Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring is the founder of We First, a social branding firm helping brands build communities, profit and positive impact. We First’s services include strategic and creative brand consulting, as well as online, mobile and live training events that enable corporations, social enterprises and non-profits to be effective storytellers, community-builders and marketers using social technologies, tools and media.

Simon is a member of the Sustainable Brands Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the USC Annenberg School, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London. He contributes to Fast Company, Forbes, Huffington Post, Mashable, and GOOD Magazine on branding and social technology.

Simon’s first book, We First: How brands and consumers use social media to build a better world (Palgrave Macmillan) is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestseller. It was named an Amazon Top Ten Business Book for 2011, 800CEORead Top Five Marketing Book for 2011, and strategy+business named it the Best Business Marketing Book of 2011. It has been translated into Russian, Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean.

Simon was included in Trust Across America’s, ‘Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior for 2012.’ He has been featured in Advertising Age, Adweek, Huffington Post, Inc Magazine, Fast Company, GOOD Magazine, and Mashable, as well as appearing on the Business News Network, CBS, CBC, BNet and Harpo Radio.

Simon is a sought after international speaker with engagements including the Cannes International Advertising Festival, Royal Society of Arts, SXSW, TEDxSF, National Speakers Association, as well as brands such as Google, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Gucci, Patagonia and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He was voted a Top 5 Marketing Speaker for 2012 by speaking.com

Prior to starting We First, Simon was an award-winning Nike creative writer at Wieden & Kennedy and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy, as well as consulting on dozens of Fortune 500 brands for leading advertising, production, digital and social media companies. He has received over sixty international creative awards at the Cannes Advertising Festival, the One Show (U.S.), the Kelly Awards (U.S) and the British Design & Art Direction Awards, among others.

Simon studied Law and Fine Arts (1st Class Honors) at St. Paul’s College in Sydney University and lives in Los Angeles. His blog is simonmainwaring.com and he tweets @simonmainwaring.