About Jeremy Hildreth

Jeremy Hildreth, UK-based international place branding expert

An alumnus of both the Ivy League’s prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and of Oxford University’s graduate business programme, Jeremy Hildreth is an American (with European citizenship) who resides in London and regards the world as his home.

One of the preeminent practitioners of place branding, Jeremy is the only professional to have worked closely with both ‘founding fathers’ of the discipline: Wally Olins, co-founder of Wolff Olins in the 1960s, and Simon Anholt, with whom Jeremy co-authored the book Brand America (translated into five languages and released in a revised second edition in March 2010).

After graduating with a BSc in economics from UPenn, Jeremy spent several years as a policy researcher and economic analyst before becoming fascinated with branding whilst studying under Wally Olins at Oxford. Upon receiving his MBA, Jeremy was invited by Olins to join Saffron, the latter’s new branding consultancy. During his five-year tenure at Saffron, Jeremy travelled all over the world, leading or participating in all place branding projects undertaken by the firm during that period.

For example, as head of place branding at Saffron he led the project team that created the 2008 work for Visit London — the visual and verbal identity which Marketing magazine described as “near perfect.” He is the author, more or less single-handedly, of the Visit London House Style Guide, critical parts of which are now being adapted by the office of the city’s new mayor Boris Johnson to serve the whole of London (a project into which Jeremy has been re-drafted to assist).

Jeremy has advised countries (Northern Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, East Timor, Ghana, and Mauritius among them) and cities (most notably London) and regions (e.g., County Durham in northern England, Swedish Lapland and the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

As a corporate identity consultant, Jeremy has worked on behalf of dozens of companies and organizations, in nearly every commercial sector, including: Lloyd’s of London and SwissRe (insurance), Turkcell (Turkey’s largest mobile provider), the Polish Cultural Institute, Whyte & Mackay (British distillers), Lynx (the California-based makers of the Rolls Royce of barbecue grills), the European Patent Office, Vueling airlines (Barcelona’s low-cost carrier), CapitalOne (consumer credit), Thames Water (UK and US utility operators), TATA’s food division, Fagor (a Spanish appliances manufacturer), AkzoNobel (chemicals and coatings) and Mondragon (the largest industrial cooperative on Earth).

Some of Jeremy’s specific contributions in the private sector include developing a credit card brand for a Spanish bank (“Obsidiana” for Bankinter), defining a retail fashion brand for luxury specialists LVMH (called “Trash and Soul”), and co-creating the name and concept for a three kilometre-long indoor ski hill and multi-use real estate development in the Arabian Desert.

Jeremy has been privileged to visit more than 60 countries and 200 cities in the last ten years, which has allowed him to cultivate a keen ‘sense of place’ and to gain many insights into matters of provenance – that is, where products and organisations are from, how and why that matters, and what to do about it.

Finally, Jeremy is also an accomplished copywriter, and as a journalist he writes museum reviews and travel articles for The Wall Street Journal and contributes commentary to Monocle magazine. He divides his time between London and the rest of the world, especially Los Angeles, where he’s originally from, and Lithuania.

He is a little bit charming, and he likes to help if he can. Enter his sphere of influence at jeremyhildreth.com.

Or, read more about what he does, write him at jeremy@jeremyhildreth.com, or find him on LinkedIn or facebook (he’ll connect if he knows you) or aSmallWorld (he’ll connect if you’ve met before).

What people have said about Jeremy Hildreth

“Identity genius.”
Wayne Elise, founder and self-described ‘head honcho’ at Charisma Arts (also known as ‘Juggler’ in Neil Strauss’ The Game)

“That last piece you did for us — I think it was some of the best work you’ve ever done. I was over the moon about it.”
Ajaz Ahmed, chairman of AKQA, Creative Review agency of the year 2009

“We had Jeremy here in Swedish Lapland for two days only, and we were impressed and a little surprised how quickly and fully he grasped our situation and could speak meaningfully about it. The ideas he came up with were both imaginative and appropriate. We are happy we found him and are looking now to involve him in several more projects.”
Annika Fredriksson, creative director, Vinter

“Unflappable.”
James P. Pinkerton, FOX News

“Whoa. Think you may be singlehandedly extending the Golden Age of travel writing.”
Kurt Loder, MTV News and Rolling Stone journalist

“Jeremy, you must be the world’s greatest networker.”
Rita Clifton, chairman of Interbrand

“Nuanced.”
Peter J. J. Turner, philosopher/historian

“Jeremy’s unique mix of experience, education and personality make him a really good advisor on different branding improvement initiatives. He works in a very professional way.”
Violeta Makauskiene, marketing director, Lithuanian Development Agency

“Lively, original and ambitious.”
Wally Olins, branding guru, colleague at Saffron and lecturer at Oxford

Read about What I do and my 3-day immediate benefits consulting package.