Marketing

Where brand, intelligence and growth become one system.

Marketing is a complex system of stakeholders, platforms and data that must work together to create something inherently human: meaningful brand connections. Despite rapid technological progress, many teams still operate with fragmented tools, disconnected decisions and linear planning cycles that struggle to keep pace with change.

In a world shaped by AI assistants, agentic commerce and compressed consideration journeys, growth does not come from automation alone. It comes from aligning your brand, creativity, technology and performance around the customer, so every decision reinforces both emotional connection and commercial impact.

Empathy Lab helps you build the capabilities required for this shift. We design distinctive brands, engineer the technology that powers them, and activate performance systems that prove their value. Through AI-powered Growth Applications, connected by a unified Growth OS, we turn intelligence into coordinated action.

The result is stronger brands, smarter execution and sustainable growth that compounds over time.

Our key offerings

Strong brands do more than capture demand. They shape it. In a world of AI assistants, collapsing journeys and infinite content, brand meaning must be clear, consistent and encoded to travel across every touchpoint.

We help you define and express your brand in ways that drive both emotional connection and commercial impact.

We combine:

Brand and growth strategy
Creative platform development
Content systems and production at scale

Your brand shouldn’t only come to life in campaigns. We embed it into the places and interactions where decisions are actually made.

Marketing is now a coordination challenge. We design and build the technology foundations that connect data, decisioning and execution into a unified Growth OS.

Our work spans media and marketing platform development, retail media infrastructure and AI-native martech deployment.

Core capabilities include:

AI-powered Growth Applications across insights, media, content and performance
Integrated Growth OS architecture and deployment
Retailer & publisher-side media monetization systems
Cloud-native martech integration and data engineering

The result is a resilient, scalable technology layer that turns intelligence into action across your enterprise.

Automation increases speed. Performance comes from alignment. We help brands activate AI in ways that drive incremental impact, not just activity.

Our performance services combine strategic diagnostics with hands-on optimization.

We support you with:

AI readiness audits
GEO and SEO for generative and traditional search
Performance marketing services
Incrementality testing and measurement frameworks

We connect brand, media and commercial data to ensure every decision contributes to sustainable growth.

“The role of the CMO is shifting from campaign owner to growth orchestrator. The brands that win will be those that design systems where creativity, data and commercial decisions move together.”

David Billings

Chief Strategy Officer

Discover more about who we are

Core growth applications

Synthetic Audiences

An AI-powered Growth Application that enables rapid, scalable consumer insight through synthetic research agents. We help teams test ideas, understand audiences, and explore scenarios faster and more cost-effectively than traditional research approaches.

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AI Media Planner

Transforms the media planning process for enterprise-grade advertisers. Developed in collaboration with AWS and listed on the AWS Marketplace.

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AI Content Studio

Scales the creation, adaptation, and optimization of on-brand content using generative AI and embedded brand intelligence. We helps teams produce high-quality creative faster, maintain consistency, and respond to performance signals across channels and markets.

Incrementality Engine

Internal solution that quantifies true marketing impact through experimentation and causal analysis, underpinned by store & SKU level sell out data. Helps teams understand what is driving incremental outcomes, optimize investment decisions, and reduce wasted spend.

Our people

Diana Abebrese

Global Lead, Retail Media, Manchester

As Global Lead for Retail Media, Diana helps our global clients build and scale their retail media networks.

Alexandra Jorge

Director, Marketing Consulting, London

Alexandra excels turning innovative ideas into successful digital ventures with a focus on efficiency and team building.

Liz Salway

Senior Digital leader, London

Liz has been working in the marketing and advertising space for over 20 years in both regional and global roles. And, for the last 10 years, she’s focused on advising brands how to in-house their marketing data, analytics and business insights to power better consumer acquisition and retention strategies. Liz brings a unique perspective to industry challenges having worked on the media owner side, within advertising technology companies, as well as within global media agencies and CPG companies. She’s passionate about helping brands leverage their data across marketing and advertising to drive organizational, operational and financial efficiencies and effectiveness.

