Neale Horrigan Doesn't Want to be Pigeonholed in His Role as DO. Agency's New ECD
Independent agency DO. has welcomed Neale Horrigan as executive creative director and partner of its Australian arm. Hitting the ground running, Neale told LBB that while “all creatives talk about wanting to do the big idea,” and he is no exception, he wants to avoid being “pigeonholed into the sort of work you need to do.”
“The constantly evolving needs of every client and every brand means that you should be versatile. I think it used to be seen as a jack of all trades and masters of none, or you had to be an expert in something -- actually, I don’t really believe that you do," he said.
“My comfort zone is all about the idea, and the application of it isn't necessarily as relevant. I never really liked being pigeonholed to be a certain type of creative or a certain type of creative director.”
Neale's appointment comes after a significant period of growth for the agency, with the team expanding to five new offices across the region and new pitch wins in Australia, including Paramount+ and Primo as the most recent.
Compared to a lot of agencies, DO. is still at the beginning of its journey, founded by Andrew Dowling and Tom Ormes in 2016. Youth is an advantage for Neale, who said, “because DO. Agency is still in its infancy, we're not having to post, justify, or rationalise who we are as an agency now. It feels like we're just doing what we do, if you will.”
“It's very difficult and obviously generic to say that we do a bit of everything, but when you're a small agency you do have to do a bit of everything. You have to be versatile, and you have to be reactive -- being a small agency, you can move fast, and you can solve problems quickly. That's everything clients need and want these days.”
Neale has made the move to Australia for his new role after a decade building up and leading the multi-award-winning UK agency ELVIS, where he was responsible for building the agency’s creative output across brands including Budweiser, Birds Eye, Greenpeace, Pepsi, Doritos, and Cadbury.
Ultimately, he said the work was at the heart of why he made the leap.
“When I joined that agency, they were a fairly small, lovely bunch doing some interesting work, but it wasn't really the work that I wanted to do or was in my wheelhouse,” he says.
“I moved the agency into more of a creative agency space, more integrated, and probably more in my comfort zone, if I'm honest. After about five years, we'd won Cannes Lions and D&AD pencils, we were doing really, really well – I felt very happy with the direction we were moving in.”
Following COVID lockdowns, he admits that “it got to the point where it felt like I was stalling a little bit, and I was thinking, well, where else should I go?”
That question would eventually take him to DO. But beyond the work being more “in [his] wheelhouse”, Neale said it was the people that ultimately sold him on the move.
“I’ve always really loved the notion that people buy people. What I've been very inspired by since I've got here is the guys that started DO. Agency, the team of people here, and their ambition. I had multiple calls with them when I came to the agency, and just listened to where they wanted to be, how they wanted to do it, and their plan of attack.”
“Everyone wants to go against the grain slightly, but these guys just wanted to be of more value to clients, of more value all around, and to deliver, hopefully, best in class creative work. Everyone talks a good game, but these guys have all the right ambitions – and so far from what I can see, they're delivering on that.”
While Neale takes on the ECD role in Australia, Tom Ormes has been elevated to the DO. global ECD role. Tom will oversee the work across creative teams in Tokyo, Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, Vietnam and Australia, as well as leading the upcoming expansion into the UK later this year.
