Bullfrog’s Elle Bullen and Mike Doman depart agency to launch new start-up Hellions

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Bullfrog’s Elle Bullen and Mike Doman depart agency to launch new start-up Hellions

Bullfrog executive creative director Elle Bullen (left) and executive strategy director Mike Doman (right) have departed the Melbourne-based agency to form new start-up Hellions.

 

With plenty of local and international accolades under her belt for the likes of Myer ‘Give Registry’ and Bonds ‘Boobs’, Bullen has built a career on bold and impactful thinking.

In 2018 Bullen, with her creative partner James Orr, won the Gold Siren for Maltesers ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, which included a trip to Cannes. She’s taken out the Cannes Grand Prix for Good for her work on Scope ‘See the Person’, as well as collecting metal at creative and effectiveness award shows worldwide for TAC ‘Rethink Speed’ and ‘Rider Reminder’, Drinkwise ‘How to drink properly’, La Trobe ‘Living Landscapes’ and the invention of 7-Eleven ‘BYO Cup Day’.

Bullen has been recognised multiple times as Australian Creative of the Year at the B&T Women in Media Awards (2016, 2020, 2023).

She’s helped grow and define many much loved brands in her time, including VB, Libra, Four ‘n’ Twenty, Latina Fresh and SEEK.

After a decade at multinationals including Leo Burnett and Clemenger BBDO, in Bullen and Orr took a leap to kickstart their own independent agency SICKDOGWOLFMAN (SDWM). She managed to grow and give birth to a child and an agency within the same year. In 2019, Bullen was diagnosed with breast cancer while she was pregnant with her second child. She underwent every type of treatment available to fight the disease before being rediagnosed with cancer in December 2021. It was then that Bullen stepped away from SDWM to focus on her health before making a triumphant return to the industry as ECD of Bullfrog at the end of 2022.