Adrian Mills and Matt Lawson to establish new independent advertising agency ‘ATime&Place’ as Deloitte Digital shifts its offering portfolio

Deloitte has announced today that after seven years with the company, recognised advertising leaders Adrian Mills (left) and Matt Lawson (right) will establish a new independent agency and formally separate from Deloitte Digital from mid September.

The new independent agency will be called ATime&Place and will continue to deliver high impact advertising work for top tier brands, including Deloitte.

The change is being made as Deloitte Digital re-balances its offering portfolio to focus on core solutions including customer and brand strategy, integrated customer experience design, marketing technology implementation and marketing, sales and service transformation.

Mills and Lawson joined Deloitte Digital in 2017 from McCann and went on to establish the creative, brand and advertising services. Deloitte Digital went on to win multiple Cannes Lions and Agency of the Year awards and has consistently ranked in the top 10 performing agencies in Campaign Brief’s THE WORK for over a number of years.

Says Leon Doyle, Deloitte Digital leader: “We are so proud of the impact that Adrian, Matt and the team have had with our clients, and they have been integral to infusing a culture of creativity throughout the practice. While we might be saying goodbye to the advertising team, we’re certainly not saying goodbye to creativity. Creativity will always remain part of the DNA of Deloitte and we’re focused on continuing to push creativity to play a bigger role in the business transformation needs of our clients.”

Says Mills: “Matt and I have been proud partners of Deloitte, and we look forward to proudly partnering with Deloitte in the future. It’s a brilliant business doing important work.”

Says Lawson: “We’re also thrilled to continue working with our incredible clients and wonderful team. To be shaping a brand new agency with so much experience is a rare opportunity that we embrace wholeheartedly.”

Mills first joined McCann Melbourne in 2011 in the role of group account director. After two and a half years with the agency he joined Clemenger BBDO for a brief stint before returning to McCann in 2014 to take up the role of managing director. In his time at McCann, Mills oversaw some of the agency’s most celebrated campaigns including its back-to-back Cannes Lion Grand Prix winning Dumb Ways to Die and V/Line Guilt Trips campaigns, as well as the multiple Lion winning Macquarie Dictionary “Phubbing” and Department of FaHCSIA “Impossible Orchestra” campaigns and other highly awarded work including the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation “100 Day Challenge”, Google’s “The internet and how to make it pop” and Tigerair’s “Infrequent Flyers”.

Prior to joining McCann Melbourne in 2015, Lawson had stints at a number of major Australian advertising agencies including BWM Sydney and BMF Australia. At BWM Sydney, Lawson’s first television commercial, the Telstra ‘Rabbits’ ad, was voted Australia’s favourite ad in The Age newspaper, and was ranked No. 2 in Campaign Brief’s Ads of the decade. In 2009 Lawson joined George Patterson Y&R as a senior copywriter. In 2012 his ‘Mobile Medic’ campaign for Defence Force Recruiting won Idea of the year for the global Y&R network, along with over 70 other international accolades including four Gold lions, a Silver, and Bronze in the coveted Titanium and Integrated category. The wins resulted in him being the most awarded Australian copywriter and placing 9th in the Cannes Global Rankings.

In 2013 Lawson crossed the ditch to join Colenso BBDO Auckland. At Colenso BBDO he helped create the first commercially available biofuel made from beer waste – Brewtroleum, which won over 85 awards, including a Grand Prix at Cannes, the Grand Effie at the NZ Effie Awards and D&AD’s White Pencil for Environmental Sustainability. His work also helped Colenso BBDO win Campaign Brief New Zealand Agency of the Year.

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