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Nicolai Galal · Brand & Creative

I build human-led brands that spark conversations.

Co-founder of two startups and a creative studio. Previously Design Director at Disney, now VP of Global Brand & Creative Marketing at Podimo, where I build brands around creators, shows and products, and the people behind them. Based in Copenhagen and Los Angeles, working across the US and EMEA.

View Work

"Nicolai's superpower is converting personalities, businesses and tech propositions into compelling, coherent and creative brands. He understands that brand goes far beyond how a company looks or what happens in its advertising, and knows how to develop brand and drive brand-led strategies through every part of a company's present and future commercial form."

Iain Sawbridge · Chief Commercial Officer, Podimo

Selected Work

09 Cases
01
Podimo Sports Vertical hero

Sports on Podimo

2026
Tentpole · vertical super-brand
 02
Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser entrance

Galaxy's Edge

2020
Global brand governance · Disney, $2B
 03
Undergrunden · Den Danske Fightclub

Undergrunden

2025
Show 360 · The tentpole precursor
 04
Duellen launch campaign hero

Duellen

2026
Tentpole · Talent-led show launch
 05
Podimo Summer Campaign 2026 hero

Summer on Podimo

2026
Key moment · brand to direct response
 06
Podimo brand cover

Podimo

2026
Master brand platform
 07
Podimo Studios hero

Podimo Studios

2026
Sub-brand identity · Creative Circle shortlist
 08

Reflect

2025
Product Experience · The owned key moment
 09
Dag en Nacht brandbook cover

Dag en Nacht

2026
Acquisition rebrand · NL

"Nicolai is one of the most talented creative leaders I've worked with. He has an exceptional ability to combine strategic thinking, creativity, and execution, while leading teams with trust, clarity, and ambition."

Fride von Porat · VP, Commercial Nordics, Podimo

Creativity that performs

The Mandate

My mandate at Podimo runs across three lanes, delivered by a global team with local creatives in six markets. Underneath it sits a campaign portfolio that treats shows like brands: tentpoles that build creator super-brands, acquirers that convert, engagers that retain, and key cultural moments that keep the conversation going. The throughline is work that stays culturally relevant and commercially accountable, the way Undergrunden turned a hidden world into national conversation and proved it in the numbers.

Podimo Studios logotype with show thumbnails on a dark background

Brand Systems

Master brand, sub-brands, and vertical identities built as one coherent system, designed to flex across markets without losing itself.

High-Impact Campaigns

Tentpole moments that shape market position and build super-brands around shows, creators, and verticals.

Always-On Marketing

A continuous creative engine feeding acquisition, engagement, and retention, iterated fast against live performance data.

The engine behind it

Creative and Growth, one loop

Great work at pace isn't heroics, it's infrastructure. I run a standing loop between creative and growth that starts upstream of the ads, with finding the story inside a show, a creator or a moment, and only then building it out across the funnel. Proven formats iterate on signal (hook, hold, conversion), new bets test head to head, and every asset ends in a decision. Optimise, scale, re-test, or kill. The pipeline is AI-accelerated with clear governance, by hand where it matters, so the craft holds while the volume scales. Same team, 6.5 times the creative output and a quarter of the post-production time per asset, with two to three net-new top-funnel bets produced and tested head to head every month, proven in Denmark first and then scaled. Every cycle closes on five questions: what did we test, what did we expect, what did the data show, what did we learn creatively, and what's next.

Every asset from one launch, sorted into top, mid, and lower funnel stages
Every launch is built for the full funnel, not a hero film with offcuts.
+67% Aided brand awareness increase across our Nordic markets since I took the VP seat Denmark 32% to 43%, Norway 13% to 21%, Finland 10% to 28% · independent brand tracker, 2023–2026
58% Of search demand traced back to the campaign Conversion lift study, 100% confidence · Sports, 2026 1.8× Positive brand attitude, 10.6% to 19.4% Brand lift study, 100% confidence · Sports, 2026 −21% Conversion CAC against target, launching a new vertical and audience Sports launch 2026 · all seven shows in the campaign came in under target · subscription-weighted

One bet, scaled

VoiceNotes · Always-on · Jan–Aug 2026 · five markets

VoiceNotes started as one of the monthly top-funnel bets. It won its test, then became the always-on format across five markets.

A row of vertical social video clips from the VoiceNotes campaign
4.78% Click-through rate across 15.6M impressions, about three times the paid-social average VoiceNotes, Jan–Aug 2026 · platform average runs 1.5 to 1.7%
38.9% Hook rate, the share of impressions that become 3-second views Against our 30% internal bar · industry benchmarks treat 35% and above as top-tier
4.69M People reached across five markets At 3.3 average frequency

The best asset of the year hit 53.4% hook and 7.44% CTR. Summer26, the next bet through the loop, beat VoiceNotes on social interaction. The system keeps producing the thing that replaces the last winner.

"Nicolai is a brilliant creative mind who leads with inspiration, inclusion and care. He has taken our brand and creative function from a small production unit to an actual global brand and creative team delivering across our markets. He also has a rare way with creators, they trust him, and he gets them on board with big, ambitious ideas. He's been instrumental in building Podimo's brand, and a joy to work with!"

