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2
jobs
Strategy Director & Storyteller
James Mitchell
,
London, United Kingdom
Experience
Other titles
Skills
I'm offering
Creative, subversive, streamlined strategy for a modern and hopeful world. I've worked in agencies big and small, and direct with brands old and new, but always with one personal focus: finding the greatness that really lies within a group of people, and using craft and care to tell it.
Markets
United Kingdom
Links for more
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Industries
Language
English
Fluently
Available
My experience
2019 - ?
freelance
Freelance Planning Directorships
Agencies.
Brands including: Confused.com, Plusnet, Mike's Hard Seltzer, Haribo
2019 - ?
job
Founder
Eureka, the Strategic Storytelling House.
Every brand deserves a story to tell. Not just its customers, but for its investors and people. I work with those brands who don't need a whole agency, they just need an expert and a story. I have led workshops,
conducted interviews and written thousands of words to tell stories such as:
❧ Climate Crisis Foundation: helping people invest in the future of us all.
❧ Allplants: the world's first plant-based frozen food delivery, made with love to spread love.
❧ Wonderbly: the UK's biggest children's book company, using personalisation to show every
child the next chapter of their story.
❧ whaam.io: using facial recognition to help content creators protect their own media.
❧ W2O: Delivered a training course on planning, briefing and storytelling to the London team of a huge global healthcare agency.
❧ The Hut Group: wrote the sustainability story for the UK's biggest online retail group.
conducted interviews and written thousands of words to tell stories such as:
❧ Climate Crisis Foundation: helping people invest in the future of us all.
❧ Allplants: the world's first plant-based frozen food delivery, made with love to spread love.
❧ Wonderbly: the UK's biggest children's book company, using personalisation to show every
child the next chapter of their story.
❧ whaam.io: using facial recognition to help content creators protect their own media.
❧ W2O: Delivered a training course on planning, briefing and storytelling to the London team of a huge global healthcare agency.
❧ The Hut Group: wrote the sustainability story for the UK's biggest online retail group.
Retail, Training, Storytelling, Sustainability, Content, Workshops, Online, LED, Founder
2018 - 2019
job
Planning Director
VCCP London.
O2: I was brought in to co-manage and mentor the O2 strategy team through challenging times:
finding our feet after a huge brand relaunch, marketing two huge innovations ('Custom Plans', and 'O2 Family'), and the Black Friday/Christmas campaign.
❧ VCCP Retail: Led a working group to help the Retail division rediscover its relevance when the Retail sector was under threat (imagine that)
❧ Shell: Got an express education in fluid dynamics in order to sell futuristic truck lubricant.
Briefed the team at the Science Museum. Messy.
finding our feet after a huge brand relaunch, marketing two huge innovations ('Custom Plans', and 'O2 Family'), and the Black Friday/Christmas campaign.
❧ VCCP Retail: Led a working group to help the Retail division rediscover its relevance when the Retail sector was under threat (imagine that)
❧ Shell: Got an express education in fluid dynamics in order to sell futuristic truck lubricant.
Briefed the team at the Science Museum. Messy.
Marketing, Retail, Mentor, Science, Express, Fluid Dynamics, Campaign, LED
2016 - 2017
job
Planning Director
Saatchi & Saatchi.
Managing big brands through big times:
❧ Direct Line: Managing the narrative of the iconic 'Fixer' campaign with Winston Wolf, through
two rounds of product innovation.
❧ Deutsche Telekom: Led a series of workshops across Europe to create and propagate a new
vision for the business: helping everyone "Be part of now". We made products, and even
changed the body language of eight different markets.
❧ National Grid: Ran a 16-person workshop with the leaders of the UK's power network, to help
them position themselves to the public and government.
❧ Direct Line: Managing the narrative of the iconic 'Fixer' campaign with Winston Wolf, through
two rounds of product innovation.
❧ Deutsche Telekom: Led a series of workshops across Europe to create and propagate a new
vision for the business: helping everyone "Be part of now". We made products, and even
changed the body language of eight different markets.
❧ National Grid: Ran a 16-person workshop with the leaders of the UK's power network, to help
them position themselves to the public and government.
Innovation, Network, Workshops, Power, Campaign, Telecoms, Workshop, LED, Product innovation
2015 - 2016
freelance
Freelance Strategy
unknown.
I'd just finished three years at Creature, and wanted to balance my depth of experience with breadth:
❧ Story Writer at Wonderbly: We'll come back to that, in a moment.
❧ New Business Writer at River: Redesigned and repositioned a content publishing business for
the digital age. In a week.
❧ McGarryBowen: Shepherding various accounts at a time when the agency leadership was
restructuring: Sky Bet, Tassimo, Western Union.
❧ Story Writer at Wonderbly: We'll come back to that, in a moment.
❧ New Business Writer at River: Redesigned and repositioned a content publishing business for
the digital age. In a week.
❧ McGarryBowen: Shepherding various accounts at a time when the agency leadership was
restructuring: Sky Bet, Tassimo, Western Union.
Leadership, Content
2012 - 2015
job
Strategist
Creature.
Apprenticed to a true Strategy/Creative polymath. Pitching, leading accounts and innovation projects,
probably before I should have done.
