From Cloud-First to Concrete: Why The Brill Building Is Betting on Physical Connection

​Driving back from Connemara, Roisin Keown finds herself thinking about Paul Henry. The Irish artist was famous for painting the region’s purple hills and “cotton wool” clouds – imagery that often looks like a stylistic choice to the outsider. But as Roisin notes, Henry wasn't inventing; he was documenting reality. He simply painted the landscape that she’s looking at during our interview.

It is a fitting analogy for The Brill Building’s trajectory as it heads into 2026. Established in 2019 as a “cloud-first” agency, the agency is now making a contrarian bet on reality with a €1.1 million investment in a new headquarters in Inchicore, Dublin 8.

At a time when the industry is preoccupied with the efficiency of generative AI and automation, founder and chief executive officer Roisin Keown believes the future of premium creative work lies in physical collision. The new premises will not function as a traditional agency office. Instead, modelled on international examples like Barcelona’s Montoya building, it will serve as an open-access “creator hub” and production studio.

“Excellence is customisation, not automation,” Roisin says. For The Brill Building, the next phase isn't about technology alone; it is about capturing the “multimedia multiverse” in real life.

“Our entire USP is harnessing the world's best talent irregardless of geography," says Roisin. "Something that has served the agency so well so far and is our biggest bet of all - that head count is no substitute for depth and strength in your accessible squad of talent.”

The Montoya Model

Talent can still be accessed in real-life spaces though. The blueprint for this new chapter wasn’t found in a traditional agency holding company, but in a warehouse in Barcelona. While attending the ADCE conference, Roisin visited the Montoya building, a renovated industrial space run by an architectural practice. It didn't operate based on simply maximising occupancy, but on curation – functioning as a creative members’ club where professionals were selected based on how their discipline might inspire others.

It is a concept The Brill Building is now bringing to Dublin 8. The Inchicore premises is designed as an “open access” hub, acknowledging that in 2026, commercial creativity is far from the sole preserve of the advertising agency.

Crucially, Roisin sees the hub as a neutral ground – a ‘Switzerland’ for talent that might otherwise be wary of agency entanglements. “If an influencer wants to use an agency’s space, there is a direct conflict of interest,” she notes. “But here, there is a looser premise. It’s collaborative, not ownership.”

Consequently, the new hub isn't just for the agency's core team; it is a space for the wider creative economy to collide. Roisin cites the agency's admiration for Bekah Moloney's Mo Cultivation, the Irish urban music and culture collective, as a prime example. Groups like this require more than hot-desks; they need physical space to shoot video, rehearse performances, and create culture.

Customisation vs. Automation

The move to bricks and mortar is also a strategic defensive play against the commoditisation of creativity. With research commissioned by the agency confirming that CMOs are under pressure to deliver more assets across more channels, the temptation to rely on automation – or in-house teams – is high.

However, Roisin remains sceptical of the "do it yourself" model for brands. “Most companies still don't have an in-house social agency. Why? Because the talent doesn't want to work there,” she argues. “The investment in the person who actually knows what they are doing is better placed with an agency.”

She acknowledges the efficiency of AI but argues that the “premium” status in the industry will shift to those who can offer bespoke craft. “Meta is going to say, ‘Plug in your preferences and we’ll spit you out an ad’,” she says. “Therefore there is going to be a need for that customised excellence.”

This informs The Brill Building’s mantra for its expansion: “excellence is customisation, not automation.” Putting together the right crack team for each project’s needs will lead to better results than another sausage factory. While the cloud-based model served the agency well since its 2019 inception, the physical studio offers a way to "de-risk" investment for clients who need high-end production values without the bloat of an in-house studio team.

Cherry-Picking the Best

Ultimately, the investment is an attempt to recapture the collaborative spirit that made advertising desirable in the first place. Roisin recalls the era when agencies offered proximity to the world’s best talent – referencing the days when advertising agencies worked with the most glamorous directors, photographers and artists of the era.

In a fragmented market where top talent often works directly for brands, an agency’s value lies in its ability to curate these connections. “You facilitate an amazing creative or creator workspace,” Roisin explains. “You see that filmmaker coming in to shoot a test for their next short film. That's how you make those connections.”

Delivering Tangible Impact

The Brill Building continues to deliver impact across varied sectors with work that blends physical experience, humour, and industry community.

For the Marie Keating Foundation, the agency launched ‘The Breathless Collection’, a provocative initiative designed to replicate the physical symptoms of lung cancer. Led by creatives Peter Snodden and John McMahon, the campaign features weighted and constrictive garments that allow the wearer to feel the fatigue and breathlessness associated with early diagnosis, aiming to make ignored symptoms tangible.

On the commercial front, the agency debuted its first work for Bord Gáis Energy with the ‘Need More Zenergy? Think Smart’ platform. This integrated campaign uses humour to promote Smart plans, featuring a relationship counsellor who loses business because the energy plans are resolving household arguments over bills.

A Community Anchor

This philosophy of physical collision isn't theoretical; it is already being put into practice through the agency's partnership with Little Black Book and the Immortal Awards. In 2025, The Brill Building became the official Irish host of ‘The Monthly Cut’, a screening series designed to bring the industry together to view global work.

According to LBB’s head of creative excellence Paul Monan, the entire initiative was heavily influenced by Roisin’s desire to “bring the market together and do something that we don’t do enough – get together and talk about work.”

For the agency, the new studio serves as the permanent home for this kind of community building. It moves the industry away from the solitary consumption of content on screens and back into a shared space. As The Brill Building's creative director Peter Snodden notes, it is a chance to “pause and reflect, stand in awe or feel inspired” – a reaction that is significantly harder to achieve in isolation.

Backing the Vision

Ultimately, committing to over a million euros in investment and resource centred on a physical space requires a specific kind of nerve. Roisin is candid about the uncertainty facing every agency leader right now. “The pace of change in our business is so insanely rapid right now that even the people making the biggest calls – nobody has any idea exactly what we will be selling 12 months from now,” she admits.

In that context, looking for safety in numbers or following the herd is a trap. “The only way to position yourself for that is to follow your own gut and vision and back yourself for what you know you do well.”

For Roisin, the alternative to a physical space – the post-Covid drift towards fully remote creative work – is a dead end, but so is office work for the sake of office work. “The idea of going to a box to do work is totally counter-intuitive to me,” she says, referencing the sterile, battery-hen dynamic of the modern office. “That is not how creatives ever worked. Creatives always went to the pub, or went for a walk, or visited a gallery. The laptop is a means of production, but the idea that you would go to four walls just to send an email is mad.”

That vision of escaping the “box” is already expanding beyond Dublin 8. The agency credits its membership of the Galway scaling incubator, Platform 94, with giving them the belief that a newer player could lead this era of communications. True to Roisin’s opening reflections on the landscape of the West coast, a further production hub is expected to launch in the West of Ireland in the near future.

This informs The Brill Building’s mantra for its expansion: “excellence is customisation, not automation.” Putting together the right crack team for each project’s needs will lead to better results than another sausage factory. While the cloud-based model served the agency well since its 2019 inception, the physical studio offers a way to "de-risk" investment for clients who need high-end production values without the bloat of an in-house studio team.