David Burrows founded Zoetrope to help clients
navigate change and cultural complexity - particularly across borders - unlocking new sources of growth
He's spent his 30-year career making sense of people and cultures to guide brand, communication and innovation strategies for some of the world’s most future-focused businesses, NGOs and public service organisations: from jeans to whisky to detergent to TV to coffee to crisps to smoking cessation to beer to fighting corruption...
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Born in London, he's lived in and worked in France, Italy, Mexico, the USA - and India, where he launched and ran an agency. He has a deep understanding of sub-Saharan African markets. And he's no stranger to East and South-East Asia
With an MA from Cambridge in European languages, literature and film, David has been practising cultural fluency ever since, age 7 on a family camping holiday in France, he was sent to the boulangerie to buy croissants
He used to dream of being a professional 800 metre runner - but the furthest he got was a 'Burrows is Best' headline in the local paper. These days he prefers to be on his bike
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He once played banjo at Glastonbury, in a rockabilly band called the Shake N Vacs
David speaks fluent French and Italian; pretty decent Spanish and German; really rudimentary Hindi and Swahili
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WHO IS ZOETROPE?
We talk about 'We' the whole time because Zoetrope is all about collaboration. David may be running the show, but any project will involve working with a talented team hand-picked for the assignment at hand, each drawing on their unique experience and particular set of skills...
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Semioticians; anthropologists; ethnographers; psychologists; project managers; photographers; videographers; event managers; journalists; designers; strategists; creatives; data scientists; quantitative specialists; and so many other assorted thinkers, shapers and makers
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We've worked together (in most cases) for years. We're on the same wavelength. But we all bring different perspectives to the table. It’s a complete liberation to be able to assemble exactly the team who'll bring the most value to a given challenge