Mandy Leontakianakis
Brand strategist, Dublin. Founder, Love The Elephant. Former Chief Strategy Officer, TBWA\Dublin and Havas Southern Africa.
Mandy Leontakianakis is a brand and creative strategist based in Dublin, Ireland, working with clients in Europe and across African markets. She is the founder of Love The Elephant, an independent strategy practice for CMOs and brand leaders, and of Flawed, a B2B offer that treats human-made creative work as the origin asset that AI extends.
She has more than twenty years in advertising. She began as a copywriter in 2002, moved into strategy in 2008, and went on to serve as Chief Strategy Officer at Havas Southern Africa (2017–2019) and TBWA\Dublin (2019–2023), followed by a consulting role with TBWA\Worldwide (2023–2024). Her global client work includes Jameson, Heineken, Diageo, Coca-Cola, FNB, MTN, Standard Bank, Absa, Ford, South African Tourism and the HSE. She led brand strategy for MTN and Absa across multiple African markets, and is often brought in by European brands as their navigator for Africa. Global strategy lead on Jameson Irish Whiskey. Global Effie jury.
She works on brand positioning, masterbrand architecture, global creative platforms and senior counsel to marketing leadership. She writes Flawed Thoughts on Substack and teaches Signature, a course for working creatives on AI and distinctiveness. She holds a degree in English from the University of Cape Town and works in English and French.
The discipline hasn't changed: a brand is a clear idea, held consistently, that people can repeat. What has changed is who's repeating it. Buyers now ask machines before they ask people, and machines only surface brands whose narrative is distilled enough to be found, quoted and trusted. I bring twenty years of classical brand strategy to that new world: positioning that holds up in a boardroom, and travels intact through a search engine, an LLM or an advocate's spontaneous upvote. Flawed is the production side of the same idea, human-made origin work that AI extends without losing the signature.
Platform
Brand positioning and repositioning. Masterbrand and sub-brand architecture. Global creative platforms and campaign strategy.
Four to six weeks.
Counsel
Senior strategic counsel to CMOs and leadership teams. Organisational alignment behind a brand strategy.
Retained. In service to C-suite decision makers.
flawed
Human-made origin work that AI extends across every format, with provenance intact. Strategy, artefact, AI extension, fidelity.
Platform sprint, four to six weeks.
| 2024– | Founder | Love The Elephant (Citizen Brand Consultancy Limited), Dublin |
| 2023–2024 | Consultant Creative Strategist | TBWA\Worldwide |
| 2019–2023 | Chief Strategy Officer | TBWA\Dublin |
| 2017–2019 | Chief Strategy Officer | Havas Southern Africa, Johannesburg |
| 2008–2017 | Strategy leadership roles | TBWA\Integer, WPP agencies, Joe Public and other South African agencies; research with Millward Brown and Consumer Psychology Lab |
| 2002–2008 | Copywriter | South African agencies |
Drinks
Jameson, Johnnie Walker, Don Julio, Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Heineken, Ballygowan
Financial services
FNB, Standard Bank, Absa, MoMo (MTN)
Telecoms and technology
MTN, BRSK
FMCG and retail
Reckitt Benckiser, The Coca-Cola Company, SuperValu, Nando's, Avon
Automotive
Ford, Tata
Public sector and place
HSE Ireland, South African Department of Health, South African Department of Communications, South African Tourism, Brand South Africa
- Do you work independently or through an agency?
- Independently, through Love The Elephant. I partner with your in-house team or your agencies as needed.
- What does a typical engagement look like?
- Most positioning or architecture projects run four to six weeks, from immersion through to a strategy the creative team can use the next morning. Longer retained counsel is available for leadership teams.
- Where are you based and where do you work?
- Dublin. Clients are in Europe and across African markets. Work is remote-first with in-person workshops where they matter. I work in English and French.
- Can you help a European brand entering or growing in Africa?
- Yes. I ran brand strategy for MTN and Absa across multiple African markets and have twenty years of on-the-ground experience in the continent's consumer, financial-services and telecoms categories. European brands typically bring me in as their navigator: market realities, cultural nuance, partner selection and a strategy that travels.
- What sectors do you know?
- Drinks, financial services, telecoms, FMCG, retail, automotive and public health, across both leader and challenger brands.
- How do you use AI?
- As an accelerant behind the scenes, never as the origin of the creative idea. Flawed exists to protect the human-made source while AI extends it.
- How do I start?
- Email mandy@lovetheelephant.com with the brand, the decision you need to make and your timing.
LinkedIn Flawed Thoughts flawed signature @mandymakes_a_mess