James Hurman — Creativity, Innovation, Advertising Effectiveness, Kindness. Founder/Co-founder of Previously Unavailable, New+Improved, Tracksuit, AF Drinks and Caffeine. Programme Director of the Master of Advertising Effectiveness.
Creativity, Innovation, Advertising Effectiveness, Kindness. Founder/Co-founder of Previously Unavailable, New+Improved, Tracksuit, AF Drinks and Caffeine. Programme Director of the Master of Advertising Effectiveness.
James Hurman ranks #511 of 18,566 LinkedIn creators in Management Consulting, and is a standout voice in New Zealand. They have 26.3K followers and published 11 posts in the last 60 days at a 0.5% average engagement rate.
- 26.3K followers
- 11 posts / 60d
- 0.5% avg engagement
- 340 follower growth / 30d
The roast
James Hurman calls his consultancy Previously Unavailable, which is a bold choice for a man whose LinkedIn engagement rate suggests he’s been unavailable to his own followers for quite some time. He writes books teaching kids how to be lucky, yet he still hasn't figured out how to make his own content go viral.
About James
Hey there – I'm James, I'm from Auckland, New Zealand, and I'm part-entreprenuer, part-brand strategist, part-VC, part-advertising effectiveness expert, part-company leader, part-author. I founded and now chair Previously Unavailable, a venture company that creates companies and provides investment capital and new product, brand and business design and development to select portfolio companies and client partners. I created and lead the Master of Advertising Effectiveness - a six-week part-time online programme teaching marketing and advertising professionals the evidence-based principles of advertising effectiveness. I'm a co-founder of Tracksuit, a SAAS business that provides brand tracking at a fraction of the normal cost and operates across New Zealand, Australia, the UK and US. I'm also a co-founder of AF Drinks, a non-alc RTD cocktail company that's the market leader in New Zealand and growing fast in the US. And I’m the author of three books. My kid’s book is called The Boy and the Lemon. It’s a story that teaches kids the scientific principles of being lucky. My grown up’s books are called The Case for Creativity and Future Demand. The first is about the data showing that when businesses are more creative, they’re more successful. The second is about why building your brand among tomorrow’s customers is the key to start-up success.
Highlights
- Top 5% Audience — 26,339 followers
- Top 5% in New Zealand — Ranked #2 of 56 creators
- Top 10% in Management Consulting — Ranked #27 of 503 creators
- Top 10% Creator — 11 posts in 30 days
Recent posts
Advertising doesn't cause sales. But it does ensure brands win a greater share of them. This is one of the more provocative things I say - and understandably, some people push back on it. So here's the evidence!
71 reactions · 22 comments · 0 reposts
This is a big one that Brent Smart and I have been working on – the full story of how, as CMO, Brent transformed Telstra's marketing from bland and almost entirely current-demand-focused, into a future-demand-focused creative juggernaut that added over $2B in brand value and grew marketing’s ROI 70%. In Future Demand, I tell the story of how Laura Jones led a similar transformation at Instacart, turning it into a playbook for other marketing leaders wanting to take their organisations on the journey out of the performance trap. I plan to do many of these playbooks – marketers are crying out
42 reactions · 2 comments · 0 reposts
Advertising is a STRONG force. I've heard it said so often that advertising is a weak force. So often that in the past, I sometimes said it myself. But I've realised that advertising is only a weak force if you believe that advertising works by causing sales by persuading people to go out and buy things. When you look at it that way, it succeeds fck all of the time. But when you look at it another way, it's obviously a much stronger force. Advertising does not actually cause sales... but it does ensure brands win a greater share of the sales that happen in their category. Always great to
31 reactions · 3 comments · 0 reposts
Last updated 2026-08-01