John McNeil Studio Expands Strategy Offering

To further John McNeil Studio’s mission of delivering dynamic, innovative solutions to our clients, the studio has expanded its strategy offering. Our unique model encompasses the values of our studio—consistently putting creativity and brand at the center of all that we do.

“The type of strategic thinking of the past was pretty limited to marketing,” explains Founder and CEO John McNeil. “What we’re saying is that the type of strategy that comes from this mode of thinking can be infused across every aspect of the business.”

JMS combines three strategic disciplines—brand transformation, content and social strategy and innovations—to meet the needs of today’s digitally-driven business. “The days of ‘stay in your lane’ are over,’” says Sonia Minden, JMS Strategy Director. “Every strategist should think creatively, and every great creative is also a problem-solver. We try to strip away the traditional silos that get in the way of good work.”

Thinking creatively also requires the ability to be agile. “What makes us unique specifically in the innovations realm is the ability to think really quickly on our feet and adapt to the changing environments our clients live in,” says Remi Abbas, Executive Director of Strategy and Insight. “That allows us to move from the questioning and deep inquiry phase, to the solution that is needed to bring that to life.”

From those solutions, meaningful experiences are created for clients and their customers. The studio’s holistic approach works to consider this notion of experience from every angle, so clients can better understand their power and positioning, and avoid becoming stagnant. “In a world where experience is critical and the most valuable thing to any business,” McNeil adds, “bringing to life the customer and the customer experiences – their wants and needs and interests and loves – is very materially tied to how modern brands need to show up. And knowing that the work we do has had such an impact on our clients, we want to do more of it.”