The Narrative Alchemist: Richard Ellwood's Radical Approach to Transforming Spaces into Stories You Can Touch
In this CMO Superhero series of interviews, a precursor to writing a book on Share of Experience – the Superhero Metric, we explore the stories of extraordinary CMOs in building their brands. Discover key takeaways from the business and measurement challenges these CMOs face and find out what Claude.ai identifies as their three top superpowers.
Meet Richard Ellwood.
While the marketing world stampedes toward digital transformation, Richard Ellwood, CMO at The Crown Estate, has orchestrated a dramatic pivot toward multi-sensory physical experiences. In this provocative conversation, he reveals how a 260-year-old institution is rewriting marketing's rulebook.
Q: While companies pivot towards digital transformation, you chose a 260-year-old institution as your canvas. What opportunity did you see?
A: “The opportunity I saw was to enliven destinations like Regent Street and attract the right global brands. It's about delivering that serendipity where people say, "I thought I knew that area, but that's really surprised me." Working for The Crown Estate itself was a massive draw – a 260-year-old brand that last year returned over a billion pounds to the treasury while driving massive sustainability initiatives.”
Q: You moved from Disney's fantasy empire to historic real estate. What’s the connection?
A: “The storytelling – no one does storytelling as well as Disney. When I joined, we were doing lots of exciting things, but a Disney approach is to ask: can we do fewer, bigger, better campaigns? So, for our destination campaigns and The Crown Estate, we quickly moved to four key seasonal campaigns around big retail moments. London offers visitors incredible choice, so how can Regent Street stand out? The best way is through compelling campaigns. This is therefore a blend of multi-sensory physical experiences complementing existing digital channels – getting both right, drives collective reach and engagement.”
Q: In an age where marketing increasingly lives on screens, you're creating custom scents and edible experiences. What strategic insight drove this approach?
A: “Our "Awaken Your Senses" campaign kicks off with a Sensorium on Heddon Street where you'll experience jellies that contain Regent Street's storytelling – opulent flavors from Mayfair, spice from Soho, and elements representing our greenery. We've created a signature scent with Aromaria that embodies these same elements. Rather than just saying "Regent Street was designed in 1819," we're bringing it to life through innovative mechanisms that excite media, customers, and visitors.”
Q: You're reimagining the landlord-tenant relationship as a collaborative ecosystem. What value does this unlock?
A: “We have hundreds of partners running their own brands, often with global flagships on our properties. We support them by sharing data on footfall, dwell time, and sentiment. Our Future of Food Festival celebrates our 60 different restaurants while showcasing sustainability innovations – like Wiltons' work with native oysters. The storytelling through partnerships is integral to our broader campaign themes.”
Q: Marketing's holy grail seems to be finding the "one perfect metric." Why is this insufficient?
A: “For our campaigns, it's more nuanced than one number. The storytelling comes from looking at everything in totality and saying, "We've looked at 25 metrics, and within those, this is the story." If you boil it down to just sales or impressions, you're seeing the tip of the iceberg. For marketing to succeed organizationally, you need to take people who aren't marketers on the journey through storytelling – not just numbers they don't understand.”
Q: You're suggesting constraints actually fuel innovation rather than stifle it. How does this approach work?
A: “With the right parameters, it actually helps creativity. Our framework gives scaffolding, not restrictions. Then you can get really creative: what's going to be new, exciting, and innovative that I've not heard anyone else doing? That's what gets cut-through. But ideas must be simple and straightforward – like "Awaken Your Senses." Everyone understands what you see, hear, smell, touch, taste.”
Q: What future vision guides your investment in physical experiences?
A: “I want consumers to have incredible experiences seeing the very best brands in the world – brands who know that success requires experiential retail. I want the spaces between shops to be thoughtfully considered, for people to feel places speak to them through sustainability, biodiversity, and inclusivity. Gradually, we can tell the story of The Crown Estate as a company for the country, generating wealth for the nation while building for future generations.”
Speaking with Richard reminded me of creating The Brand Experience Workshop and Score (a new way of articulating a brand) as a planner at IMP in the 1990’s. The 1990’s was the heady days of big blockbuster TV ads, the single-minded proposition and distilling everything to the brand essence. I felt that our frameworks lacked the dimension of time as well as the five senses and incorporated these within the Brand Experience Score, which was like a musical score articulating the five senses along with how people felt, thought, and acted at each part of the experience.
Richard’s work epitomizes brand as sensory experience.
What are the big takeaways?
These takeaways represent a fundamentally different approach to marketing that challenges digital-first orthodoxy, embraces physical-world advantages, and puts storytelling at the centre of brand building in ways that engage humans as multi-sensory beings rather than just digital consumers.
I particularly like the way Richard applies storytelling in every facet of his work from the immersive sensory story of Regent Street to the compelling narratives he creates using data to uncover the truth of the impact of his activity for consumption by the C-Suite.
Storytelling is, of course, at the heart of Superhero movies! Let’s dig down into Richard’s story. click here to discover how Claude.ai uncovered Richard’s three top superpowers.
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Author: Fiona Blades: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionablades/