Former Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy and OMD creative leader, Julie Matthews, has launched independent creative studio, DOSE, providing creative and strategic expertise to brands and marketers across the country.
Responding to an agency landscape marked by consolidation and the movement of senior creative talent out of the networks, Matthews founded DOSE using her three decades of experience across creative agencies, media agencies and client-side. DOSE delivers expert creative strategy and ideas to brand marketers.
Working directly with brands and marketers, DOSE specialises in brand strategy, positioning and messaging, creative strategy and advertising campaigns, with creative leadership across film, content, social and design.
For in-house marketing teams, DOSE provides creative direction and oversight, so the work the team already makes builds the brand and makes the media spend go further.
For creative agencies, media agencies and production companies, it provides extra senior creative strategy and ideas when a brief calls for it, helping them win new clients and grow the ones they have.
Matthews has worked in senior roles at Saatchi & Saatchi London, McCann Shanghai, Grey Melbourne, Ogilvy Singapore, Publicis Auckland and OMD.
At McCann Shanghai, Matthews led creative direction for L’Oreal Paris across Greater China, having previously worked on Procter & Gamble’s Olay account in London, with campaigns spanning Western Europe and Russia. At Ogilvy Singapore, she led work for Unilever’s Pond’s and Dove accounts, and Kimberly-Clark’s Huggies, delivering campaigns globally.
In Australia, Matthews made the unusual move to OMD to lead its creative offering for clients like Beiersdorf, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Brother, Bacardi-Martini, RACV and Tourism Victoria, growing creative revenue by 30 per cent year-on-year. She also worked client-side at Optus, in its in-house agency, Yes Creative.
“Our perspective is simple – every good brief has a better one hiding inside it; finding it is the job. Clients aren’t short of ideas or suppliers – they just need someone senior enough to identify the real problem. At DOSE, we uncover the challenge beneath the brief, develop the idea that solves it, and bring it to life wherever customers encounter the brand,” said Matthews.
“Our aim is to be the studio that brands, in-house teams, media agencies and production companies turn to when the brief matters – to uncover the real problem before budget is spent.”
Led by Matthews as executive creative director, DOSE draws on a core group of senior strategists, writers, designers, directors, producers and specialists, delivering the right expertise and creative consistency for every project.
“What we’re really offering is senior thinking, judgement and expertise. At DOSE, a marketer gets direct access to experienced strategic and creative people, with no hand-over and no translation loss between the problem and the solution. As we continue to grow our client stable and our offering, we want to be known for one thing: work that changes what people think and feel about a brand, and measured by whether the business number moved,” Matthews added.
