Six wins spanning four projects
3 Best in Show, 2 Outstanding Achievement
Let's get the headline out of the way first: As Executive Creative Director for Lady Gaga's digital team, I was one of three executives who led her rise to number one on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, creating what’s widely recognized as one of the most successful digital campaigns in Internet history.
Throughout my thirty-year career, I’ve worked at traditional advertising agencies, founded one of the earliest web design firms, and led digital initiatives for major brands such as iN DEMAND, E!, TGI Fridays, ESPN, NASCAR, and Teach For America.
As President of Digital for VIVA Creative, I scaled their digital division to an award-winning market leader in just two years, and as Chief Creative Officer for Element 84, I led earth sciences product development for NASA and directed the product design for the launch of a now well-known movie streaming media platform.
But now, all that’s changed. I’ve set aside my commercial career to apply myself to a problem that’s deeply personal to me — creating tools for building and scaling online addiction communities, bringing the benefits of recovery meetings from small groups to hundreds of thousands.
“Dave is brilliant. He is a natural leader, is extremely technically minded, and consistently delivers out of the box solutions for our digital media campaigns. He is a customer-focused leader whose integrity and unabashed honesty is wholly welcome. Anyone who has ever worked with him knows he is a tremendous asset.”
My Life’s Work…
Drugs and alcohol are a bit of a tradition among advertising creatives, and I was no exception. For ten years of my life I was an active addict and alcoholic, and after a productive time in rehab I now have 26 years clean and sober.
Cannabis was one of my drugs of choice, and in 2011, with the rise of legalization, the narrative that marijuana was not in any way addictive was at odds with my experience.
So I started an online group called Leaves, for people who have decided to quit smoking weed and are having trouble. That first day I sat and waited, not sure if I might be the only one, but then someone posted, and another, and the group began to grow.
Now, thirteen years later, we are a thriving, global community of over 350,000 people, with active discussion forums and two live support meetings each day, where our members transform crisis into growth and find strength in shared experiences.
If you or someone you know needs help, or you can move our mission forward with a donation, visit http://leaves.community. We can’t wait to meet you.
The Work That Led to Leaves…
Lady Gaga's digital campaign changed how an artist relates to her audience...
An unparalleled content delivery platform for Audi of America's dealer network...
A database of whitepapers becomes an inspirational mobile app on the power of CSC...
Bringing the outdoors indoors with a custom experiential build...
Augmented reality gaming reaches recruits for the National Guard....
A whitepaper of CSC's automotive services becomes the ultimate road trip...
Getting Thomson Reuters' global leadership talking in a brand new way...
What happens when you give pharma sales reps the chance to compete? They very nearly blow up your mobile app...
The beauty of Israel with panoramic views and motion control....
What started as a leadership section for CSC's web site ended up presenting their company in a whole new way...
Pick the tracks.
Own the charts.
Rule the world...
“I’ve known Dave for 20 years and throughout that time he has consistently been at the forefront of marketing with new and emerging technologies. Usually when someone says that, they’re describing someone who’s a tech-head who has applied his passion to marketing. But Dave is the obverse - and infinitely more useful - of that coin; he is a brilliant marketing person who understands how to apply emerging technologies to help companies sell products and services. This is rare indeed.”
Can you help? I would love to hear from you.
I’m entirely focused on building Leaves now, and while I will miss the agency business, there is so much work to do.
If you’re someone with an enthusiasm for bringing solutions to organizational problems, creativity to growing products, and a passion for our mission of bringing freedom from addiction to millions around the world, let’s talk about our future together.
DAVE BUSHNELL | DAVE@BUSHNELL.DIGITAL | 347.348.9758