Andrew Little, president and CEO of DDB Australia and New Zealand talks to LBB’s Natasha Patel about filling Marty O’Halloran’s shoes, a love affair with the agency spanning two decades and what he’s doing to ensure his region stays at the top of its creative game.

“We’ve taken to it like a duck to water,” are Andrew Little’s opening words as he contemplates how the focus on ‘Unexpected Works’ has impacted the New Zealand and Australian offerings of DDB which he heads up. An agency such as DDB is synonymous with creating boundary-breaking work and in the ANZ region even more so. Just look at DDB’s now global CEO, Marty O’Halloran who was at the helm of Australia and New Zealand’s offices before his recent promotion. Andrew seamlessly stepped into his shoes, using 22 years of experience with the agency – and a few more at others – to pivot and work through how he’s taking things forward.

“When you work for DDB, you’ve got this wonderful heritage of Bill Bernbach and so many amazing people that have come before us. In this agency group our history is really important. But equally, it’s a really ambitious statement about where we’re going as a brand and into the future as well,” says Andrew. In ANZ the brand goes so much further than just DDB, there is also digital agency Tribal, PR agency Mango, CRM agency Track, design agency Interbrand and DDB Remedy to name but a few.

It isn’t just Bill Bernbach’s heritage that has made DDB what it is. It’s also Marty O’Halloran’s and as Andrew says: “One thing he is excellent at is galvanising people.” He adds: “I think there’s a reason why Marty’s been promoted. He’s run this part of the world brilliantly for about 20 years and we’ve got the classic three agencies being in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, but both New Zealand and Australia are highly regarded within the DDB world.”

Read more here.