CREATIVE

Crafting, building, pushing, refining, selling, buying, defending, protecting, killing, championing and nurturing award-winning ideas for iconic local and global brands for over 20 years. And coaching, supporting and motivating creatives to make the best work of their lives.

I’ve done all this and more at brands and agencies around the world. Mediacom, Mindshare, the projects*, Coca-Cola. And I’ve driven results and won awards along the way.

STRATEGIST

Breaking down the data, the insights, the research. Making the complex simple, solving the problem, unlocking the idea, finding the story that connects with the audience. And translating between worlds that don’t always understand each other.

CATALYST

Driving creative ambition across a business, creating the conditions for creativity to thrive and raising creative capability amongst teams and partners. Leading the development of ideas and campaigns that cut through to make a real impact.

CREATIVE | STRATEGIST | CATALYST

2012
Media Federation Australia | 2 Gold

2011
AdNews Awards | Gold

2010
Media Federation Australia | Silver

2007
IPA Effectiveness Awards | Grand Prix, Gold

2006
Cannes Lions | Bronze

WHAT PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT ME

“I will always hold your creativity up as a gold standard in marketing. Never loose the combination of creativity, smarts and humour. Keep training and inspiring the team – they love it.”
Lucie Austin, Chief Marketing Officer

“You’re a unicorn. There are so few people who look anything like you. I struggle to find people even approximating your experience base, capability, curiosity and precision."
Chris Binns, Chief Strategy Officer

“Adam has a unique ability to find a role for a brand in popular culture in a way that truly resonates with the audience. I couldn’t recommend him highly enough.”
Katie Rigg-Smith, Futurist

“Your creative leadership has helped drive our creative market share and contribute to our company winning Cannes Lions Creative Brand Of The Year. Thank you for your efforts in driving not just creativity, but creative work that works.”
Teejae Sonza, Regional Marketing Director

“Thank you. For the incredible work that you do sharpening, finessing and bringing impact to our creative outcomes; for the leadership you bring in every moment; for the fun you spark literally every single time our paths cross; and for the support you give me personally when I have something to solve or when I just want to unload! So many achievements since the beginning of the year. Thank you.”
Robert Dingwall, End-To-End Experience Senior Director

“Adam is one of the rare few Creative Strategists who balances creativity with business outcomes – highly strategic, focused on big picture outcomes.”
Juhi Bimbhet, WPP StudioX Category Lead

“Collaborative, supportive and respectful. Strong ally to the agency. Pushes for creative excellence. Provides clear and thoughtful inputs. Extremely strategic and a sharp thinker. Inspires us to think harder and better.”
Creative Agency Review

“The ultimate problem solver – and this extends to help with things both in and out of his remit.”
Creative Agency Review

“Adam’s creative vision and thought-provoking insights lay the foundation for the design department.”
Brett Morris, Design Lead

“True partner and a creative power house.”
Creative Agency review

“Collaborative and pushes internal stakeholders as much as agency team in pursuit of creative excellence.”
Creative Agency review

“I really love your proactiveness and positive energy. You have a special talent to translate ideas and make them flow smoothly.”
Guillermo Giminez Brotons, End-to-End Experience Lead

I started with violence in London

2004 - 2007

Mediacom

In my first job, my key client was the UK’s Metropolitan Police. I learnt the importance of fusing a comms strategy with powerful creativity to make an impact. Our objective was to get noticed by people hellbent on ignoring us. We created award-winning campaigns designed to tackle knife and gun crime. And that experience has shaped the way I think ever since.

I moved into consumer brands in Australia…

2007 – 2010

Mindshare

I left London for Sydney and continued to hone my craft in strategic and creative thinking. I led comms strategy across Nike, Unilever, Kellogg’s, Diageo, Land Rover, Jaguar, American Express and Foxtel. It was here that I really reinforced my belief in connecting with people through a transmission of ideas, meaning and values.

