19.04.24

Introducing Kim and Beth

We're so pleased to welcome Kim Gill and Beth Manning to the Leo's gang. Kim and Beth both join as Creative Directors. We can't wait to see how they bring their different skills to life across our clients.

Click here to read more about our new hires

20.03.24

Earthshot Prize Partnership

We've partnered with the Earthshot Prize to create the Green Fund to offer winners of the prize pro bono strategic, creative & design services. The Green Fund will help Earthshot Prize winners scale their ecological missions, and learnings from the projects will be made available to other climate start ups.

Click here to read more about the partnership

15.03.24

3 great ads I had nothing to do with with Gareth Butters

Creative Director Gareth Butters spoke to Campaign Magazine about three great ads that he admires but had nothing to do with.

Check out the interview here

14.03.24

Agency of the Year Winners

Wow. Campaign Agency of the Year for the second year in a row...no words 😮 🎉 Our CSO Josh Bullmore was named Strategic Leader of the Year for the third year running, and our deputy CSO Tom Sussman was named Strategist of the Year. What a night!

Check out the full list of winners here

12.03.24

Taylor Swift and the power of paradox

Our CSO Josh has written in Campaign about what we can learn from Taylor Swift when it comes to building brands.

Click here to read the full article

02.03.24

PopPulse: Hope Starts Here

We've revealed the results from the second wave of PopPulse, the ground-breaking research platform, designed to pop the ad-land bubble and plug brands into what the people of Britain are really feeling. We hosted a panel featuring Alastair Campbell, Remel London and Dr Julie Smith to find out how brands can help Britons to hope more.

Check out the report and events highlights here

01.03.24

Introducing our new ECDs

We're very pleased to introduce our new ECDs, Andrew Long and James Millers, who have been promoted from creative partners to the role. Andy & Jim are the driving force behind our most loved work, and we can't wait to see where we go with their leadership.

Check out the announcement here

12.02.24

British Arrows Nominations

We're chuffed to have received 13 nominations for British Arrows across our work for McDonald's and TUI. 7 for McDonald’s ‘Raise Your Arches’, 4 for McDonald’s ‘Keep Up With The Times’. 1 for McDonald’s ‘Next stop, McDonald’s’ and 1 for TUI ‘Happy Holidays’.

Check out the full list of nominations here

Agency of the Year Nominations

We're so pleased to have been nominated for Campaign Agency of the Year following our win last year. Our Chief Strategy Officer Josh Bullmore has also been nominated for Strategic Leader of the Year and our Group CEO Charlie Rudd in the Head of Agency category.

Check out the full list of nominations here

05.02.24

After work with Carly Avener

Our CEO Carly Avener sat down with Wildwood Talent's Anna Hristou on her 'After work' podcast to discuss dealing with insomnia and stress, imposter syndrome, and building happy working cultures.

Check out the full interview here

19.01.24

Leo’s appointed Vodafone agency of record

We're pleased to announce that we've been appointed as Vodafone's agency of record. We can't wait to get started working with this truly populist brand!

Read the full announcement here

08.01.24

Josh Bullmore on why populism is no longer a dirty word

Our CSO Josh Bullmore has written in Campaign Magazine UK today about our agency's belief in the power of Populist Creativity to pop the adland bubble, and suggest three ways that our industry can do more to pop that bubble in 2024.

Read the full article here

29.11.23

Mark Elwood appointed as Leo Burnett CCO

We're very pleased to announce that Mark Elwood has been promoted to Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett UK!

Mark has been running our creative department ever since he joined as Executive Creative Director three years ago and has been central to our creative resurgence of the last few years.

Read the full announcement here

21.11.23

Josh Bullmore on what our current Christmas ads say about our industry

Our CSO Josh is featured in Creative Salon this week, talking about this year's Christmas ads, and how establishing traditions within Christmas advertising can help bring long term value to your brand.

Check out the article here

13.11.23

Sam Houlston promoted to Managing Director

We are pleased to announce that Sam Houlston has been promoted into the position of Managing Director to succeed Carly Avener, who was made Chief Executive earlier this year. 

Sam was promoted from Head of Account Management to become responsible for running the day to day of Leo’s, to ensure we hire the best talent and to keep on producing such a high standard of creative work, we can’t wait to see where he takes us next!

Read about all the promotions here!

10.11.23

Andrew Long and James Millers on the shift from the “McTear-Jerker”

James Millers and Andrew Long, our creative partners, spoke to Campaign about the move away from 'Reindeer Ready' and the rise of 'Raise your Arches' this Christmas.

