James Hayr

James is the Global Head of Partnerships for the biggest independent TV production company in the world, Endemol Shine, the company behind massive TV hits like Peaky Blinders, Big Brother, MasterChef, Broadchurch and Mr. Bean. As more and more advertisers use social media to tell stories that reflect the brand values of their products – think Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Dove – James works with the production companies within Endemol Shine to produce best-in-class entertainment for brands to run on their owned media channels and platforms like facebook, Instagram twitter and SnapChat. Recent work includes Coke TV, Coca-Cola’s global You Tube channel and SPEC for Shell, the story of a father and son’s expedition to the South Pole using only renewable energy sources provided by Shell.

The huge growth in branded content means that students can now marry their creative skills with their commercial expertise to help create amazing stories that spread across the world. These days we are all content creators, but what separates the ghastly from the good from the great?

Prior to joining Endemol Shine James was head of branded content on media properties such as GQ, Kiss FM, Cosmopolitan, Q, Grazia and The Face and also ran content divisions at digital powerhouses Microsoft and Aol (now called Oath).