Chief Brand Officer · ServiceNow

Hello.
My name is Jim.

I started as the receptionist at a New York ad agency. That taught me the most important thing I know: a great idea can come from anywhere. Especially the receptionist.

Twenty years later I was President & CEO of BBDO San Francisco — one of the best creative companies in the world. Then one conversation with Bill McDermott, the CEO of ServiceNow (and at that time, my client) changed everything. I joined ServiceNow to help turn one of the world's most innovative companies into a world-class brand. We are well on our way.

ServiceNow brand results
#2
Most Trusted Company
in America
Forbes, 2025
#41
Most Valuable Brand
Globally
Kantar BrandZ, 2025
21%
Unaided awareness
up from 1.7% when I joined

Let's face it, the vast majority of marketing is crap. Clutter at best. A waste of money and resources at worst. But if you want to build a truly enduring brand — one that drives consistent growth, demands pricing power and ultimately creates shareholder value, there is no shortcut. You have to start with a powerful, single-minded idea. Then deliver it brilliantly across every customer touchpoint. Over years, not months.

I believe that in the age of AI, creativity is still the last unfair advantage — and now we have so many new ways to apply it.

Jim Lesser
My Story

My
Story.

"You've been at that place long enough. I want you to come here and paint your brand masterpiece."

— Bill McDermott, Chairman & CEO, ServiceNow

2022 — present
Chief Brand Officer First in company history
ServiceNow

Appointed as ServiceNow's first CBO one year after joining. Built fully integrated Global Brand Marketing Organization — now spanning Brand Strategy and Measurement, Creative, Advertising, Experiences, Content, Media, Sponsorships, Thought Leadership, Social Media, Talent Brand, ServiceNow University and ServiceNow.Org marketing. Anchored by a Brand Center of Excellence that sets the standard for how the ServiceNow brand shows up across every touchpoint globally. Launched the most integrated brand relaunch in company history.


Goal from day one: build the most poachable brand team in the industry — where no one wants to leave. Great brands are built by teams, not individual heroes. Everything on this page is the work of many.

#2 Forbes Most Trusted Company #41 Kantar Most Valuable Brand #2 Glassdoor Best Places to Work 2026 Interbrand Brand to Watch Unaided awareness 1.7% → 19.9% 106% of pipeline target $18M cost savings
2021 — 2022
SVP Brand Marketing
ServiceNow
Joined after one conversation with Bill McDermott — then my client at BBDO. From day one I was asked to take five existing VP orgs — spanning Communications, Global Events, Brand Strategy, Creative, and Demand — and build the foundation of a Global Brand Marketing Organization capable of taking ServiceNow to the next level as a company. That meant not just running a team, but defining what brand meant inside a high-growth enterprise software company that had never fully invested in it before. It meant building the structure, the culture, the creative standards, and the ambition from the ground up.
2013 — 2021
President & CEO
BBDO San Francisco
I was one of the few Creative Directors in advertising to become President and CEO of an agency. That's where I learned to manage a P&L and build a team focused relentlessly on client success. Grew revenue 300% with new wins from blue-chip companies including Meta, LinkedIn, Wells Fargo, HP, and Mattel. Doubled our operating margins. Increased bottom line 6X. (Yes, really.)
Revenue 300% Operating margin doubled Bottom line 6× NPS 8.7 vs. 7.5 industry avg
2010 — 2013
Creative Chairman
BBDO San Francisco
Added co-ownership of the P&L and responsibility for marketing the agency itself to existing responsibilities — adding the business dimensions to my creative role for the first time. When I became CEO, I took sole responsibility for both. That transition taught me that the best creative leaders aren't just taste-makers. They're business builders.
1999 — 2010
Associate Creative Director → Executive Creative Director
BBDO West
Joined as Associate Creative Director and was promoted to Executive Creative Director of the San Francisco office within two years — skipping the traditional Creative Director step entirely. A few years later was asked to lead creative across both the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Learned the craft of getting attention and telling stories that move people. Member of the Board of Directors, BBDO New York (2006–2010).
1998
Copywriter
FCB Global, San Francisco
Where I learned the craft — how to find the human truth in a brief, how to make someone feel something in thirty seconds, and how to fight for an idea worth fighting for. The fundamentals that still drive everything I do.
Cross-Industry Experience

As an agency leader, I worked with CMOs across nearly every vertical imaginable. From tech platforms to toys. From retail to financial services. It was like cross-training for a marketer — and each experience now informs how I approach brand in enterprise software. That's why I'm likely to be the voice in the room who brings up methodologies and structures I learned in automotive or CPG or consumer tech.

