Leo UK 2025: Reinvented, Rewarded, Ready For More

It’s been another year of creative excellence at Leo UK - although obviously a key talking point was its rebrand from its former Leo Burnett. This move followed Publicis Groupe merging Leo Burnett with Publicis Worldwide at the start of the year.

This change didn’t wreak havoc however; Leo’s showed their resilience and continued to yet again produce great work with Mark Elwood (CCO) at the creative helm, with work for clients such as McDonald’s, Morrisons, and Kellogg’s. 

The agency earned seven wins at Cannes Lions 2025 for work - including two golds for Škoda’s ‘Redditor Edit’ and McDonald’s’ ‘McRib Returns?’. Its mantra of ‘populist creativity’ helping clients grow certainly is proving true.

Creative Salon on Leo UK's 2025

This year, Leo UK continued to showcase its prowess with a range of hires across the company: Lilli English joined as chief strategy officer from Portas; Matt Jones and Abi Stephenson joined as creatives from BETC Paris; Holly Henderson and Georgia Horrocks joined as creatives from BBC Creative; joining as midweight creative teams were Will Butler and Matt Adams, and Sam Oldham and Julia Mathew; Scarlett Spence joined as planning partner from BBC Creative; Tom Patterson joined as planning partner from Lucky Generals; Helen Simpson joined as head of social from The Beatport Group; Nick McWilliams joined as head of social strategy from We Are Social; and David Allen was promoted from creative director of design to executive design director. 

These hires all help show the scale of the agency across various disciplines; its in-house design department, POPDesign, continued to grow and now comprises more than 30 designers. 

While the agency continues to work across some of the UK's biggest brands a further major piece of new business arrived when Leo claim the global creative account for Nespresso.

Leo’s continued its hot creative streak with McDonald’s with a range of campaigns, from a meal curated by Stormzy to a unique gaming twist on fan truths to leading a menu heist on loved international items. Notably, it launched the latest instalment of its ‘Breakfast, done properly’ platform, celebrating the offerings a McDonald’s breakfast provides, with the tagline ‘Iconic needs no explanation’.

It returned with work for Christmas with ‘McDonald’s Christmas Grinched’ - a campaign filled with mischief, as the iconic Grinch character infiltrates the menu.

Leo's work for Kellogg’s saw its brand mascot, Cornelius, rule the roost. The second phase of its ‘See You in the Morning’ brand platform saw an out-of-home (OOH) campaign that celebrated the brand’s heritage with the tagline ‘The OG’.

Humour took centre stage for Confused.com with ‘Just Used Confused.com’, which showed the emotion of getting a great insurance deal - by turning people into inflatable, helium-filled versions of themselves.

For Morrison's, ‘Fresh from Market Street’ celebrated the lengths shoppers go to source their food, with a message that that isn’t the case at Morrison's as the hard work has already been done. 

Its work for the brand didn’t stop there. This Christmas, its ‘A Year In The Making’ spot presented the holiday through the eyes of the farmers, food makers, and colleagues who make Morrisons unique.

And ‘Bring on the Boom’ was introduced as MOJU’s new brand platform, which, through OOH work, championed the unique power of its fresh root ginger shots.

Creative Salon says... Leo UK's team of talent has grown significantly in 2025 - a clear sign of intent to continue its streak of producing award-winning work. Its momentum under CEO Carly Avener, CCO Mark Elwood and new CSO Lilli English and team shows no sign of stopping anytime soon