Deep experience. Proven success. Trusted by clients.

Yes, that is me, in a forest, with my bow and arrow. I am an archer, as well as a Creative Director. The two things are intrinsically linked. Hitting targets, with precision, requires experience, focus, intuition, and decision making.

Also, I’m from Newcastle, so if you read that back in the accent, it sounds a lot more grounded.

About me

A selection of work from very recent, to very last century!

Quin AI brand & campaign

Infinite CFO brand & campaign

Standard Life Andy Murray sponsorship content

Edinburgh International Festival digital marketing

Loch Ness Marathon brand & campaign

ICAS brand and social platform 'Spheres'

Standard Life British Basketball concept

There’s a lot more to see, including branding and video content. just click below.

Portfolio page

Why might you need a Fractional Creative Director? Well, I’ve tried to simplify that into the areas covered below. However, my experience is far broader than just the title. I’m a problem solver at heart. So please do get in touch whatever the issue?

Marketing & brand

Creative team management and development.
Client management and presentation.
Business development, sales and growth strategy.
Pitch management and direction, training and education.
Cross channel and platform planning.
Online and offline asset design and development.
From brief to campaign and content mock ups.
Oversight of asset production and execution.
New or existing brand identity or refinement.
Design guidelines and on/offline applications.
Short and Long-form copy and communications design.
Campaign and content copy and scriptwriting. Brand TOV.

Product & service

Problem definition and solutioning using bespoke, modern and classical tools and methodologies.
Online and offline sprint team leadership and direction.
Systems theory & JTBD driven design and validation.
Experience design based on consumer psychology.
Acquisition, retention and conversion strategy.
Modelling and strategy (startup or established).
Writing and design (or oversight) of business plan.
Scaling, remodelling, or new market change strategy.
Disruption and risk mitigation. Transformation strategy.
Channel and platform design concepts and visuals.
User experience and interface design.

Drop me an email

Some very kind words, from some very smart people, working for some very big brands.

“Everything Don does is strategically brilliant and outcome driven.”

Angeliqe Miller, VP, Expedia Media Studio

“If you want ideas with ambition, call Don.”

Derek Scobie, Global Director, YouTube

“Fast, first-time precision, Don delivers beyond the brief. He’s my go-to guy.”

Olivia Cadoni, Head of Marketing, PlanetMark

“Top bloke, top company, great creative talent.”

Phil Jones, Founder, Digital & Design Podge

From travel to entertainment, financial services to sport, and everything in between.

What actually is success? I’ll tell you. Return on investment. And here’s some examples.

Expedia Media Studio

Under my guidance as Fractional Creative Director, Expedia’s in house agency, known as Creative Partnerships, was transformed into Expedia Media Studio, a full-service, innovation-driven, content publishing division, with new marketing channels and platforms.
By designing and building a suite of marketing technology platforms, channels, and strategic travel solutions, we were able to centralise and support the whole business with innovative, proactive, take to market solutions, at the cutting edge of travel marketing.
The Media Studio team won Best In-House Brand/Content Studio at the 2023 global Digiday awards .

Dalmore Whisky

Dalmore was a mid-market, legacy brand with a forgettable identity and a meaningless name.
In an international luxury market, where symbols and pictograms are representational of implicit brand quality and value. We removed everything superfluous.
Repackaging and rebranding a product range, with an increased entry level price point (up to 100%).
30.31% increase in market value and consistent top placing in investor ranking.
The first whisky to sell for a six-figure sum, selling for £100,000 straight out of the distillery shop.

Prudential digital brand

As Fractional Creative Director, I helped Prudential build an in-house Creative Agency to deliver improved digital product, brand and campaign integration.
The business posted a 20% increase in operating profit the following year.

Expedia Hawaii interactive campaign

Hawaii is a destination that offers any kind of traveller, almost any kind of vacation. So how do travel shoppers decide on the right trip?
Employing the latest facial recognition and eye tracking software, we showed viewers the breadth of activities available, and, based on the strongest responses, curated the perfect trip for each viewer.
Over a million total views of the site.
A 20% increase in demand on Expedia sites.
A 115:1 return on investment.

BBC Natural History Unit

The BBC Natural History Unit wanted to explore ways to engage viewers through a deeper immersive content experience.
In collaboration with BBC R&D, we integrated binaural sound with 360 degree film. The ‘Unearthed’ experience was born. A first-of-its-kind production for the BBC.
The pilot won a BIMA award for best immersive experience, and the BBC have since used the format in many productions.

Expedia OTT travel platform

Integrating the Expedia travel shopping API into a proprietary OTT content platform allowed Expedia to develop content series’ in partnership with destination brands that, for the first time, allowed viewers to purchase travel at the point of inspiration.
Using CX, UX, and service design principles, an end to end user journey was mapped. Then internal and external technologies were integrated around a strategic framework, built to deliver a frictionless, shoppable-content experience for travel customers.
Launched in Q4 2022, the platform has already delivered nine new content series’ for global destinations, exponentially increasing revenue.

The Automobile Association

A breakdown service, who the public associated with travelling mechanics, and long waiting times, was losing market share to new providers.
Building an association with the emergency services reversed perception and made the AA a ‘must have’ membership, not a distress purchase.
In the first year of launch the brand went from 28% to 58% spontaneous awareness, and membership rose from 7.5 million to all-time high of 9.3 million.

