Lon Schwear – The Creative Heart
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – welcome to Lon’s world. He is a magnet for emerging trends in popular culture, technology and business evolution that become the underlying foundations for explosive creative ideas that drive business and brand growth.
After graduating from Kutztown University at the top on his class he took his BFA in communication design and jumped head first into the world of advertising. As an art director at Weightman Advertising in Philadelphia he began a path of integrated communication before it became an industry buzz phrase bringing together award winning national TV, print, promotions and events for brands like Alpo Petfoods, Wendy’s and Tastykakes.
Following his entrepreneurial spirit, he left Weightman as an Associate Creative Director to join a dynamic start-up in Westport, CT – Ryan Partnership. There he accomplished two very important things: number one, he met his wife Paula…and two, he helped to stimulate explosive growth within the company. His creative leadership and innovative approaches over his seven-year tenure helped to win and promote brands like Pepsi, Pizza Hut, M&M Mars, BFGoodrich and Heineken.
Continuing to fuel his entrepreneurial hunger, Lon left Ryan as Chief Creative Officer and executive partner to launch an east coast division of Tracy Locke. He took on the role of President and Chief Creative Officer in 1999 and led the agency from to a global powerhouse of over 300 people fueling consistent corporate revenue growth and annualized profits of over 25%. He also helped to established the concept of the “brand activation network” – engaging brands and consumers through highly creative and integrated concepts for brands like PepsiCo, Citibank, AOL, Taco Bell, Kimberly Clark, Hershey’s and many more.
“Lon was a critical partner in an international strategic client-agency team for Pepsi brands that fueled highly integrated and creatively break-through global marketing campaigns netting consistent year-on-year share growth against our beverage competition.”…Antonio Lucio, now global CMO of Visa.
He also found time in between globetrotting to renovate and restore his third child – a 1964 Morgan +4 fondly named Raquel. Lon left Tracy Locke to join MEGA, Inc. as President and helped to power and maximize innovative and engaging music and technology partnerships for brands like Motorola, 7-Eleven, X-Box and Remy Martin.
That brings us to Ozz…“Of all the biz partners I have worked with in my 30+ year career, Lon is unique in his ability to work simultaneously in 3-dimensions: Creative + Strategic + Reality of execution. He was acknowledged as one of PepsiCo's top global business partners, which is no small achievement. Also, to say that you have 100 percent trust in someone's character is also no small achievement…that is Lon Schwear...a true wizard and world class founder of Ozz!"…Ed Winter, Chairman of Tracy Locke.
