If you’re ever in the position to wander slowly and aimlessly after 25 years of holding your breath, I can’t recommend it more highly as a way to get to know yourself better. I took a spacious career pause between July 2022 and 2023, restoring my creative center and my overall health and wellbeing. I spent time in various writing and leadership programs, reading two books a week, cooking meals that took all weekend, walking-meditating for 20K steps a day, traveling far and wide, having beautiful distraction-free conversations, dabbling with a content platform and indulging in a personal writing project. Ask me about hypnosis, breathwork, blood, the gut-brain connection, conscious leadership, magic, somatic creativity, toad venom, and scorpion infestations. I learned a lot and have stories.

One of the big things I learned is that I’m at my most creative and inspiring when I’m shaping a healthy, happy culture, and working in a team with people who inspire me through their creativity and excellence. Which is why I recently accepted the role of Global Chief Creative Officer at Forsman & Bodenfors. I believe our industry has a lot to learn from the Swedes and I’m looking forward to helping take their distinct brand of magic to more people and places.

In July 2023 I took a relatively short stint as Partner and CCO at the New York independent creative agency, FIG, which was great fun during a very good time to be independent. We won the Tropicana Naked and TJ Maxx Homesense accounts, retained the Benjamin Moore account after a review, and we made some work I’m proud of.

Until July 2022, I was the Chief Creative Officer at Grey in New York, where I started in late February, 2020. Right on time. There was no playbook for leading from your kitchen table for over two years as the new CCO of a legacy agency, and there are things I would do differently as a leader if I could turn back time. That said, we grew. We won the Grand Effie, and Titanium and Gold at Cannes. I love new business and we won some great pitches for Las Vegas tourism, Modelo, MassMutual, Georgia Pacific, IHG and more, and we won on chemistry and the work. I helped bring awesome talent into the agency across all disciplines, and we made famous work for P&G, Applebee’s, Pringles, Frank’s Red Hot and others. I am most proud that we were named Comeback Agency of the Year by AdAge in 2022, a year when every agency still standing deserved that recognition.

Before Grey, my agency home was 72andSunny in New York, the place that taught me the value and true art of collaboration. I was Executive Creative Director there for almost three years, leading the creative department and overseeing Smirnoff, Trojan, Spotify, Halo Top, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, Facebook, and Seventh Generation. Prior to becoming ECD, I was Group CD on Cheerios, Yoplait, and Nature Valley.

Before coming to New York, I was at Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Oregon for five years. I was Creative Director on the Secret account, and I co-led Chrysler, Dodge and Herbal Essences, and I was a writer on Old Spice for a year as well. All the good things you heard about W+K Portland in those years are true, it was a special time and I made lifelong friends with some of the most brilliant people in the business. I also learned a lot about the conditions for creativity and what unapologetic creative leadership looks like.

Before W+K I was in my homeland, Australia.

I was at Publicis Mojo Sydney for four years on Boag’s and Hahn beers, plus Toyota, Nestle, PayPal, Coke, Virgin Active and Qantas, and a number of smaller brands as well. My friends and I launched a side-project called SmileMakers, and I subsequently formed a catalogue of defensible hot-takes about women’s pleasure.

Prior to Mojo I spent two years at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney where I was Creative Group Head on Foxtel, Australia’s cable TV provider. I also co-led Olay and Head & Shoulders, and the General Mills brands Old El Paso and Patak’s.

Prior to Saatchis I spent six years at Clemenger BBDO in Sydney and Brisbane, working on tons of CPG accounts such as Masterfoods, Frito Lay, PepsiCo, SunRice, Uncle Tobys, as well as Visa Card, Mitsubishi, and Suncorp Bank and government accounts such as Queensland Rail and Ergon Energy. 

Before that I was at McCann-Erickson Brisbane for two years. It was my first advertising job. I wrote about tract homes, ordered sandwiches for meetings, and answered the phone.

Before that I was at Queensland University of Technology doing a B.Business Communications majoring in Advertising. For money, I worked at Sunglass Hut, on the drive-thru at KFC, and at Video 2000, before DVDs were a thing and when 2000 was way in the future.

Before that I was a child in Adelaide, South Australia.

Before that, I can't remember.

My other stuff is at linkedin.com/justinearmour

Shoot me an email at justinearmour@me.com