Ogilvy has elevated Ant Simmons to lead local creative for Ogilvy’s Melbourne team. He succeeds outgoing ECD Hilary Badger, who is joining Leo in a similar role.
Simmons, a creative with more than 20 years’ experience, first joined Ogilvy in October 2023 as group creative director.
He has led award-winning campaigns for brands such as AAMI and GIO, while taking the lead on the Mondelez portfolio of FMCG brands.
During this time, Simmons has worked closely with Badger on building Ogilvy’s creative capabilities while mentoring upcoming talent.
Simmons previously held the Asia Pacific creative director title at global branding agency Elmwood before joining Badger at Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne. He has previously worked at leading agencies GPY&R Melbourne and DDB Sydney and has launched his own beverage brand, Do Water; the first renewable paperboard bottled water in Australia.
Ogilvy Melbourne managing director Gavin MacMillan said: “Since joining Ogilvy, Ant’s strong creative nous combined with a laser focus on craft has seen him take an ever-growing role across the agency’s creative output.
“He’s been a champion of developing world-class work particularly within the FMCG sector and brings great perspective and observations on the world around us, and how it affects consumer behaviour. His natural ability to mentor and lead is a great fit for Ogilvy, and we’re excited that he has chosen to take this next step with our team.
“We are also incredibly grateful to Hilary for her role in fostering creative talent and leadership, and we’ve loved having her as part of our award-winning team.”
Simmons said: “It’s been a highly productive period at Ogilvy, a strong reflection of the talent in the agency and the ambition to create effective work across all client teams. With arguably some of Australia’s most trusted brands as clients we are in a privileged position to apply creativity to solve their commercial ambitions.
“I couldn’t be more excited about working with Gavin, Danielle and the Melbourne team who are all the best in the business. And of course, continuing to work with Toby Talbot who not only inspires the best creativity but also seems to have an endless supply of ‘ugly-cry’ inducing funny stories.”
