Advertising Week New York: Kate Ridley on Stanley’s Brand Transformation and the Power of Culture

How do you turn a heritage brand into a cultural phenomenon?

Since 1913, Stanley has built its reputation on quality, durability and innovation. But in recent years, the brand has reached a new generation of consumers, becoming a fixture in culture and experiencing extraordinary demand.

So how do you evolve a brand with more than a century of history while staying true to what makes it special?

Recorded live at Advertising Week New York, host Justin Cooke sits down with Kate Ridley, Chief Brand Officer at Stanley 1913, to explore the thinking behind the brand’s transformation from rediscovering its heritage to embracing creativity, culture and a more agile approach to marketing.

In this episode, we explore:

• Reimagining a heritage brand: How Stanley has evolved its identity while staying true to its origins.

• The power of storytelling: Why younger consumers care about brand history  and how Stanley is bringing its heritage to life.

• Building a brand for the long term: Using quality, sustainability, originality and inventiveness to guide decisions.

• Connecting brand and product: How consumer insight shapes everything from innovation to marketing.

• Moving at the speed of culture: Listening to consumers, testing ideas and responding to cultural moments.

• Authentic partnerships: Why the strongest collaborations are rooted in genuine connections.

• AI and the future of marketing: How technology can support creativity, insight and more agile ways of working without replacing human empathy.

• Managing hypergrowth: Building the teams, processes and capabilities to keep pace with demand.

As Stanley continues to grow, Kate shares why the future of great marketing lies in combining strong brand foundations with curiosity, creativity and the courage to keep evolving.