It was a year of ups and downs for Leo Burnett in 2023. On the international and regional awards scene, the agency shone. Its fantastic “Resilience Road” and “Bundy Mixer” campaigns for Suncorp and Bundaberg Rum performed incredibly well.

In 2023, the Leos team showed their match-winning potential, especially key players Andy Fergusson and Catherine King, chief creative and strategy officers, respectively, by creating category-defining work for both brands. Plus, with its Suncorp following the all-conquering “One House To Save Many,” the team were truly up against it.

However, it was not all smooth sailing for Leos. The agency itself told us that it had “a lot of curve balls” thrown its way. In July, CEO Emma Montgomery returned to the US having joined in March 2021, for instance. Its clients also reduced their revenues. But rather than moping around feeling sorry for themselves, the Leos staff took the chance to bat the curve balls away and “reinvent” themselves.

Leos hired Tim Woolford and Tommy Cehak from DDB who “instantly” went on to have a “huge impact” on work and culture and create Lion-worthy work. It convinced senior strategy director Eryn LeMesurier to swap chilly Canada for drizzly Melbourne, too. Leos also launched PXP — a centralised production offering that now boasts a team of more than 50 artists and makers across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

As part of Publicis Groupe, Leos gets some of the most generous workplace policies in adland — most with suitably fancy French names, too. Égalité, for instance, supports LGBT members of staff. Meanwhile, Écologique focuses on reducing team member and corporate environmental footprints — the Australian arm of Publicis is leading the way amongst the Groupe. Plus, VivaWomen!; emBRACE and enABLE are dedicated offerings to support women; Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Māori and Pasifika communities and disabled staff. In 2023, the Groupe as a whole reduced its gender pay gap from 16 to 11 per cent.