I got frustrated…

2010–2012

Mindshare

I designed and built a new creative capability and moved into leadership…

2012 – 2017

Mindshare

I swapped media for creative…

2017–2018

theprojects*

I went from agency creative to creative client…

2018 - today

The Coca-Cola Company

As a strategist for clients, I started to think like them rather than for them. I stopped bringing a unique perspective to their business. I got caught up in their daily demands and only tackled what was right in front of us. So my boss told me to write a new job description designed to bring fresh creative thinking to all of our clients.

My creative partner Sam Turley and I set up the Co-Creation team – a new cross-disciplinary capability integrating comms strategy, media, creative and execution.

As a collective, our role was to collaborate with senior clients and agency leadership to raise creative ambition, standards and confidence and make things that created gravitational pull for their brands.

We created and commissioned a new reality TV series for Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain, chatbots that took drama and sport beyond the screen for Foxtel, brought together Land Rover and Quiksilver to create the ultimate pro-surfing road trip, created Ben & Jerry’s Live Sundae Sessions – a nationwide live music and movies under the stars series, used coffee cups to sample lipstick colours and got a leading youth publisher platform to run their entire business using an LG smartphone.

As part of the Mindshare national leadership team, my role was to raise creative capability across the business. I developed and rolled out an Applied Creativity training program across APAC. In 2015, I was recognized by The Marketing Academy as one of the top 30 emerging leaders in marketing in Australia.

the projects* invited me to bring strategy and creative closer together. As ECD, I led the Strategy, Design, Content and Branded Merchandise teams. Together, we found new ways to cut-through and connect with audiences. We gave Reebok a new voice with Australian women, published a new monthly, interactive e-magazine for Meat & Livestock Australia; “Rare Medium” – each one shaped with a high-profile chef guest editor, launched a new “Boilermates” collaboration between Jameson Irish Whisky x Young Henry’s craft beer, and designed how Mercedes showed up at Australian Fashion Week.

With my passion for creativity, I wanted to influence more from the inside. Here at Coca-Cola, ultimately, I’m here to make the creative work better. I lead diverse teams and key agency partners to create impactful campaigns across multiple markets for all of our brands. I’m responsible for driving creative thought leadership and capability-building across our entire marketing function. In my time here, we’ve gone on to win over 70 local, regional and global awards and were recognized as the Cannes Lions Creative Brand of the Year in 2024.

Where I’ve drawn inspiration up to now:

Bill Bernbach, Dan Wieden, David Droga, Dave Trott, Colleen DeCourcy, Mark Ritson, Grace Gordon, Steve Harrison, Vikki Ross, Brent Smart, George Lois, Katie Rigg-Smith, Greg Hoffman, Kevin Carroll, Rachel Muscat, Ed Catmull, Sir Ken Robinson, Kevin Warren, Alan De Botton, Jonathan Haidt, Arthur Brooks, Louis Theroux, Stephanie Ross, Finlay & Harper, Eric Cantona, Sir Alex, The Stretford End, Billy Connolly, Larry David, Bob Mortimer, Shawn Stussy, James Burke, Oasis (but mainly Noel), The Beatles, Bob Marley, Doechii, Mike Skinner, Ms Lauren Hill, Arctic Monkeys, Zach Bryan, Johnny Cash, Johnny Cupcakes, Mr Bingo, David Shrigley, Aaron Reynolds, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Heston Blumenthal, Payton Manning, Vince McMahon, Paul Levesque, coffee spots, craft breweries, wineries, walking, walking, walking, nature, Sydney, Tokyo, Thailand, Vietnam, New York, Los Angeles, Charleston, Savannah, Austin, BBQs, Borussia Dortmund away 1997, the San Siro, the Nou Camp, art galleries, the ocean, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Miye Lee, the Dallergut Dream Department Store, the Metropolitan Police, live music, dogs, dolphins, orcas, Rockstar Games, EA, WeFunk, Smartless, Adidas Originals, Air Max 1, LEGO, foreign supermarkets, new smells, hiking, dining alone, drum solos, a fresh Moleskin, sharpies, mountains, small villages, big cities, street photography, bedtime stories…