Adam&eveDDB: Creativity And Effectiveness In Harmony

Adam&eveDDB has had another triumphant year, hoovering up new business and awards trophies whilst continuing to be a world class agency for its existing clients.

2024 set off full throttle with the agency landing the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brief, and growth continued apace. And when it came to the work, the agency was on its usual top form; from a campaigns spotlighting the breadth of work displayed in in the V&A Museum, to raising awareness around breast cancer in younger women with CoppaFeel!,, adam&eveDDB yet again hit the creative high notes. Scooping the IPA's Effectiveness Company Of The Year accolade in the autumn proved the power of harnessing this creative brilliance to strategic firepower in order drive growth for brands.

The year ended on a sadder note as the agency prepared to say goodbye to its brilliant creative and strategic heads. Chief creative officer Rick Brim and chief strategic officer Martin Beverley are leaving to launch their own agency. With true grace, CEO Miranda Hipwell applauded their decision to become entrepreneurs (after all, adam&eveDDB has been raised on the shoulders of some of the industry's best entrepreneurs), and she is now no doubt planning a restructure to ensure the agency does not miss a beat at these two mega talents depart.

We spoke with Hipwell to talk all things 2024 and where she hopes 2025 will take her agency.

Miranda Hipwell, CEO of adam&eveDDB, on the agency's 2024

What have been the major highlights for your business in 2024?

Our new Feeling First positioning has been the driving force behind a lot of our success this year, both internally and externally. It’s the platform that is driving all aspects of our business, including new business, existing client relationships, our employee experience and our creative output. Feeling First is the North Star that is unifying everything and driving momentum across the agency and launching it has been a major highlight this year. 

By putting our new business efforts through the lens of Feeling First, we’ve been able to connect with potential clients on a more emotional level. This has allowed us to secure some wonderful new clients including GWR, Columbia Sportswear, Disney and PlayStation Plus. 

The best of our work has been built on the foundations of this positioning, and we’ve remained competitive when it comes to awards, having picked up a total of 14 Cannes Lions, as well as 11 D&AD Pencils across six campaigns - EmergentX, Marmite’s “Baby Scan”, Pot Noodle’s “Nothing Fills a Hole Like Pot Noodle”, Volkswagen’s “One Less Thing To Worry About”, and Eurostar’s “Together We Go Further”.

In addition, we were the most shortlisted agency for the IPA awards, where we won the IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix for our work for McCain and were also named IPA Effectiveness Company of the Year. We further scooped up the Channon Prize for Best New Learning, and Bronze for Mars Temptations and National Lottery. We also won Silver and Bronze at the British Arrows Awards, Gold at the Clios, and were crowned Agency of the Year at the 2024 Oystercatchers Awards. 

In addition we've had great internal survey results around how people feel about working at adam&eveDDB and how well they understand our vision and strategy, and that also comes down to everything being unified under Feeling First. We’ve invested in talent with many new people joining our ranks, in addition to a swathe of promotions and new roles for existing employees.

We’ve also focused on expanding and growing adam&eveDDB. In June, we opened our fourth global office in San Francisco with 20 staff and we’re currently on a recruitment drive to further establish our presence on the US west coast.

Our creative work has, of course, remained a key focus. We’ve launched 19 campaigns in total, including our first work for Amazon, “The Grit”, and the humorous “Smugglers” campaign for Marmite.

We also teamed up with top talent, including footballer Jude Bellingham, in our campaign for Lucozade.

Last but not least, I'm very proud of our powerful work for CALM, “Missed Birthdays”, which took over London’s Westfield with 6,929 balloons each representing a young person who has died by suicide in the past decade. 

What is your proudest achievement from the last 12 months?

After completing my first full year as CEO this year, I’m proud of having maintained excellence in all aspects of the business by building on the strong foundation that was already there. The agency was in great shape when I took on the role, but I would say that my proudest achievement is that we’re in an even better place now, and I’m excited to build on this momentum in the years to come.

What are you most looking forward to next year?

Continuing to build on the momentum we’re seeing now, while also bringing in more innovation and new thinking through our Feeling First approach. It will be about continuing the evolution of adam&eveDDB and moving the agency forward in more innovative ways, while remaining true to our vision. We have lots of exciting new hires lined up who are going to bring fresh ideas into the mix.

