Rafe Offer

Rafe Offer has led teams and innovation at some of the world's best known brands – as a Global Marketing Director of Coca-Cola, Director of Global Marketing at The Walt Disney Company and a Director of Innovation for global drinks giant Diageo. Most recently, he became an entrepreneur and Co-Founder of global music start-up Sofar Sounds.

With his passionate yet down-to-earth and interactive approach, Rafe covers a wide range of topics, from the fundamentals of marketing to how to create a company culture that enables breakthrough innovation. He talks about the importance of customer insight with real world examples including stories and lessons from the major brands and companies he’s worked for as well as his most recent success with Sofar Sounds.

Described by the Guardian as "a quiet revolution" and New York Magazine as “one of the top new brands in America”, Sofar Sounds promotes music gigs in intimate spaces around the world. Hosted in over 300 cities, Sofar is a global movement which aims to bring the magic back to live music. The brand has recently seen investment from Sir Richard Branson and announced major partnerships with the likes of Airbnb and Uber.

Following a career as an executive in several top global advertising agencies, Rafe joined The Walt Disney Company in 1993 as a Brand Manager. He developed the "having fun never goes out of style" marketing campaign for new Mickey Unlimited adult products and within three years, Disney saw sales grow from $50m to $800m.

Rafe was subsequently appointed Director of Global Marketing for Disney Consumer Products and he led the worldwide marketing of Disney's $12 billion Consumer Products licensing business. He set strategic vision, championed the evolution of Disney culture to a global focus and developed business frameworks to help 57 country offices implement Disney brand strategies.

In ‘97, Rafe Offer moved to The Coca-Cola Company as a Group Brand Manager. He chaired a Strategic Innovation Management committee – a team of executives from engineering, product, procurement, research and marketing that developed innovative packaging and sales equipment. Their innovations created $55m additional profit for Coca-Cola. Moving to Global Marketing Director in 1999, Rafe led marketing and product development for Coca-Cola stores, attractions, event and licensed merchandise, which had collective global sales of $1.2 billion. In 2000, Rafe developed the marketing strategy for Coca-Cola's first ever eCommerce initiative.

Moving to London, Rafe became a Director for Diageo creating their new entrepreneurial business unit responsible for finding new revenue sources while strengthening the core drinks business and brands.

Rafe has since consulted for the likes of Microsoft, Aviva, The Daily Mail Group and Amazon. He was also instrumental in the development of Twenty Recruitment – one of the world's fastest growing recruitment companies.

Originally from the USA, Rafe now lives and works in London.

‘Understand your customers, and make them feel good’ is a mantra which Rafe Offer brings to all of the brands he works on.  Born for the stage, he shows how simple ideas when well-executed can capture the imagination of consumers across the world.

His speaking topics include:

• Creating, developing and improving your company culture
• The essential ingredients behind maintaining successful and progressive customer service
• How to create and maintain a world class experience
• Managing Growth: From start-up to mid-market to global brand