Willem Sodderland

About Willem Sodderland

Willem Sodderland is an entrepreneur, marketing innovator and speaker. After finishing Law school with an award-winning thesis on the patentability of Jurassic Park’s Dino-inventions, he entered the world of strategy consulting as a pupil of Michael Porter, at Monitor Company. He started his first business in 1998 by creating The Netherlands’ first incubator. Several companies followed, among them Juicy Details, a chain of juice bars.

By founding Buzzer, Europe’s first word of mouth marketing platform in 2005, Willem became an international pioneer in social marketing. His company has mastered the art of engaging consumers with brands and has brought word of mouth to the forefront of marketing in numerous countries.

In 2013, Willem realized that this new age of marketing had brought about a paradigm shift. Empowered by billions of customer reviews and word of mouth conversations, consumers are now equipped with nearly perfect information about products and services. Paradoxically, this means that the favoured tools to help differentiate them and persuade buyers – communication and branding – no longer work to achieve that.

Products and services will depend once more on their true value: the way they serve the real needs of customers. Amidst global competition and total transparency, there is only one way to win: to make a difference.

Willem’s latest adventure, Buzzable, addresses this new reality. Buzzable teaches the art (and some science) of ‘being remarkable’. Of meeting the real needs of people in such a powerful way that emotions are triggered and expectations changed. So that they will have to talk about you.

With great passion and an incredible amount of unique experience, Willem helps products, brands, companies and individuals to become more remarkable, more ‘buzzable’. The Buzzable approach aligns your passionate story (‘Why’) with the word of mouth from your customer and the buzz that makes the world notice you. This trinity gives you the uniqueness that leaves a lasting impression and changes attitudes and behaviour.

Willem shows how anyone and anything can become more remarkable. How ‘buzzability’ is uniquely related to business success and why it is fun and inspiring to become more remarkable. He can explain how tying your shoelaces and eating bananas differently are connected to the success of innovation. Does this seem like a strange example? Listen to Willem share his inspiration through speaking engagements across the world…