He was formerly a strategic planner in the advertising industry, leading planning at Colenso BBDO before becoming Managing Director of Y&R New Zealand, then founding innovation studio Previously Unavailable.

James’ advertising work has won more than 50 local and international marketing effectiveness awards, including numerous gold Effies and Effectiveness Agency of the Year awards, a Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lion, and the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards Platinum award.

In 2013, he was named the world’s number one planning director by The Big Won Report. His 2011 book The Case for Creativity explored his and others’ research showing that more creative companies, agencies and campaigns achieve significantly better commercial results.

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His 2020 study with Cannes Lions and WARC, The Effectiveness Code, studied nearly 5,000 effectiveness case examples and introduced The Creative Effectiveness Ladder and the principle of Creative Commitment, advertising effectiveness concepts that have been adopted by brands all over the world.

His 2021 study with LinkedIn’s B2B Institute replicated The Effectiveness Code for B2B brands.

His 2022 book Future Demand explains why start-ups building their brand among tomorrow’s customers is the key to their long-term success.

And James is a co-founder and director of Tracksuit, a martech startup providing an innovative brand health tracking platform for companies globally.