July, 2026.- Simon Hill has been lucky enough to live and work all over the world. Studying languages gave him an early appreciation for how culture shapes the way people communicate, what they value, and how they see the world. Moving from London to New York reinforced that. Even within what feels like a shared cultural space, the way business is done, the way clients think about brand, and what “good” looks like can be quite different.
In this interview, Hill discusses what a global perspective looks like that he could not have had if he had stayed in one region. What he has had to unlearn is the assumption that one market’s playbook travels. There is a deeper lesson too: the brands that really resonate globally are not the ones that just look consistent. They are the ones that show up consistently. Their impact is felt in every encounter, in every market.
Hill also reflects on FutureBrand’s dual identity as both a standalone global business and a core brand-led capability within McCann. He believes it is one of their greatest strengths and opportunities for growth. FutureBrand operates as a distinct global brand with its own clients, culture, and point of view. At the same time, sitting within the broader Omnicom ecosystem gives them reach and resources that a purely standalone agency would have to fight hard for.
On the 2024 integration of ChaseDesign and JGA under the FutureBrand name, Hill notes that culture was the hardest part. Culture is the thing that surprises you. The job was not to overwrite what those agencies had built; it was to find where their identities genuinely connected with FutureBrand’s own values and way of working. The integration worked best when people felt listened to and involved in shaping what came next.
Q1. From London to New York to Global President: You joined FutureBrand in London, then moved to New York to lead North America, and now Global President. What does a global perspective look like that you couldn’t have had if you’d stayed in one region, and what did you have to unlearn?
I’ve been lucky enough to live and work all over the world, and studying languages gave me an early appreciation for how culture shapes the way people communicate, what they value, and how they see the world. Moving from London to New York reinforced that. Even within what feels like a shared cultural space, the way business is done, the way clients think about brand, and what “good” looks like can be quite different.
What I’ve had to unlearn is the assumption that one market’s playbook travels. But there’s a deeper lesson too: the brands that really resonate globally aren’t the ones that just look consistent. They’re the ones that show up consistently. Their impact is felt in every encounter, in every market. That’s a far harder thing to build, and a far more interesting one.
Q2. FutureBrand’s Dual Identity: FutureBrand is both a standalone global business and a core brand-led capability within McCann. How do you manage that dual identity without it becoming a liability?
I think it’s one of our greatest strengths and one of our biggest opportunities for growth. FutureBrand operates as a distinct global brand with its own clients, culture, and point of view. We have a genuine autonomy in how we think, create and partner with clients, and they feel the benefit of that. At the same time, sitting within McCann and the broader Omnicom ecosystem gives us reach and resources that a purely standalone agency would have to fight hard for. When a client needs a brand to genuinely transform how it shows up across every expression, every touchpoint, every part of the business, we can bring that full capability to bear in a way very few can.
Q3. The 2024 Integration: You led the successful integration of ChaseDesign and JGA under the FutureBrand name. What was the hardest part: culture, process, or client relationships?
Culture, without question. Process and client relationships are challenges you can plan for. Culture is the thing that surprises you. Both ChaseDesign and JGA had built strong identities of their own, with talented people who were proud of what they’d created. The job wasn’t to overwrite that; it was to find where those identities genuinely connected with FutureBrand’s own values and way of working, and build from there.
It also reinforced something we believe deeply: a brand isn’t what you say about yourself, it’s how you actually behave. The integration worked best when people felt listened to and involved in shaping what came next. Where we moved too quickly, we had to step back and spend more time bringing people with us. I’ll carry that into everything we do next.
Q4. Brand-Led Strategy vs. Design-Led Strategy: In a world where design is increasingly commoditised by AI, which side of the house is harder to defend, and which side has the bigger opportunity?
Brand-led strategy is the stronger foundation, and I think the industry is increasingly proving that out. When brand thinking leads, when you’re clear on what a brand needs to stand for, the value it creates, and how it needs to show up in the world, design becomes far more than aesthetics. It becomes the expression of something with real strategic intent behind it.
Design-led strategy has genuine power, but without that brand-led backbone, there’s a risk that even the most beautiful work doesn’t actually move anything forward. AI gives our designers incredible new ways to explore, iterate and bring ideas to life faster than ever before. But that makes the question of what you’re designing toward, and why, even more critical. That’s where brand-led thinking is irreplaceable, and where human judgment, taste and creative vision come into their own.
The Amazônia project from our São Paulo team brings this point to life. A dynamic brand system built around an entire typeface derived from the curves of the Amazon River’s waterways across Brazil is a remarkable piece of design. But it only exists because the brand-led thinking came first: deep co-creation with communities across nine states, a clear conviction about identity and belonging, and a strategic ambition to create long-term economic and cultural value for 28 million people. The design is extraordinary because of the strategic foundation beneath it.
That’s FutureBrand’s model, and it’s the one I believe creates the most enduring impact.
Q5. Global Consistency vs. Local Relevance: Where do you insist on global standards, and where do you let local teams adapt?
Quality isn’t negotiable, but how you achieve it is. What I care about is that the standard of thinking and craft that FutureBrand is known for is consistent wherever in the world we’re working. That’s not about uniformity; it’s about integrity.
The shift I’m focused on is moving away from the idea that a strong brand means everything looking identical everywhere. Real strength is coherence: however a brand shows up, whatever the market, whatever the context, it’s instantly recognisable as itself. That takes real intelligence and cultural sensitivity at the local level. My job globally is to create the conditions for that to happen.
Q6. The Next Chapter for FutureBrand: What’s the single biggest shift you believe the brand design industry needs to make in the next five years?
The industry needs to fundamentally rethink what it means to deliver a brand. For too long, the job has been considered done when the identity system is handed over: the logo signed off, the guidelines filed.
The real impact of a brand is in how it shows up, in every encounter, every expression, every moment someone experiences it. The companies pulling ahead understand that brand is a living, dynamic force, reflected not just in what they say and how they look, but in how they behave, something that has to be designed, managed and optimised for the world as it actually is, not as it was when the brief was written. At FutureBrand, that’s the shift we’ve been making, and it’s the conversation I want to be leading with clients over the next five years.
