After scooping the number one spot on B&T’s Women in Media Power List last year, Campaign Edge head honcho Dee Madigan has spent considerable time thinking about the word at the centre of the accolade, and believes the advertising industry has long misunderstood what power actually looks like.
With on-time entries closing for this year’s awards on Thursday 25 June (late entries close a week later), Madigan explained it’s not all about the corner offices, large teams, long working hours and rushing to climb the corporate later. It’s about the influence you hold, and choosing what you do with it.
Her work has helped shape the trajectory of Australian politics. As part of the creative force behind Labor’s 2025 federal election campaign, Madigan and the Campaign Edge team helped deliver a landslide victory, securing 17 additional seats and reducing the Coalition to its weakest result in decades.
Yet despite helping influence elections, public opinion and governments, Madigan admits she initially questioned whether she belonged on a list celebrating the country’s most powerful women.
“I was thinking about that afterwards in terms of power and what power means,” she said. “I realised when I thought about it, actually, do you know what, it makes sense, because I don’t control a lot of people. I don’t have a lot of people under me.
“But I guess if power is being able to change votes and help change governments, then yeah, that is power when you think about it.”
It’s why she believes women need to rethink how they view power, too.
“The power to influence, I think, is really what power is, because otherwise it’s just control,” she told B&T. “True power should be about being able to influence either people or institutions. It’s about being able to change things in the way you think they should be changed, that’s what power is.”
“Power doesn’t necessarily mean having a lot of staff under you. I think that’s the way we’ve been brought up to think about power, and it shouldn’t be.”
Maria Grivas, CEO of Mindshare, the Australian Labor Party’s media agency, also featured on the 2025 Power List.
Madigan said a big part of being a leader is choosing what they do with that influence. One example can be seen in the way she has deliberately structured her own agency.
While advertising has traditionally celebrated “late nights and always-on culture”, Madigan said for years syaying back in the office was actually treated as a sign of commitment and ambition.
“It’s great when you’re young and everyone’s there every night, mostly we’re just drinking and not doing much work,” she laughed. “But once you have kids, it’s a kind of culture that absolutely discriminates against women, because you have to go home.”
“And then you’re not part of the team.”
She said as a result, she’s made sure no one is in the agency outside of working hours.
“There is no one in our agency before 8:45 in the morning,” she said. “Me and my business partner are always the first in, and come 5:30 they’re all gone, and I actually really like that.”
“We don’t make them leave, they leave because we leave. That’s us setting by example.”
Madigan explained to B&T that being in a leadership role where you have power, creating the environment where staff feel they have balance is incredible important.
And that’s not the only thing.
“When life is insane and the hours are insane, we make sure we give everyone an extra week paid afterwards.”
Those decisions, she argues, have “a far greater impact on people’s lives” than performative culture initiatives.
“We’re not one of those agencies that does all these culture days and massage stuff and team-bonding things.”
She said a lot of what she does today as a leader, has been shaped by her experience as a young woman in advertising.
When she first entered the industry, she noticed a big contradiction. Women were entering the profession in large numbers, but leadership remained overwhelmingly male.
“There were probably 50-50 men and women doing Award School, and yet most of the creative directors were men.”
Women were frequently asked to provide a female perspective, but that perspective wasn’t always respected.
“If there was a tampon ad or something like that, it was almost like, ‘Well, you do it because you’re a girl’,” she said.
And despite being brought into the conversation, Madigan explained the women “weren’t necessarily listened to”, which frustrated her.
“We’d always get the tampon ad, but then they wouldn’t believe me when I would say we don’t want to see blue liquid and we don’t need to see a chick on a beach.”
Years later, as brands began embracing more authentic depictions of women’s experiences, Madigan found herself vindicated.
“You’d see brands doing all these really cool ads using blood and stuff like that, and you’re like, ‘See, I’ve been telling you that it’s okay to do this’.”
She said as a woman in the advertising industry, she often notices the industry’s tendency to erase personality from older women.
“Women in their 40s and 50s and 60s can have a sense of humour,” she said. “But as soon as women get over 50 in ads, they portray them like they’ve got no humour at all. That’s not right”
For Madigan, using influence to challenge stereotypes is an example of the right kind of leadership. So too is helping other women navigate the industry.
She said when female leaders ask for support, she gives it.
“When the female CEO of the Outdoor Media Association approached me for assistance, I just gave it, purely on the basis she was female – which I think is absolutely fair enough.”
“If people approach me on LinkedIn asking for advice and help, and they’re female, I just give it. I’ve always done that, even with former colleagues and staff.”
And she’s got a message for leaders in advertising who hold the power.
“If all you are doing is running a company with lots of people in it and you’re not doing anything about making that company better, or people’s lives better, or anything better – well, you might have power, but you’re not using it,” she said.
“You should lose it that power and instead give it to someone who you know is going to do something with it.”
