Justin Ruben is following a 25-year career in top agencies in Australia and the US with his own Australian agency, Oblong Creative.

Ruben stated, “My inspiration for launching Oblong came from the desire to create an agency where we don’t just think about the work differently, but also the teams we put on projects. Oblong is designed as a flexible model, allowing us to bring in specialist people depending on the project. We believe bringing people in with diverse backgrounds will lead to different shaped ideas and we will always get the best-in-class talent, both locally and globally. I am also a big believer in creating culturally relevant work that creates impact for clients, and with the rise of AI, it’s important we come up with unexpected ideas that robots can’t.”

Ruben’s differently-shaped thinking has been developed as a creative leader at Host/Havas, CHE Proximity and BMF in Australia, The&Partnership, Droga5 and BBH in New York.

Ruben added, “I’ve always loved the different shapes and forms that advertising can take and I believe now, it’s more important than ever, in this content heavy world that we create work that cuts through and taps into culture. Oblong’s model will also allow us to take on projects of any size, depending on their potential and the impact they can have.”

Among Ruben’s dozens of award-winning campaigns are Bagelgate and Potato Pay for Kraft, putting Lionel Ritchie in a fridge for Tap King, Flipvertising for Samsung, getting Anne Geddes to change her style for Karicare and the famous Peter’s Drumstick Summer Classic commercial.

Oblong has already started working on projects and will be announcing further clients and partners in the coming weeks. If you would like to reach out and take up its free coffee and cake programme (yes, you can have tea) please email jruben@oblongcreative.com.au or visit oblongcreative.com.au.