David Billings

Chief Strategy Officer, London

David Billings is Chief Strategy Officer at Empathy Lab by EPAM, where he helps global brands re-architect marketing, commerce and loyalty for an AI-mediated world. He works with CMOs and leadership teams to connect data, creativity, media and commerce into coordinated growth systems.

David has led transformation programs for some of the world’s largest and most advanced marketing organisations, and regularly speaks on how AI is reshaping demand, brand power and the future of marketing leadership.

Sarah Claeys

Director, Content Design, Brussels

Sarah CR Claeys is our Director of Content Design for EMEA, helping top brands to craft impactful stories.

Bonita Darkoh

Lead Strategist, Digital Marketing Strategy, London

Bonita is an award-winning digital advertising professional specializing in paid media, strategy, and blending creativity with insights.

Leon Jacobs

Executive Creative Director, Brussels

Leon brings three decades of advertising experience to the world of innovation, digital experiences and campaigns.

Gracie Lofthouse

Lead Content Strategist, London

Gracie Lofthouse is a lead creative strategist, helping brands like Vue, BBC and KitchenAid craft impactful strategies, messaging, and content.

Alice Lee

Head of Next-Gen Marketing Consulting, New York, USA

As Head of Next-Gen Marketing Consulting at Empathy Lab, Alice Lee draws on two decades of guiding brands through waves of digital disruption. She pairs a strategist’s eye with a technologist’s curiosity, translating complex data and marketing stacks into growth plans. Whether championing AI pilots, mobilizing global teams, or pursuing the next big shift, Alice is known for turning bold ideas into scalable reality, and continues to explore emerging tech and innovation. Alice’s curiosity expands outside of work and has led her to explore over 100 countries. She hopes to see them all one day.

Our capabilities

Marketing research and insights

Use advanced data analysis to uncover key market trends, consumer behavior, and competitor insights, guiding strategic decision-making.

Brand experience strategy

Create strategies that define and elevate the brand experience at every touchpoint, ensuring consistency and strong engagement.

Design and implementation

Craft compelling and engaging designs for campaigns, products, and experiences. Implement consistently across digital and physical channels for cohesive branding.

Content strategy, creation and distribution

Strategize, develop, create, and distribute engaging content that resonates with audiences and maximizes reach across multiple channels.

Campaign and communications creative strategy

Conceptualize and execute creative campaigns that effectively communicate brand messages and inspire consumer action.

Social media campaign and connections planning

Plan and manage targeted social media campaigns that strengthen connections with audiences, using analytics to optimize engagement.

MarTech advisory, implementation and analytics

Provide expert guidance on selecting, integrating, and using MarTech tools to improve marketing efficiency and glean actionable insights from data.

Marketing governance

Establish frameworks and policies to ensure marketing activities align with business objectives and regulatory standards.

Organisational design and operations

Optimise marketing department structures and processes to boost efficiency, collaboration, and adaptability in changing market conditions.

Customer experience optimization

Improve the customer journey with personalized interactions and seamless service, boosting satisfaction and loyalty.

Digital transformation consulting

Guide businesses through digital change, using technology to enhance marketing effectiveness and operational agility.

AI-driven market segmentation

Use AI to identify and target customer segments more precisely, enabling more effective marketing strategies.

Interactive and immersive media production

Create engaging digital experiences with AR, VR, and interactive media to captivate and engage users.

Performance marketing and ROI optimization

Drive measurable actions and optimize marketing spend to achieve the highest possible return on investment.

Sustainable marketing integration

Integrate sustainable practices and messaging into marketing strategies, appealing to environmentally conscious consumers and enhancing brand reputation.

Influencer and partnership marketing

Strategically collaborate with influencers and partners to extend brand reach and authenticity, using their networks for targeted impact.

Generative & Search Engine Optimisation (GEO & SEO)

GEO builds on traditional SEO by auditing and adapting your content, UX, and tech stack to ensure brands, publishers, and e-commerce businesses become more visible and preferred in AI-powered, generative and traditional search experiences.

What we do