Full bio
John Meulemans has spent twenty-five years at the front edge of digital, usually arriving a few years before the rest of the market.
He started in the late nineties at IBM Global Services as one of the few specialists around, helping companies through their first digital transition and their first e-commerce problems. He then moved into the fast-moving world of online media at DoubleClick, where he introduced Google and online advertising to advertisers in the Netherlands.
In 2004 he founded Urbanology, one of the first interactive and social agencies in the country, and sold it in 2009. In 2010 he started his second agency, 3sixtyfive, one of the first influencer marketing agencies in the world. It won Effies and Lovies for brands including Toyota and Danone. In 2022 3sixtyfive continued as Endeavour, where as Strategy Director he worked for ABN AMRO, Catawiki, BMW, Knab, Randstad, KPMG and UNICEF.
In 2025 he founded Hibou/x, an influencer and digital human agency built alongside PR agency Hibou in Amsterdam. The digital human work outgrew everything around it, and in September 2026 Hibou/x became The Synths, a digital human studio working internationally. Seventeen Synths built so far, among them the licensed clone of Ruud Gullit, brand personalities for MediaMarkt and Inholland, and the Virtual James Parkinson.
He teaches influencer marketing at Beeckestijn Business School, hosts at Emerce TV, and hosts his own podcast, What's Next in Influencer Marketing.
He also helped build the industry itself: board member of IPAN, chairman of the IAB taskforce social, and jury member for the Lovie Awards and the Fonk Coolest Dutch Brands.
