ABOUT
Jonas Hallberg is a notable creative, experience and innovation leader.
Jonas focuses on creating unique new ideas and properties, and on architecting and making the solutions that guide brands on their quest to dominate the future. Over the course of his career, Jonas has shown himself to be an award winning problem solver and innovation expert, agile value creator, entrepreneur, change and conversation inducer. His exploits include starting up his own Brand & Creative Innovation shop (twice), holding leadership positions (CEO/CCO) in leading creative agencies and the creation of FIGHTBALL, a 21st century sports + entertainment property.
Throughout his career, Jonas has had the pleasure of working closely, as an innovation expert and trusted creative counsel, with the board, c-suite and senior executive ranks of some of the world’s most ambitious and venerable global brands and private equity firms including Absolut Vodka, Adidas, American Express, Asics, Bain Capital, Budweiser, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Jose Cuervo, IBM, LVMH, Lexus, Ralph Lauren, Microsoft, Mozilla, Stella Artois, Target, EQT Ventures and Vodafone.
Jonas’ award winning work has been featured and/or quoted in a wide variety of leading publications and websites, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Variety, Vice, Complex, AdAge, Contagious and Creativity Magazine. Jonas has featured as a guest of the Build live interview series and has been the subject of a CBS News feature.
Jonas is a native of Sweden, and holds a design degree from Stockholm’s Forsbergs design school. He loves hoops, surfing, snowboarding and the color black.
Some key stops along Jonas’ professional journey include:
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SHIVER
Co-Founder/Co-CEO
Co-founded and led SHIVER - a stealth business, product and marketing innovation consultancy/agency. SHIVER’s focus is on creating future value for clients such as Bain Capital, Microsoft, American Express, Mozilla and EQT Ventures, as well as on creating new business and property ideas/IP for clients and independently (e.g. FIGHTBALL). Jonas also helped lead SHIVER’s work in partnership with ‘Big Consulting’ firms (Accenture and Deloitte Digital) on future experience strategy initiatives for leading brands in the travel and beauty categories.
While at SHIVER, Jonas’ accomplishments included partnering with Bain Capital and developing long-term strategies for sustained growth for a number of their brands, as well as creating short-term efforts that successfully helped spike sales for TOMS (30% YOY) and Blue Nile (35% increase in site traffic, 7% increase in sales YOY), devising future product innovation strategies and helping concept and position new products, services and experiences for the Microsoft Devices Group, inventing and implementing innovative service design ideas for Mozilla as part of its content services push, and the development of a progressive marketing platform and content-led approach for EQT Ventures.
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FIGHTBALL
Co-Founder / Co-CEO
Founded and created a new 21st century sports + entertainment property that garnered massive popularity amongst fans (50 million video views and 420,000 social fans within 4 weeks), mainstream and culturally influential media (1.5 billion impressions, including features in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal), and the sports and music community. FIGHTBALL combines a unique live experiential component (a perfect mash up of court and club) and a world of mobile-first content that moves at the speed of social. Jonas helped lead the business development as well as the development of all IP for the property - the game format, the live experience, the unique content slate and digital media effort, the fashion and apparel merchandise line etc.
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VITRO
Principal / Chief Strategy
and Creative Officer
Restaged, rebranded and grew MDC Partners’ VITRO. Led and oversaw the bicoastal shop’s strategic and creative output as well as new business efforts that included major wins from brands such as Land Rover, Jaguar, Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Verizon. In addition, was instrumental in the re-branding and re-positioning of VITRO on the national stage, as well as instilled a new strategic development process and impacting business growth and profitability significantly (more than doubling profitability YOY), garnering significant industry recognition such as being named as one of AdAge’s Top 10 agencies to watch (2013) and AdAge’s #3 standout agency (2014).
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SKINNY
Founder / Chief Strategy & Creative Officer /
Managing Director
Founded and built SKINNY, a leading edge business, product and marketing invention + innovation agency that worked with some of the world’s leading global brands on future growth initiatives and projects. SKINNY often took the role of thought leadership partner and chief creative architect, helping provide an invaluable outsider perspective. Jonas was responsible for all agency business, brand and culture development. From running all new business pitches and client relationships to the definition of the strategy development model and creative development philosophy and solutions. SKINNY developed a unique, passionate and fiercely proud and loyal culture, with 100% employee retention rate in the company’s first 5 years.
While at SKINNY, some of Jonas’ accomplishments included the invention and global launch of Vodafone 360 (the brand’s first Internet service), the successful launch of the Lexus CT200h hybrid in the US (achieving the highest number of handraisers in the brand’s history and turning the vehicle into the best selling hybrid in America), the creation of Ralph Lauren’s first social media product launch effort and the collaboration on the concept development of the YotaPhone (a double display phone that won high praises for its innovative nature, including winning the 2013 CNET Best of CES Award for Hottest Mobile Device as well a 2013 Cannes Lion in the Innovation category).
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KBS (formerly Kirshenbaum, Bond and Partners)
Partner, Brand Experience Director
Served as KBS’ first integrated creative director, working across design, digital, advertising, experiential, PR and media. Brought together disparate disciplines and silos to produce impactful work that raised the agency profile and attracted a slate of new clients. Named Partner within 6 months of joining the agency, recognizing his immediate impact on the agency culture and success rate.
While at KBS, Jonas’ accomplishments included contributing to securing new business assignments from Panasonic, Diageo and BMW, and the development of Don Julio Tequila’s Nuevo Edge brand platform that helped the brand to a 33% increase in cases volume in 12 months.
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STROBE
Founder, Chief Creative Officer
Started up this forward thinking agency straight out of design and advertising school. Specialized in architecting global brand experience platforms on behalf of major brands such as Absolut Vodka, Levi’s, BMW, Coca Cola, Volvo and Adidas.
While at Strobe, Jonas created Absolut’s global music marketing platform and designed its multi-year roll out via a combination of live events, unique content, grassroots activation and a mass media campaign that included leading and overseeing a group of agency partners (TBWA Chiat Day, FarFar, Great Works and Knock). The effort was Absolut’s most successful PR effort and created a fresh connection between the brand and a new community of young spirits.
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Overall, Jonas has gathered experience as:
Agency founder and leader
Chief strategy and creative officer
Start up business founder and CEO
Innovation expert, senior consultant/advisor to the board and c-suite
Global citizen that is experienced in leading large global brand experience projects that require engagement of multiple client org departments and multiple agencies.
And, Jonas has been successful in different environments and on both sides of the fence: as a business owner and brand creator (“client”), as well as business and brand advisor (“agency”, “consulting”).