Gavin McLeod Becomes Emotive’s First CCO: “I'm Betting My House On This One”

Independent agency Emotive has appointed Gavin McLeod as its first chief creative officer, LBB can reveal. 

Gavin told LBB as he enters the business, the conversation has been focused on “coming in and making the work better.”

“In some places that's a no win thing, because the gap between great and good is sometimes vast, whereas that's not the case at Emotive. My task is immeasurably easier, in that sense, because I'm here to elevate a little bit more, rather than take on a vast chasm.”

Gavin has been working for the agency in what he describes as a “trial” for several weeks, during which he has been involved in  two pitch wins – “big blue chip” accounts the agency can’t confirm yet, but have work due out by December. He officially began in the CCO role on Monday.

The former CCO at CHEP chose to leave the business after BBDO folded it into Clemenger earlier this year. Among the other exits were Clems CCO Adrián Flores, along with Gavin’s CHEP colleague, chief strategy officer Lilian Sor, who also moved to an indie, taking on the same role at Howatson+Company.

“Most of my career,I've been lucky to work in holding companies, but on both scales – I was part of the R/GA startup in Australia when it first opened. I loved that experience, it was certainly, up to now, the closest I've been to a startup. All the way to CHEP, which, when I was there, was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, agency in the country.”

Gavin said he is “really excited” about moving to an indie.

“But with a much wider perspective, I have a really firm point of view of this around the flexibility and ability to control your own destiny, from a ‘thriving in this new world’ perspective. So I'm betting my house on this one.”

When considering his next move, front of mind was “a fundamental change that we're acutely aware of happening in the industry,” he said.

“AI is driving a reshaping of the industry completely. Leaving CHEP, I really sat down and thought seriously, ‘What do I believe is happening in the industry? Who do I think is best positioned to ride that wave?’”

Emotive CEO, Simon Joyce, told LBB as well as “the work, the work, the work,” Gavin also brings “effectiveness, effectiveness, effectiveness” to the table. 

“That ability to go from a creative discussion into a strategic discussion, into a whole business discussion, I think is more important than ever. That you can sit there with CMOs as a CCO, and actually go from the campaign to the overall marketing objectives to the overall business objectives, and talk in all those areas with an effectiveness lens at all time, it’s great for the team.

“It feels really, really good.”

Simon added hiring the 10-year-old agency’s first-ever CCO is “a wonderful signal to everyone, to our staff, firstly, and to our clients, about the overall ambition” of Emotive.

“We had a model for a long time that worked, and that was a creative director collective model – very empowered CDs, less layers, greater ownership, but we outgrew that. It wasn't that we resisted this role, we just had a different model. But now to go to the next level, it's just so so clear. We needed someone at Gav’s level.”

In July, ARN sold its share in Emotive back to the business, making the agency fully independent. The business then-known as APN News & Media first took a stake in the indie when it launched a decade ago. Fast forward, and LBB understands Gavin is now a shareholder in the business.

“He will have a very pivotal impact on all the decisions we make as a business, not just on the work,” Simon said. 

This year, Emotive has also created a specialist AI unit, and hired Jessica Cluff as head of earned; Michelle Lomas as head of partnerships; and Sarah Scott Paul as director of people and culture. At the start of the year, it also nabbed TBWA’s Sebastian Revell as its lead strategist after LBB revealed Michael Hogg was joining TBWA alongside new managing director Elektra O’Malley.

“I'd love us to be the most creative AI powered agency in the country,” said Gavin.

“What we don't want to become is an AI agency where AI is the thing we do. We want it to be the other way – we want to be a creative agency that embraces AI because it allows us to do so much.”