Working in the ad industry for over 20 years, I’ve come up with campaigns and content for the biggest brands. I’ve created all forms of advertising, from digital and social campaigns right through to international TV and ATL brand work. Whatever it is, my approach is always the same – idea first, then let everything else flow from it.
— Experience —
2012 – 2026 – Freelance at Ogilvy, VCCP, Oliver and many more…
I recently created work for Samsung, Ernst and Young, Sainsbury’s, Formual 1 and Sprite. I also created a global campaign to launch Ryde – a series of Wellbeing drinks.
Created various things for Vodafone: a few TV ads, a business film, and a national press and outdoor campaign for their 5G. I also created a brand campaign for Inmarsat (WiFi on planes).
Another stint on British Airways – included an animation video for Gatwick’s Departure Terminal, lots of press, posters and social, and an overarching concept to house BA’s best offers / late deals.
British Heart Foundation radio, DM, press and online. Emails and web content for Canon. Content for Domino’s Pizza.
American Express social films, brand work, DM, press, digital, Facebook and Instagram carousels and an April Fool’s viral film. British Airways digital and social campaigns, Philips community/social campaign, several social/Facebook campaigns for Nescafe brands, loads of stuff for BT (emails, DM, press, digital) and an Ogilvy branding project.
Pitch win for Inmarsat (WiFi on planes)
Multiple campaigns for the English National Opera including Julius Caesar, Don Giovanni, The Perfect American to name but a few. Multiple campaigns for Royal Mail stamps including the award-winning Olympics campaign (Cannes Silver Lion), Doctor Who, Football Heroes, Royal Portraits and many more. Loads of press, outdoor and online for CityJet. Radio, online and social media for The Gumtree.
Also a pitch win for Virgin Games.
Press, poster and a custom suspended poster for Cutty Sark’s relaunch. Digital posters and rich media for the National Maritime Museum. A full rebrand and new positioning for Aviva Commercial insurance. A new positioning and design for RBS Business. Experiential and bespoke media executions for a Yorkie/Top Gear partnership. Ambient/experiential campaign for Liberty.
A new global campaign for Grant’s Scotch Whisky included press and social media. A social media campaign for a new iPhone app about Aussie Hair products.
TV scripts for Sony’s ThinkPad Edge.
2008 – 2012 – Full time at Mullen Lowe
Press campaign and a lenticular for Teenage Pregnancy. A TV advert for Weedol Rootkill Plus. Chessington World of Adventures TV advert, viral and online ads. Charles Worthington: Make Me Front Row with Grazia national competition, included a website, Facebook and Twitter pages, regional events, POS leaflet and online ads. Mirror Newspaper press and viral. Press, radio, online ads and several virals for Give Blood. Burger King in-house sales video. Complete rebrand for Halifax’s professional mortgage division, included press, online ads and a website. Rebrand for Clerical Medical, included press, posters, taxi media and online ads.
I also worked on various Unilever brands (TV and press for Cif, Knorr and Snuggle), E.ON (press, radio and rich media), RAF (brand and rich media), Tena (press, DM, website and online), Stroke (online), Alton Towers (radio), The Trainline (rich media), Vauxhall (press, online, viral), WHSmith (press and online) and Halifax (press and online).
Pitches I helped win: Halfords, E.ON, House of Fraser, Mirror Newspaper, Invesco Perpetual.
2007 – 2008 – Freelance at Hitachi
Press, brochures, outdoor and a website for Hitachi plasma TVs, camcorders and hard disk recorders.
2004 – 2007 – Full time at Y&R
TV advert and idents for LG. Press campaigns for LG vacuum cleaners and mobile phones. A fully integrated campaign for BlackBerry. A global campaign for Ernst & Young that included press, outdoor and DM. Press, DM and online ads for Hewlett Packard. Press, online ads, DM and a website for QuarkXpress. DM and an event for Adobe. Also a DM pack for BT and a book, written by me, for Nokia.
2003 – 2004 – Freelance at Agency Republic
DM and promotional work for O2.