Organ Donation campaign

In Scotland, organ donation registrations fell behind the rest of the UK, meaning lives lost that could have otherwise been saved.
After years of ‘heartstrings’ emotive advertising, that saw limited uplift, the science of behavioural psychology was employed in a radical new marketing approach.
Playing on the natural human loss-aversion bias, the campaign related a direct consequence to the action of the viewer.
In the weeks following the launch, the NHS saw a 300% increase in donor registration numbers.

Greyhound Lines

The business operated as a disconnected set of operating units without integrated digital systems.
Using CX, UX, and service design principles, an end to end user journey was mapped and a strategic framework built to deliver frictionless, multi-channel, on and offline customer journeys. Reconnecting the business through integrated marketing, brand, sales, service and technology.
An immediate 11% uplift in transactions, and a 13% increase in revenue. Along with a BIMA award for Digital Transformation.

Quin AI brand

The first AI system dedicated to e-commerce businesses. Quin AI had a positioning problem.
Data scientists and machine learning engineers understand AI, most online retailers don’t. Quin needed a way to articulate the product proposition.
Defining the system as an ‘audience engine’, along with simple animated diagrams, and non-technical, outcome-focused propositions, allowed prospects to contextualise the technology to their business needs.
Quin AI was voted best E-Commerce business at Retail Week 2023, the industry’s leading event.

CBS Star Trek VR

Destination Star Trek, was coming to London for the very first time, and CBS wanted to steal the show.
The ‘Beam Me Up’ app used innovative, reverse augmented reality technology to activate a Trekkie's mobile phone camera and, when they pointed at our bespoke Transporter Pad, it beamed their friends out.
Over two days, the ‘Beam Me Up’ experience was viewed over 6,000 times with the app itself downloaded to nearly 4,000 devices. With over $1m of earned media coverage for a $15k investment.

Infinite CFO brand identity

As a challenger brand, the CFO-as-a-service business was beyond the startup phase and in need of a bolder, more innovative customer proposition.
With a focus on behavioural psychology biases in the key stakeholder groups, the brand pivoted towards a confident focus on accelerated business growth, manifesting in the promise ‘Further, Faster.’
The brand launched in Q4 2023 with very positive customer feedback along with an increase in prospective clients from B2B social campaigns.

I’d like to thank my parents, colleagues, clients, therapist, etc, etc, etc.

Years of experience. Years and years. And years.

Under my Creative Direction, Expedia’s in house agency, known as Creative Partnerships, was transformed into Expedia Media Studio, a full-service, innovation-driven, content publishing division, with new marketing channels and platforms.
By designing and building a suite of marketing technology platforms, channels, and strategic travel solutions, we were able to centralise and support the whole business with innovative, proactive, take to market solutions, at the cutting edge of travel marketing.
2018 - 2022
As a founding member (brain), I support a collaborative network of fractional consultants.
We match organisations with inspiring advisors, consultants, coaches and non-execs, with diverse skills and specialisms, to help them make progress with their most pressing problems.
Our model is designed to help leaders with ongoing consulting needs to have a larger set of specialists running alongside them at a fixed price. This means they can access these skills, when they need them, with an up-to-date team, without worrying about costs ramping up.
2020 -
I was the Executive Creative Director of Realise, and one of the three core leadership team members.
Over eight years I grew the company into one of the biggest and best Digital Agencies in the UK.
Realise was acquired and became part of the Kin + Carter Group in 2014 and it is still growing.
2009 - 2016
I was the Creative Director of The Union for ten years. Joining when it was still a start up, and helping it to grow into one of the largest and most awarded agencies in Scotland.
1999 - 2009
I worked for Campaign Magazine's 'Agency of the 90's' in their heyday.
One of the most innovative and original agencies to ever exist, I was lucky enough to work on the groundbreaking AA account, reinventing the organisation from a recovery service into The 4th Emergency Service.
1997 - 1999
Recognised as one of the world’s leading Creative agencies, I joined as a young creative in 1993.
I was responsible for the revolutionary Irn Bru campaign that put the agency on the world stage and won many international awards.
1993 - 1997

A few specific career highlights

Building the in-house creative innovation studio for Expedia, including a suite of digital products, platforms and channels.

Developing award winning, facial recognition technology for Expedia to track and curate customer experiences.

Increasing organ donation registration in the UK by 400% using behavioural psychology techniques.

Working with the BBC natural history team to develop, immersive, audio-visual, virtual reality, broadcasting technology.

Building innovative, reverse-augmented reality technology for CBS to attract Star Trek fans to their platforms.

Reinventing the Automobile Association from a breakdown recovery business into ‘The fourth emergency service’.

Launching three UK challenger bank brands, and propositions, Egg, Standard Life Bank, and Intelligent Finance.

Delivering the innovative advertising strategy for Irn Bru that increased sales in London for the first time ever.

Delivering the creative strategy that saw Realise win the £7m English Football League account against 150 other agencies.

The only seven things that really matter

I am a low cost, high value, Fractional Creative Director.

(I’m good and I’m fast, that makes me cheap by comparison)

I deliver new, valuable, validated ideas, ready to execute and deliver returns.

I have a proven track record of transformational creativity.

I have the skills to design and build products and services and take them to market.

I can deliver ideas for and within businesses, or train internal teams to be creative.

I believe creativity is meaningless without action and outcomes.

I deliver results-driven creativity, that means you’re earning money not burning money.

Now hire me!

Or view my portfolio page…