Target
Barbie
Wells Fargo
HP
Meta
WhatsApp
LinkedIn
Chrysler
Visa
GE
Mars Wrigley
Bank of America
The Work

The
Work.

I've spent 25 years making one argument: creativity isn't decoration — it's leverage. Here's the evidence.

Case Study 01
ServiceNow — Put AI to Work for People
ServiceNow · 2023 – 2026
PUT AI TO WORK FOR PEOPLE
How did we increase brand awareness from less than 2% to over 20% in 3 years?
+Consistent message
+Smart investment
+Build a system, not a campaign
+Full funnel flywheel
View case study →
Put AI to Work — Our Cast featuring Idris Elba
Case Study 02
Barbie — Imagine the Possibilities
Barbie — Imagine the Possibilities
Barbie · BBDO San Francisco
Brand Transformation
Imagine the possibilities
A brand in freefall. 8 consecutive negative quarters. The work that reframed Barbie's purpose, turned the brand around and led directly to the smash Barbie movie.
+Imagine the possibilities
+The body redesign
+Dads who play Barbie
+The Dream Gap
View case study →
Put AI to Work for People
ServiceNow
Put AI to Work for People
Advertising is only part of this system.
We have built a content engine that includes education,
demand generation, thought leadership,
social media and events and experiences.

(More content at bottom of page.)
The business challenge
Move from the IT org into the C-suite.

We had only just begun our move from IT solution to C-suite partner when in late 2022, ChatGPT changed everything. We quickly assessed that our future as a C-suite partner depended not just on being a transformation platform — but being the company that had a distinctive POV about AI.

The marketing challenge
B2B is not famous for building great brands. We started with data.

B2B in general starts with features and builds up. We started with two key pieces of data that shaped everything.

95/5
The 95/5 Rule

95% of your total addressable market is not in market at any given moment. You're always marketing to the future buyer.

85%
The Day 1 List

85% of buyers choose from their Day 1 list when they enter the market. If you're not already in their head, you're not in the running.

The implication was clear: brand building wasn't a nice-to-have. It was the business strategy. We needed to be on the Day 1 list before anyone started searching.

The target
C-suite and business decision makers.

CEOs, CFOs, CIOs — the people who build the Day 1 list. And the business decision makers who influence them. Two audiences who needed to see ServiceNow as the AI platform for business transformation, not just an IT tool.

The insight
In a cacophony of AI messaging, be the one they remember.

Every enterprise tech company was flooding the market with AI efficiency messaging. It all sounded the same. The opportunity was to cut through — raise aided and unaided awareness — by building distinctive brand assets. Recognizable characters.

The idea
A full marketing system. Not just a campaign.

We cast Idris Elba as the CEO every CEO wants to be — charismatic, in command, and deeply curious about how his people work. Then we surrounded him with a cast of characters, each aligned to one of our buying groups:

Put AI to Work — Our Cast featuring Idris Elba

The cast gave us a human system — a recurring world that audiences could return to, where every character spoke directly to a different buyer. Brand and demand, working as one.

The results
From less than 2% to over 20% in 3 years.
1.7% → 21%
Unaided brand awareness
#2
Most Trusted Company in America
Forbes, 2025
#41
Most Valuable Brand Globally
Kantar BrandZ, 2025
#2
Best Places to Work
Glassdoor, 2026
The work
Explore the content system.
Advertising View → Education View → Demand Coming soon Social View →
Barbie — Imagine the Possibilities
Mattel · BBDO San Francisco
Imagine the Possibilities
The brand had 99% global awareness and was in freefall.
Eight consecutive negative quarters.
Millennial moms thought it was toxic for their daughters.
We had to reframe the entire purpose of the brand.
The situation
A brand with 99% awareness and a collapsing business.

Barbie was one of the most recognized brands on earth. It was also in serious trouble. Eight consecutive quarters of declining sales. Millennial moms — the primary purchase decision-makers — had turned against it. Research showed they believed Barbie sent harmful messages to their daughters about body image, ambition, and what girls could be. The toy hadn't changed. But the culture had.

