Patrick Hanlon is the Charles Darwin of branding. His finches are human beings who gather in crowds. Conventional “Branding” has been broken, disrupted and evolved. By unveiling the construct of brands as belief systems that attract others who share your beliefs, Hanlon uncovered what Harvard sociologist E.O. Wilson describes as the “natural selection for social interaction”. The pattern of social interactions, outlined in Hanlon’s books “Primal Branding” (2006) and “The Social Code” (2015) defines how to create deep belief and active advocacy for people, places and things. Recognized as the world’s leading brand evolutionary, Hanlon is ceo and founder of THINKTOPIA®, a global brand and strategic innovation practice for Fortune 100 clients that have included American Express, Levis, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kraft Foods, Johnson & Johnson, Yum! Foods, Wrigley, PayPal, Gap, the United Nations and others. His book Primal Branding: Create Zealots For Your Brand, Your Company And Your Future was published by Simon & Schuster/Free Press, is listed as one of the Top 10 books in marketing and branding and taught at progressive colleges and universities around the world. Primal Branding is the seminal book on the evolving role of brands as belief systems—and in 2006 anticipated creating social communities around brands, whether products and services, personality brands, political or civic movements, or actual civic communities.
Primal Branding is mandatory reading at YouTube, the largest social engagement platform on the planet, as their recommended construct for designing and attracting online social communities.
Hanlon’s latest book The Social Code: Designing Community In The Digital Age defines how to create communities via social media: and how to attract advocates who become so passionate about your success, they are willing to create it themselves.
Hanlon has been a keynote or guest speaker at TEDx, IDEO, Unreasonable Group, Dentsu Aegis MKTG Summit, New York University, American Marketing Association, American Advertising Federation, Syracuse University, Urban Land Institute, VidSummit 2016, and in emerging geographies including China, India, and South America.
Hanlon has been featured, quoted, or interviewed in Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Inc., Advertising Age, National Public Radio, CNBC, Fox Business and overseas publications. Hanlon is listed as one of the Top 50 people to follow on Twitter, Top 50 Over 50 in Marketing, and is an online contributor to Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., Medium and elsewhere. Hanlon is currently featured (2016) as subject matter expert in the 10-episode TV documentary series “The Kennedy Files” from Aspyr Media.