2002 – 2003 – Full time at HHCL
DM, press and a door drop for AutoRestore (part of AutoGlass). Direct mail for MVC. DM and press for Ocado. Trade press and DM for M&G. An event and DM for Birds Eye. Press for the Sci-Fi Channel.
2000 – 2002 – Full time at Glue London
Where I started my career, doing interactive online ads for Virgin Atlantic. Interactive online ads and email for Virgin Trains. Online ads for E4. Channel 4 Blair Witch online game. Also, online ads for BT, T-Mobile and the Electoral Commission.
— Awards and mentions —
Work on the award-winning Olympic stamps campaign (Cannes Silver Lion).
Evening Standard, Los Angeles Post, Huffington Post and many blogs featured my controversial English National Opera press ad.
Halfords pitch win, featured in Campaign Magazine.
AOP nomination and in-book, featured in Lurzer’s Archive, Ads Of The World and in the Saatchi Gallery London for Teenage Pregnancy campaign.
Best creative at the IFA online awards for Clerical Medical.
Event Awards – Best Exhibition Feature Area for Hitachi event concept and mailer.
NewWebPick.com (international design site), The Hits Paper (Japanese design magazine) and 68design.net (Japanese design site) − all showcased my Hitachi unexpected site.
Quality in Print Media Awards – Cross-media Initiative of the Year for Quark 7 launch.
Finalist three times at the London International Advertising Awards for Virgin Money.
— Press awards —
Campaign of the week, New Media Age for Virgin Trains.
Campaign of the week, New Media Age for Virgin Money.
Campaign of the week, New Media Age for First Direct Bank.
Campaign of the week, New Media Age for Ford.
Campaign of the week, New Media Age for Thomas Cook.
Campaign of the week, Revolution for Bar Wars (E4).
Campaign of the week, New Media Age for Thomas Cook.
— Education —
Central Saint Martins College of Art
(BA) Hons 2:1 Degree classification
— References —
Ronald Wohlman, Worldwide Executive Creative Director, MullenLowe:
“Incredibly easy to work with. He “gets it”. His work is always creatively surprising, fresh and edgy. He’s ambitious, driven and he really does care.”
Greg Delaney, Chairman, Lowe:
“John is a very modern, fully integrated creative who is more than capable of thinking and extending an idea across all channels. He has been very successful here working across the full range of our clients creating everything from sophisticated banner ads to fully integrated big social ideas. This also includes creating some very good TV, press and posters. (The Weedol Rootkill Plus TV ad is a good example of his clever writing.) What’s more he is a joy to work with, being hard working, intelligent, articulate and collaborative. John is a smart, digitally savvy, integrated creative who I have no hesitation in recommending.”
Paul Hancock, Creative Group Head, The Engine Group:
“I had the great pleasure of working with John for the best part of 4 years at DLKW and Lowe. He never failed to deliver across a range of clients and media channels. He approached every project with professionalism and enthusiasm, regardless of whether it was an obvious creative ‘opportunity’. And I’m especially proud of the work he created with us for the COI ‘Anti-Teenage Pregnancy’ and ‘Blood Donation’ campaigns. I would have no hesitation in recommending John to any potential employer, and personally I’d very much like to work with him again in the future.”
Graham Pugh, Executive Creative Director, Digital Outlook:
“I got John in when I was tearing my hair out on a pitch with only two days to go. Very calmly, he came up with a hatful of great ideas and created a whole new route: a great idea, fully integrated, completely thought through and bang on brief. Not only was he great for my stress levels, he was a joy to work with, with a great attitude and an open-mindedness that is exemplary. After the pitch he took on several day-to-day briefs and delivered far and above what we’d asked for, giving us unexpected opportunities to pitch additional ideas to our clients. I have no hesitation in recommending John to any agency that needs a talented, reliable, personable creative.”
Igor Pancaldi, Deputy Creative Director, Iris:
“John had been one of my key hires at a stage when the agency was turning the corner to rank up on digital reputation. He is highly passionate, extremely committed and very talented to concept and bring to life fully integrated campaign executions – a rarity these days. He’s also a really jolly guy to work with on a personal level.”