"Working under Jeremy leadership made me walk to the agency everyday with a smile. It gave us the certainty to put the creative product above anything and to be ready to produce the best work of our lives. I guess that says a lot about the leader Jeremy is. Calm, confident and caring. You should expect nothing than greatness wherever he goes. That’s what legends do. And he’s definitely one."
- Gabriel Mattar,
Innocean Berlin
"In this game, some are brilliant creatives, inspiring awe with their concepting and craft. Then some are all about the people, investing enough of themselves to launch a generation of creative careers. Somehow, Jeremy is the rarest breed of all. He’s both. The only bad thing any client or colleague has ever said about working with Jeremy Craigen, is they only realised afterwards it was the highlight of their career. Nothing else would ever quite live up to the experience.”
- Dylan Harrison
Director, Former ECD DDB Sydney
"Without question the best ecd I’ve encountered. His secret is he cares about his people as much as he does about the briefs. Under Jeremy youll do better work and you’ll have more fun doing it."
- Sam Oliver
ECD Apple
"I worked with Jeremy for over a decade and he was and still is the most inspiring creative lead I’ve been lucky to work with. He quickly gains a client’s trust and always prioritizes what’s right for the Client’s business and brands. Agency side he is the most selfless leader and he inspires the very best work from his people. Lastly you will always know where you stand with Jeremy, in a world of toadies and bullshitters he will always speak his truth."
- Philip Heimann,
Global Business Director Ogilvy
"No matter how good you are, Jeremy always takes the way you think and craft to the next level. And does it with such humanity and class you’ll want to work with him forever."
- Richard Denney
ECD St Luke’s
"Jeremy Craigen was the Executive Creative Director at DDB London when I was the Volkswagen client from 2000 to 2007.
Whilst VW had great advertising heritage in the UK, maintaining - and improving - the quality of the work in order to continue to strengthen and grow the brand was no small task.
I was therefore incredibly impressed by Jeremy’s ability to interpret the brief and then inspire and fire-up his creative teams, ensuring that whilst they absolutely knew what was expected of them, that they were positively motivated to develop the best possible creative ideas in response.
The quality and creativity of the work produced during this period speaks for itself and VW advertising was frequently awarded for both creativity and commercial effectiveness. But it was Jeremy’s leadership of the DDB creative department, his ability to think beyond and around the brief, his skill to be able to spot a nugget of an idea in a script or piece of artwork and then turn that into something extraordinary which ensured that our cars and our brand were consistently supported by integrated campaigns that truly stood out from the rest.
I’ve worked with plenty of good ECDs since, but none of them have ever displayed Jeremy’s deftness of touch when it came to delivering outstanding work for his clients."
- Catherine Woolfe
Volkswagen
“I want to give you a window on his time at Innocean. I moved to the Sydney office for one reason, Jeremy. And that’s why every other creative lead around the world joined the….. I was going to say network then but there was no network before Jeremy joined. His ability and passion to shape a random bunch of rudderless, creatively challenged offices into one unified collective of creatively minded people was nothing short of masterful. No one outside of Innocean knows just how bloody hard the task was and he turned it around it remarkably quickly. The attraction to join this seemingly impossible project was magnetic, pulling a lot of good people away from very good jobs at very good agencies. Yet there we were because of his pedigree, his passion and his vision. Almost immediately, there was a kindred spirit that bonded us around the world, a band of creatives who were going to make this happen goddammit! Even though Jeremy isn’t leading the Innocean network now he’s still omnipresent, still part of the change because of who he, and only he, could attract and what he set up. In fact, he did such a good job that some of the agencies are running very well independently, others not so well. I must stress though, even the ones that are succeeding are the ones where he had the biggest input. Saying that, it’s like we dropped from 7th gear to 3rd as soon as he left. With him we were going to make it, without him I doubt the network will ever come close to what we all knew it could be with him at the helm. Jeremy always saw his best challenges and experiences ahead of him I think. Remarkable for a man who’s achieved so much.
I can sum him up in a single word. Effortless. He has a way of making good things happen and bringing the best out in people without them even knowing. People adore him, agency and clients alike. I could write so much more, but I must leave time for you to read everyone else’s words. To conclude, Jeremy is the best creative and creative leader I’ve ever worked with. He’s empowered me to be my best as a leader and I’m honoured to call him one of my best mates."
- Steve Jackson
ECD Innocean Sydney
"Jeremy is the best ECD I have worked with for spotting a good idea. It might just be the one line in a pile of 100 scripts but he will spot it every time. And there is no one better at turning a good idea into a great idea."
- Jonathan Hill
Former U.K. and European Business Director Volkswagen