A pair of disabled ad agency veterans has identified a gap in the market. Building on years of experience at agencies including WPP and Omnicom, the pair has set up the “first-ever creative agency founded and staffed by talent-with-disabilities” and a sister organization focused on disability consumer research.
At least 70% of the full-time and contract staff working at the agency, the Dallas-based Doable, live with a disability. Hugh Boyle and Bob Wagner founded the agency. Wagner, who has been hearing impaired since birth, previously held senior roles at Omnicom agencies. Boyle, formerly of WPP and Omnicom, is a transtibial amputee and is channeling that experience into Doable.
"Becoming disabled in my early fifties was a dramatic and unexpected life change. But it gave me a new and very different worldview that I was immediately compelled to do something positive with,” Boyle said in a statement. “Overlaying the challenges of my new life as amputee on 30 years pre-disability agency experience really set the foundations for these two important companies."
The other company referenced by Boyle is the Consumers with Disabilities Research Foundation (CoDi Research). Initially, the plan was to just set up Doable. However, as the team worked to create the agency, they identified a need for a research group focused on disabled consumers in the U.S.
According to Doable, North American disabled consumers have $480 billion in disposable income. CoDi Research will work to understand the needs and preferences of those consumers. Boyle and Wagner created the nonprofit research group in partnership with the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC), a body that gathers insights from disabled and older consumers in the U.K.
In addition to ties to RiDC, Doable and CoDi Research start life with two other relationships in place. Doable is a network agency of Worldwide Partners, and the organizations have launch support and office space from Moroch Partners.