About Me

My name is Arjun Basu. For more than 20 years I have seen how good content helps brands market their stories to build audience, to retain customers and to attract new ones.

I am an award-winning writer, editor, executive and strategist. I have built out editorial/media brands, teams and programs that encompass all platforms. I have created new brands and branding for start-ups, and created full-scope rebranding for companies, institutions and associations with rich legacies. I have created media for brands and believe all brands are media creators. I have been around for pivots and changes and know the challenges that accompany these moments, from top to bottom.

I ask questions, sometimes too many, to get to the heart of your story, and then leverage those learnings to create a coherent strategy that allows you to broadcast your story in a manner that fulfills your goals: whether that be targeting your current audience, building loyalty, seeking new customers, creating buy-in to changes internally, and/or achieving growth. Every ask is unique. And that means every ask requires a unique response.

I have been called “the bullshit detector” in a good way! I can strengthen a bench, be a fly-on-the-wall, a fresh eye, an impartial observer, and an outside(r) voice. I help bridge the disconnect between what you think and want and what your audience expects and needs.

I believe that all branding and strategy requires:

• Respect

• Creativity

• Empathy and Intelligence

• Quality and Vision

• Simplicity and Clarity

• Results and a path forward

And that any strong collaboration requires me to:

• Listen

• Learn

• Communicate

• Create

My clients come out of the process feeling empowered, nurtured, and ready.

I have served on boards (National Magazine Awards Foundation and currently with Access Copyright, Canada’s non-profit copyright collective representing creators and publishers), and have led corporate charitable initiatives. I have long been a mentor, team builder and leader, an in-house consultant, a corporate advisor, and have created new departments and helped open new offices overseas within corporate structures. In the 2010s, I helped lead the rebranding and subsequent merging of two distinct corporate entities and cultures in the UK and Canada. I have spoken at conferences on three continents, extolling the necessity of coherent content strategy and inclusive, smart and strategic brand storytelling. I have served on juries for the National Magazine Awards Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Travel Media Association of Canada, and the Quebec Writers’ Federation. I host a podcast about the future of magazines (Needless to say I love magazines and continue to believe in the power of print and its potential as a cornerstone for a wider media ecosystem). And I’m a published novelist.

I am here to serve you. I can take on quick projects, or long, complex ones. I can be hands on or hands off. Work in the foreground or deep in the back. I can work by the hour. By the week. By the month. Or on retainer. As a fractional team member or CMO-as-Service. Anything is possible and depends on the scope of your project and its complexity, but mostly on your overall needs.

I am also aligned with a network of complementary talents and with various creative agencies as needed.

Some of the brands I have worked with (or currently work for) over the past 20+ years include: Air Canada, Mercedes Benz Canada, Bombardier Business Aircraft, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Investors Group, The Canadian Tourism Commission (now Discover Canada), Tourism Toronto (now Destination Toronto), British Airways, Swiss Airlines, LAN (and later LATAM), Flexjet, VistaJet, Bell, Malaysian Airlines, American Institute of Chartered Public Accountants, APEX (the Airline Passenger Association), Logistik Unicorp, Spafax, Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, OBox Group, Most Wanted Co, Dentsu Isobar, Nectara, Gray Collection, Meltek, soNomad, The Good Kind, Adco Displetech, Toronto Symphony Orchestra…

Services and Packages