Joel R. Johnson

Joel is a veteran brand strategist whose award-winning communications has helped some of the world’s best brands achieve deeper consumer insights and more effective advertising.

Currently, Joel is head of Planning at GMMB, an Omnicom Agency who's clients include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Corporate Coalition to Fight Hunger, and Obama for America.

Joel began his career as a consumer ethnographer and worked for DDB in Chicago, DDB in London, Spike Lee’s ad agency in NY, Spike DDB, where he was named Managing. Johnson later worked as Director of Digital Strategy at Sapient Nitro NY briefly before joinubg Porter Novelli. At PN he co-created award-winning campaigns, including HP ePrint Live, the first live-streamed branded entertainment show on YouTube. The HP ePrint Live campaign was written up in the NY Times, Bloomberg, and Wall Street Journal.

Joel founded his consultancy, Shared Value Strategy, to advise brands with social good strategies. Just recently, Joel co-produced the branded documentary for Ford Warriors in Pink (an innovative breast cancer research charity apparel line) called Bang the Drum. Joel is a graduate of Swarthmore College, Goldsmiths College (University of London), and Northwestern University, where he earned a MA in Performance Studies. Johnson is also a noted speaker and blogger. Think See Do Differently is read monthly by industry professionals around the world.

Joel is a proud husband and father living in the DC area.