❧ Carling: Used youth ethnography to persuade the clients that 'Britishness' was more than a flag
and cricket. Winning the pitch, and turning sales around.
❧ Jordans & Ryvita Company: Worked with innovation specialists Silvertop-Melville to create
NPD workshops which brought Product and Marketing together for the first time.
❧ The Green Party: Led comms strategy for paid media at elections, helping them combine their
legacy vision of environmental justice with a new vision of social justice. A personal highlight -
writing a million-view musical for their 2015 Party Political Broadcast. To sell it in, I had to sing it
to major donor, Vivienne Westwood.
❧ Also: Anchor Dairy, Zoopla, Tetley, Billington's, Crusha.
probably before I should have done.
❧ Carling: Used youth ethnography to persuade the clients that 'Britishness' was more than a flag
and cricket. Winning the pitch, and turning sales around.
❧ Jordans & Ryvita Company: Worked with innovation specialists Silvertop-Melville to create
NPD workshops which brought Product and Marketing together for the first time.
❧ The Green Party: Led comms strategy for paid media at elections, helping them combine their
legacy vision of environmental justice with a new vision of social justice. A personal highlight -
writing a million-view musical for their 2015 Party Political Broadcast. To sell it in, I had to sing it
to major donor, Vivienne Westwood.
❧ Also: Anchor Dairy, Zoopla, Tetley, Billington's, Crusha.
Marketing, Writing, Innovation, Sales, Npd, Pitching, Workshops, It, Social, Winning, LED
2010 - 2012
job
Junior Planner
Bartle Bogle Hegarty.
You couldn't ask for a better place and time to begin planning. I worked under luminaries for Persil,
Vodafone, Weetabix, Mentos, and Google. Digital NPD with BBH Labs, physical NPD with BBH Zag. Also
got the support and guidance I needed to write an IPA Effectiveness paper for Audi, which won a Bronze.
Vodafone, Weetabix, Mentos, and Google. Digital NPD with BBH Labs, physical NPD with BBH Zag. Also
got the support and guidance I needed to write an IPA Effectiveness paper for Audi, which won a Bronze.
Npd, Support, Google
2008 - 2010
job
Researcher
Carlson Marketing.
Pivoted a humanities degree into a job analysing data and researching for the oldest loyalty company in the world. My experiences analysing loyalty card and frequent flyer numbers formed my thoughts on signal vs
noise, which I shared in a prizewinning talk at the 2010 Battle of Big Thinking.
A few other bits:
❧ IPA Eff Week 2017 Panel Chair: "Beyond Effectiveness"
❧ Advertising Week Europe 2016 Panellist: "That's Disgusting: The Power of Emotion"
❧ FEPE World Outdoor Congress 2016 Panellist: "Reach in the Adblock Age"
❧ Advertising Association LEAD 2016 Speaker: "Responsibility at the Coalface"
❧ School of Communication Arts Mentor
❧ Roundhouse Advertising Outreach Guest Speaker
❧ APG Young Talent Awards 2011 Judge
I love the imaginative and connective power of language, and fiction is a real training ground for the craft. If
you can read people something they know to be false, and yet they feel its emotional truth, your words are
working. My stories explore what this world is doing to us - and what we can do for each other.
You can find most of my work here here, but highlights include:
❧ First Prize in the Brick Lane Story Prize 2019. Hear the interview.
❧ Internationally-published personal essay on my stepfather, "Our Second Life"
❧ Script development work for the sequel episodes to indie hit game Hitchhiker
❧ Story studio writing for two major projects for publisher Wonderbly
❧ Fiction in GQ, Vice
❧ My first printed story will always hold a special place. I loved reading it out.
noise, which I shared in a prizewinning talk at the 2010 Battle of Big Thinking.
A few other bits:
❧ IPA Eff Week 2017 Panel Chair: "Beyond Effectiveness"
❧ Advertising Week Europe 2016 Panellist: "That's Disgusting: The Power of Emotion"
❧ FEPE World Outdoor Congress 2016 Panellist: "Reach in the Adblock Age"
❧ Advertising Association LEAD 2016 Speaker: "Responsibility at the Coalface"
❧ School of Communication Arts Mentor
❧ Roundhouse Advertising Outreach Guest Speaker
❧ APG Young Talent Awards 2011 Judge
I love the imaginative and connective power of language, and fiction is a real training ground for the craft. If
you can read people something they know to be false, and yet they feel its emotional truth, your words are
working. My stories explore what this world is doing to us - and what we can do for each other.
You can find most of my work here here, but highlights include:
❧ First Prize in the Brick Lane Story Prize 2019. Hear the interview.
❧ Internationally-published personal essay on my stepfather, "Our Second Life"
❧ Script development work for the sequel episodes to indie hit game Hitchhiker
❧ Story studio writing for two major projects for publisher Wonderbly
❧ Fiction in GQ, Vice
❧ My first printed story will always hold a special place. I loved reading it out.
Advertising, Writing, Training, Mentor, Interview, Researcher, It, Flyer, Speaker, Development, Power
My education
2013
-
2014
Masters with Distinction, Creative Writing
2005
-
2008
BA (First), English & Classics Combined
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