Jonathan Bell

Business adviser, Business mentor, Connector, Consultant, Designer, Entrepreneur, Foodie, Idea generator, Marketer, Parent, Sales specialist, World traveler

I'm the founder of WANT a leading independent brand strategy firm based in Miami and New York. WANT works with some of the world's biggest companies to create brands and rebrand businesses. I'm considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on brand naming. That's right, I get paid for sitting around and dreaming up brand names for companies, products, cruise ships, cars, laptops, pharmaceutical drugs and pretty much any kind of product, company or service. At TED2016 I gave a 5 min TED talk 'How to create a brand name'. The talk now has 2.4M views on the TED YouTube Archive. My client experience includes projects across virtually every business sector including: Uber, Apple, Google, MGM-Resorts, Dell, Unilever, Coca-Cola, MTV, Disney, P&G, Gillette, AT&T, Samsung, Intel Over the past 32 years doing naming and branding, I've completed more than 2500 branding projects. I've been quoted in articles for Forbes Magazine, American Banker, New York Daily News and The NY Post and spoken at conferences on Naming & Branding in US, Europe and the Middle East. I'm also a visiting Professor at New York’s renowned School of Visual Arts, teaching Branding & Naming to MFA Design students. I was born in the Leeds, England and came to NY in 1990 and worked in the Big Apple for 20 years. Now, I'm now a dual US/UK citizen and based in Miami, Florida. I live with my wife, Renata and our two children, Lucas (10) and Luiza (8) and dog, Stella.

When I'm working: Branding, Naming, Strategy & Positioning. When I'm not working family time, movies, wine, Sunday New York Times, reading the odd book here and there, Paddleboarding, Snowboarding, English football, lots of music (mostly alternative), dabbling with vinyl records. I've ranked my top 50 albums of all time and my top 50 concerts. Ask me about that sometime.

There are 500,000 words in an English dictionary and about 300 million companies in the world. Creating brand names – finding unusual, unique and available brand names – is one of the most difficult task facing marketers today This is where my company fits in: WANT is a leading independing branding agency that has worked on over 2500 branding projects. If you need help creating a brand, give me a shout.

Brand namer, Brand strategist, Business advisor, Creative

Having enjoyed watching TED talks for years, I decided to apply for TEDGlobal 2014 in Rio. My wife is Brazilian and I know Rio very well. The event itself was a transformative experience for me – the talks, the spectacular setting, an incredible curated experience from the organizers. The new friendships I made there have been so enriching. I was honored to be invited to TED2016 and gave a 5 min TED talk 'How to create a great brand name' which has 2.4M views. At TED2016 I was invited for drinks with Larry Page (Google) where I met Paul Allen from Microsoft and investor, Chris Sacca. I also met Eric Hirshberg (CEO Activision) who asked me to name a new version of Call of Duty (we named it Infinite Warfare). I also met distinguished writer and professor Adam Grant who invited me to deliver a lecture on branding to his MBA students at Wharton. For me TED has been transformational helping to underscore my subject matter expertise and helping me compete better and win business. After six years, I'm excited to be back, to learn and meet some new TEDsters.

1. Negotiation and finding ways to make people say 'yes' 2. Remembering people's names 3. Packing for business trips 4. DJing, mixing vinyl records 5. Making beds (just like they do in nice hotels)