Daniel Lee
I help brands find the idea that holds everything together, then turn it into distinctive work across culture, media, partnerships, and experience.
about.
Senior planning and creative strategy leader with client-side and agency experience. I help established brands define big ideas strong enough to hold a brand world together, then find fresh, different ways for those ideas to show up without becoming random. That means turning one strategic centre of gravity into campaigns, partnerships, social ideas, retail activations and experiences that build relevance, attention and growth. I’ve done this across global, regional and local roles for brands including Google, Coca-Cola, Dove, Vaseline, Philadelphia, Mastercard, Lucozade, Vodafone, Uber, Samsung and EY.
Led Philadelphia strategy across campaign, retail and partnership work, helping the brand grow despite category decline. This included Christmas activity that delivered Mondelez's first perfect-scoring campaign in MetrixLab testing and The Philly Deli, a collaboration with New York Bakery that tapped into food culture and drove brand and sales growth.
Led UK briefing for Vaseline Verified, helping shape how the global platform translated into a credible social-led response to unsafe skincare hacks. The wider campaign delivered 63M+ interactions, 13.9% sales growth and Cannes Lions recognition.
Built a coherent cultural ecosystem for Coca-Cola's Paris 2024 Olympics activity, translating the global "hug" platform across markets, social, influencer, partnerships and live experiences. The work connected tailored creative for different audiences into one unified journey, helping increase share of voice, support the sale of 200m special cans and deliver DMA and Global Influencer Marketing Awards wins.
Built strategy functions and planning systems across client-side and agency environments, including scaling an in-house agency from 5 to 30 specialists at Lucozade Ribena Suntory and defining planning processes, briefing standards and strategic frameworks at Digital Natives.
brands.
writing.
My son does not care who Bad Bunny is. He wants skills, rainbow flicks and Brexit tackles.
A tiny film poster detail about who gets seen, who gets named, and who gets left out.
Football's fashion club is easy to admire. That does not mean it has cultural edge.
Everyone asks how AI might replace juniors. Maybe we should start at the top.
What Red Bull Culture Clash understood about brand strategy that most culture marketing still misses.
Brand strategy has got very good at making everything sound profound. Maybe too good.
selected work.
Worked on creative strategy and influence for Philadelphia’s Mexican variant launch, marrying FoodTok with BookTok’s romantasy tropes to position its medium heat as the point: spicy, not THAT spicy.
Shaped the strategy for Positive Chain, giving Lucozade Energy a clearer role in younger consumers’ lives by connecting the brand to the subcultures shaping them.
Reframed Uber’s safety story by showing reassurance through positive experiences from more vulnerable users.
Adapted Vaseline Verified for the UK, turning a global social platform into creator work that felt specific, useful and culturally native.
Shaped the strategy for Philadelphia Deli, helping the brand enter new occasions by connecting its product truth to bagel mania.
Relaunched Orangina through social films designed to tap into audience passions and win attention for a distinctive but under-loved brand.
Identified new snacking occasions for Peperami’s chicken range, extending the brand’s relevance while staying true to its irreverent personality.
Set the strategy and digital/influence creative strat, using the relatable highs and lows of Christmas to show Philadelphia’s versatility across more festive eating moments.
Created the strategy for a fundraising campaign that reframed the attainment gap as a growing chasm.
Unified Coca-Cola’s Paris 2024 social, influence and IRL activity into one connected campaign ecosystem.
contact.
