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In its first new global repositioning in almost 30 years, BBDO is exchanging ‘The Work. The Work. The Work.’ for 'Do Big Things', �������� can exclusively reveal.

An evolution rather than a replacement of a mantra that was originally coined in 1996 by North America chairman Phil Dusenberry, ‘Do Big Things’ was a group effort to get a new BBDO positioning from leaders within its community from all over the world. It was spearheaded by Nancy Reyes, global CEO, and Chris Beresford-Hill, global CCO, who assumed their roles with the agency at different points during 2024. They took over from Andrew Robertson and David Lubars, who had led BBDO globally with panache for many years. 

Nancy and Chris say that ‘Do Big Things’ is about capturing the value of what all of the agency’s teams bring to the table and recognising successes along the way – big breakthroughs, big client marketing shifts, big evolutions in how they interact with consumers, and so on. In short, it’s about the value of everything that exists in the space between a customer and a brand. Of course, they say, it all should lead to big, famous work, but there are many more wins along the way that they are keen to highlight. 

“What consumers experience will always be the number-one priority, but there’s much more action we want to draw attention to, put energy into, and establish value around,” says Chris. 

“The shortest way to think about it is that we want to put all of our creative soul, strategic thinking, and amazing power toward solving the biggest problems we can,” adds Nancy. “It’s really about shifting from something that may have felt more tactical or executional to something far more upstream – so it can have the greatest impact.”

When charting this new course for BBDO, Nancy and Chris were careful about respecting its long-standing mantra, and they are keen to stress that it will always be a part of what the agency is. “It’s really easy for everyone here to flex that creative muscle quickly,” says Nancy. “That’s one of the things we love about this place – it has this incredible creative soul. And ‘The Work. The Work. The Work.’ is a great manifestation of that.”

But when Nancy joined BBDO – around six months before Chris – she diagnosed that the network had gone from taking risks in the pursuit of great work to playing it safe as a means of protection. People would ask them where BBDO was headed, but they couldn’t answer that question before first understanding where the agency was. Chris and Nancy were both drawn to BBDO because of its creative soul and storied past – but they both recognised that it needed to ‘rise again, to be out there’. They also heard murmurings from colleagues within the industry that BBDO had become ‘quiet’ – and that little push from friendly competitors was also a big incentive. 

“I came in,” says Chris, “with the outsider-insider perspective that BBDO, as a whole network, has always been about great work – work that real people see, that real consumers are impacted by and love.

“Nancy came in and said, ‘We've gone from playing it great to playing it safe.’ And suddenly, it became very simple. It was about a big, bold return to the big swings that have always been the hallmark of the agency – creating an environment where it's completely safe to do that again, where it's expected to do that again.”

“Coming in with a fresh perspective helped us see things quickly,” adds Nancy. “Chris joining supercharged that, not to mention gathering our global creative leaders to push on the tension and work through this together. We had to start with the problem and then apply the magic to it – collaboratively, and on a global scale.”

To do that, in November 2024, a group of leaders from across the BBDO global community convened in New York City to pressure test the ambition and make sure that it was workable across all markets. 

‘Do Big Things’ is also a commentary on an industry that Nancy and Chris feel has developed a bit of an insecurity problem. They could sit across from me in this interview and list all the incredible reasons they feel ‘big’ is a good and healthy thing in the advertising industry of 2025. But they also recognise that there may be negative connotations with that word: big is old, big is bad, big is slow, big is expensive. 

“We wanted to go right at it and assert that it’s small-minded to think big is bad,” says Nancy. “We could only really start to challenge that idea and fully live our purpose if we embraced the fact that we are big and about being big.

“And who doesn’t want big? Big ideas, big ambition, big growth, big talent. We want to flip the notion of big around. Challenging the insecurity in the marketplace around that word feels super exciting to us.”

Nancy jokes that advertising’s ‘incessant paranoia’ is part of what makes the industry great. “We are the most insecure and dramatic people on the planet, and it’s almost a habit to declare our death at least once a year,” she says. There was big data, web3, the metaverse, now there’s AI, all of which we feared might be the end of our industry. “And yet, we’re still here,” says Nancy. “We operate well in a crisis. It’s what revs us up and keeps things interesting. 

“Some of it is brought on by the business itself. We know how we got here – whether it’s the push away from media, the commoditisation of creativity, or the elimination of brands in some places. You can see why the industry does this to itself. It’s easy to feed that insecurity.

“But we just feel like, fuck it. We’re in advertising, and we’re proud of it. I don’t understand why we keep wanting [the industry] to die or calling ourselves something other than what we are. When we’re advertising, and we’re big, and we do it well – that’s something to be proud of, not something to kill.”

Chris agrees, asserting that he feels marketers’ biggest need right now is confidence from advertising partners. He can think of BBDO creative leaders all around the world that he would trust his life with to get him out of trouble, and feels similarly about BBDO and what he and Nancy call a ‘community’ of incredible agencies and talent. “We just need to own our expertise right now and bring it to our clients. That’s the only way forward.

“At the end of the day, we’re here for marketers with big dreams and big ambitions. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a start-up with a small media investment; we’re going to think big for that. And if you’re a giant company trying to claw back market share, we’re going to bring the bigness to that too.”

Nancy and Chris first met in the early days of their careers at Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Chris was, in his own words, “a hardworking, anonymous copywriter,” while he remembers Nancy was already known as “the best account person in the building,” destined for success. In 2017, they reunited professionally at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York. 

During Cannes Lions one year, while Chris was at Ogilvy and Nancy still at TBWA, they took a walk. Nancy told Chris about an opportunity at BBDO that she was really excited about. “I was there as a friend, supporting her,” says Chris. “And I said, ‘Oh my God, BBDO is it. This is the stuff we love. This is about doing big, famous work. Everything else is irrelevant. It’s about creating billion-dollar ideas all around the world. This is the one.’” 

What Chris didn’t realise was that Nancy was suggesting that he come along for the ride. “I think I spent so much time telling her how excited I was that I missed the point when she said, ‘We should talk about it.’ I was like, ‘We are talking about it! I’m really excited for you.’ I was jealous, honestly.

“So, to me, when someone I admire is excited about something like that, it’s a no-brainer. What an amazing opportunity. What a great way to channel your energy. What a great thing to be part of. And that’s been the energy ever since. There have been some tough days, but that’s the general vibe.”

“For such a smart guy, he can be pretty thick-headed,” Nancy jokes. “I thought I was being pretty overt! But the point is, because of the opportunity and what BBDO represented, I wouldn’t want to do it without him. It was like, ‘If we could just do this thing together, wouldn’t it be great?’ That’s the energy we try to bring to it every day.

“And yes, of course, there are challenges. But if we can bring that energy to people and have them believe in it, then I think we’ve done our job really well.”