About
Simon Mainwaring is a branding consultant, advertising creative director, blogger and speaker. A former Nike creative at Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy, he now consults for brands and creative companies that are re-inventing their industries and enabling positive change.
Simon offers a global purview on branding having worked at many of the world’s best advertising agencies in Asia, Europe and the U.S.. His has experience across a wide variety of industries, brands and product categories. As a result he provides effective strategy, creative and community building across traditional, digital and new media.
Simon’s clients include advertising agencies (Wieden, Chiat, Goodby, Saatchi, Fallon, Anomaly), production companies (Saville Productions), digital shops (Digital Domain, Exopolis, M80), experiential companies (George P. Johnson), eco-conscious firms (Sexton Co.), design firms (Troika), Hispanic agencies (Acento) and purpose-driven companies (FreeForm).
He is a Senior Advisor to InterCulture and a member of the Steering Committee of Project Peace on Earth, the AdAge Power 150, TED, METal and the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School. Most recently he was a guest of the Brookings Institute at the U.S./Islamic World Forum in Doha as part of the New Media working group.
Simon’s work is featured in ‘Cutting Edge Advertising’ by Jim Aitchison, ‘The Best Advertising of the Decade’ by Campaign Brief, ‘How to Write Great Copy’ by Dominic Gettins, and ‘Pure Process” by Prof. Glenn Griffin and Deborah Morrison, as well as Lurzer’s Archive, The One Club and Communications Arts Magazines.
He has received over 60 international awards (Cannes, One Show, D&AD, among others) and speaking engagements have taken him from Sydney to Acapulco to Cannes.
Simon studied Law and Fine Arts at Sydney University, Australia, and lives in Los Angeles with wife and two daughters.
ON A MORE PERSONAL NOTE:
I studied law and Fine Arts in Australia but opted for advertising simply for the creative freedom. I surf really badly, wish I played my guitar more and couldn’t cook to save my life. I’ve been an artist, lawyer, actor, and writer but love most the agility of thinking that comes from deep diving into different careers and disciplines.
I have two daughters who laugh hardest when I hurt myself, who leave me breathless when they do trapeze, and who fill my days with pride and joy. I have an Egyptian wife, Australian father, Hungarian mother, and American and Australian daughters, so my family is truly a mixed bag.
I still struggle to keep a healthy balance between work and family (damn you real time media!) but shy away from staff jobs so I could spend more time with my kids before they start thinking I’m completely uncool. (Is that 12 or 13?)
I am passionate about using my skills to make the world a better place for my kids and believe that brands and consumers have a big role to play. So far it all been an amazing journey with some hard won lessons and I’m constantly amazed at the number of smart and talented people trying to do meaningful work. Thanks for the support and interest.
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Photo:Jesse Dylan
