Hamza, in six chapters.
Where it began.
Hi, I'm Hamza. Creative strategist, lecturer, author. 10+ years of experience in marketing and strategy.
Born on 20 June 1995, in Mechelen. That's where I grew up, in a neighbourhood where people from different backgrounds simply lived next to each other. To me, that was normal. Only later — at school, in books, in advertising — did I notice that many other places didn't reflect that at all.
I started in law. A choice that had little to do with passion and everything with wanting to live up to the path that was expected of me. A year later I was sitting in the lecture hall of a communications programme. Nobody looked like me. I understood the problem in five minutes: if we aren't here, how can I ever expect this industry to reflect us?
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That's the question that keeps slipping under all my work.
I graduated in branding & advertising. But during my studies I already knew I wanted to work on D&I. So no agency — instead, a D&I consultancy. The hunger for campaigns and communication stayed strong there, and after some convincing I got the chance to set up an in-house comms and marketing department. A kind of start-up inside a company.
Did good work for JBC, DeSingel, Pfizer, Deloitte, Think Pink, the Flemish Government, Flair and others. Years of that.
Then I moved from one agency to the next. Saw a lot. Anyone who wants the full story can read the book. What I quickly realised: beyond the surface polish, the industry doesn't actually want to change.
So I went fully independent. Not as an escape, but because I wanted to choose a direction that didn't fit any hierarchy I'd seen up to that point.
How I work.
“Make it difficult for the clients in the showcase, not for the ones paying the bills.” Someone I worked for said it. The next day I handed in my resignation. Not out of courage. Out of pure exhaustion.
Since then I work on my own compass, only with clients who actually want to move forward.
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Culture-first. Not on top of an audience, but next to them. Not about them, but with them. That sounds like a slogan until you realise it instantly flips most briefings I receive: not how do we address this audience, but how are they already moving in the world, and where do we fail to meet them.
Concretely: building brand houses for brands that no longer dare to articulate their positioning, rewriting narratives for institutions out of step with their audience, designing campaigns that don't hide behind symbolism, and guiding strategic programmes for organisations that know they need to move but don't know which way.
I like to work from briefing to roll-out. Strategy that stays trapped in a beautiful deck isn't strategy. It's a document.
Who I build for.
I've worked with, among others, Politie Gent, Politie Antwerpen, Z33, Arenberg, VRT, Streamz, Netflix, SBS Belgium, JBC, DeSingel, De Kringwinkel, Think Pink, Hand in Hand tegen Racisme, the Flemish Government, Flair, 11.11.11, Deloitte, Pfizer, IOM (UN Migration), UNHCR and Kat Graham.
One thread: institutions where the tension between who they are and who they want to reach is at its sharpest.
And who I don't build for
Do I work with any brand? No.
Some briefs are declined before they reach me. Concretely: gambling, lending and alcohol. Any sector whose business model widens inequality or feeds addiction. Brands complicit in systemic injustice, like companies materially supporting occupation, war or human rights abuses. And brands publicly positioned against the communities my work is built for.
Anyone trying to dismantle harmful norms daily can't, in the same breath, sell strategy to the brands that produce them.
Unnormed.
Meanwhile I'm building Unnormed, a collective/agency I'm founder of. Launch is planned for 2026-2027.
What it becomes, I'll tell you when it's ready.
My book: Inclusieve Marketing.
In 2025 my book Inclusieve Marketing (Pelckmans) was published — a no-bullshit guide through the entire marketing process: briefing, research, audience, representation, strategy, creation, media plan.
For people who are done with the conversation about inclusion ending at a headscarf in a poster campaign. The book was named PIM Bewustmaker (Awareness Raiser) of 2025.
Earlier I co-wrote Fuck de Klimaatverandering, my writing debut.
Go to the book pageOn stage.
Alongside my practice I lecture at Thomas More University of Applied Sciences and have given over 100 keynotes by now. At conferences, on podcasts, for educational programmes. Including on Touché (Radio 1), Strategie van de Kreeft and Preventiepraat.
I also give trainings and workshops on brand building, audience strategy, inclusive marketing and everything that scrapes between them. By invitation, for companies and organisations that want to take the conversation about inclusion further than well-meant intentions.
For the rest: hello@hamza.be.