The challenge
Win back the moms without alienating the girls.

Mattel needed to reframe Barbie's purpose — not as a fashion doll, but as a tool for imagination. The insight: Barbie had always been about possibility. We had to go back to Ruth Handler's original vision for the doll.

The constraint
The audience we needed to reach was the one that hated us.

Traditional advertising wouldn't work. Millennial moms were skeptical of corporate messaging and highly attuned to inauthenticity. The only way to reach them was to make something they would choose to share themselves. That meant earning attention, not buying it.

The idea
Show what happens when girls are free to imagine they can be anything.

We created a nearly two-minute social film — no Barbie doll until the final seconds. Real girls, playing at being professors, museum curators, veterinarians, coaches. Adults responding to them as if they were exactly that. The film didn't argue for Barbie. It demonstrated what Barbie makes possible.


The risk was significant.

A $7M total budget with a film that cost 5x Mattel's benchmark for advertising. It had no product news, no brand message until the end, and success entirely dependent on the very people who distrusted the brand choosing to spread it organically.

The results
709 million reasons it worked.
709M
Impressions, year one
99%+
Positive social sentiment
Goldman Sachs
Cited campaign as reason to buy Mattel stock
Fast Company
Credited with setting up the Barbie Movie
Cannes Lions EFFIE Award Clio CNBC: Campaign of the Decade YouTube: #TheYouTubeAd That Restores Your Faith in Humanity Fast Company: Set up the Barbie Movie
The work
3 chapters of content.
Imagine the Possibilities
Chapter 01
Imagine the Possibilities
Dads who play Barbie
Chapter 02
Dads who play Barbie
The Dream Gap
Chapter 03
The Dream Gap
Press coverage
What the world said.

Goldman Sachs cited our work as a reason to buy Mattel stock. YouTube voted it, "the ad that restores your faith in humanity."

My POV

My
POV.

Featured

"Five Years Ago I Got The Best Brief Of My Life."

What five years inside one of the world's most innovative companies taught me about what actually builds an enduring brand. On CEO belief, team building, agency partnerships — and the difference between being the fun uncle and being the parent.

Read on LinkedIn →
Jim Lesser with Bill McDermott and Idris Elba

With Bill McDermott (Chairman & CEO, ServiceNow) and Idris Elba.

More from Jim
Jan 2026 Five Years Ago I Got The Best Brief Of My Life LinkedIn Oct 2025 You don't need AI agents. LinkedIn Dec 2025 Our Love Letter to IT LinkedIn Jul 2025 I split my pants in the biggest meeting of my life. Here's why I framed them. LinkedIn Jun 2025 Live talk at Cannes Lions: "Why is it so F*ing hard to build a brand in B2B?" Cannes Lions Sep 2021 Meeting with ServiceNow founder Fred Luddy LinkedIn
Beyond Work
SF Chronicle — Writing a new chapter for dicey Tenderloin site
A Night with Tom Hanks — 826 Valencia SOS for Teachers — NBC News

SF Chronicle · A Night with Tom Hanks for 826 Valencia · NBC News

826 Valencia.
Nine years on the Board of Directors.
Five as Chairman.

I believe in the power of writing to transform lives, not just businesses. That's why I gave nearly a decade to 826 Valencia — the non-profit founded by Dave Eggers that runs writing centers for underserved San Francisco students.

As Board Chairman, I led a full restructuring of the board, launched two new boards (Associate Board and Advisory Board) including the first-ever student alumni seat, and oversaw a budget that grew 5×. We expanded from one writing center in the Mission to three — adding the Tenderloin and Mission Bay, raising millions of dollars along the way.

We built the brand of 826 Valencia by frequently getting on national news like NPR, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and TikTok's "Now This News," thanks to guerilla-style campaigns my team at BBDO created.

During the pandemic, when nearly every non-profit in America was laying people off, we didn't lose a single member of our staff.

I've also served on the Advisory Board of Dwell Magazine and on the Board of BBDO New York. Outside work: certified CrossFit trainer, husband, father of two sons, and a regular on the trails of Northern California.

9
Years on the Board
5×
Budget growth
2
New writing centers
Let's Talk

Let's
talk.

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