NEIL COOPER
CV.

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Critical Mass. Mar 2021 – Present

I am currently Executive Creative Director at Critical Mass and oversee teams in London, Tokyo, New York, Toronto and Los Angeles for a range of global clients including DIAGEO, BNY, INFINITI and Mitsubishi. I sit on the Global Creative Council and Worldwide Leadership Team which steers creativity and strategy across our 11 offices.

A passion for craft, creativity, and community my role is to connect the dots and to create brand experiences that are inspired by data and insights. Recent work ranges from digital first branding; including sonic and motion, to social and campaign content to developing design systems.

CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER
Brilliant Basics. Jan 2019 – Dec 2020

My role as Chief Design Officer was to lead design across the global offices. I was bought in by the CEO to transform a very traditional UX led business and to define the role of design within the agency.

Key achievements were to re-define the company vision and values to align everyone around a common purpose and goal. I built the creative department from the ground up. We found ways to be more strategic and ambitious in our thinking by developing new ways to deliver end-to-end brand experiences. We created new propositions to deliver work we hadn’t done before for ATP, Australian Open, BP, Guinness, Geidea and Telenet.

GROUP CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Publicis Sapient. Apr 2015 – Jan 2019

As Group Creative Director I headed up a studio of over 100 strong creatives, I was responsible for setting the creative standards and strategic focus of the London Experience Studio as well as managing global teams across Europe, India and the Middle East.

When I started the role, attrition was extremely high and billability was low at around 50-60%. I changed the way design was sold into the business and managed to grow this to 91%. Creative culture is something I am passionate about and enabled a design community with a shared passion to inspire each other every day to build the type of agency we would all want to start.

Some of my key achievements included, creating a shared vision and values for the experience studio, changed the way we talked about and approached our work, found ways to be more ambitious and connected, opened the teeny tiny art gallery to showcase talent outside of the every day. Led and won the biggest digital transformation pitch at the time for Lloyds Bank worth £130M and set up four innovation labs in Edinburgh and across London.

I spent nine months travelling to Abu Dhabi to lead app and platform experiences for theme parks on Yas Island including Warner Bros World and Ferrari World and delivered global brand experiences for auto, travel, healthcare and FMCG clients.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Radley Yeldar. Jan 2012 – Apr 2015

The first Digital Creative Director of the agency. I helped to transform the digital side of the business from building microsites from around 80k to winning pitches for global platforms for over 1M pounds. My role was to create behaviour-changing, thought-provoking, award-winning work for industry-leading brands including GSK, Coca-Cola and Shell.

DESIGN DIRECTOR
Addison Now Superunion. Sep 2008 – Dec 2011

Previously known as Addison, I was part of the Senior Leadership and led the digital side of the business which included Visual and Experience Design and Development (FE + BE). Key clients include Heineken, BASF and TNT.

DESIGN DIRECTOR
Bostock and Pollitt. Mar 2007 – Sep 2008

Hired to lead Digital Design at B+P to make everything project a little bit more pixel ready, defining, creating and activating brands for this stylish, boutique design agency.

DIGITAL CREATIVE DIRECTOR
SAS Now MSL. Feb 2005 – Feb 2007

Led a team of designers creating immersive digital experiences, branding projects, graduate and corporate comms campaigns to designing a visual language that was used across all of brand touch-points for BT.

SENIOR DESIGNER
AKQA. Jan 2000 – Jan 2005

Lucky enough to work at the Swiss Finishing School of all things creative, I learnt that a real focus on the fundamentals of design, art direction and great, but simple ideas would develop amazing brand experiences for clients, Orange, Microsoft, Xbox and Nike.

DESIGNER
Agency.com. Jan 1999 – Jan 2000

Working in an innovative and award-winning team we produced digital campaigns for British Airways, Barclays, Colgate and Heineken. We got a few accolades along the way from ‘Campaign of the Week’ to being nominated for a BIMA or two.

OTHER STUFF

– The Lovie Awards. Jury
– The Webby Awards. Jury
– Adforum 2024 PHNX Awards. Branding. Gold. Alpheya
– Drum Awards. CX. INFINITI.com
– IAC. Best Automobile Website. INFINITI.com
– Creative Circle. Jury
– Iloomi. Adviser and Mentor
– CreativePool. Jury
– CreativePool. Branding. Malts
– CreativePool. Data. BNYM
– CreativePool. Publishing. BNYM
– BIMA 100. Creative Leader of the Year
– Scottish Design Awards Jury
– Just Mad. Landing Your Dream Job. Panellist
– D&AD New Blood. Portfolio Surgery
– Future London Academy. Keynote Speaker
– Brixton Finishing School. Mentor
– The Dots. Portfolio Reviewer
– Mobile Marketing Awards. Jury
– Kyorious, Digital. Jury
– Apps for Good. Mentor
– Scottish Design Awards. Jury
– Creative Pool. Experiential. Jury
– DoDifferent. Effectiveness. Jury
– BIMA. Automotive. UX & Service Design. Jury
– BIMA. Web Design & Build. Jury
– Brand Republic. Video Jury and Email. Jury
– The Drum. App. British Gas
– Campaign. Digital Innovation Agency of the Year
– The BRIT School. Creative Industry Panel
– RED Dot Award. Communication Design. KBC FP
– Design Week Awards. Digital Design Information. BT
– Revolution. Best online advertising. Microsoft
– Revolution. Best Integrated Marketing Campaign. Orange
– BIMA. Best Integrated Marketing. Orange
– BIMA. Grand Prix. Orange
– NMA Effectiveness Award. British Airways
– Revolution Awards Winner. British Airways
– Marketing Week. Best International Integrated Campaign. Oneworld
– Designed the School Tie. Oldbury Wells School