ALEX MASSON
AUSTRALIA’S MOST HATTED CREATIVE DIRECTOR.
Citation required. But it feels accurate. He owns a shedload of hats.
WHAT DO HATS AND MY WORK HAVE IN COMMON?
THEY’re always TOP OF MIND.
ALEX MASSON
(he/him)
Using a proprietary blend of earned creative expertise, cultural relevance and personal taste I tell brand stories that people want to watch, touch and play with.
Not just a Creative Director, I’m an experienced agency leader who has established and grown award-winning cultures at multiple agencies in Australia.
And, in the interest of balance, I’d be remiss if I didn’t inform you that I’m also a failed sports journalist, subpar cricketer with a 3.36 career average, and spent 2009 on the US no-fly list.
CLIENTS
Berocca
Breitling ++
Bulldog Skincare ++
De’Longhi Group
Dyson
Domain ++
Ferrero Rocher
Groupon ++
Hayu ++
Huawei ++
Hootsuite
IKEA
Jansz Tasmania
KitchenAid
Los Angeles Tourism
Macca’s
Oxford Landing ++
Red Bull ++
SEEK ++
Singapore Tourism
Sony Electronics ++
Snapchat ++
Spotify
Stayz
Sydney Thunder ++
THE ICONIC ++
TikTok ++
Tim Tam’s
TripAdvisor ++
Tourism Australia
Volkswagen Group
Westpac
Weight Watchers
Xero ++
++ denotes new business win where I was strategic and/or creative lead.
SEEK
Napoleon dynamite puts his SWEET skills to WORK
What happens when you take the world’s least skilled man and make him the face of SEEK Skills Explorer?
You get “the most successful campaign in SEEK history”.
IMPACT
76% believe “SEEK helps me stand out to employers based on my skillset” (+35% on baseline)
79% “actively recommend this brand” (+43% on baseline)
216,000 additional visits to SEEK Skills Explorer directly attributed to this campaign
SONY
EXTRA BASS LAUNCH
The Puretones were right. Humans are totally addicted to bass. Our brains crave bass, the addiction region going into overdrive during the build up of EDM tracks, before flooding our bodies with dopamine at the bass drop.
To launch Sony’s Extra Bass portable speakers we fed this addiction by throwing the filthiest EDM set Sydney has seen, and recorded people as they double dumped dopamine.
IMPACT
84% total completion rate across the campaign. A new benchmark for Sony Australia
The campaign was so successful locally that it was sold to the SE Asian and Middle Eastern markets
KEY STILLS
KITCHENAID
KITCHENAID MINI - NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH
KitchenAid food processors were high on millennial wish lists but that’s all they were, a fanciful wish. With a high price point and a footprint bigger than most inner-city terraces, Aussie foodies couldn’t justify the purchase.
Which is why when KitchenAid launched their new Mini range, we launched Australia’s tiniest restaurant. In a 27sqm Darlinghurst studio. The size of two car spaces.
IMPACT
45% growth in YOY sales
58 pieces of editorial including The Project, Pedestrian and Triple J - all firsts for the brand.
JANSZ
REBRAND
To help Jansz Tasmania premiumise their price point, we identified the need to change perceptions around the Tassie sparkling wine category. From cheap champagne knockoff to its own unique varietal shaped by the otherworldly conditions of the Apple Isle.
In partnership with designer Adi Kote, we reimagined the entire Jansz brand using the Tasmanian landscape as our design studio. Colour palettes were pulled directly from the lichen and shoreline surrounding the vineyard, whilst a new brand pattern was sketched from local flora. We retained and refreshed some key brand assets such as the logo, modernising their application but remaining faithful to their historical roots in Tasmanian lore.
IMPACT
Jansz was able to justify increasing price points across Australia stockists and sells out of each vintage annually
The rebrand has been successfully implemented and maintained for three years across multiple partners and stakeholders including content production, influencers and brand partnerships
FROM THIS
TO THIS
THE ICONIC
THE ICONIC SUMMER RUNWAY 2018
How do you establish THE ICONIC as the leaders of Australian fashion? By challenging archaic beauty standards in the global fashion industry and doing what others wouldn’t. Creating a runway that actively represents the audience it is selling to.
