Hampton Bridwell, Author at Tenet Partners | Where brand meets innovation®

A year of achievement, a future of promise

Posted on December 23, 2024December 23, 2024 by Hampton Bridwell

A letter from Hampton Bridwell, CEO

As the team here at Tenet closes out 2024, we’ve received another mark of recognition as one of Chief Marketer’s 2025 Top Agencies of the Year, a listing of the industry’s most innovative marketing agencies. It’s further confirmation that our longstanding focus on brand innovation continues to be the right strategy.

Looking forward to 2025, I’m excited by the direction our industry is taking. AI is driving massive change in the advertising and marketing space, as evidenced by the impending merger of two major sales and marketing holding companies: Omnicom Group and IPG. The combined enterprise is looking to scale up its use of AI and data analytics to inform and execute marketing—a huge force for change that will ripple upstream and influence how brands are built and managed.

This is far from new territory for Tenet Partners. We’ve been at the forefront of the AI trend for more than five years with our data science practice, and are expanding AI use in our workflows and areas such as foresighting and inspiration. At the same time, we recognize the enormous value of human knowledge, insight, expertise, creativity and strategic thinking. AI promises to further empower us and our clients, but essential work such as strategy, messaging, key campaign elements and content will still flow from our most valuable resource: the skilled and experienced professionals who make up our team.

As I look back on 2024, I’m struck by all we’ve accomplished. The recognition by Chief Marketer is just the latest in a long and growing string of awards and acknowledgements.

This year alone, we’ve won six Rebrand awards and three Transform awards spanning everything from enterprise rebranding to creative strategy, brand architecture, and internal communications. We’ve also maintained our ranking as a Top 5 Branding Agency on Clutch, and as I write this we’re holding the #1 spot in the branding category Leaders quadrant. And to round it out, we’ve once again been recognized by Gartner in their annual buyer’s guide for brand consultancies.

But of far greater importance than accolades is the stellar work the Tenet team has done for our clients—a list that includes some of the world’s greatest brands. In 2024 alone, we’ve taken on major initiatives for organizations such as The Smithsonian, Dow, Bluetooth, Hearst Health, Canon Medical, The Bancorp—the fintech innovator that issues PayPal and Venmo Mastercards—and more.

I am both deeply impressed by and proud of our team. Tenet’s ongoing success—and promising trajectory for 2025—is powerful testament to their dedication and ability. It’s giving me great confidence as we all look forward to what the coming year may bring.

Hampton Bridwell
Managing Partner and CEO

The aerospace brand challenge: Competing with Silicon Valley’s disruptive influence

Posted on October 7, 2024October 15, 2024 by Hampton Bridwell

The aerospace industry, long dominated by established players with proprietary systems, is facing an unprecedented shift. New entrants from Silicon Valley are rewriting the rules of the game, leveraging open architectures and open-source models to drive innovation and disrupt traditional aerospace brands. This transformation isn’t just technological—it’s existential, forcing aerospace brands to rethink how they operate and differentiate themselves in an increasingly open and collaborative environment.

Historically, aerospace companies have thrived on proprietary technologies, creating “black box” systems that ensured ongoing revenue streams through long-term contracts and locked-in customers. However, much like the tech industry in the 1990s, when companies like IBM were forced to adapt to the rise of open-source software, aerospace brands must now contend with a similar wave of disruption. Silicon Valley firms are bringing a fresh mindset, using open-source principles to outpace traditional competitors in speed, flexibility and cost-efficiency.

Take Anduril, a startup from California that has already secured significant defense contracts. By combining open architectures with cutting-edge AI, Anduril has positioned itself not just as a technology provider, but as a mission-critical partner by embracing open architectures. This approach mirrors the rise of open-source software in enterprise IT, where open systems allowed new players to innovate faster and more effectively than incumbents.

For legacy aerospace brands, the implications are clear: the days of relying solely on proprietary systems to generate value are numbered. The future lies in open ecosystems, where collaboration and flexibility drive competitive advantage. This means evolving business models to focus on services, partnerships and integration, while still leveraging legacy strengths.

Brands that resist this shift in both organizational culture and business model design face the risk of becoming obsolete, outpaced by faster, more agile competitors. Aerospace companies must learn from past disruptions, applying foresight to understand how the future will demand new ways of thinking and operating. By embracing new positioning to reframe attributes that underpin their business strategy and brand personality, they can stay relevant in an industry increasingly defined by innovation and collaboration.

The challenge is not just surviving this wave of disruption but thriving in it. Brands that successfully navigate the transition will be those that redefine what it means to be a leader in aerospace, much like Silicon Valley companies have done in technology.