Darren Hawkins

Darren began his planning career with JWT working on Shell Europe, Warner Lambert and TNT International Express before founding his own digital agency, where he led the likes of Kellogg’s and Coco-Cola into the first digital revolution.

Prior to joining McCann Darren’s career spanned major UK retailers Morrisons, ASDA and Greggs, and major brands such as the Britvic, BBC, Arla and Miele across integrated, digital, social and shopper disciplines. At McCann Darren led strategy delivery on Aldi across the UK and Republic of Ireland from 2016 to 2024 and began exploring marketing effectiveness, authoring over 40 major effectiveness awards including IPA Gold and 6 Grand Effies across UK, Europe and Global competitions.

In 2023 Darren became a champion of creative effectiveness culture and now leads the effectiveness practice across McCann Worldgroup Europe.

His expertise in insight generation was also recognised with a coveted national MRS Award in 2018 for the integration of research into management decision making.