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 #578 of 19,190 LinkedIn creators in Management Consulting, and is a standout voice in New Zealand. They have 26.3K followers and published 13 posts in the last 30 days at a 0.4% average engagement rate.
- 26.3K followers
- 13 posts / 30d
- 0.4% 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
- Big Audience — 26,339 followers · top 5%
- Top 5% in New Zealand — Ranked #2 of 57 creators
- Top 25% in Management Consulting — Ranked #50 of 485 creators
- Consistent Creator — 8 posts in 30d · top 25%
Recent posts
Marketing budgets averaged 11% of company revenue pre-pandemic. They now average just 7.8%. Companies are investing less and less in marketing. That’s the finding of Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey. This is a disaster for most brands, and a huge opportunity for the smart ones. Why? Because marketing investment is a competitive act. We know (from all the data on Excess Share of Voice) that companies that invest harder gain more market share. Those that don’t, lose market share. We also know that allocation of the investment is important. When we allocate too much toward performance, ou
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Was great to be on The Marketing Architects Podcast recently to talk all things Future Demand. Watch the whole thing at https://lnkd.in/e-YXKPgu Or listen on Spotify at https://lnkd.in/e9s5HZes
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I think marketing has been massively oversold on ‘mental availability’ Provocative, yes, and requires a long article, sorry. But here’s the nutshell: - Mental availability has been positioned as more important to growth than simple brand familiarity and emotional positivity - But there is remarkably thin evidence that mental availability causes brand growth - And at much better evidence that brand familiarity and emotional positivity do - Mental availability is a complicated concept - it’s complicated to execute on and complicated to measure - And the evidence suggests doing so is unnecessa
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