Behind the Brand: BAV Group

The World's Leading Authority on Data-Drive Branding™

BAV Group is the world's leading authority on data-driven branding™. Operating globally from our New York City headquarters with hubs in Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Boston, Montreal, and global centers of excellence in Bogota, Santiago, London, Bangkok, and Sydney, we transform brand insights into tangible business results through comprehensive brand intelligence offerings.

While our legacy may have begun more than 30 years ago with the original BrandAsset® Valuator, the largest and longest-running study of brands created by Young & Rubicam (Y&R); today we're much more than powerful brand data and insights —we're the advisors who transform that data into your competitive advantage.

Our team doesn't just deliver insights; we roll up our sleeves and partner with you to tackle challenges, craft breakthrough strategies, and design pathways that propel your brand forward. We've seen firsthand how insights-driven businesses outpace competitors with growth rates between 27% and 40%, and we bring that same transformative potential to your doorstep. We provide the compelling evidence that turns strategic possibilities into measurable commercial success.

We are mathematicians and statisticians, but also anthropologists, creatives, storytellers, sector experts and, ultimately, experts in transforming data into actionable insights. We bring our diverse experiences and teams together to help our clients make smarter, evidence-based decisions where data informs every insight.

How We Grow Brands

Our approach bridges the gap between brand metrics and business outcomes. We start with deep analysis of both business and brand contexts, applying our proprietary methodologies to uncover insights that drive meaningful transformation. These evidence-based strategies then create the foundation for growth initiatives implemented through the VML network's activation capabilities across BX, CX, and commerce touchpoints.

By translating brand analytics into strategic business decisions, we ensure that every brand investment delivers measurable returns that executives can trust and implement with confidence.

Our approach bridges the gap between brand metrics and business outcomes through a systematic process:

We begin with deep analysis of both business and brand contexts
We apply proprietary methodologies to uncover insights that drive meaningful transformation
We develop evidence-based strategies that create the foundation for growth initiatives
We connect these strategies to activation through the VML network's capabilities across BX, CX, and Commerce

By translating brand analytics into strategic business decisions, we ensure every brand investment delivers measurable returns that executives can trust and implement with confidence.

And our methodology isn't just theoretical—it's proven to predict market performance. Brands with high BAV momentum scores consistently outperform major market indices, demonstrating the direct connection between brand equity metrics and financial outcomes.

What Makes BAV Group Unique

Evidence-Based Strategy: We transform raw data into compelling narratives that inform strategic decisions when opinions alone aren't enough

Financial Performance: Our model is linked to marketplace metrics and predictive of financial performance

Cultural Understanding: As culture continues to shift and blur expectations, we help your brand harness its power across culture

Through this unique combination of evidence, financial metrics, and cultural understanding, we deliver actionable strategies that empower brands to make confident decisions in an increasingly complex marketplace.

BAV Group's Collaborative Culture

At BAV Group, we are a team of quant-oriented strategists and strategically oriented quants. Our agile-inspired approach is evident in both our passion for the work we do and how we do it, resulting in remarkably low team turnover.

We pride ourselves on fostering a supportive environment where team members readily collaborate to solve problems and enhance the working experience for everyone. Our regular stand-ups, retrospectives, and demos ensure that work is completed efficiently, effectively, and shared across the team.

Our all-hands gatherings balance business priorities with moments of genuine connection and fun. Recent activities include virtual cornhole tournaments, gatherings in NYC and Chicago, and creating spaces for the team to bond beyond day-to-day work.

BAV Group's Role Within the VML Network

As part of VML ME&I (Marketing Effectiveness and Intelligence), BAV Group puts insights at the heart of business decisions, empowering brands to achieve connected growth. We leverage our data strategy, technology, and analytics expertise to provide clients with the confidence to make smarter, faster decisions that drive measurable business impact.

Our partnership with VML agencies creates a powerful synergy: BAV Group's data-informed brand insights fuel and enhance VML's creative and strategic services. Together, we deliver integrated solutions that drive measurable results across BX, CX, and Commerce initiatives.

Our unbiased consultancy approach prioritizes actionability, transforming brand metrics into tangible strategies and results. As a VML Consultancy, we inform both business and creative decisions with evidence-based brand intelligence, complementing the network's comprehensive service offerings.

