Gwen Lafage 🐝

VP Marketing, Global Brand and Content @ Sinch 🚀 I B2b tech marketing leader, brand builder

Why do you need a strong brand? 
Because it is the only true differentiator that can’t be copied. And yes that’s also true for b2b companies. 

Think about it: products and features are all becoming the same. Sure you can be a little cheaper or a little better. But why not use your brand to win instead? Your brand is your future-proof competitive edge. 
A strong brand means recognition, credibility, trust, loyalty. 

And that’s why I’ve dedicated my career to building strong brands. BRAVE brands. Brands that connect with people. Brands that dare to be different. Brands with strong beliefs. Brand that build new categories and become their kings. 

I personally believe in the power of communication and creativity. I believe in doing things with passion and taking risks. I spent 10 years in the best Ad agencies in London and Paris, working on the world's leading consumer brands. In my late 20s, I traveled the world for one year. In my 30s, I opened an art gallery in San Francisco before going back to marketing and branding for B2B tech companies in Silicon Valley. In 2017 I moved to Sweden to open the European office of a b2b tech creative agency. 
In 2023 I came back to the US to continue to lead the brand growth of one of the fastest growing tech company in the world, Sinch. 

I’m now VP of Brand at Sinch, where I lead global brand strategy, though-leadership, communications, global events and creative direction for one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world. 

Bottom line: when I want to do something, I make it happen. 
I apply this ‘can-do-attitude’ to everything I do. 

I am always looking for new challenges, opportunities, and learnings, and I love networking and sharing knowledge with other professionals in my field.
Feel free to get in touch.

Specialties: B2B Marketing, Marketing Strategy, B2B SaaS Marketing, Data-driven Marketing, Growth Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Branding, Messaging, Content Marketing, Demand Generation, Account-Based Marketing, Engagement Marketing & Events, Project Management, Client Relationship Management, New Business, Campaign Management, Leadership, Operational Excellence.

Interests: B2B Marketing, Brands, Design, Technology, SAAS, Startups, Growth, Women in Tech, Green Tech, Sustainability, Meditation.

Executive member

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“Ok… I wasn’t sick-sick. I just needed a day.”

Someone at work said this recently, a little hesitantly, a little guiltily.

They had taken a mental health day but felt like they had to explain it.

And it made me pause.

Because how many of us still feel like we can’t say “I’m not okay today” unless we have a fever? 

We’ve made progress talking about mental health at work.
But actually living it still feels hard.

So let’s normalize:

✔️ Taking a day off because our brain is tired
✔️ Sleeping in because we worked late the night before
✔️Going to the gym at noon to burn off some steam 
✔️ Taking a 20min nap because we’re overwhelmed 
✔️Walking the dog at 3pm and touch grass to reconnect with ourselves 
✔️ Picking up the kids at 4.30

Working hard doesn’t have to mean working 9 to 5, or non-stop 8 to 8. 

Yes, I know this is a privilege of many white-collar jobs. But these jobs also blur boundaries in ways that quietly drain us.

Slack at night. Emails on weekends. Constant mental load.

Mental health isn’t a luxury. It’s a basic need.

What would it take for us to stop hiding it?

(👇Me on my way back from the gym at 1pm today, thinking about this post 😅)

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Let’s debunk a myth. 💥 
Just because you’re running TOFU ‘brand awareness’ in your ABM campaign
doesn’t mean you’re building your brand.

Brand awareness needs reach, and not just any reach.
It needs broad, consistent, emotionally resonant exposure across your entire potential market, not just the accounts showing intent this quarter.

That’s the core difference:
👉 Brand building is long-term.
 It creates memory and emotional preference before buyers enter a sales cycle.

👉 TOFU is short-term.
 It captures attention from people already shopping.

But too often, everyone, and many marketers blur the line.
They run a TOFU campaign, get a high CTR, and call it brand.
Clicks don’t equal preference. Awareness without memory doesn’t move markets.

So no, your TOFU ABM campaign isn’t brand. 
It’s performance marketing with a nice banner.
✅ TOFU = activation. CTR = attention.
✅ Brand = mental availability. Brand = memory.

Yes, we need both, but don’t confuse the two. 
Are we using “brand” too loosely in B2B?

Most marketers kill their own brands out of boredom!
And I say this with love… 
because I’m absolutely guilty of it. 😅

I come from creative agencies. 
I love new, fresh, bold ideas.
And creativity is essential. Because if you don’t cut through the noise, you’re invisible, right?

But here’s the true paradox:
Marketers get bored of their brand long before the market even notices it.
Inside the company, we see everything on repeat.
Outside, most people barely see it once.
And we’re the ones pushing to change it.