Eva Lægdsgaard · Co-founder & Chief People & Culture Officer, Podimo

About

Bio
Nicolai Galal

I fall in love with ideas, then hold them accountable. Everything we make is built, measured, and iterated against real outcomes, never shipped and forgotten. At Podimo I've built Brand & Creative into a 30-person global team across six markets, repositioned the business from podcast platform to entertainment house, and built the campaign portfolio that turns show launches into a repeatable, culturally local system.

Before that I directed brand vision at Disney, most notably for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, a $2B world across two parks. I personally authored the global style guide that governed it. I lead through people and systems in equal measure: hire strong, complementary talent, trust their skills, and give creativity an engine so the best ideas ship fast and keep shipping.

Experience

Resume
2022–Present

Vice President, Global Brand & Creative Marketing · Podimo

Copenhagen · podcast-born entertainment house, shows treated like brands across six markets

  • Repositioned Podimo from a podcast platform to an entertainment house, rebuilding the master brand, sub-brands and show brands as one system.
  • Designed the campaign portfolio model (tentpoles, acquirers, engagers, cultural moments) and Show360, a modular show-launch framework that gave every title a repeatable path from announcement to always-on, shifting launch marketing from one-off campaigns to a repeatable, culturally localized go-to-market system.
  • Built a standing test-and-learn loop: two to three net-new top-funnel concepts produced and tested head to head every month, proven in one market then scaled. One became the always-on format across five markets.
  • Aided brand awareness rose 67% across the Nordic markets since I took the VP seat: Denmark 32% to 43%, Norway 13% to 21%, Finland 10% to 28%, on an independent monthly brand tracker.
  • On the 2026 Sports campaign, 58% of search demand traced back to the campaign, positive brand attitude rose from 10.6% to 19.4%, and conversion CAC landed 21% under target with every show beating it.
  • Built and led a 30-person global creative org across six markets, on an AI-accelerated production pipeline that cut post-production time 75% and scaled output 6.5×.

Executive Creative Director (parental cover) → promoted to VP, March 2023

  • Implemented an updated bold brand expression and a global campaign design system built to flex across markets and channels.
  • Introduced cross-market on platform creative testing, lifting listening on shows by up to 50% within 90 days.
2018–2022

Design Director · Disney

Los Angeles · in-house agency, global brand portfolio

  • Led creative direction and visual strategy across Disney's global brand portfolio: identity systems · campaigns · packaging · digital · photography.
  • Directed brand design for the $2B Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge launch, across channels and markets.
2017–2022

Co-Founder, Brand & Creative · Tobi

Los Angeles & Copenhagen · EU fintech for children's financial futures

  • Co-founded the company and built its brand and creative, positioning it as a challenger to the incumbents.
  • Grew adoption to 10,000+ families in six months, and the company raised seed funding on that traction.
2017–2018

Founder & Creative Director · Something New Studio

Los Angeles

  • Founded a creative studio serving Disney, Pandora, Unity and Coca-Cola.
  • Disney hired me in-house within six months of our first project together, to direct global brand design and build their in-house team.
2014–2016

Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer · Atleto

Santa Monica · meeting up in real life to play sport

  • Co-founded the company and launched the brand and the digital product.
  • Grew it to 30,000+ daily active users in twelve months on storytelling-led campaigns.
2011–2014

Executive Creative Director & Partner · JMDY Agency

Copenhagen

  • Directed campaigns for Levi's, SAS, Nespresso, Coca-Cola, Copenhagen Fashion Week amongst others.
  • As partner, won new business and grew the agency on a reputation for bold work.
2008–2011

Art Director to Creative Director · Clan B Agency

Copenhagen

  • Led campaigns across fashion, lifestyle and consumer brands, and mentored the creative team.
  • Promoted to Creative Director within 24 months.
Education

BA, Visual Communication & Graphic Design

The School of Visual Communication, Denmark · 2005–2008

Recognition

Recognised at the American Advertising Awards, Creative Circle Awards, Danish Digital Awards, Nordic Startup Awards, International ECHO Awards and Advertising Effectiveness Awards.

What I do

Brand strategy, positioning and brand architecture · Brand systems across master, sub and show brands · Campaign strategy and integrated 360 campaigns · Show and title launches, from announcement through to always-on · Tentpole and cultural moment campaigns · Creator and talent relationships · Social-first creative at multi-market scale · Creative operations, production systems and production budget ownership · AI-accelerated creative operations with governance · Content operations and content supply chain · In-house studio build and creative production at scale · Creative test-and-learn frameworks, measurement and creative analytics · Full-funnel creative and performance marketing · Building and leading distributed creative teams · C-suite and stakeholder partnership, brand-led commercial strategy · Cross-functional leadership with growth, product and commercial teams · Cross-market cultural insight and localization

"...and whenever a room was on fire, Nicolai was the calm one still holding the bar high."

Karan Dang · CEO, DANG · previously Director of Creative, Disney

Open to the next big build.*

*Executive brand and creative leadership. Based in Copenhagen and Los Angeles, working across the US and EMEA.
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