Founder & CD at White Bear 🐻‍❄️ | Top 22 Female Founder 2022 ⚡️| Small Agency of the year 2022 🥇| CP Top 5 Agencies in UK ✏️ | Speaker and Host 🎤 | 16x Award winner 2022 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Kelly Mackenzie is a two-time founder, creative director, and unapologetic brand obsessive. She leads White Bear, the award-winning creative agency with studios in London, Dublin, and South America, recognised as Agency of the Year 2022 and winner of multiple DBA, Transform, Pent, Mobius, IDI, Creativepool, and Red Dot awards for work with brands like Red Bull, Netflix, Bold Bean, Tom Parker Creamery, and The Kerry Group.

She’s also the founder of People Like Me – a growing community for women in marketing to make real, meaningful connections in person, cutting through the algorithm and digital noise to create friendships, share challenges, and help each other shine.

Named one of Startup Magazine’s Top 22 Women of 2022 and a Creativepool Leader of 2023, Kelly is passionate about design thinking, education, and championing women in leadership. She has lectured at IADT and NUA, served on the board of The Big Idea, and mentored start-ups with Bethnal Green Ventures, Enterprise Nation, and SeedLegals.

Her philosophy? Build unforgettable brands, disrupt industries, and make people feel something – and have the craic while doing it.

Learn more at 
http://www.whitebearstudio.com
http://www.peoplelikeme.io


Subscribe to our newsletter at: https://mailchi.mp/whitebearstudio/newsletter
Or contact me directly at kelly@whitebearstudio.com

Let others desperately climb the 'corporate ladder',

focus on laying down the right foundations.

Leadership Isn't About Titles, It's About Impact

True leadership is about the positive difference you make in people's lives. It's not defined by your position, but by how you inspire and support those around you.

Here are practical ways to become a more meaningful leader:

Clarity is kindness
↳ Explain the purpose behind your decisions
↳ Help your team understand the bigger picture
↳ Ensure everyone is working toward a shared goal

Be Fully Present
↳ Show genuine interest in your colleagues
↳ Give your full attention during interactions
↳ Listen actively and demonstrate that every voice matters

Recognise Individual Strengths
↳ Appreciate each person's unique qualities
↳ Look beyond job titles and performance metrics
↳ Celebrate what makes each team member special

Stay Curious
↳ Ask thoughtful, meaningful questions
↳ Approach conversations with a learning mindset
↳ Understand that your team has valuable insights to share

Lead by Example
↳ Show integrity in your actions
↳ Demonstrate the behaviours and values you want to see
↳ Don't just give instructions, embody the leadership you advocate

Build Trust
↳ Share your own vulnerabilities
↳ Be honest about challenges and setbacks
↳ Create an environment where people feel safe and supported

Invest in People's Growth
↳ Provide mentorship and guidance
↳ Support individual career aspirations
↳ Help team members reach their full potential

Cultivate Positivity
↳ Celebrate small achievements
↳ Create a sense of shared purpose and enjoyment
↳ Make work feel like a collaborative, meaningful journey

Your leadership can transform teams and individual lives.
Lead with compassion, clarity, and genuine care.

What is your number 1 leadership tip?
Post it in the comments below

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Kelly Mackenzie 🐻‍❄️ 

2x Founder of White Bear and People Like Me. Helping CEOs & Marketers scale their challenger brands | Keynote Speaker and Host

MY MOST CONTROVERSIAL POST OF 2025.

This American food chain just found itself over a barrel.

(and it cost $100 million)

Cracker Barrel’s recent rebrand is already being talked about as one of the biggest branding missteps in recent memory (move over Jaguar). 

Within days, the company shed $100 million in market value not because of poor design execution, but because they underestimated what their customers valued most.

This isn’t new. We’ve seen it before:

🍊 Tropicana’s 2009 rebrand 
→ Sales dropped 20% in 6 weeks, costing $30 million, before reverting back.

🟦 Gap’s 2010 rebrand 
→ Backlash forced a U-turn in 6 days, a failure estimated to have cost $100 million.

🪑 Cracker Barrel may now join that infamous list.
→ $100 million stock loss before they reverted back. 

Rebranding wasn’t the wrong call. With 63% of their audience over 45, the brand needed to modernise, attract younger diners, and refresh dated perceptions. That’s sound strategy.

But here’s the misstep:
📛 They abandoned their roots.
📛 They threw away their 'old timer' equity.
📛 They underestimated how deeply customers tied the brand’s identity to nostalgia, familiarity, and recognition.

The truth is, this isn’t a design failure. Nor is it a strategic one on paper. Countless brands have successfully rebranded with positive results. What made this collapse unique was the cultural climate: divided audiences, politics, amplified outrage, and a fragile moment in time where nostalgia feels more valuable than novelty.

And for the first time, we’ve seen a direct and immediate hit to the bottom line, a stark reminder that logos don’t just live on menus or signage, they live in people’s hearts.

The takeaway?
Rebrands must balance evolution with equity. Refresh, modernise, reposition but don’t throw away what makes you recognisable, memorable, and meaningful to the people who keep you in business.

Because getting it wrong isn’t just about design. It can cost you $100 million.

What do you think of the rebrand?

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Goal setting in Jan? Don't do it alone. 

Join 10 senior marketers for 90mins and set goals together. 

We’re running a live, messy, collaborative brekky brainstorm to help you shape meaningful marketing goals for the year ahead, with the brightest minds in marketing in the room.

If you’ve been craving a space to think bigger and clearer, this is for you.

When and where? 
☕ Thursday 15th January 
📍 Ozone Coffee, Shoreditch 
⏰ 9:00–10:30am

DM me, Kelly Mackenzie 🐻‍❄️ for the invite to join us!
(10 women max, we have 4 tickets left)

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