5 Minutes with… Neda Whitney
When Neda Whitney joined MATTE Projects as president in September 2024, she arrived with a brief to help guide the agency into its next phase of growth, and a career built at the intersection of brand and agency worlds.
With more than 20 years of experience across fashion, luxury, beauty and technology, Neda brings a perspective shaped by years spent both running marketing inside businesses and helping shape brands from the agency side. Most recently, she served as the first-ever chief marketing officer at Ring Concierge, helping scale the fine jewellery company past $100 million in revenue. Before that, she led marketing for Christie’s in the Americas, where she played a key role in modernising the auction house’s approach, from digital campaigns to early experimentation with VR, AR and NFTs.
Earlier in her career, Neda spent two decades at leading creative agencies across New York, San Francisco, London and Paris, working with brands including Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Amazon, ESPN and L’Oréal.
She now brings that experience to MATTE Projects, a creative agency that grew out of nightlife, fashion and experiential work and has since developed into a full-service partner spanning strategy, creative, content and production. Its client roster ranges from Netflix and Amazon Studios to Diesel, Grey Goose and Team USA.
Since joining, Neda has focused on clarifying MATTE’s positioning as a fast-moving, independent agency with strong creative taste and the ability to handle both bespoke projects and large-scale campaigns.
With LBB’s Addison Capper, Neda talks about what comes next, both for MATTE, and for the brands it works with.
LBB> You stepped into a brand-new role at MATTE Projects. When you look back on the first year, what surprised you most about what the organisation actually needed from a president?
Neda> My first priority was to listen and learn from the people already here. I wanted to understand the heartbeat of MATTE Projects. Very quickly, I saw that the work was already incredible, and the talent and clients we were attracting spoke for themselves. But there was room to sharpen our foundation and put the agency on the map in a bigger way. The surprise was that most of my focus ended up being on connection: spending time with legacy clients, meeting with new clients, helping teams understand how to implement clearer processes and resource smarter, and making sure our ideas had the support to actually come to life.
LBB> You’ve moved between agency and brand leadership. What perspectives from the brand side have proven most valuable now that you are back in agency mode, especially in experiential?
Neda> Being on the brand side gave me a solid understanding of what clients are juggling, and it ensures that I approach our briefs with a ton of humility. The internal alignment, the budgets, the pressure to prove impact… there are a lot of moving pieces on the brand side. So back in agency life, it makes me want to be a partner who listens, brings clarity, offers options, and takes friction out of the process. It also taught me that experiential only matters if it truly does something for the business. Did it move people, shift perception, spark advocacy, or drive results? That mindset shapes how I lead at MATTE. I’d like to think it makes me more empathetic and more focused on pairing big creative ambition with outcomes that actually matter.
LBB> MATTE describes itself as operating at the intersection of culture and entertainment. What does that mean in practice, and how do you keep that positioning sharply as the agency scales?
Neda> For us, operating at the intersection of culture and entertainment means creating ideas that feel native to how people actually live. We want our work to sit inside the areas people are most passionate about – fashion, music, art, sport, food. That starts with paying real attention to communities and scenes, and hiring people who are genuinely plugged in and curious. We stay intentional about the clients we partner with and the work we put in the world. We constantly interrogate the work with questions like: would we show up for this, would we share it, and does it add something meaningful to culture? If the answer is not yes, we keep pushing until it does. Staying close to culture is how we keep our edge and have since the start of MATTE.
LBB> How do you ensure the work drives measurable impact while still feeling artistically ambitious?
Neda> Great question, and we talk about this a good bit. I don’t see artistic ambition and measurable impact as competing. In experiential, they actually reinforce each other. Like I was sharing before, you first need clarity on what you hope the work will move, whether that is perception, awareness, or community. With that intent set, the creative retains focus. For impact, we look beyond attendance. Did people engage with the work, share on socials, return, or gain brand affinity? Sometimes that shows up in data, sometimes in clear behaviour, but the point is understanding if it resonated. And creatively, ambition matters. Safe ideas don’t stick. When you pair clear outcomes with bold cultural expression, impact usually follows.
LBB> MATTE has seen a lot of growth in the last 12 months. Can you share more about that, and what you believe is crediting that success?
Neda> It has been a year of real growth for us, both in the work and inside the organisation. We brought in new talent, clarified roles, and tightened how we operate, which helped us take on bigger creative opportunities with more focus and confidence. If I had to point to what is driving it, I think it comes down to clarity and alignment. We spent time getting grounded in who we are and how we want to show up, and once that became steady internally, things started to move. The momentum feels earned, and very much a reflection of the team leaning into a shared standard of excellence.
LBB> You’re pitching against both indie boutiques and global networks. Where is MATTE winning, and what are you hearing from clients about why they choose you?
Neda> When clients share why they choose us, a lot of it comes back to how we work and where we came from. MATTE started in the world of entertainment and live experiences, and the level of craft that went into those productions is something people want applied to their brands. We hear that a lot. We will show internal IP or concepts we have created for ourselves, and clients will say, ‘we want something that feels like that’. I also think we win because we stay close to the work. You’ll find the partners and me on most meetings with clients and we sit in creative reviews daily. We listen, we bring ideas that feel culturally honest, and we care about the details. I’d say, the feedback is usually that we feel present and personal, and that the partnership is real, and cool. That combination of cultural fluency, high standards, and partnership is where I think we resonate most.
LBB> MATTE’s team includes a wide array of people that make up your agency culture. How does that eclectic mix influence the ideas you bring to clients?
Neda> A lot of that eclectic mix really traces back to [founding partners] Matt [Rowean], Max [Pollack], and Brett [Kincaid]. They did not come up through traditional advertising paths for the most part, and I think that opened the door for a different kind of culture here. Their worlds span film, art, music, nightlife and fashion, and the talent they’ve drawn in reflects that spirit. We have creative strategists, filmmakers, artists, models, musicians, and people who are genuinely part of different cultural scenes. When you put that mix together, the thinking naturally expands. Someone will approach a problem through a film lens, someone else through art, fashion or music, and it pushes us to explore ideas from angles we might not get in a more conventional environment. It keeps us curious and close to culture, which shows up in the work. Clients tell us they can feel that dimension and energy in the ideas. To me, the eclectic mix is not decorative or a hiring tactic. It is baked into the DNA of the agency and genuinely shapes how we think and what we make.
LBB> The past year has seen major disruption in production and experiential – budgets tightening, AI rising, expectations shifting. What have you had to rethink?
Neda> The last year definitely pushed us to rethink how we work. Budgets are tighter, timelines are faster, and AI has changed expectations. For us, it meant getting even more intentional. We’ve had to be clearer about the purpose of an experience, sharper in how we resource, and smarter about where we put craft. It also nudged us to embrace new tools without losing the human side of creativity. In simple terms, we’ve had to stay flexible, stay curious, and focus on the things that truly matter. When the work is grounded in a strong idea and cultural relevance, it holds up, even in a changing landscape.
LBB> What feels most strategically important for MATTE over the next 12 months as the agency continues to grow?
Neda> Honestly, the biggest thing for us is growing with intention. Being thoughtful about the work we say yes to, the partners we build with, and keeping our standards high as we take on more. Scale only matters if the culture stays strong and the creative stays sharp, so that is where our energy will go. Stay close to culture, keep stretching ourselves, and protect the quality. If we can do that, the rest usually follows. So in short: stay curious, stay picky, and keep making work we are proud of.
