Executive Creative Director & Co-Founder
About Daniel Zeff
Creative and strategic leader with deep experience across technology, FMCG and pharma. Proven track record in brand positioning, audience insight, creative direction and high-impact content for global audiences. Founder-level commercial experience combined with hands-on leadership across strategy, creative, production and business growth.
Creative Leadership
I am an experienced Executive Creative Director with a proven track record for leading creative teams on global brands.
Respected for applying honest and genuinely effective new thinking to brands globally.
Proven leadership of creative and production teams.
Deep curiosity and expertise in digital creative, production and media.
Reliable pitch leader and client whisperer.
Decades of expertise in solving challenging problems within neglected markets.
Experienced in navigating highly restricted categories, such as Pharma.
Record of matching global brands with inventive, practical and resonant ideas.
Expertise in storytelling mechanics paired with a practical approach to final delivery.
Dizputed — Co-Founder
2024 — Present
Co-founded a legal technology software business focused on helping people organise and present communications in legal disputes. Retrained in Python and developed practical expertise in LLM deployment, product development and applied AI workflows — building the application end-to-end alongside my co-founder.
The platform processes thousands of messages, classifies conduct patterns using multi-stage AI pipelines, and generates structured legal reports used in court proceedings. Responsible for software architecture, agentic workflow design, UX, and the full commercial and go-to-market strategy.
Fractional CMO
2022 — Present
Advising start-ups on go-to-market strategy, customer insight, brand positioning and commercial storytelling.
National Trust — 2024 – 2025
Designed and implemented a rapid creative production process. Led communications strategy and supported the development of multiple successful films.
Unilever / Dove — 2023 – 2024
Led strategic and creative development for the global brand team, delivering content deployed across multiple local markets.
Advertising Production & Creative Group — 2022 – 2024
Repositioned the business and provided ongoing strategic support. Introduced new content and creative production processes, alongside training and operational improvements.
Serenity Ventures — 2021 – 2022
Developed a new therapeutics brand, including naming, brand architecture and launch strategy. Helped shape the underlying consumer strategy and supported Series A fundraising.
Evidently — Founder, ECD & CEO
1999 — 2019
Founded and scaled a pioneering creative agency specialising in digital content and storytelling to £10m annual revenue, four offices and a team of 70. Led P&L, senior leadership, new business and creative output. Won major competitive pitches against larger agencies, built end-to-end production capability, and oversaw complex digital, TV and interactive productions.
Secured investment from Stephens Inc. and led acquisition discussions with major holding companies. Clients included Unilever, Dove, Sanofi, Whirlpool, Energizer / Schick, Friesland Campina and many others across FMCG, pharma and technology.
Skills
Creative direction & executive creative leadership
Brand strategy & positioning
Content strategy & narrative development
Insight development & consumer research
Python & software engineering
Software architecture & system design
LLM deployment & agentic workflow design
Applied AI & AI-native product development
Public speaking & brand training
Production leadership & delivery
Education
London Business School
YPO MBA (two years)
University of Amsterdam
MA — Distinction
University of Kent
BA (Hons) First Class — Film
References
"If you want a high quality, illuminating conversation, with the potential for game-changing results, speak to Daniel whenever you can."
Rory Sutherland
Vice Chairman, Ogilvy
"Whip-smart, clever, resourceful, and creatively versatile, with the rare ability to combine business acumen with imaginative thinking."
Andrew Simon
Global ECD, Edelman