James Hurman Email & Phone Number

Auckland, Nz

Auckland, Auk, Nz

Previously Unavailable is an innovation studio that works with ambitious leaders who are inventing or reinventing. We provide innovation and CX consulting and new product, brand and business design and development.We believe the best way to predict the future is to create it.We are a team with a proven track record of investing our strategic thinking and creativity into businesses that have gone on to become market leaders and achieve significant valuations, many of whom we maintain an equity stake in.

New+Improved is a venture studio building the martech stack of the future.

Auckland, Auk, Nz

Caffeine is the daily content & community platform for New Zealand’s startup ecosystem, created with founders for founders. Our mission is to be the way our community connects and shares - to accelerate Aotearoa New Zealand toward outperforming the world at creating, scaling and exiting extraordinary startups.

The Master of Advertising Effectiveness is a six-week online programme that equips marketing and advertising professionals with a complete understanding of the evidence-based principles of advertising effectiveness and how to apply them to make advertising that creates consistently better commercial results. We've now taught hundreds of marketers from 30 different countries across most of the world's leading marketing organisations and agency networks.

Auckland, Nz

Tracksuit is a brand health tracking SAAS business that provides beautiful, affordable and always-on brand tracking. We created Tracksuit because it’s difficult and costly for growth brand marketers to demonstrate the value of their brand-building efforts and make the case for investment. Tracksuit reached $10M in ARR in under 3 years and we're currently scaling globally.

Auckland, Auk, Nz

AF Drinks is an alcohol-free RTD cocktail brand. Founded in 2020, we have grown to become the market leader in non-alcoholic spirits and RTDs in New Zealand, and we're growing fast in the US.

I created Storytech because high-quality brand strategy is out-of-the-question expensive for startups and smaller businesses. Storytech was a 'brand strategy in a box' digital platform that gave any business the ability to create a world-class brand story, and a strategy to tell it, in a day, for $1,000. Users loved it, but it never found product-market fit. We learned an incredible amount which we then applied to our most recent and more successful ventures.

In 2016, with my colleagues at Previously and my wife Annabel, I created Toothcrush, a sustainable bamboo toothbrush subscription service which grew into Australasia's largest oral care subscription business. After three years we exited the business, which continues to operate in NZ, Australia and the US.

Auckland, Nz

Alongside my creative partner Josh Moore, I oversaw the leadership and management of a group of advertising and media agency brands across Auckland and Wellington.Our 75 people partnered a range of local and global corporates on brand, retail and digital communications strategy, creative work and media planning and buying.During my time with Y&R NZ, the agency grew revenue 25%, profit 120%, won record new business including the agency's largest client and was recognised at both Cannes Lions and the Effie Awards (a first for Y&R NZ in many years).www.yr.co.nz

New York, Ny, Us

Before our daughter Robin turned 5 and went to school, my wife Annabel and I wanted to spend one last time somewhere outside of our comfort zone. So we did a short stint living and working in China - the exact opposite of New Zealand in every conceivable way.

Auckland, Nz

At Colenso BBDO I was responsible for the effectiveness of the work the agency produced for it's 30 or so blue chip clients, leading a team of six strategic planners.In my time at Colenso we won more than 50 local and global effectiveness awards for over 20 different campaigns for the likes of Vodafone, Yellow Pages, V Energy Drink, TVNZ, DB Export, Mars, Westpac, Pepsi and Kapiti. We were named Effectiveness Agency of the Year at the 2009 and 2010 New Zealand Effie Awards. And we ranked 5th most effective agency in the world on the Global Effie Index.

London, Gb

At Lowe my creative partner Josh Moore and I worked together as a formalised 'team' of creative and planner. Together we led the agency's creative and strategic product across 15 or so New Zealand clients. Our 'Best Mate' campaign for Vodafone won a Gold Effie in 2007.

New York, Ny, Us

As a planner across the DDB Group, I developed my integrated planning skills, helping to build and launch PR brand Mango’s Auckland offering. After successfully pitching Vodafone’s PR and Experiential business we launched Vodafone’s 3G platform in New Zealand.

South Brisbane, Queensland, Au

In 2002, after seven years in I.T., I found myself fixing computers in an advertising agency and becoming aware of errors of judgement in my vocational choices.After becoming the only I.T. person to ever intern at the George Patterson Bates planning department I found my way out of installing anti-virus updates and into writing creative briefs at Publicis Mojo in Auckland, New Zealand.There I worked on Goodman Fielder (a large NZ FMCG), eventually getting to take the planning reins on the launch of MacKenzie’s ‘Bread in the Brown Paper Bag’. One of New Zealand’s most successful FMCG product launches, the work won a gold Effie and the brand strategy was exported to Australia and successfully executed under the Lawson’s brand.

Advertising

Education record

Education record