Davis Ballard

Founder, Creative Director & Brand Strategist

A studio of one. I run strategy, creative direction, design, copy, web, and production for brands that want senior work without the agency layer. The studio runs on Abracadabra, a proprietary AI engine I built: 24 specialist agents, 5 million lines of code. One hire covers a strategist, a creative director, and a production team.

• The Walt Disney Company: Co-hosted the strategy workshop with 55-time Cannes Lion winner Julian Cole that set brand and comms strategy for 2020.
• 1000heads / Google: Creative lead on Google Workspace social. Campaign work across Google, NFL, NBA. Two dozen pieces, including the account's most engaged post in 18 months. $ open →
• Cheil Worldwide / Samsung: Brand, comms, creative, and naming strategies. NYE Times Square campaign.
• The Macallan: Creative for VIP events at The French Laundry, Post Ranch Inn, and Aman. Visual systems and brand assets.
• SET ACTIVE: Creative Director. 25 merch pieces, 2 brand campaigns, 3 photoshoots; merch preview response tripled order quantities. 6 RBI, 1 Grand Slam in the Annual Kickball Championship. $ open →
• Language Media: Won the Blink-182 pitch through design work. Music video treatment for A$AP Ferg "Jet Lag" (Dir. Jason Goldwatch). $ open →
• Virtue Worldwide / Vice: Pivoted Select Cannabis comms launch strategy through COVID.
• Vacation® freelance return: Email and digital ad creative after the full-time role.
• Sickbird Productions / Julie: Creative direction and TikTok for emergency contraceptive brand Julie, breaking taboos with Gen Z. Led creative for Scotch Porter IG. $ open →
• Dinari: Creative direction for an SEC-registered crypto company (Freenome/Crunchyroll founders): animation, video, social, web, CRM. Skunkworks for SolidViolet. $ open →

Co-Founder, Head of Creative & Strategy

The personal injury lead-generation company built on the premise that injured people deserve better advertising, and the attorneys who represent them deserve better leads.

• Lead strategy, creative, and product: consumer advertising campaigns built on the Disney, Google, Samsung, and NFL work, delivered exclusively to one attorney partner per market.

Co-Founder, Creative Director

A vinyl label with complete creative direction from name to logo to all nine releases. Distribution by Subwax BCN.

• Sold out all seven limited 300-copy pressings, the first in 48 hours; 280k+ views on a single A1 track.
• The only US label featured in Beatport's editorial on the rise of new minimal; stocked in shops from Japan to the UK, Germany, Spain, and Russia.

Creative & Ecomm Lead · First Full-Time Employee

Signed on six months before launch to work directly with the co-founders to build and launch a breakthrough beauty brand, helping take it from $0 to an eight-figure valuation in under 18 months. "Debatably the most exciting sunscreen to hit the market since Anthelios" – VOGUE.

• Led creative direction for the brand launch and six subsequent product launches, plus five more in development including Classic Whip, Orange Gelée, and Coconut Oil SPF: branding, advertising creative, copy, packaging, and product design. Multiple products shipped every season; I ran the launch engine end to end.
• Created the viral fake job titles campaign (Lime Wedge Trigonometry Technician, Chief Jacuzzi Inspector, Head of Champagne Snorkeling), generating 12,000+ unique business cards in the first 5 days and 27 million earned media impressions, all organic, on zero ad spend.
• Helped achieve 14 beauty awards in the first year (GQ, Esquire, Vogue, Refinery29, Byrdie, Shape, Gear Patrol, and more) and over 300 positive press mentions.
• Created, sourced, and ran the brand's ambassador and influencer program.
• Creative directed the product launch events; the scratch-off cards and car air fresheners started as my ideas.
• Directed photoshoots, special projects, brand experiences, and easter eggs; grew the CRM to tens of thousands of "honorary employees."
• Managed and coded the website; designed and launched the wholesale site solo; ran email and SMS.
• Led all brand marketing from strategy through execution.

Freelance Strategy & Creative

Partnership with 55-time Cannes Lion winner Julian Cole. 7,500+ members from Google, Amazon, Netflix, Droga5, Spotify, The New York Times, and McCann.

• Coded, designed, and co-launched the academy; helped create 26 strategy decks; grew the newsletter from 9,000 to 20,000 subscribers in a year.
• Partnered with Julian Cole on four Fortune 500 strategy consulting projects (Disney, Samsung, and others; details on request).
• Produced the sold-out Strategy Super Sizer workshop in LA with Mark Pollard, featuring strategists from Spotify, BBH, Deutsch, 72andSunny, and Wieden+Kennedy.

Co-Founder, Head of Strategy

Co-founded from idea to full-service digital marketing agency serving major healthcare institutions and non-profits.

• Digital strategy for McLean Hospital, the USA's largest psychiatric hospital, bringing in an additional 6,660 organic visitors a month. Digital strategies for Harvard and Stanford.
• Six enterprise healthcare clients (Optum, McLean, Mass General, Scripps, Dana-Farber, Partners Healthcare); ran remote teams of up to 10 across paid and organic campaigns.

Associate Creative Director

• Technology incubator in Soho. Youngest on a team of veterans from Ogilvy, Edelman, MTV, and Time; created everything from graphics and content to iOS wireframes and brand identities.

Booking Agent, Digital Marketing

• Signed two artists at the boutique talent agency World War Trading Co.; built their blog and site and ran email campaigns reaching 100,000+ music industry professionals a week.

Resident DJ, Digital Marketing & Promotions

• Resident DJ at top Boston nightclubs; designed the flyers and ran the digital campaigns for the nights.

Founder

• Threw, promoted, branded, and DJ'd the parties open to close; grossed $60k in under four years.