Two years into Advertising, James stood up before a conference of London's Strategy leadership and said, "We face a crisis of caring." His career since has focused on a simple question: how do you get people to care about you?
At BBH he shaped some of the first moments of Google Chrome, made in-house tech products at Zag, created a self-tracker of digital behaviour (that was also a robot tamagotchi) with BBH Labs, and turned Vodafone’s PAYG campaign into a soap opera with a pair of 20-something bees.
He joined Creature on double duty as Creative Strategist (Carling, Zoopla, Anchor), and Strategic Creative (The Green Party’s biggest Party Political Broadcast ever, a million-view musical that earned a spot on Gogglebox.) He guided NPD processes on the side: new lines for Jordan’s Cereals and Ryvita, as well as something special – a Creature cheese, specially formulated to encourage nightmares.
At Saatchi & Saatchi he worked a bigger canvas, shaping Deutsche Telekom’s global brand for the 5G age, and bringing Direct Line together with creative technologists to design an AI-powered road crossing. And he went to work on the agency itself, creating the Human Sciences department.
All this has been threaded together with all sorts of freelance projects: from helping vegan startup Allplants and The Climate Crisis Foundation find their voices, to helping VCCP relaunch O2 in collaboration with George the Poet, and consulting for Unicef.
And under all that, the secret sauce: the craft of fiction. James’ writing has appeared in national book prizes, the pages of GQ and Vice, talks, a podcast, a comic, and a game.
All to answer the question: what makes people care? Well, it’s different every time, and that’s what makes people interesting. But the way to find out is always the same: empathy, kindness, patience, creativity, and craft. Not an easy road to take, but always a road worth taking.
Projects credited in
- Direct Line Brand Activation 2017In October 2017, Direct Line revealed an innovative prototype pedestrian crossing aimed at reducing traffic and pedestrian accidents - The Smart Crossing (www.directline.com/smart-crossing). With 7,000 annual road traffic accidents taking place at crossings due to a lack of visibility for cars, cyclists and pedestrians, this new campaign is a world-first and aims to tackle this pertinent problem. The campaign forms the second initiative in a series of brand activations that demonstrate Direct Li
Work history
Planning DirectorVCCP
- London, United KingdomFreelance
S
S
Planning DirectorSaatchi & Saatchi
- London, United KingdomFull Time
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Skills
- Strategy
- Brand Strategy
- Brand Creative Strategy
- Brand Creation
- Copy Crafting
- Copywriting
- Creative Writing
- Storytelling
- Fiction
- Creative Non-fiction
Education
B
B
Masters in Creative WritingBirkbeck College, University of London
- London, United Kingdom
Passed with Distinction - Dystopias, Childrens' Fiction, the Novel. It's helped me more in my job than I could have guessed.
U
U
BA in English Literature and Classical StudiesUniversity of Exeter
- Exeter, United Kingdom
First.
Awards
IPA BronzeThe IPA (The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising)
Bronze for a paper on Audi's first foray in the small car market. The "best-written paper of the year", according to judges.