John H. Bell Managing Director/Executive Creative Director 360° Digital Influence John Bell brings to Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide more than 20 years of marketing and brand development experience immersed in innovative and emerging digital practices. He heads up the 360° Digital Influence team - Ogilvy PR’s global, digital practice designed to manage brands in an era when anyone can be an influencer and we are all influenced in new ways. It connects our brand-building PR expertise with a word of mouth markting discipline. This team of Digital Influence Strategists uses the power of social media and technology to create a comprehensive approach to all things interactive. He has developed strategy and executed award-winning programs for clients including Intel, Lenovo, Unilever, Johnson and Johnson and Kodak. The first wave of innovation was Interactive Television in 1990. John headed up the Visual Design Studio at Downtown Digital, a joint venture between Viacom and AT&T to create the most futuristic vision of interactive television anyone could imagine. He created programming for kids, gamers, fully interactive applications for Paramount Studios, Entertainment Tonight and fantasy sports. Turns out they were a bit ahead of their time but began a legacy of innovation. He created the first Interactive Advertisement for American Express during that ITV trial. John went on to form Media Circus Interactive Advertising in New York during the 1990’s. He found effective ways to use CD-ROMs including designing the first interactive advertisement on Launch, then a CD-ROM zine, for Sony. He also created the first I-Spy CD-ROM for Scholastic extending the brand into the electronic space and pushing the limits of what an interactive experience could be. At the same time the Internet was exploding. He designed and built complicated transaction sites like Gateway Computers ecommerce site and wild experiments like MTV’s Web service that connected “stringers” all across the country reporting on the music scene in their community (sound a bit like blogging? It should and the year was 1995). Discovery Channel was one of the first media properties to really experiment with the Web. John was brought in to transform a single Web site into a network of 14 Web properties known as Discovery.com. They had live, online expeditions from the field. Reporters would post stories, audio and video from Australia in search of giant spiders and from the bottom of the ocean where we explored the Titanic wreckage for the first time. All while the events were happening. He designed and built online experiences for TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Kids, Discovery Health, Travel Channel not to mention a host of digital TV network sites and global sites. His experience creating an online adventure service for kids with Discovery Kids, inspired him to join a startup called HiFusion committed to building a unique school-to-home Internet service for the K-12 community. There, he created full-service portals with every communication function under the sun – IM, mail, message boards, even an voice-to-text alert system that would reach you on all of your devices. They had a nationwide team of education professionals working to bring the service into schools and communities everywhere. But it was 2000 – a pivotal year for Internet-based business. They sold the company to Sylvan Ventures and moved onto the next adventure. For him that next adventure is Ogilvy. Where did he get his schooling? John graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in European history and a minor in communications spending a lot of time at the Annenberg School of Communications. John Bell’s blog is located at http://johnbell.typepad.com
Curiosity may have killed the cat but it hasn't killed me
http://www.fastcompany.com/user/john-bell
Managing Director, Ogilvy
Public, 1001-5000 employees, Marketing / PR / Advertising industryI am managing director of 360° Digital Influence which is Ogilvy’s global, word of mouth marketing discipline. We are expert at identifying and engaging influencers in conversations at a time when anyone can be that influencer. But more than just the popular voices online, we activate networks of people – communities - to share, participate and talk about brands, products and issues.
University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, United States
Bachelor’s degree.
Areas of study: European History & Communications
Choate Rosemary Hall, Connecticut, United States
High school diploma or equivalent, 1977.
Fast Talk | February 10, 2008 11:05 am
