hello

I am a heart-led, passionate leader, living my purpose when I’m driving a big, ambitious creative vision. My happy place is in cultivating a juicy, positive, confident culture that inspires and supports everyone to feel into their deepest creative power.

For the past several months I’ve been taking a spacious career pause, methodically restoring my creative center and my overall health and wellbeing. I’ve spent time in various writing and leadership programs, reading two books a week, cooking meals that take all weekend, walking-meditating for 20K steps a day, traveling far and wide, having beautiful distraction-free conversations, and indulging in a personal writing project. 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. Ask me about hypnosis, breathwork, the gut microbiome, somatic creativity, toad venom and scorpion infestations. I’m learning a lot and have stories.

Until July, I was the Chief Creative Officer at Grey in New York, where I started on February 18, 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. 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 true value and 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 New York, I was at Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Oregon for five unforgettable 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 then 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.

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.

email me here: justinearmour@me.com

find me on linkedin here: linkedin.com/justinearmour