We also have a load of new brilliant clients and we’re looking forward to working with them and getting to know them better, exploring the canvas of their business and bringing their campaigns to life. Among others, we have new work for Columbia, Disney and GWR coming out next year.  

What do you feel have been the greatest industry challenges for agencies this year and why?

Diversity and inclusion continues to be a challenge for the industry, and it needs to be a real focus for all of us. The future of our industry depends on it. In times of economic uncertainty and client changes it’s even more important not to lose sight of the need to open up the industry to give more diverse voices a platform. That is how we’ll be able to create more authentic and inclusive work. The best work will only be possible when we have people with different perspectives and from different backgrounds in the room.

Has the addition of any AI solution made the profound impact on your business that was expected? If so – what?

AI enhances and speeds up a lot of what we do. What it hasn’t done is steal people’s jobs. It allows us to move faster and spend more time on creative thinking. It has had a profound impact on our business, but, somewhat surprisingly and unexpectedly, it has been a very positive one. We’re just getting started with it and it’s changing so quickly that we can do more with it from month to month. This means we have to have an open and creative response to it.

What one change would you most like to see happen in the ad industry next year?

The industry has got a little bit more of a spring in its step this year than it did last year, and we’ve all got a little bit more confidence. In Cannes this year, the focus was much more around creativity that drives effectiveness at the heart of what we do, and doing that in a way that is entertaining and perhaps not as purpose led. Next year, I’d like to see the industry double down on the magic that it can bring in terms of growth through creativity and making sure that we capture the value of it. 

Creative Salon on adam&eveDDB’s 2024

The year began with a series of promotions for members of the agency's well-established leadership team. Sam Lecoeur was promoted to chief client officer from her previous role as growth director; Annabel Barry was promoted from new business director to head of new business; and Sarah Todd was promoted to chief growth and integration officer, having previously been client strategy and integration lead. 

Investing in creatives was also high on the agenda. Award-winning creative duo William Cottam and James Crosby joined from McCann London as creative directors; Zoë Doyle joined as creative director from Unilever-owned hair care brand Sunsilk; Ben Polkinghorne joined as creative director, bringing experience from the likes of AMV BBDO; and Sarsha Drakeford joined as a senior creative from VML after a long-standing career with DDB in her native New Zealand. 

Alongside reuniting with Volkswagen, new business coups included Disney, Playstation Plus, PUMA, GWR and Columbia Sportswear.

But the stand-out moment came from the agency's Grand Prix win at the IPA Effectiveness Awards, with its work with McCain particularly applauded. The campaign featured a range of real diverse families and their dinner dynamics, all influenced by the cost of living crisis. The work taped into adam&eveDDB’s ability to emotionally engage consumers on a mass scale - a real life example of the Feelings First positioning the agency launched for itself in the summer.

In Cannes the agency's work with the V&A Museum was celebrated across several categories, whilst its work for Unilever with Pot Noodle and 'Sicker Than The Patients' for Frontline 19 also scooped accolades.

For its V&A Museum client, the agency put on a show early in the year, where the two collaborated to highlight the breadth of the museum’s collection of 2.8 million objects, showcased by the “If You’re Into It, It’s In The V&A” campaign.

Debut work in collaboration with breast cancer charity CoppaFeel! was rolled out with ‘Changing The Face Of Breast Cancer’. It importantly highlighted that breast cancer affects young people too through social and DOOH work. Adam&eve’s work looked to challenge perceptions around breast cancer and reinforced the message to get checked despite your age. 

2024’s summer of sport saw adam&eve release work with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in a campaign that showcased how athletes weren’t merely ‘participating’ but ‘competing’. The “They’re Not Playing Games’ campaign was shared across social media by several world-leading Paralympians and its strategy drove conversations around the language used to describe Paralympians. 

After winning the account for BT Business in early 2023, adam&eveDDB released their inaugural work with the telecoms giant in a campaign that highlighted the support BT provides for all types of businesses. ‘We’ve Got Your Back’ was a fully integrated campaign that ran across TV, TikTok, Meta, DOOH, print and digital displays.

Creative Salon says: Adam&eveDDB has once again proved its world class mettle, setting the highest creative and effectiveness standards. The imminent departure of its creative and strategic chiefs will certainly bring change next year, but this is an agency that's continued to thrive through leadership changes in the past and will no doubt do so again next year. Hipwell now has the opportunity to build her own team and we're looking forward to seeing them keep up the momentum in the year ahead.