James Mitchell
Group Strategy Director, DAVID NY
- Role
- Group Strategy Director at David New York
- Location
- New York, NY, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About James Mitchell
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.
Experience
Group Strategy Director
Apr 2023 — Present · NY, US
Analysis, culture, listening, thinking. The idea before the idea.
Education
University of Exeter
BA, Classical Studies & English, First
2005 — 2008
Birkbeck, U. of London
MA, Creative Writing, Distinction / First
2013 — 2015
Find verified contacts for anyone on LinkedIn
Unifers gives sales teams verified emails and direct dials, enriched profiles, and outreach that lands in the inbox.
Free plan included · No credit card required
This profile is compiled from publicly available professional sources. Unifers is not affiliated with or endorsed by LinkedIn. Request removal of this profile.