Unifying BX, CX, and Commerce Through Brand Intelligence

"Brand is the unifying factor across BX, CX, and Commerce. Brand is the promise of an experience, and our analysis shows that experience accounts for 64% of a brand's equity. BAV Group helps provide data-informed brand intelligence that brings it all together. Today brands need more than just data; they need decision making engines that drive real impact. BAV Group has been a trusted partner in helping organizations not only manage their brand's equity but also shape strategies that link brand investment with increased valuation and enterprise growth; providing agency partners and our clients with the insights they need to make bold strategic and confident decisions."

— Laura Jones, Global CEO

Transforming Data into Growth: BAV Group's Impact

Olympic Partnership Valuation

Client: NBCU / The Olympics

Client Asked: How can we quantify the contribution the Olympic brand equity brings to partners?

We Answered: By validating the impact of Olympic partnership on key business metrics. When NBC Universal needed to prove the value of being an official Olympic sponsor, BAV Group quantified the impact that Olympic partnerships have on sponsors' key business metrics. Our analysis revealed that partner brands experienced significant growth in brand equity metrics:

+5% Preference

+4% Usage

+10% Pricing Power

+13% Emotional Commitment

This data now serves as a crucial component in NBCU's partner negotiations and PR campaigns, transforming brand equity metrics into commercial value.

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Find Your "Y"

Client: YMCA of the USA

Client Asked: How effective is our new brand campaign in changing public perception?

We Answered: By quantifying the campaign's impact on brand metrics and engagement intent. Building on five years of supporting YMCA's brand tracking needs, BAV Group quantified the impact of the "Find Your Y" campaign created by VML. Our analysis proved the campaign changed the brand's trajectory across all equity metrics in record time, taking it from fatigued to leadership in just one year while increasing public intent to engage with the organization. This data-informed validation helped secure both a 2022 Gold ARF David Ogilvy award and a 2023 Effie award.

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Ticketmaster Expansion

Client: Ticketmaster

Client Asked: How might we unlock opportunities for a new experiential brand?

We Answered: By quantitively analyzing white space opportunities across categories. When Ticketmaster sought to launch a new experiential brand, they needed to identify ownable white space and understand competitive dynamics. BAV Group conducted a quantitative whitespace exploration across travel, entertainment, and ticketing categories. By analyzing brand attributes of competitors and comparators, we identified "exclusive and bold" as an ownable positioning, translating this data-driven insight into a unified growth strategy for both BX and CX initiatives.

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Meet BAV Group's Leadership

Laura Jones

Global CEO

Laura is a CEO on a mission to transform data-driven branding one bit at a time. She's quant-minded with a penchant for poetry. Commercially savvy and creatively inspired, Laura is also a writer, enthusiastic yogi, girl mom, and change maker.

Ketzirah Lesser

Executive Director & Chief of Staff

As Chief of Staff, Ketzirah brings her extensive experience in marketing, communications, business operations, and c-suite advisory to BAV Group. In addition to her, role as Chief of Staff to Laura Jones, Global CEO, she acts as thought leadership & content lead.

Vanessa Fuss

Managing Director, Commercial Lead

As Commercial Lead, Vanessa drives revenue growth and maximizes profitability through impactful strategies. She oversees revenue targets, budget forecasting, and client growth roadmaps while developing go-to-market offerings and optimizing pricing strategies that translate brand insights into business value.

Jenna Rounds

Managing Director, Business Development Lead

Jenna drives new business growth by qualifying inbound leads, developing winning proposals, and managing the end-to-end sales process. With a keen ability to build trust and credibility with prospects, she helps translate BAV Group's data-driven approach into commercial solutions that address real business challenges.

Brian Owens

Managing Director, Demand Generation Lead

As Demand Generation Lead, Brian cultivates relationships through strategic client outreach, compelling thought leadership, and proactive prospecting. He represents BAV Group across the VML network and beyond, creating awareness and interest in our evidence-based approach while staying attuned to industry trends and target audience preferences.

Opinion Party: The Marketing Podcast

At BAV Group, we like to say we bring data to the opinion party. We like to say it so much that in 2025, we launched Opinion Party: the marketing podcast where hosts Laura Jones & Jason Gaikowski interrogate some of the most popular myths in marketing through the cold, cruel lens of data. Season 1 has a who’s who of amazing marketing minds. We will be recording season 2 at the Institute for Real Growth Summit just before Cannes, engaging a world class roster of CMOs and business leaders to put the myths under the microscope.

Join the party at www.theopinionparty.com, and find it on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts – or wherever you get your podcasts.