milestone in 2018, marking a shift towards an international perspective.

“Branding and performance complement each other. A strong brand can enhance your performance, while a focus on performance can boost brand awareness.There shouldn’t be a trade-off between branding and performance.

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Despite not having learned much about entrepreneurship in our studies, we were passionate about our vision to challenge the status quo. We co-founded the agency and worked hard to bring our unique perspective to the digital world.

Looking back, I'm proud of what we’ve accomplished and the risk we took. As we honed our craft and expanded our reach, we began working with international tech and B2B brands all around the world. Fifteen years later, we're still going strong and pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Our passion for innovation and experimentation has helped us stay ahead of the curve and continue to challenge the industry.

3. What are Verve’s strengths and specialties? How do you implement this in the work?

Definitely our adoption of the rapid-agile way of working, allowing us to streamline our processes and build momentum in everything we do. It has helped us deliver efficient and effective solutions to our clients. Take Juni, for example. From strategy to visual identity - within ten weeks, we built a whole new Juniverse.

These solutions are bold brand personalities with a distinctive voice. Our strategic vision informs every step of the progress, allowing us to create cohesive and compelling brand experiences that resonate with audiences.

While we do so, we value working closely with our clients’ in-house teams. We become one with them to achieve shared goals. This means ensuring they have the tools and knowledge to maintain and evolve their brand over time.

As digital natives, we've been growing up with the internet - digital is part of our DNA. So, we're passionate about creating holistic brand experiences that seamlessly integrate digital elements. Our goal is to blur the boundaries between digital and brand work to create what we call a "Living Brand."
Also, our Dutch design heritage reflects in everything we do. Our approach is bold, minimalistic, outspoken, and true to the core. This distinctive style has helped us create memorable and impactful brand solutions for a diverse range of clients.

4. What do you think is the most important thing to take into consideration when building a brand? And, specifically, what should be considered when building a performance-driven brand? Is there a trade?

It's crucial to involve your team to create buy-in and leverage their knowledge and expertise in the process. Your branding assets should work well across all touchpoints, from street to screen. This involves working closely with motion designers, digital designers, and product designers to ensure that the designs work seamlessly across different formats and types of content. Don’t forget to remove any roadblocks that could break momentum and stay agile.
Branding and performance complement each other. A strong brand can enhance your performance, while a focus on performance can boost brand awareness.There shouldn't be a trade-off between branding and performance.

“A brand’s strategy should guide as a compass for decision-making and consistency in messaging. ”

5. What brands do you admire most? Has a particular brand’s work affected you in some way during the course of your career?

Definitely Airbnb. They have fully embraced the power of brand building across all its assets.

As Dutchies, we can’t help but draw inspiration from the Dutch design heritage. Work of graphic designers like Wim Crouwel, Ben Bos, Gert Dumbar, and Gerrit Rietveld. Dick Bruna, Miffy illustrator, is also a great source of inspiration. A style characterized by minimalism, a clear line and crystal-clear visuals.

6. How do you think a brand should apply its brand story, its DNA, in its performance? What’s most important when doing so? When should you take this step?

A brand’s strategy should guide as a compass for decision-making and consistency in messaging. Take this step at the beginning of the rebranding process, when you’re creating a connection with the audience. It’s the way to verbally differentiate your brand from competitors.

But remember, building a brand takes time - there’s no shortcut to overnight success. 

7. What is your experience in working with Israeli industries and companies?

The Israeli companies we’ve met are super ambitious. They know what they want and work incredibly hard to achieve it. The sky is never the limit. Dreaming big is the standard. They know an international look and feel is the only way to scale. 

We admire the fast pace - it’s how we collaborate best. We can bring focus to their ambitions and empower them to conquer their goals, one milestone at a time. Luckily, our radical Dutch honesty is often highly appreciated.

