The Monkeys snares new executive creative director Vince Lagana from Leo Burnett, Sydney
The Monkeys has lured award-winning executive creative director Vince Lagana from Leo Burnett, Sydney, who is set to start in June.
Lagana joins the agency from his role as co-ECD at Leo Burnett Sydney where he helped to create the globally awarded Coke Small World Machines, Bundaberg Rum’s Road to Recovery, and Samsung’s S-Drive, LifeLIVE, BrainBAND and Pocket Patrol initiatives.
Says Lagana: “It’s time for me to follow a fresh path and I’m excited to be joining one of the best and most progressive advertising brands in the country. I have a huge amount of respect for what The Monkeys has achieved and I can’t wait to help lead and drive its creative product even further into the future.”
Recently ranked by The One Club as amongst the top ten creative directors in the world, Lagana has established an impressive reputation as a creative director and art director, including two-years as Associate Creative Director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and previously as Creative Group Head at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney.
His work for brands such as Coca-Cola, Diageo, Lion Nathan, Toyota, Canon, Sony, WWF and Samsung has won hundreds of awards, including over 40 Cannes Lions and multiple D&AD Pencils. During his time at Leo Burnett, the agency was ranked in the top 10 creative companies in the world, twice by the Gunn Report, and in 2017, was named AFR’s 4th Most Innovative Company in Australia.
“I’m incredible grateful for my time at Leo Burnett,” says Lagana. “The culture and people is what makes the place truly unique and the support I’ve been shown over the years from Mark Tutssel and the Australian management team has helped me grow as a creative leader. I leave Leo’s knowing the future is bright and under the creative leadership of Grant McAloon, the agency will continue to thrive.”
Adds The Monkeys co-founder and Group Chief Creative Officer, Justin Drape: “Vinnie’s a talented leader and a true gentleman. He makes the people around him better so he will be an integral part of our plans moving forward and Scott Nowell, Mark Green and I are all looking forward to working with him again, having done so many moons ago before starting The Monkeys.”
Says Melinda Geertz, CEO Leo Burnett Australia: ”Vinnie has been with Leo Burnett for six years, and in that time, he’s been prolific, helping us create some of our most award-winning, world class work. We’re grateful for his love of creativity, his passion for brilliant ideas and his incredible dedication to design and craft. We’re also grateful for his friendship. Vinnie is a person with decency, generosity and kindness in abundance, and we’ll miss him. All of us at Leo Burnett wish him the very best.”
21 Comments
Holy shit! Big news.
First Keogh now Lagana and that’s ontop of all the other creative fire power. Can the Monkeys just stop dominating please?
Well done Vinnie and the Monkeys. This is huge.
Great bloke, great talent, great hire for a great agency.
Was he let go too? What’s happening over at Leo’s?
You will not find a nicer, more talented person than Vince.
@What!?
Vinnie wasn’t let go. He made his decision to leave a few weeks ago.
Read Melinda’s statement, it doesn’t sound like they wanted him to leave.
Beeeeep!
One of the nicest, and most talented guys in the game.
Big win, Monkeys!
Always thought you were a bit of a Monkey!
Such a top bloke Vinnie. Loved working with him.
Well done Vinnie! Lucky Monkeys!
The best!!!
Hit after hit
Love ya mate
Bloody I Phones!!
The best of the best. Any place with Vinnie in it, is an amazing place to be.
I would have done everything to keep him at Leo’s. His humbleness makes him come across as very understated at times but geez he was a talented creative leader and weapon for them.
I hear he and Grant struggled at times with previous powers of management. Hopefully that wasn’t the reason why he left.
Congrats Vincenzo, congrats Monkeys. Commiserations Leo’s.
I love this man. Go Vinnie.
Wow the creative exodus from Leos continues. In both Melbourne and Sydney. Wonder why?
Nice work old boy, and well done scottie and justin (who seem to have a permanent table at Toko 🙂
Vince the mince, one of the greats. !!!!!
He’s ok, but all the great work he did was under the Dilallo regime. Coke, Bundy etc.
@Steve J, yes Dilallo was great but i think you’ll find Vinnie and Grant were the driving force on many of those campaigns. Plus, dilallo was gone when BrainBand, PocketPatrol etc happened. This is the work that got them 4th most innovative company in Australia.
If you ask me, Vinnie and Dillalo were both great for Leo’s in their own ways. Have a heap of time for both.
Still my favourite campaign from Vinnie was his Toyota Country border security campaign while he was at Saatchi’s.
Can the Monkeys just stop? Please.