• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, October 20, 2014

What does the idea of brand voice bring to mind? For Tom Lillig, Director of Brand Management at Stone Ward Advertising, it’s a lot like pornography. “You know it when you see it,” he told attendees of OMMA Chicago on Monday. In order to properly represent clients and their voices, however, Stone Ward relies on “brand education campaigns” to initiate all staffers in a position to represent the brand on any channel. On the topic of brand voice, Melyssa Banda, Senior Director of Product Marketing at WD, thinks everyone needs to loosen up. “Brands can’t be sterile,” she said. “They can’t have that rigidity." To that point, Doug Ryan, President, Chicago/San Francisco, DigitasLBi, said: "The more [brands] can be human, the better [they'll] do.”