Photo of Steve Huffman and Shane Steele at The Gathering
Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, and Shane Steele, Head of Global Brand Marketing at Dropbox

Work Culture

The Gathering 2018: What does it take to create a cult brand?

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Published on February 21, 2018

Brands like Gatorade, Jeep, and Jack Daniel’s have been household names for so long, they feel like something more than companies that sell us sports drinks, cars, and whiskey. They feel like part of our collective culture.

Then there are new brands like Beats by Dre that manage to achieve cult status seemingly overnight. So what distinguishes a merely super-successful business from a cult brand that inspires customers “not just to buy, but to buy in”?

This week, we’ve traveled to Banff, Canada to find out. Every year, The Gathering brings together marketing gurus from the world’s most-coveted brands. The event is a chance to tap into their wisdom and maybe eavesdrop on some behind-the-scenes secrets of their success.

How can emerging companies establish their brands? And how do established brands like Snickers continue to build a cult brand at scale? What elevates a brand from “respected” to “iconic”—and how do they stay there?

Learn how Dropbox Business can help keep your marketing team in sync

While we’re in Banff, we’ll learn about the teams behind these iconic brands, and how they foster collaboration. We’ll discuss how they assemble cross-functional teams across departments, agencies, and partners. And we’ll find out how they harness their teams’ collective superpowers to keep creative energy flowing.

Shane Steele, Head of Global Brand Marketing at Dropbox, will dig into these topics and more when she sits down for fireside chats with several of this year’s speakers and cult brand Honorees, including:

  • Jason White, Global Head of Marketing at Beats by Dre
  • Blas Maquivar, President of Chocolate CBU, Mars Wrigley Confectionery
  • Phil Epps, VP and Global Brand Director at Jack Daniel’s
  • Michael Smith, Head of Digital Strategy at Gatorade
  • Christoph Gorder, Chief Global Water Officer at Charity : Water
  • Steve Huffman, Co-founder and CEO, Reddit
  • Mary Yee, VP Marketing, Playstation

Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter to catch our live coverage and behind-the-scenes highlights from the event.

Learn how Dropbox Business can help keep your marketing team in sync and integrate your workflows to enhance collaboration.