"A great brand is the story that never stops unfolding."

I’ve just started a video conversation series, ‘Meet The Storytellers’, chatting to founders and marketing leaders about storytelling: what it means to them and what part it plays in their business and brand journey.

To kick off the series I spoke to Hugh Thomas, co-founder of Ugly Drinks. Ugly launched in the UK in 2015, selling fruit flavoured sparkling water in cans. The drink contains no sugar, no sweetener, no calories and nothing artificial. Hugh and his co-founder Joe Benn’s starting mission was to expose the ‘ugly truth’ of the drinks industry - how big soda brands market unhealthy fizzy drinks. Hugh is currently based in New York where he is spearheading the brand’s expansion into the US market. 

In this conversation Hugh describes his path to becoming an entrepreneur, tells the story of where it all started and explains how important storytelling has been to the brand.

“I think it’s the most important part of any business. Too many brand stories haven’t been thought through and aren’t authentic. They copy each other and use similar brand cues. They don't speak from the soul about why they started their idea.”

Hugh says he is always conscious of what the next chapter in the Ugly story is, citing Zappos’ Tony Hsieh who said “a great brand is the story that never stops unfolding.”

In this 30 minute conversation Hugh also talks about why he loves Instagram so much (“it’s a visual record for me and the journey I’m on”) and reveals how Ugly has transformed its consumers into fans (“you get most engagement when consumers feel part of the story”).

Watch the YouTube video below (I think the transatlantic link was having a bad day when we recorded, apologies for the unstable video) or if you just want to listen, scroll down for the audio.