Creativity in Business

featuring John McNeil

Founder & CEO of John McNeil Studio

John McNeil, Founder & CEO of John McNeil Studio, talks about blending business and creativity with our president, Steve Gilman.

Creativity and business don’t always speak the same language, but John McNeil has spent his career bridging that gap.

In this episode of Brand Story, we sit down with John for a candid conversation about what it really means to build a brand. From his early days in traditional agencies to pioneering the studio model, John shares how his team helps brands move beyond deliverables to a system where everything from strategy to media to brand experience works together. We also talk candidly about the tension between business and creativity, the role of AI in marketing, and why executives are hungry for expansive thinking—whether they admit it or not.

About the Guest

John McNeil

Founder & CEO of John McNeil Studio

Designer, strategist, storyteller. John is the founder of John McNeil Studio (JMS), one of the first U.S. agencies to pioneer a studio model unifying strategy, creative, production, and media under one roof. A full-stack creative company out of Berkeley, California, JMS helps global brands define who they are, what they stand for, and how they show up in the world. Between his current work with JMS and previous work as a Creative Director at Ogilvy, followed by McCann, John has spent decades shaping some of the most recognizable creative work in the industry.

Quickfire Q&A

Can you talk a bit about your early agency years?

John: I got an informational interview at Hill Holiday in Boston, and I wound up talking to every department. I saw all these people who were a couple of years older than me walking around telling jokes, drinking coffee, and they turned out to be creatives. I got to work with some incredibly talented people who showed me what’s possible in advertising, but also through the lens of an emerging category in advertising that still believed in the power of building a brand and having a voice in the world.

What made you decide to form your own studio?

John: One of the reasons was because at McCann and Microsoft at the time, we were at the end of a chain of other engagements with other creative companies. Some strategy firm was hired for go-to-market. A brand design firm was hired for identity work, and so on and so forth. And that to me made no sense because actually the closer you got to the head of the business unit that owned the results or to the senior leadership of a company, the more you’d have a very different kind of conversation, and we wanted to get closer to that.

Creativity in Business

About the Guest

Quickfire Q&A

Related Links

Steve Gilman