About
Mick O’Brien Bio
I grew up in Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes, Prince and the Replacements. But, perhaps most important to me, it was also the land of Fallon. When I was a senior in college I heard Tom McElligott, the brilliant copywriter and founder of what was then Fallon, McElligott and Rice, give a speech about what he did for a living. It sounded like something I wanted to do for a living, too. So I did the next logical thing for a Minnesota farm boy: I moved to France.
There I spent five years working for a number of agencies, most notably GGK on the IBM account.
In 1989, with a French wife and Franco-American baby in tow, I relocated to Boston, worked for a number of small and large agencies, and ultimately ended up as creative director at Allen & Gerritsen. I spent nine years at A&G, helped the shop grow from 8 people to 110, did some work I’m still proud of and had a lot of fun. Around 2002, it was clear that there was a real change coming to our industry. I never dreamed it would be as seismic as what we are going through right now. Fortunately, I made a change, too, and landed a Group Creative Director job at Digitas. For the past six years I have been helping some of the world’s biggest companies (including P&G, The Home Depot, FedEx, GM and Delta) use the internet to reach their customers in new, more powerful ways.
During my career, I have won industry awards including Cannes Lions, One Show, CA, Kellys, Effies, Clios, MIXX, London International Advertising Awards and have been named an AdWeek Creative All-Star. That said, I believe the most interesting work is still to come. We marketers are living in unprecedented, challenging times, where how we work is literally changing on a weekly basis. I am excited and energized to be part of this new era.