Extended profile

Erwin van Lun is Marketer on a Mission: it is his mission to help marketers add value to the lives of consumers. He fulfills his mission in various ways:

• Futurist: Erwin has a well-founded vision on the future of tomorrow’s society and beyond, focusing on media, marketing and brands, and people’s behavior in this completely different world. He developed his vision after much research, many interviews, and especially a lot of thinking.
• Author: He wrote the book ‘Van Massamerk naar Mensmerk’ (From Mass Brand to Personal Brand) which describes how media will change over the next ten years, how brands will adapt, and what today’s professionals can do to anticipate the changes. The book was nominated for the Marketing Literature Award in the Netherlands in 2005. Besides, he has plans for a new book, describing the future until 2050, Pamper Planet being the work title for the book.
• Blogger: Erwin closely follows the developments in media, marketing and brands through his own web log erwinvanlun.com, and he writes for the two biggest marketing web logs in the Netherlands: marketingfacts.nl and molblog.nl.
• Trend watcher: Erwin follows how society, marketing, consumers, media, and brands develop from day to day. He makes a match between today’s developments and his own long-term forecasts. This way he can distinguish today’s hypes from developments that will actually sink in. In that sense, one could call him a ‘trend matcher’.
• Speaker: As a speaker at conferences, seminars, and client days he takes his audience to the new world called future, which in some cases is closer than most people think.
• Workshop facilitator: Intensely working with a small group of people in a workshop, an understanding of what happens in the world outside an organization comes into being, inspiration comes up, and concrete ideas for an organization’s strategy evolve.
• Creative partner: In a personal, one-to-one conversation, Erwin discusses strategy, organization, or people with managers, while at the same time starting to generate new ideas.

Erwin has a background in marketing and IT as well as artificial intelligence. In 1993 he graduated as an Electronic Engineer at the Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands), with a specialization in artificial intelligence. During those years he developed a special interest in intelligently analyzing (marketing) information, sounds, and images. After graduating he worked for IT company CMG (now LogicaCMG) for then years. First as a marketing and IT consultant for clients like KLM, GE, and Schiphol Airport, later as e-communications manager at the international headquarters. After those ten years he went back to school to become a Master of Brand Management at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. For his final thesis he wanted to combine his Delft engineering knowledge with his experience in IT, marketing, and communications. He wanted to know how IT would change brand communications. In the course of his research project he interviewed twenty five Dutch experts, among them Giep Franzen, Maurice de Hond, and Roland van Kralingen, and noticed that this topic was hot among professionals. Inspired, he decided to write an integrated vision on media and brands in 2015, and publish it in a book. After the writing process, while the book was being published, he worked as a Strategic Planner for Ogilvy in Amsterdam.

In 2005 the book ‘Van Massamerk naar Mensmerk’ (From Mass Brand to Personal Brand) was published, and it was nominated for the Dutch Marketing Literature Award in the same year. The book meanwhile has had its first reprint. It has helped tremendously in getting a reputation in the marketing branch. But his blogging too has helped a lot here. Fulfilling his mission however he accomplishes best as a speaker at conferences, and as a facilitator at workshops. Hence his connection to the Speakers Academy. Actively working with groups of people is what he likes most.

Not completely coincidentally, in his private life he loves theater sports, a form of improvisational drama. In this form of art, interaction with the audience is very important. By practicing this hobby he constantly gets new ideas of how to get groups in a certain flow: one of the fundamentals for fulfilling his mission.

Find a schematic overview on Erwin through social business network LinkedIn.

It is easy to reach Erwin, in various ways throughout www.erwinvanlun.com, or by phone at +31 621 567 657 (GMT+1).