The World’s Most Body Positive Runway was headlined by the first male plus-size model to walk a swim show, and featured a synchronised swim team that provided an analog answer to the age old question “will I fit into this?”.
IMPACT
Site visitation YOY increase +321% for Men, +203% for Women.
Media coverage YOY increase +475%. With THE ICONIC owning 40% of all fashion coverage the week of the show.
OXFORD LANDING
RETAIL PRINT CAMPAIGN
Be Aussie without being Ocka. Vegan without being PETA. Sustainable without being preachy.
That was the strategy to help a cheap and cheerful Aussie wine stand out on UK shelves.
The use of natives endemic to South Australian vineyards, lighting cues mimicking the long Aussie sun and playful copywriting allowed us to create a proposition and visual language that stands out - whether against the tackiness of other Aussie labels or the concrete yuck of the OOH environments we appeared in.
IMPACT
The 100% Plant Based platform has now been adopted as their global brand proposition with campaigns to roll out in Australia, Canada, UK and US off the back of this successful work.
KEY STILLS
BREITLING
CHRONOMAT AUSTRALIAN EDITION LAUNCH
What happens when you go to launch an Australian edition of your watch without having visited the country or consulting the locals? You come to us.
A Story of Time and Place unified all Breitling’s marketing efforts under a central concept - from content to events, in-store to ambassadors. It saw us travel 30,000km around Australia to find inspiration from the colour palette of the Australian landscape and then using that to post-rationalise the colourway of the watch face.
This creative platform saw us explore the interplay between Time and Place. How Time has weathered, warped and weirded the Australian landscape, and how Place manipulates our perception and experience of time in the moment.
KEY STILLS
VOLKSWAGEN
SYDNEY SWANS PARTNERSHIP ACTIVATION
Fan support is consistently cited by coaches and players as the intangible 1% that fuels performance.
To celebrate Volkswagen’s fifth season as major sponsor of the Sydney Swans, we decided to flip the script and have the coaches and players give back by supporting the fans that support the team.
This season-long campaign saw fans able to request support from their favourite Swans and we’d make it happen. Within reason. The campaign was underpinned by a social campaign, in-stadium promotions and interactive experiences in the Volkswagen Fan Zone.
POOL ROOM
ADHESIVE
Mumbrella Commscon 2023 - Best PR Employer
Great Place To Work 2023 + 2022
Mumbrella Commscon 2022 - Agency of the Year (Large)
PRIA Golden Target Awards 2022 - Agency of the Year (Medium)
PR Week Asia Awards 2022 - Best ANZ PR Campaign (Silver), Best Use of Content (Silver), Best Integrated Marketing (Bronze)
Webby’s 2022 - Branded Content (Honoree)
AdNews 2021 - Small Agency of the Year
Mumbrella Commscon 2021 - Best PR Employer
Campaign Agency of the Year 2020 - ANZ Best Talent Development Program, Best Culture (Silver)
B&T Awards 2017 - PR Campaign of the Year
Spikes Asia 2017 - PR Campaign of the Year (Silver) - Durable Consumer Goods
PR Week Asia Awards 2017 - Consumer Launch of the Year (Silver), Australian Campaign of the Year (Bronze)
WE ARE DIFFERENT
Mumbrella Commscon 2020 - PR Agency of the Year
B&T Awards 2020 - Emerging Agency of the Year (shortlist)
Mumbrella Awards 2020 - Emerging Agency of the Year (shortlist)
MANGO / DDB SYDNEY
AdNews Awards 2015 - PR Agency of the Year
AdNews Awards 2014 - PR Agency of the Year
AdNews Awards 2012 - Experiential Agency of the Year
testimonial
Hear what my colleagues have to say about me. Most of it complimentary.
NO HAT, NO PLAY, MAKES ALEX A DULL BOY.
+61420585737