Read the full article here

Morrisons Christmas System1

Our first Christmas campaign for Morrisons has achieved a maximum 5.9 stars from System1. Our singing oven gloves have launched our ad into the top 10 of System1's Christmas ad rankings for effectiveness.

Check out the ranking here!

08.11.23

James Millers Shares His Creative Taste

Our Creative Partner James Millers recently featured in Creative Salon, discussing his populist inspirations, from AI and DIY to his favourite director Baz Luhrmann.

Check out the full article here

06.11.23

Tom Sussman on how “Brands should care less and help more”

PopPulse has opened our eyes to the true emotions of the British public with its nationwide research platform. Whilst the British public may be facing hard times at the moment; what with the cost of living, NHS waiting lists and geo-political tensions, we seem to be stuck in a limbo of sorts, with no end in sight.

Tom discusses the genesis of PopPulse, its insights, challenges, and how brands can help the public in these strange times.

Learn more about PopPulse here

31.10.23

Leo’s Welcomes Confused.com

We're delighted to have been officially announced as Confused.coms creative agency. We can't wait to get stuck in and start delivering some truly populist work for this great brand!

Read the good news here!

23.10.23

Chaka Sobhani picks the advert that best demonstrates the future of creativity

In an 11 part series, Campaign asked some of the industry's top creatives to pick an ad that would truly celebrate the future of creativity and how it is ever growing, allowing for the emergence of transformative creative spaces and places that truly capture how the last few years have produced some of the best ideas we've ever seen.

Read Chaka's thoughts here

20.10.23

Leo Burnett Launch PopPulse Study: ‘British Life in Limbo’

Today we are launching our own nationwide research platform, designed to pop the ad-land bubble and plug brands into what the people of Britain are really feeling.

So, what did we find? Well, no doubt about it, life isn’t easy right now. But things aren’t all f*cked either. Instead, the British public are currently just trying to keep their chins up, as they live through a new state of "between-ness”: Life in Limbo.

Find out how brands can help and download the study here

29.09.23

Leo Burnett comes out on top at APG Awards

We are thrilled to have picked up 5 trophies at the 2023 APG Awards, including the Grand Prix for our Raise Your Arches campaign for McDonald’s.

Click here to read the full article

29.08.23

Creating Work for the Real World, from Raised Arches to French-Fry Justice

Leo's newly promoted creative partners, James Millers and Andrew Long spoke to Little Black Book about Raise your Arches, principles they want to encourage in the agency and the lessons that have stuck with them in their careers so far.

Find out more

05.08.23

Uplifting reads for downshifting minds

On the hunt for some summer reads? Our CSO Josh Bullmore has got you covered, with 5 picks for that will not only entertain you on the beach or the bus that but also give you fresh inspiration to bring back into work on everything from AI, to overcoming adversity, to sustainability, to finding hope amid all the doom-mongering.

Check out Josh's selections here

31.07.23

Charlie Rudd in Campaign

Charlie Rudd, the group chief executive of Leo Burnett, Fallon and Publicis.Poke, discusses his advertising career to date, his love for teams, and lessons on rebooting dwindling agencies in Campaign.

Read all about it!

29.07.23

Marketing Society Grand Prix

We were absolutely thrilled to have won the Grand Prix at The Marketing Society awards for our partnership with McDonald's, alongside the Brand Evolution category. Our paper focused on the long term turnaround of McDonald's - Getting customers Lovin' it again, and keeping them Lovin' it.

Click here to read full article

21.07.23

Carly Avener Announced as New CEO

Introducing our new CEO Carly Avener! She's been promoted from Managing Director, as Charlie Rudd becomes group CEO of Leo Burnett UK, Publicis.Poke and Fallon. Carly will continue to be responsible for the day-to-day running of the agency, lead our DE&I strategies and partner our clients. We can't wait to see where we go under Carly's leadership.

Read more about this exciting announcement here!

14.07.23

Creative Circle Winners

We're chuffed to have taken home a few big wins at the Creative Circle Awards last night. 5 Golds, 8 Silvers & 5 Bronze for our work across McDonald's and Skoda. A big shout out to everyone who worked on the campaigns 🎉🏆🏅.

Check out the full list of winners here

12.06.23

Stop chasing culture

Our CSO Josh Bullmore's latest column in Campaign explores why brands should spend less time chasing culture, and rather look within the culture of their own brands to find relevant insights that power populist work.

