Edelman Taps Reid To Be Its First Global Chief Experience Officer

Edelman’s first-ever global chief experience officer is Taj Reid, a former creative director at Microsoft who helped launch Microsoft’s HoloLens, among other products. 

Reid said his new role as Global Chief Experience Officer is to “accelerate innovation” and to “largely earn trust, inspire action and drive growth” on a personal level. “I think for people that go through that experience that personal growth whether they  have a greater affinity for the moment or the brand, or they learn something new, or they want to go and tell a friend,” he said. 

Reid rejoined Edelman in 2019 after consulting at Slalom, Seattle. He was formerly VP executive creative director at Edelman from 2014 to 2016. There he handled clients including eBay, Heineken and the American Heart Association.  

Key to acting as Global Chief Experience Officer will be integrating human-centered design thinking and experiences, Reid said.  “It starts with understanding the customer and all the different touch points, whether it be with a brand, or with an idea, and really go with through that journey,” he said. “So that they come away with a sense of why our solution to a potential challenge, or to a greater insight into where they want to go or the action that they want to do and why.” 

Reid said that post-2019 has been an atypical time for marketing but has been transformational as well. “I think the last year and a half is just really accelerated a lot of the direction that I think like technology design was already going in,” he said. “When I think about marketing, it has to be even more inventive. But at the same time, really look at the pace and momentum of what experiences look like today and be able to insert wide sense of connection that is meaningful, but in new ways that maybe we weren't looking at as carefully or as closely prior to the last year and a half.”

 

Next story loading loading..