INFO
John Downing is a New York-based creative director and brand leader with 15+ years of experience across startups, agencies, and his own companies. He builds brands and in-house teams from scratch, creates award-winning campaigns and experiences for global brands and IP, and writes bios about himself in the third person. In 2024 John co-founded ST. JULES, a creative studio and brand incubator, with longtime collaborator Matt Knapp.
If you’re a founder or operator who needs a brand built right the first time: let’s chat.
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In a career spanning Australia and New York, agencies and in-house, John has been fortunate to:
🥤 Incubate an on-the-go breakfast brand from scratch, building an organic audience of 30K+ followers, 2.1M+ organic views and 10M+ impressions in the first three months, and securing nationwide distribution in Australia’s largest supermarket chain, with a global rollout to follow.
📈 Build an insurance brand that went from 6MM-74MM in revenue in four years, hiring and managing a team of 9 people, upsetting 13 poets, and prompting on-the-air job offers from Obama’s ex speech writers along the way.
🛏️ Create the world’s first online music festival for seriously ill kids, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, and assembling some of the most insane lineups ever, all without spending anything but time.
🦇 Bring Batman to the blockchain, working to launch and develop the DC NFT platform, and cultivating one of the top 3 most engaged-with brand NFT projects, with over 410MM impressions in the first year.
🧷 Unleash anarchy in web3 with the Sex Pistols, hijacking the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee to create and launch UMG’s first physical/digital product, doubling projected sales, and winning Catalogue Campaign of the Year in the process.
👓 Collaborate with FKA Twigs to make Google Glass, the most unwearable wearable ever, actually seem cool, blowing up the internet and contributing to Fast Company crowning Google “the most important - and unconventional - marketer of the 2010s.” -
John can help you:
🐣 Incubate a new brand or product from scratch
💥 Crack your next campaign
🎨 Design or refresh your brand identity
📣 Define your brand’s voice and tone
👨👩👧 Hire and structure your in-house team
📈 Refine your business’ narrative and build your pitch deck
🤖 Boost your existing team with a creative technologist
✍️ Hone your UX or product marketing copy
⚡ Generate a ton of ideas -
NOON / ReciMe / Dollar Shave Club / Waterhog / Lasso Labs / GameChanger / Pacaso / NewGen Families / Warner Bros / DC / Universal Music Group / Policygenius / Samsung / Google / Converse / Adidas Skateboarding / BarkBox / Children's Cancer Institute of America / MasterCard / McDonald's / Little Caesar's / Captain Morgan Rum / Marriott Hotels / The New York Lottery / Reebok / Telstra / Volkswagen / Tourism Australia / Hasbro / Continental
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2025
Clio Awards / Finalist / GameChanger2023
Webby Awards / Finalist / The DC Bat Cowl Collection2022
Music Ally / Catalogue Campaign of the Year / The Pistol Mint2020
One Show / Finalist / Craft / Policygenius “We’ll always get the future wrong.”
D&AD / Shortlist / Craft / Policygenius “We’ll always get the future wrong.”2018
Cannes Lions / Finalist / Samsung + Google Play Music2015/16
D&AD / Graphite Pencil / Converse Spot Drop
One Show / Silver / MyMusicRx Bedstock
CLIO / Silver / Google Glass + FKA Twigs
Digiday Awards / Best Agency-Client Collaboration / MyMusicRx Bedstock
International Young Gun Awards / Bronze / Converse Spot Drop
International Young Gun Awards / Bronze / MyMusicRx Bedstock
Webby Awards / Finalist / MyMusicRx BedstockPRIOR (list available on request)
Cannes Lions / One Show / Clios / The London International Awards / Young Guns / New York Festivals / AWARD / Spikes Asia