BIO
Johan Vakidis is an award-winning global creative professional with 25 years experience spanning communications, technology, entertainment and gaming.
He left for China in 2000 and has been in creative in leadership at Ogilvy, AKQA, R/GA, The Walt Disney Company, Publicis Groupe and more recently at Sid Lee and C2 Montreal.
When Covid-19 broke out, Johan and his family decided to return home to Canada. Since his return, Johan has was tasked remotely as a creative partner/consultant with Nestlé China. He then had the opportunity to head up Sid Lee’s Global Task Force as Global Executive Creative Director where he led a team of diverse creatives sitting in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Montreal & Toronto in a fully remote setup aimed at pushing Sid Lee’s edge capabilities and growth within the network.
Johan is currently VP/Chief Creative Officer at C2 in a leadership role tasked with evolving the creative offering and experiences for C2’s annual flagship event, the white-label business as well as branded spaces globally. Johan fosters a team of multitalented team of creatives specialized in environment design, programming, collaborative experiences, innovation, content and journeys.
Vakidis has always been recognized as a digital creator and is inspired by briefs where he can bring a mix of storytelling, entertainment and connectivity to life.
This clearly shows through his work where he has managed to create Asia’s first full screen browser based interactive game for Adidas while at an agency (Ogilvy), he created India’s first social media campaign “bleed blue” for Nike India (AKQA) that helped the nation rally support behind the National Cricket Team which ultimately helped them win the World Cup - This work made the cover of the Indian Times not only because of its success, but also because the traditional advertising agency wrote an apology for taking credit for it.
Johan was a key part in guiding Nike China’s app strategy and helped elevate the Nike China business to unprecedented figures by streamlining retail and eCommerce throughout all categories.
Johan helped write and direct local stories for Apple’s Beats products in China and Japan and participated in the ripple effects in Asia’s sneaker head culture and communities with Air Max Day (R/GA).
Johan is known for his great curiosity and is a firm believer that there is something new to learn every single day - to the point where he will not sleep until a new thing, or skill is mastered, daily.
That’s is exactly why he pivoted to the entertainment world in 2016 when joining The Walt Disney Company. He wanted to learn storytelling from some of the best writers, artists and technicians out there. With oversight on apps, games and immersive experiences for all 4 brands, Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Lucas, Johan had the opportunity to develop the prototype of what is known today as the D2C streaming platform Disney+.
At Publicis, in the role of Chief Creative Officer, Johan led not only teams at scale but also agencies. Tasked with bringing Publicis’s power-of-one to the network’s biggest clients in China, Johan orchestrated, in addition to the creative vision for all agencies under the Groupe, a skilled-based model by building bespoke creative teams around key businesses. He was also key in setting up Digitas to China, in launching the agency Phi around the Huawei business and worked in the space of innovation and sustainability with Nestlé China’s CEO and CMO by launching 3 new business units around wellness and mindfulness products.
Johan is very active in the design & creative community, he enjoys speaking at events and is often on award juries. He likes to immerse himself in culture and consumer behavior, also learn first hand, how experiences from stories and technology can drive love for brands, products and services in both real and virtual worlds. He is also convinced that by being so close to the digitalization of a huge country like China, what he calls a “culture of convenience”, he comes back with an unfair advantage and is eager to apply this knowledge and experience to his creations on this side of the planet.
Simply put, Vakidis is a proven global creative leader with a keen desire to win new business, create unique and powerful stories and experiences, and, loves mentoring, coaching and growing teams.