Alessandro Manfredi
Building Iconic brands that grow relentlessly and stand the test of time
CMO | KEYNOTE SPEAKER | ADVISOR | MARKETING LECTURER
28 years at Unilever, building iconic brands across global markets.
Best known for launching the Dove Real Beauty campaign and serving as Dove's Worldwide CMO, growing the brand into a €6 billion powerhouse.
Today, he helps leaders build brands that shape culture and redefine categories.
Best known for launching the Dove Real Beauty campaign and serving as Dove's Worldwide CMO, growing the brand into a €6 billion powerhouse.
Today, he helps leaders build brands that shape culture and redefine categories.
About me
The best brands shape culture they don’t just mirror it.
Born in Florence, Alessandro studied and taught at Bocconi University in Milan before joining Unilever for 28 years, where he led brands across all continents, rising to Worldwide CMO of Dove, Unilever's largest brand.
He was part of the founding team of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, a culture shaping campaign that redefined beauty standards and media representation years before ‘Purpose’ and ‘DEI’ even existed as business practices. Under his leadership in the last five years, Dove reached €6bn in turnover in 2024 —more than tripling its pre-Real Beauty size.
Throughout his whole career Alessandro championed courageous brands with distinctive points of view and a challenger mindset, a philosophy that allowed him to create innovation and communication that disrupted categories and drove exceptional growth.
Recognized as one of the most creative business leaders of his generation, Alessandro has won only in the last five years, 72 Cannes Lions and 7 Grand Prix, the extremely rare D&D Black Pencil award, and a multitude of Effies.
Testimonials
Quotes
Ale's keynote was extremely inspiring and left me with plenty of insights on how to step up the game in marketing with a sharp mix of ever green best in class fundamentals as well as audacious moves on contemporary brand building. His humble and passionate style and his credibility, deriving by the fact that he was behind some extraordinary work and business results, make him an incredibly effective speaker.
When Alessandro presents to Marketing audiences, he combines inspiration and insightfulness to connect to their reality and pain points, and he always leaves them energized and crystal clear about what to do next.
Ale combines a deep understanding of brand fundamentals with both the discipline and the blue-sky thinking required to elevate brands to new heights. In today’s fragmented media landscape, where content is increasingly less explicitly branded, Ale’s strategic vision and brand-building expertise are more vital than ever in driving sustainable, competitive growth.
As a speaker, Ale brings his case to life with clarity and charisma—it's not just insightful, it's genuinely cool to attend. He draws smart parallels that make it easy for any brand team to connect and apply. As an advisor, he quickly pinpoints key issues and challenges assumptions with just the right distance—always thought- provoking and impactful.
Differentiation is the greatest marketing challenge of the decade