Dan Nelken

Senior Copywriter

Nelken Creative

Author of A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters, Creative + Brand Consultant for Hire, Available for talks + workshops.

Author | Speaker | Brand Consultant

Creative Director

lululemon

I've been a bit of a Swiss Army Knife for lululemon. I've acted as a bridge between strategy and creative to help articulate the brand's overall positioning as they take aim at some big, humongous goals. I've been a creative lead on several global marketing campaigns and most recently helped launch them into a completely new category (lululemon selfcare). The work's been great but it doesn't hold a candle to the amazing people the brand attracts and grows. Free fitness classes don't hurt either.

Creative Lead/Copywriter

Arrivals + Departures

Worked closely with the creative and strategic leadership teams to create brand campaigns for their most important clients.

Freelance Associate Creative Director

Grumo Media

During my time at Grumo Media we helped start-ups all over the world, and a handful of Fortune 500 companies, tell their stories in the form of fun, playful animated videos. These videos played a small role in helping so many genius founders raise over a billon (raises pinky to mouth) dollars collectively.

The Goat Farm

Founder + Creative Director

TBWA\Vancouver

Cossette Communication-Marketing

Copywriter

I lead talks and workshops on professional creative development.

This journey started with me writing and then self-publishing the book, A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters, one many call a "modern classic".

In the last few years, I've given talks to several of the world's best creative, schools, ad agencies and brands (lululemon, Mattel, North Face, Arla Foods, Nutrafol, Whirlpool and more).

In 2024 alone, I've been a keynote speaker at CopyCon, the American Writers and Artists Institute, the Frontier Summit, and several others.

My online course, Writing Under Pressure has been taken by over 800+ creatives from the world's top brands and agencies.

“When you need insight, intelligence and inspiration for your creative team—bring in Dan.” ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

“A notebook full of notes! Really down-to-earth, easy-to-follow presentation. Wouldn’t mind having him back again” ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

"Dan’s course is the difference between “the client wants more options” and “the client can’t pick a favourite. If you suffer from the cramps of crossed fingers or the pinch of prayer beads in your palm, this is how to reclaim your confidence." ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

“The only course I’ve taken and blown through front-to-back. Dan just gets it!!!” - Harry Dry, Marketing Examples.com ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

For talks, creative development for your team, and/or group access to the online course, send me a DM or email dan@nelkencreative.com

The Hook Creative Agency

Working at The Hook is almost a no-brainer because I’ve always wanted to work here. That said, the work here is very fast-paced. We churn out a lot of creative work back-to-back-to-back and I’m glad for this because it has improved my creative process in a way I never envisioned. 
Here, I won Young LAIFers Silver (2023).

Senior Executive | Creativity & Impact 

Omni Options

I started working at Omni during the same period I started at The Hook. At Omni, I was responsible for the creative growth of the agency and the people on my team. It’s the first time I’m managing people and I must say, it’s an eventful one.
Within my first month at the agency, I led the ‘Left is Alright’ campaign to correct cultural discrimination of the left hand among Nigerians (in extension, Africans). The campaign, still running, has been featured on Ads of the World, LiveWithLynda, and LinkedIn Best Ads. 
Aside from that, I was privileged to work with award-winning Creative Director, Oyin Oludipe, and together we worked on several red-letter day activations that received honourable mentions. We also executed really cool campaigns like the ‘Let Your Pocket Breathe’ Jumia Black Friday 2023 campaign.

Associate Creative Manager

Echo Africa

I got called up by Echo Africa to work with the team for the launch of oraimo Freepods 4 in Africa. After a successful launch, I worked further with the team on other oraimo campaigns like the ‘What Are You Exploring’ (WAYE) campaign for creators in Africa, the ‘Find Your Rhythm’ campaign to launch oraimo Open Audio (Open Pods & Open Circlet) in Africa, the ‘No Lights Out’ campaign to launch oraimoXEcoflow solar inverters  in Africa, oraimo’s activations with Big Brother Naija Season 7 (Level Up) Housemates, and oraimo's activation at Big Brother Naija Season 8 (All Stars), among others.

Amplify Digital Agency

After moving from one on-site role to another, I decided to take Amplify up on their offer of a remote position as a Mid-Level Copywriter. At Amplify, most of my tasks were SEO writing, UX writing, digital content writing, and ideation for digital campaigns. Another interesting part to Amplify (besides my complete switch from traditional/hybrid marketing to completely digital marketing) is that I did more brand-building here, working on digital products.

Leo Burnett Lagos

Leo Burnett opened me to the global practise of advertising. Aside from working on big accounts like Burger King, OPPO, NNPC, Heineken, Star Radler, and Chivita, this position has helped me hone my craft in e-mail/SMS copy, audio content, and largely digital content. The culture here has instilled in me the drive for ideas that change human behaviour and subsequently, the world.

Office of the Special Assistant to the Oyo State Governor on Student Affairs 

My position in the Office of the Special Assistant to the Oyo State Governor on Student Affairs availed me the opportunity to explore my prowess in creating motion and static graphic materials for social media content - in line with a drawn strategy. In the space of two months, running activations three times a week and without running ads, I got over two hundred organic followers for the Instagram handle, also there was a significant increase on the Facebook handle which  was existing before I took charge. This was achieved through carefully structured content strategy and dutiful execution. I had the opportunity to work on a lot of government projects here; some of them are Lights. Camera. Action (LCA) for Oyo State Students, Oyo International Students Day (2021), the Grand Opening of Lekan Salami Sports Complex, the Induction of NANS JCC, Up and Adopt (a philanthropy scheme for orphanages), and I was on the editorial board for the International Students Day magazine, Horizon (2021).

Social Media Executive

DigiSplash

Digisplash gave me the industry feel. I worked on seven brands while at the agency: Crusader Sterling Pensions, Gossy, Mixta Africa, Lakowe Lakes and Golf Country Estates, Purple Maryland, Gajimare (Kenya), and First World Communities. I created content strategies, developed content calendars, wrote copies for ads (print, tvc, and radio), and designed tones of voice for brand identity manuals. 
Also, I worked as the community manager a handful of times, which involved managing the social media content schedule and optimizing social media content for maximal engagement. From Digisplash, I resumed my final year in school and I did freelance jobs while working on my thesis project.

Copywriter Intern

Poets In Nigeria (PIN) Initiative

At PIN Initiative, I worked with the national board to promote popular poetry culture among secondary schools and tertiary institutions in Southwest Nigeria. During my term with PIN, we grew PIN to being the largest community of Nigerian poets on Facebook and Instagram, we organized Festival Of Words 2019, Festival Poetry Calabar 2019, Co-organised Lagos Books And Arts Festival (LABAAF) 2019, and I had a closed room session with Wole Soyinka at Providus Bank to commemorate the Poet Laureate’s birthday in 2019. I worked with Sir Eriata Oribabhor and served directly under Kolade Olanrewaju Freedom.

Senior Media Assistant

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Here, I published news stories and reportages, opinions, vox pops, and poems, and I also went on field reporting trips to Oke-Ogun and Ijebu-Ode for electoral coverage. I worked under Dr. Lasisi Olagunju, Editor of Saturday Tribune.

Intern Journalist

A writer who believes that writing without strategy is shooting an arrow without precision -it has a chance of working, 0.01%. That's it! 


*Huh, why is he not talking about his works? Is this not where he should describe how good his works are?

Ahem. 
Scroll down. Feed your eyes.

Cheers!

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