Nick Hill Returns To Re As Group CD, Says Clients “Want Integrated Groups Again”

Nick Hill has returned to Re, M+C Saatchi Group’s brand-led design and experience business, as group creative director. He previously spent seven years at the business – most recently as creative director – and comes back after a stint as creative director at design agency For The People.

He told LBB the opportunity “to come back into somewhere I love, but with a very different outlook on its team, a leaner model, and the opportunity to now lead that was an opportunity I just couldn't turn down.”

Since beginning in the role last month, Nick said he can already feel the changes that have been made within M+C, admitting while it once felt like “different groups within the group, so you as a client probably felt like you were being passed around like a baton,” it now still has “different names on the door, different badges to certain businesses, but it's a much more integrated model.

“We're all meeting much more regularly, we're all talking much more, and sharing the projects in a way that … I can feel the difference between the collaborative energy.”

Nick said the feeling of being passed around might historically cause clients to ask, “Why would I be inside this model and not just be working with independents?”, but he’s now seeing “the pendulum shifting a little bit back the other way.”

“Now we are seeing that people want groups again, and integrated groups. There’s one shop, and they understand that they can move quite quickly [around] the value chain.”

There has been a lot of change for M+C Saatchi since Nick left in 2024. At the top level, Dani Bassil became M+C Saatchi AUNZ CEO, APAC CEO Justin Graham stepped down, former local CEO Michael McEwan moved to Droga, Emma Robbins was promoted to Melbourne CCO, and the agency shuttered  Bohemia, the media shop it acquired in 2017.

“There has been change, and it is fair to call it a reset moment or a rebuild moment. That's definitely what we're all really focused around doing now,” said Nick. “It's a drive forward now and we're all committed.”

He’s “hit the ground running” thanks to knowing the Re business and its people – he could “skip that ‘ingratiate yourself’ period, and just get straight back into it.”

“We were able to just go and have a complete assessment of where we're at, go make change, start to reset, start to rebuild,” he continued. 

“That was actually really attractive to me, because you're not carefully dancing around trying to get to know individuals – you can come straight in and think, right, you know me, I know you. Let's get going on what we think we need to do.”

As group creative director, Nick wants to “play a lot more in lifestyle brands or brands that have a clear product to them. I think that's an opportunity for us.

“Re has always been about brand-led design moving into digital experiences. Those are the types of organisations and brands that are really pushing the boat out when it comes to their website or to their digital experience, and so you need that anchor sometimes of a physical product, a thing to actually touch or feel. 

“That’s a big push when it comes to the different types of clients that we've previously been known for.”

His other big ambition is “to really grow up and play in the mature space” when it comes to creative technology – “which isn't all AI, but that’s part of it.”

“Creative technology is a much bigger field than that, creative coding, generative tools. I want to make sure that we're not just setting up brands, but that we're actually really in charge of creating how they express themselves.”