And the research is painfully clear 😬 
Brands grow through consistency and repetition,
not constant reinvention every time we get tired of our own assets. 

The truth is uncomfortable. The tension is so real for me!! 
What should we templatise so we can scale?
What should we reinvent so we can stand out?
Where do we stay consistent?
Where do we push creatively?

Honestly, I don’t have the perfect answer.
Just a belief that strong brands sit in the messy middle:
creative enough to stand out,
consistent enough to be remembered.
They’re built by surviving the tension between creativity and consistency.

Some days that inspires me.
Other days it drives me crazy.
But that’s the real work.

Anyone else feeling this too?
How do you balance this brand building paradox?

There’s no such thing as a “right” career path. 💥 
Julien Rio asked me on his Marketing Blueprint podcast how I got where I am and whether it was all part of a plan. The truth is… it wasn’t.

Was I ambitious? Yes always, but not always in the most conventional ways. 
I didn’t always chase titles.
I didn’t optimize for salary.
I didn't have a straight line up the corporate ladder.

I just followed what felt right at the time: the next adventure, the next challenge, the next thing that sparked my curiosity and my excitement.
Did I always make the smartest career move? No.
Some were probably rushed. Some only made sense years later.
My therapist would probably say I was sometimes running toward something, and sometimes running from something. 😅
Did I sometimes compare myself to peers with shinier titles and bigger salaries? Yes, and still do sometimes.

From business school, I was conditioned to think careers should go up, up, up 
(“It’s our moment” 😉  if you know, you know)

But what’s the top, really?

The pandemic pushes many off the regular ladder path.
AI is reshaping everything again, the “perfect path” is about to get rewritten anyway.

So let’s normalize non-linear careers? 
Let’s stop conditioning what success means?

The definition of success is personal. 
A job title, control over your schedule, more time with your family, being able to paint, giving back to your local community, 
or just a job you enjoy -- whatever you (we) decide! 

If you’re building your path right now, here’s a thought:
You don’t need to know exactly where you’re going, just what matters to you right now.

Check out our chat on career, but also leadership, burnout, and of course brand 😉 
Let me know your thoughts!

Some days it’s not just my computer that has 47 tabs open. 
It’s my brain!! 🧠 

My job is literally about communication (that's what Sinch does!)… 
and yet, I often struggle to turn down the noise enough to allow for meaningful communication.

Whether it’s building a brand, leading a team, or just managing the day to day, empathy, clarity, and rhythm are everything.
But we can’t inspire creativity or connection if our people (or our audiences) are overwhelmed. 

As leaders, our job is to make space, to slow the pace, to create environments where communication can breathe.

Between Slack messages, endless meetings, and the constant buzz of notifications, it’s easy to get caught up in reacting instead of reflecting. 
For myself. For my team.

That’s why I really liked this article by Rhett Power for Thrive Global 👇 
It explores how we can turn technology from a distraction into a tool
and find a professional rhythm that actually works. 
(And I happened to be quoted 😉 ) 

At Sinch, we see it every day. 
The best brands don’t shout louder, they listen better. 
It’s not just about personalization, it’s about contextualization.
It's about using technology to communicate in ways that feel relevant, not relentless.

The same applies to us as individuals. 
When we respect our own time and attention, communication (and creativity) starts to breathe again.

I talk the talk on this one, but I’m still learning to walk the talk!! 😅 

Finding rhythm in a world that never stops pinging is tough, 
but maybe the first step is just noticing when the noise takes over? 

How do you turn down the noise?

🎬 I declare Predictions 2026 season open!! 
Does our teaser video gives you "Succession" vibes too?? 
(So for 2026 are you feeling more Kendall or Shiv? 😉)

So you would probably guess it, at the core of our predictions, 
we have AI, AI, AI...🤖 💫 

But, not AI for the sake of AI.
Not chatbot hype.
But real, fluid, human-feeling conversations… everywhere.

✅ AI making conversation volume explode.
✅ AI agents getting smarter.
✅ Voice AI handling nuance.
✅ Inboxes becoming intelligent.
✅ Channels evolving by region.
✅ Trust becoming a design principle.
2026 is really shaping up to be the year conversational messaging finally becomes the default, 
and still, none of this replaces the human touch.

AI accelerates everything, but we don’t stop craving connection.
In fact, the more AI enters our lives, the more we expect brands to sound like people!

That’s the heart of our Sinch 2026 predictions 💛 

And I think what's true for our digital communications predictions is true across marketing too
> How do we scale conversations without losing authenticity?

(And now I'm curious:
When you watched our teaser video, did you feel the "Succession" energy too? 🤣  Is AI making you excited or nervous?)

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