Brand Architects

• Write campaign concepts that actually solve a brand problem, not just look good.
• Balance long-term brand building against short-term activation, and explain why short-term returns flatter activation.
• Allocate and pace a marketing budget across channels and quarters, reading share of voice against market share.
• Build brand equity as a multi-quarter compounding asset — consistent positioning, fresh execution, and the pricing power it earns.
• Respond to crises in a way that protects Brand Love rather than just defending the legal position.
• Read cultural moments and decide when to engage vs. when staying quiet is wisest.

1. 1
   Brief drops

   Quarter opens. Brief lands with positioning challenge, audience, and budget cap; some briefs come with a change in the market.
2. 2
   Campaign + budget

   Team writes a consumer insight, positioning, tagline and 100-180 word concept, splits the budget between brand building and activation, and allocates it across 6 channels.
3. 3
   Focus group pre-test

   Run the campaign past 3 in-character LLM personas before submitting. They quote what lands, what falls flat.
4. 4
   Crisis (sometimes)

   A crisis may fire mid-quarter. Team writes a public response within a tight window — graded on speed, tone, transparency.
5. 5
   Quarter close

   The Creative Panel scores the campaign, the same 3 personas react as the launch audience, and the market runs for the whole class. Brand health, share, revenue and profit move.
6. 6
   Results + reflection

   See what moved each gauge, share of voice vs. market share, and short- vs. long-term return on marketing. Each student writes a short role reflection.

The leaderboard and the gradebook use the Brand Score: 60% Brand Health (35% Brand Love, 25% Crisis Resilience, 20% Awareness, 20% Premium) + 40% Market (average market share against the starting share). The four pillars below are diagnostics that explain it; they are not averaged into it. Once a class uses roles, a student's suggested grade is 80% team Brand Score + 20% role credit.

• Focus Group + launch audience

  Before submitting, teams pre-test with 3 LLM personas who argue in character — Mom-Test-style critique, not flattery. At quarter close the same personas react to the live campaign, and their reaction moves Brand Love.

• Creative Panel

  4 expert LLM personas (Creative Director / Brand Strategist / Cultural Critic / Media Buyer) score every campaign, each from their own lens. The Brand Strategist remembers earlier quarters and scores consistency; the panel's score is the biggest multiplier on what the budget does.

• A shared market

  Every team starts level in one category against two AI incumbents: a giant that defends its share and a value player that undercuts on price. Share of voice, price, revenue and profit follow from the teams' decisions.

• Brand building vs. activation

  Each quarter's budget is split between the two, inside a season budget smaller than the sum of the caps. Short-term ROMI rewards activation; long-term ROMI rewards the balanced mix Binet & Field describe.

• Crisis Desk

  Crises fire with a ticking response window. Speed + tone + transparency scored by an LLM crisis-comms grader.

• Cultural Calendar

  Super Bowl, Pride, Climate COP, Holiday and more. The Cultural Critic judges the fit: earned moments add Brand Love, tone-deaf ones cost it, and crowded moments pay less.

• Light roles

  Brand Manager, Creative Lead, Media Planner and Insights Lead, with a short reflection from each student after every quarter.