Ben Lilley one year on: Becoming ‘pitch fit’, avoiding mega-mergers and the vision for Hero
A year after Mumbrella’s Zoe Wilkinson spoke to Ben Lilley about his return to McCann and acquisition strategy, Lilley reflects on what became of 2020, the launch of Hero, and what lies ahead.
“Frankly I was terrified having just come back into the agency, not just as a leader again but in fact now as an investor and the owner.”
Ben Lilley’s first year back at McCann has been tumultuous, almost immediately coinciding with COVID-19. In some respects, he wishes he’d come back sooner. In others, he imagines what holding off just a little longer could have looked like.
“I came back because I really missed the agency, so much, and I missed the agency world and business,” he says.
“So part of me feels like I almost wish I’d actually come back sooner than I did, but then the other, the investor part of me, wishes that I probably came back a bit later and I could have probably factored in what the impact of pandemic was going to be on not just the business but also my investment.”
