'Big League Chew', ‘Veep’, and Johnnie Walker: The Work That Made Matt Mattingly

Creative producer and owner of Atlanta-based strategic production agency HONE, Matt Mattingly has over 20 years of experience across agency and brand-side roles. Prior to launching HONE, he produced across the creative spectrum – from global agency networks to start-up boutiques, from interactive shops to in-house at The Coca-Cola Company.

Along the way, he's led award-winning campaigns for brands like Google, Budweiser, jetBlue, and more, and navigated everything from Super Bowl work to live cinema spots, pop-up retail stunts, and integrated global campaigns.

He got his start at JWT and BBDO in New York, followed by a foundational run at Johannes Leonardo as their third employee and sole producer during the agency’s early years. He went on to serve as EP at Hello Monday, freelance across shops like Anomaly and Wieden+Kennedy, and later joined Coca-Cola to help lead productions within its content and creative excellence group.

That blend of experience both agency- and client-side is what shaped his approach at HONE - nimble, integrated and tailored to the unique needs of modern brand teams.

Today, HONE partners with brands like Delta, Intuit, Coca-Cola, and Google to bring high-impact content to life - with the right balance of creativity, speed and craft.

Matt sat down with LBB to chat about outrageous ‘80s ads, the masters of filmmaking that continue to inspire him, and early experiences in production.

LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Matt> The ‘Epic’ video from Faith No More is definitely seared into my brain… MTV played it nonstop and a flailing fish out of water and exploding piano closer are hard to forget.

There were some outrageous products marketed to kids in the ‘80s and for a kid playing little league baseball grabbing a big ‘man sized wad’ of Big League Chew was pretty satisfying…their ads were completely over the top and pure ‘80s with a catchy jingle, generic athletes high fiving excessively, and the gruffest VO you can imagine. Parody-level masculinity all in the effort to sell simulated tobacco products as gum to kids.

LBB> The creative work that I keep revisiting…

Matt> I think I could watch ‘Veep’ every year of my life and find it just as funny as the first time.

Lately, I get excited about anything new from Yorgos Lanthimos. Paul Thomas Anderson will always be high on my list for his mastery of every aspect of filmmaking.

LBB> My first professional project…

Matt> I was a PA for the Atlanta auditions for season two of ‘American Idol’ (Ruben beat Clay). It was my first PA job and I was randomly hired through my friend's mother's co-worker.

The show really took off that year, so while filming for the week in Atlanta they were still a bit loose and not really locked down with the production. I was assigned to be Seacrest's PA to conduct pre-interviews of contestants so I had all of the producer notes which was a lot of fun and looking back well above my pay grade.

I quickly saw and, regrettably, participated in the darker side of reality TV when I pushed for a contestant singing ‘Like a Virgin’ to be interviewed, knowing he genuinely believed he was talented. His audition became the most infamous moment of that year.

LBB> The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…

Matt> The political attack ads in the US today are shockingly awful. They're deliberately designed to manipulate fear, spread misinformation, and poison civil discourse.

It's everything wrong with using marketing to exploit people's worst instincts instead of a focus on informed political messaging and policy.

My hope is that candidates who take a different approach and know how to positively leverage the content tools of today will soon succeed…and the creative minds in our industry can play a larger role.

LBB> The piece of work that still makes me jealous…

Matt> As a producer, I really love the Johnnie Walker spot ‘The Man Who Walked Around the World’ - amazing writing, pitch perfect art direction, fantastic score, great use of celebrity with peak Robert Carlyle delivering a captivating narration to camera, and the production challenge of pulling it all off in an over five minute oner. I can only imagine the joy of shipping that work.

LBB> The creative project that changed my career…

Matt> The Nomis ‘Damn Boots’ campaign for Johannes Leonardo was unlike anything I'd worked on before as a producer.

We had a client brave enough to let us create work that stood out and take direct aim at competitors who prioritised fashion over function. The concept was brilliantly subversive: we traced the tragic arc of a young footballer whose career was derailed by a simple blister from wearing the wrong boots.

The production and post demands required to make everything seamless were more creatively and technically ambitious than anything I'd produced. The music alone took months of intensive effort and multiple vendor attempts to get right. I had to adjust my perspective as a producer to deliver work at this creative level - the relentless focus on craft and attention to detail was intense and difficult to achieve but I learned that's what separates work that stands out from work that just gets the job done.

The awards recognition was significant, but the real career impact was understanding that producing truly great work requires a different commitment to excellence.

Years later, I was stunned to see that the Elton John biopic ‘Rocketman’ featured a sequence showing his rise and fall that directly referenced parts of our ‘Damn Boots’ spot.

LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…

Matt> Taking the leap of faith to start a company and successfully running it for over a decade now. While I have loved working with all of our clients (mostly…), I am particularly proud of our work for The Coca-Cola company. They have been a client since day one and remain a client to this day… not an easy feat given the frequent turnover with today's brands.

LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…

Matt> We produced a spot for the short-lived TED Conference event‘Pangea Day’ that recreated the tank driver's first-person perspective during the Tiananmen Square ‘Tank Man’ standoff, asking what his story might have been. While well-intentioned, given the human tragedy that took place there, the work was overly provocative and, in hindsight, pretty tone deaf.

LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

Matt> HONE's collaboration with Intuit's internal creative team was exactly the kind of partnership that gets me excited. Intuit came to us with an ambitious ask that marked a pivotal step in their brand evolution, and we leveraged years of direct-to-brand experience to cut through the complexity and deliver with speed and clarity - even when the brief was still evolving.

It, also, showcased HONE's own evolution. We've transformed from a company that primarily provided producer support for execution-only projects to a specialised creative partner that can integrate with in-house teams from concept through completion - streamlining the process that traditional workflows often can't achieve.