The creative agency Cawley Nea\TBWA has rebranded as TBWA\Dublin, marking a new chapter in the company’s development, fourteen years after founders Chris Cawley and David Nea sold the agency to Omnicom.
According to Deirdre Waldron, CEO of the agency, the move is intended to better reflect the ‘Re-founders’ culture at the heart of the agency, which acknowledges the process of creative transformation that has characterised its evolution since its inception in 1992.
“We are the Disruption company, so we aim to disrupt ourselves and our clients as much as we can. We’ve entered an exciting new phase where we’re creatively finding a new purpose, driven by the global creative powerhouse that is TBWA\ and our local ‘Re-founders’ culture,” says Waldron.
“This rebrand gives us a new platform to talk about a lot of our new initiatives. We continue to add talent to the very strong team that is already here in the agency, as well as a new vision, and new ways of working that we feel are much more reactive to the challenges in our industry.”
She explains that the ‘Re-founders’ culture describes the innovative process of determining a new creative vision in the absence of the agency’s original founders. A group of ‘Re-founders’ drive the agency forward by discovering an improved and updated offering that builds upon their strong heritage whilst looking towards the future. These new initiatives seek to revitalise the agency’s entrepreneurial DNA and communicate its unique global and local identity to new and existing staff and clients.
TBWA\Dublin’s joint-MD, Fergal Behan, adds: “One of these new initiatives is our in-house production brand TBWA\Make. At the heart of our ‘Re-founders’ culture is entrepreneurialism and we’ve built an in-house studio that allows us to drive better value for our clients while also providing for more reactive content that allows us to create at the speed of culture.”
“As ‘Re-founders’, we have a vision whereby we don’t just make better things, we try and make things better. This has galvanised the agency in always going the extra mile for better creative output, better results for our clients and, ultimately, for the betterment of our society. The results are promising: we’re winning new business and awards and developing a strong tech and data backbone that we’re very proud of,” adds TBWA\Dublin’s other joint-MD, Mark Nolan.
In addition to the new rebranding, TBWA\ Dublin has also appointed John Kane as its executive creative director. Kane started his career in Dublin before moving to Sydney, where he spent five years at Leo Burnett Sydney before starting his own agency, Happy Soldiers, which quickly became internationally recognised. It was named ‘Hotshop of the Year’ twice in its first three years and in year four it was ranked the ‘Number 1 Independent Agency in Australia’.
Kane has won more than thirty major international awards, including over ten Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD and a Grand Prix Effie. More recently he founded Idea Gallery, an innovation and accelerator company that has worked with clients around the world, such as Coca Cola, Subaru, Diageo and Virgin.
On moving to TBWA\Dublin, Kane says: “I’m passionate about the role creativity can play in transforming business. With its Disruption platform, its own reinvention and an enviable client base I feel that TBWA\Dublin is in a perfect position to embrace new ways of communicating. It was an easy decision to join this talented creative team.”