The birth of the TWIST

My passion for twisting began a fateful day on an ordinary business trip during the winter of 2002. I was working as the executive director of consumer branding at Interbrand, a global branding agency. On a business trip to a client in Nebraska, I ran into the typical hiccups of flight travel from the New York metropolitan area: traffic, long lines at security, and countless departure gates leading to a maze of different airlines. Anticipating a less than fun-filled flight with mediocre airline food, a bland atmosphere, and the inevitable hurry up and wait pace of airline travel, I already felt defeated as I rushed toward my gate.

As I looked out the window to the tarmac, I was suddenly stopped by the image of a 747 airplane with McDonald’s golden arches on the tail fin. Finally, here was something new and different! I envisioned what this McDonald’s airline would be like. I imagined it would be good value with a flexible menu of ticket options and upgrades. It might allow me to “supersize” my experience to a seat with more legroom or special menu offerings. The interior of the plane would surely be brighter, more welcoming, and have attendants with a friendly service oriented attitude. This McDonald’s airline experience was dramatically more appealing to me than the plane I was about to board two gates down.

As it turns out, this airline was imaginary as it was the reflection of McDonald’s yellow neon arches at the food court perfectly positioned onto a plane parked behind the window. While this McDonald’s airline wasn’t real, it led me to the very real practice of TWISTing brands in different categories to come up with new ideas. This “a-ha” moment became the inspiration for all of the work I was to do from that point forward in my corporate positions as well as my teaching positions, and then when I founded my own branding consultancy and branding school for entrepreneurs and small businesses. It is the reason I named my company BrandTwist.

And I’ve been TWISTing ever since!