Looking for meaning: Dennis Hahn on brand experience

In this video, Dennis Hahn, Liquid Agency’s Executive Vice President of Brand Experience, explores the concept of brand experience, and explains how a multisensory, multidimensional path allows consumers to engage with a brand on a profound level.

Liquid has evolved from a brand identity and marketing agency to a full brand experience agency; similarly, Dennis himself evolved from a designer focused on the digital dimension into a strategist in the “very broad and holistic activity” that is branding. He started his own agency as a designer in the early 1990s—which enabled him to become part of the birth of digital marketing. Later, he began working closely with cultural anthropologists to help organizations culturalize their brands with their communities, both external and internal.

Prior to Liquid, Dennis was the president and chief strategy officer of ID Branding, where he worked with the likes of Microsoft, Intel, Symantec, SAIF, and Mercy, honing his expertise in working with leadership teams. He brings this background to Liquid’s collaborative team approach. Dennis explains that the way a client engages with Liquid “is going to be very different from a typical agency relationship. We’re not the kind of agency that presents ideas to a client and tries to sell ideas. We’re really more about really trying to problem-solve together. We believe our clients bring enormous value and knowledge about their brand, and our role is really to help bring it to life. So there is a lot of hands-on, real-time, working together… We call it a brand relationship.”

Dennis holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Graphic Design from Portland State University. He is also an adjunct professor at PSU, where he currently teaches strategy through the university’s Professional Development Center. Dennis has spoken at numerous conferences about branding and strategy, and has written on the subject of brand culture.