Former Taco Bell, Amazon and Meat and Livestock marketer, Andrew Howie, has debuted his own agency with the aim of helping CMOs make “advertising more interesting” through more concerted creative efforts.

Howie has spent the last nearly three years as CMO at Taco Bell at Yum! Brands, winding up that role in April. Prior to this, he was head of brand and advertising at Amazon Australia, and he also spent four-and-a-half years with Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) including two years as group marketing manager. He started his career agency side, working in account management roles for Host Agency, Clemenger BBDO and Publicis Mogo.

In setting up Gallant Creative Advisory, Howie said his aim is to help drive more creative-led effectiveness that he believes is increasingly missing from Australia’s advertising efforts.

“Creative led effectiveness has always been a passion of mine. I have seen first-hand the impact great creativity can have on business results with brands like MLA [Lamb and Beef], Westpac and Amazon. They all see creativity as a non-negotiable as they understand its commercial benefits,” Howie told Mi3.

It was while sitting next to System1 chief customer officer, Jon Evans after a presentation on the ‘Extraordinary Cost of Dull’ that Howie said he started thinking about how he could help bring creative flair back. That System 1 research last year found around half of UK (52%) and US (47%) ads tested garnered neutral responses from consumers at best, and failed to inspire emotional connection.

“At first, I was a bit frustrated. Then it shifted to inspired. It reignited my deep love of creative-led effectiveness that I had been missing. It was at that moment I decided I wanted to help Australian companies supercharge brand love and smash growth targets,” Howie said.

“As the remit of the modern CMO becomes broader, the time they have to focus on creativity has diminished, which is a shame. Especially since Mark Ritson has shown creative excellence is the single biggest ROI multiplier – up to 12 times – within your control. Good news is we are here to fix that.”

Gallant Creative Advisory’s mission is to make advertising more interesting. “More interesting advertising needs less paid media to achieve its goals. More interesting advertising is more effective. We want to help brands write more interesting briefs; deliver more engaging briefings; identify the best creative ideas and execute the most effective campaigns,” Howie said.

“We are excited to partner with any brand or agency who aspire to make more effective advertising. Our structure allows us to operate as fractional creative excellence partner for existing marketing teams. Senior executive experience without the full-time commitment.”

* With additional reporting by Nadia Cameron