"Once Upon a Brand" - "The Art of Corporate Storytelling"

For over 25 years, Neil has been the creative leader behind many of Canada’s most famous, enduring and successful brand campaigns. His creative contributions have run the gamut from contributing to the legend of The Caramilk Secret, to launching multi-billion dollar upstarts like Wind Mobile, to charitable campaigns that have led to record giving and, most recently, the widely acclaimed We All Play for Canada campaign for Canadian Tire.

As different as the clients behind the campaigns appear, the secret behind Neil’s success is always the same: humanity and a soft storytelling touch which has seen Neil’s creative leadership awarded Agency of the Year honours five times for business building results.

Neil is looking forward to sharing with the Rotary audience his insights into the art of storytelling. And more specifically, the magic he has witnessed when the companies he works with stop telling people what they do and start inspiring them with why they do it.

In addition to running one of Canada’s most successful independent agencies, Neil is a business author with his book “Once Upon a Plane.” He is a sought after speaker on the subject of creativity (chosen as industry’s best storyteller by Adlounge). And most recently, his first documentary about the power of community “Every Picture Tells A Story” on CBC drew an amazing 1.9 million viewers.

While many of his clients are well known industries, Neil makes a point of giving back and has created pro bono work for Princess Margaret, Canadian Liver Foundation, The Royal Ottawa Hospital, Cancer Society of Canada to name a few.

Neil attended Upper Canada College and The University of Toronto, and continues to call Toronto his home. And in case you’re curious, his company’s name was inspired by the one thing common to his every success, past, present and future – a clean sheet; and with it, the potential for the unprecedented idea.