Click here to read full article

28.04.23

Tom Sussman Appointed as Deputy CSO

Tom Sussman has been promoted to Deputy Chief Strategy Officer here at Leo's. Since joining as Head of Planning in 2020 Tom has led the strategy department, fostering a strong culture of effectiveness at the agency and contributing to new business wins.

Read the full announcement here

13.04.23

Chaka on the Uncensored CMO

Our Chief Creative Officer has been speaking to Jon Evans on his Uncensored CMO podcast. They spoke about Chaka's route into the industry, our recent Raise Your Arches campaign for McDonald's, and the state of D&I in advertising.

Click here to listen to the podcast

06.04.23

Pop Fest 3.0

Recently we held our third Pop Fest event; 'Can brands save the planet?' Chaired by our Chief Creative Officer Chaka Sobhani, we brought together a panel of experts including Jack Harries, Ross Godfrey, Lily Wilson, and Taylor Patterson to discuss the role that the creative industries can play in addressing climate change. We also presented findings from our bespoke PopIndex research that shows how companies can grow their brands by speaking about climate change.

To watch the highlights reel of our event please click here

17.03.23

Campaign Agency of the Year Winners

We're so thrilled to have been named Campaign Creative Agency of the Year for 2022. Alongside the agency award our CSO Josh Bullmore won Strategic Leader of the Year for the second year running, and our CCO Chaka Sobhani picked up the Creative Leader of the Year award. What a fantastic eve and a testament to all of the hard work in 2022.

Click here to read full article

01.03.23

Mark Elwood’s Creative Life

Peter Blake, Helmut Krone and ads on the Tube. Our Executive Creative Director Mark Elwood spoke to Creative Salon about his creative loves.

Read the full article here

07.02.23

How we discovered the insight behind Raise Your Arches

Our Head of Strategy Tom Sussman and Strategy Director Joe Beveridge spoke to Fergus O'Carroll on his OnStrategy Showcase podcast about the story behind our Raise Your Arches advert for McDonald's, and the ethnography research that went into discovering the crucial insight.

Listen to the episode here

06.02.23

Why should Coldplay be cringe?

Our Chief Strategy Officer Josh Bullmore has written in Campaign about why it's time to be more pop, and embrace the new era of cringe.

Read the full article here

21.01.23

How We Raised Eyebrows for McDonald’s

Creative directors Andrew Long and James Millers spoke to The Drum about how we created Raise Your Arches, a McDonald's ad that shows neither their restaurants or their food.

Click here to read the article

20.01.23

Be More Martian

In times of uncertainty and squeezed budgets brands need to do more with less, or as our Strategy Partner Amelia Redding argues in this piece for Little Black Book, Be more Martian.

Click here to read the full article

22.12.22

Welcome Morrisons

We are really pleased to welcome Morrisons to the Leo Burnett family following a competitive pitch. They are a great populist brand and we can't wait to start working with them.

For the full announcement click here

29.11.22

Leo Burnett Launches The Everyone Way

We've launched a new process to help our clients ensure diversity and inclusion are embedded in their advertising. The Everyone Way is a partnership with DE&I consultants The Unmistakables and The Diversity Standards Collective, who offer cultural insights and guidance to brands and agencies. The approach includes workshops, help with creative dev elopement, and PR advice, and some of our clients are already using the process.

Click here to read more

19.10.22

What It’s Like to be MD of Leo Burnett

Our Managing Director Carly sat down with Creative Salon to discuss her role at the agency, from leading New Business to spearheading new DE&I initiatives to make the agency as diverse as possible. Carly also gives some advice for young people in the industry who want to make it to the top.

Read the full interview here

Mark Elwood Reviews the 60th D&AD Annual

The D&AD Annual is now 60 years old. Our ECD Mark has reviewed this year's annual for Campaign, the third to be digital only, and in doing so has fallen back in love with it.

Click here to read full article

10.10.22

IPA Effectiveness Award Wins

We are very pleased to have picked up two gongs at the IPA Effectiveness Awards. We won Gold for our work with McDonald's, as well as the Simon Broadbent Prize for 'Best Dedication to Effectiveness'.

Read more about the winning entries here

30.09.22

Google win leads to expansion of our creative department

We are very pleased to announce that we have won two new pieces of business; Google and Victorian Plumbing. Google was won in a competitive pitch whilst we won Victorian Plumbing without a pitch. The wins have led to the expansion of our creative department with three creative teams and two producers joining us.

Read the full story here

13.07.22

Creative Conversations with Chaka and Mark

Our CCO Chaka and ECD Mark sat down with Creative Salon's Claire Beale to chat about their relationship, agency culture and the importance of creative awards.

Watch and read the interview here