Marcus Collins

Marketing Professor, Michigan Ross | Bestselling Author of 'For the Culture' | Former Digital Strategist for Beyoncé

Marketing Innovation Customer Experience Communication Resilience Artificial Intelligence

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WHY MARCUS

What Marcus brings to the room.

Marcus Collins decodes the invisible force of culture — showing brands and leaders how to move past generic demographics to drive collective action, true customer loyalty, and strategic brand contagion.

KEYNOTE TOPICS

Ideas built for the stage.

For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy and Who We Are

Based on his award-winning book, Collins demonstrates how culture is the most powerful driver of human behavior. He explains how shared beliefs, values, and social norms influence choices far more than traditional marketing metrics like age or gender. Audiences walk away with a practical framework to build brand tribes and generate authentic, self-sustaining market momentum.

Putting the Humanity Back into Customer Centricity

In an era obsessed with big data and predictive algorithms, organizations often forget that customers are human beings. Collins challenges leaders to look beyond transaction histories and analytics dashboards to truly understand the lived experiences, identities, and motivations of their community. He shows how empathy and human connection drive long-term commercial value.

Cultural Contagion: Driving Collective Action and Brand LoyaltyDrawing from his legendary career launching digital campaigns for Beyoncé and major global brands, Collins breaks down the science of cultural transmission. He teaches teams how to design ideas that spread organically, mobilize communities to take action, and construct a highly resilient corporate or product narrative that survives market disruption.

Marcus Collins is an award-winning marketing professor, bestselling author, and cultural strategist who has spent his career at the intersection of consumer behavior and brand building. He serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, where his research focuses on social contagion, shared beliefs, and organizational culture. He is the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller For the Culture, which earned him the prestigious Thinkers50 Radar Distinguished Achievement Award for the business concept most likely to shape the future of business management.

Before his academic appointment, Collins built a formidable reputation in the creative industry, most notably serving as the Chief Strategy Officer for the elite advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy New York. He previously co-founded the translation agency and directed digital strategy for the global pop icon Beyoncé, orchestrating the launch of her massive "Beyhive" fan network and executing groundbreaking digital campaigns. An exceptionally high-energy speaker who has appeared on television programs like Good Morning America, Collins holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from Temple University, making him a trusted strategic advisor to Fortune 500 executives and global marketing teams.

ON STAGE