Director // matt dawson

Matt Dawson is a comedy director from Aotearoa/New Zealand who’s worked with brands such as JB-HiFi, LDV, Budget Direct, Mocha Furniture and Archies Footwear.

The first time he realised he wanted to pursue comedy directing was when he and his brother started an online toy store as teenagers. They slowly but steadily built a YouTube following by making funny little product videos to sell their toys, and some even went viral. Matt quickly realised he loved the process of directing comedic ads with memorable characters, so he decided to turn it into his career.

Over 10 years and a couple hundred commercials later, he’s now creating hilarious, character-driven commercials for all sorts of brands, big and small.

On his journey, Matt’s learnt a lot — but the one thing that sticks with him is this: the online advertising space is extremely noisy, so if you want to stand out, you’ve got to create something that entertains your audience so much they can’t look away.