8. What challenges can a brand expect to face? How will these develop and change in the future? 

AI is having an increasing influence on the brand-building process, from AI generated mock-ups to personas. And while AI can be a valuable co-pilot helping you out with powerful ideas, it can also be a potential source of challenge. 

For instance, brands may face challenges in ensuring that AI algorithms are well-trained and unbiased to avoid promoting bad or bland ideas. Since AI isn't very creative, I predict that there will be more and more bland, cookie cutter content out there. Brands should be more human and relatable than ever before.

Another challenge that brands can expect to face is the constantly evolving nature of consumer interaction. As the way we interact with the web evolves, brands need to adapt to new interfaces and technologies to remain relevant and engage customers effectively. Think of the latest interfaces having no interfaces at all: technologies such as voice assistants and chatbots are becoming increasingly popular. Brands will need to develop new strategies to connect with customers through these technologies.
As AI becomes more sophisticated, it may be able to identify and leverage customer data in more complex ways, which may raise new ethical concerns. 

“As AI becomes more sophisticated, it may be able to identify and leverage customer data in more complex ways, which may raise new ethical concerns. ”

9. How would you advise an early stage company that has yet to create its brand identity and TOV? Is there any perfect time to (re)brand yourself?

Start from the core. Your verbal and visual identity can help to express and align your ambitions, making it easier to communicate your message effectively to your target audience. You’ll create a self fulfilling prophecy. 

An outsider's perspective, like a branding agency, can be highly valuable in identifying your unique traits that come naturally to you, while aligning your ambitions and bringing focus to your brand.

However, building a brand takes time and resources, so it's important to start as soon as you can afford to bring people on board to work on the brand. There's no perfect time to brand yourself, but starting early can help you establish a strong brand identity and position yourself for success in the long run.

Typically, we work with companies that have already raised their Series A or Series B funding rounds. At this stage, we recommend having a dedicated Marketing Manager and team in place to help execute your marketing and branding strategies effectively.

10. How do you envision the future of Verve? What does that look like long-term?

We have set our sights on becoming the number one branding agency in the world. Our focus on excellence and empowering brands that bring society forward will help us achieve this vision.

We aspire to have a greater impact on the world by leveraging our strategic branding expertise to empower companies that are making a positive difference in society. Just like we reach our client’s full potential, we do so with our team by staying true to our core values: we sense, we challenge and we love. 

11. Can you share a funny, interesting, weird, life-changing, or feel-good story that you have experienced with your clients on your personal journey?

Last year, we were thrilled to be named European Agency of the Year. We celebrated this win by taking the whole team to Tallinn to pick up the awards.We got to explore an amazing city with wild nightlife that we all thoroughly enjoyed. It was a way to blow off some steam after all the hard work that went into last year's projects.
We learned that dancing on tables, scooter zigzagging through the city and having amazing dinners with the team is crucial.
Unfortunately, our celebrations were cut short because we all ended up contracting COVID-19. A bit inconvenient to say the least, as we were out of commission as a company for a week. Luckily, we all recovered and we would definitely do this trip all over again.

About Roman Stikkelorum:

Design will play an important role in the digital world — based on this realization, Michael Danker, Rindor Golverdingen and I, three friends from university, co-founded Verve (FKA ‘Vruchtvlees’) in 2007. Today, as Managing Director (CEO), I lead an international team of designers, developers, and strategists, that transforms good brands into great ones.

Rooted in the ethos of Dutch Design, Verve finds the balance between high-quality brand design and smart digital code. We work with ambitious companies to create ‘living brands’ - those whose values are reflected not only on their website and communications but in every business decision they make.

For over a decade, Verve has built brands that people love, making companies like Miro, Juni, Flutterwave, and Clevertech thrive in the tech and startup sectors. We use design thinking to tackle complex issues, starting from developing an overarching vision to create positive brand experiences, online and offline. Working from the inside out, we build strong brands, brand strategies, and online strategies that result in value, growth, and impact.