CHICAGO, USA // Chris Clark is the Director of Music at Leo Burnett USA, responsible for music strategy and partnerships, music supervision, deal negotiation and licensing execution across the agency client roster, including Samsung, Kellogg’s, Allstate, Nintendo, Coke, McDonald’s, Firestone, Intel and many more.

Chris has directed the music creative and deal negotiation to bring together brands and artists like McDonald’s & Ne-Yo, Sprint & Wilco, Samsung & Elton John, and Kellogg’s & CCR.

As an industry expert, he has led music and advertising panel discussions at major festivals such as Cannes Lions in France, the SPOT festival in Denmark, the Tokyo International Music Market and BMI Synch This in Nashville.

He has contributed to or written industry expert articles for The Atlantic, Huffington Post, Ad Age and others. 

Career achievements include uniting Common and other Chicago rappers to create “Put The Guns Down”, an original anti-gun violence song/video for Chicago Ideas Week shortlisted in Cannes and winner at the AAA, One Show and AICP awards. His work won Best in Show, Best Original Song and Best Use of Licensed Music at the 2015 Association of Music Producer awards.

In addition, he co-supervised and negotiated the deal for Samsung to feature “Royals” by Lorde in a 2013 global spot which launched the day after the song hit #1 on the Billboard charts. The spot was celebrated by Billboard magazine, Ad Week, Ad Age and as Shoot Magazine as the #1 usage of Music & Sound in 2013.

In 2012, Chris created a re-recording of the classic Wilco song “I’m Always In Love” for Sprint, which won Best Music Placement in Advertising at the 2013 Midem Global Music Conference. 

Before working at Leo Burnett, Chris was Creative Director/Account Lead/Producer for Scratch DJ Academy and Scratch Music Group, where he selected and arranged hundreds of new songs each month in directing all retail music programming for over 1,000 global Gucci retail stores, as well as spearheading urban Trend Research reporting for Pepsi, and activating a Celebrity DJ program aboard the 3 largest Royal Caribbean cruise ships. 

In addition to his work at the intersection of advertising and music, Chris helps run independent record label Tic Tac Totally, and plays in several bands based in Chicago. Chris is a graduate of the University of Illinois with a degree in Advertising Communications.