Last week, we waxed lyrical about the industry’s leading indie agency creatives. And they’re having a moment indeed – look no further than Bear Meets Eagle on Fire or Motion Sickness, both of whom picked up Cannes Lions this year.
By contrast, you might think that the holding companies’ creative benches are looking a little thin by comparison. God knows there’s been an exodus of senior creative talent to indie agencies over the last year or so – Ant Keogh at Kerfuffle, Matt Lawson to ATime&Place and Evan Roberts to Tightknit Studio.
But in discussing this list with one extremely well-placed industry insider, they commented how refreshing and uplifting it was to recognise the talent at holdcos. There’s plenty out there, for sure; it’s simply the industry that is in flux, not that their skills have diminished.
Before we get to the 10 and, as is customary in B&T’s Best of the Best lists, we’d like to list some names that didn’t quite make the list. First, and perhaps chief among them, is BMF’s ECD David Fraser. He’s been the brains behind much of the ALDI and Tourism Tasmania work, some of the finest in the market. Leo Melbourne ECD Hilary Badger and Ogilvy Sydney ECD Bridget Jung are too unlucky to miss out – we’re certainly expecting that a CCO role could be in the offing for Badger and another CCO role could be in the offing for Jung.
Matt Keon at TBWA\Sydney, we understand, has made some great strides thus far in the Pyrmont office, but it’s still relatively early days. He’s one to watch. VML’s group ECD Richard Williams can also consider himself very unfortunate to miss out on the top 10.
We’ll also take a moment to issue some caveats about who isn’t eligible for our list. We’re looking at Australia and New Zealand creative chiefs here, meaning VML’s Paul Nagy, with his APAC chief creative officer role, is slightly too big.
We are perilously close to the end of the year. But B&T’s Best of the Best will keep on trucking until 17 December, when we’ll hit you with a double-bill. If you know anyone who should be considered for the forthcoming lists, let us know in the form below. You could nominate a colleague, a friend, a lover, even yourself, and provide as many or as few details as you see fit. We will need a name, though.
Right. Onwards.
10. Tara McKenty, chief creative officer, AKQA
Tara McKenty joined WPP-owned AKQA in December, initially as its ECD before becoming Australia and New Zealand CCO in June. It’s been a quieter time for AKQA of late but McKenty’s reputation for her work at BMF, from May 2023 to December 2024 and at Google for more than a decade, sees her make the top 10.
During her time at BMF, it was named Effective Agency of the Year at the Australian Effies, scooping three golds, two silvers and one bronze for ALDI Australia; as well as one silver for Tourism Tasmania. Her work has been lauded at awards shows around the world, too, including at Cannes, where she won a gold Creative Transformation Lion. More recently, McKenty has been working on Westfield’s rib-tickling Christmas campaign below:
She’s a regular face on the world’s judging panels, too. She’s set to helm the digital marketing jury at the upcoming D&AD Awards and was in the Digital hot seat at the AWARD Awards earlier this year.
9. Psembi Kinstan, chief creative officer, DDB Melbourne
Psembi Kinstan is not only extremely well-regarded within DDB, but he’s also well-liked by seemingly everyone who meets him. Considering the, erm, polarising demeanours some chief creatives have, we count that as a very good thing. He was described to us as “the world’s nicest human” and “lovable” in a Robert Irwin-like manner – genuinely.
Kinstan joined DDB in 2021 after stops at nearly every great ad agency – Y&R London, BBH London and McCann. In November last year, he was promoted to CCO of DDB’s Melbourne office. Now, we understand that quite a significant change might be imminent at DDB, but whatever happens, Kinstan can be very proud of the work it has produced for clients, including McDonald’s, the TAC, Acciona and Coles as part of the Smith St. bespoke agency.
Kinstan was the “mastermind” behind the recent launch of the global University of Dyslexic Thinking, partnering with Richard Branson, Virgin, TikTok and Open
University, to recognise and champion dyslexic thinking.
8. Stephen de Wolf, chief creative officer, Clemenger BBDO
Stephen de Wolf, or Wolfie as he might be better know to many is one of the most well-regarded creative chiefs in the country. This year, he made a sensational return to Clemenger BBDO as its national chief creative officer after leaving the Omnicom agency in July 2020 for the CCO role at BBH London.
After returning down under in October 2021 to helm creative at DDB. After three years there, he stopped off at BMF for a year as its CCO. That’s enough acronyms for now.
While he’s not had his feet under the desk at Clemenger for long, his work at BMF was brilliant and he played a big role in bringing Westpac on board, BMF understands. Needless to say, his involvement in ALDI’s creative work really made it sing.
Like McKenty, de Wolf is a regular face on awards juries. He helped judge the Direction category at the recent Shots Asia-Pacific Awards and chaired the Advertising Communications jury at AWARD this year. His work on ‘Roo Badges’ at DDB for VW resulted in a Cannes Innovation shortlist last year.
7. Emma Robbins, national chief creative officer, M+C Saatchi
Emma Robbins has been with M+C Saatchi for nearly eight years, initially joining as its Melbourne ECD in 2018. Since then, she’s had two promotions, first to chief creative officer in Melbourne and, less than a month ago, to national chief creative officer.
Our sources told us that Robbins was “adored” in the M+C offices and that she was regarded as “good work in what has been a difficult time for M+C Saatchi. Robbins is a B&T Women in Media Awards winner, too, having taken home the Creative category trophy last year.
The M+C work for CommBank remains impressive, too, with Robbins’ handiwork leading its recent big TVC and its very impressive ‘Out of Here’ out of home activation.
6. Andy Fergusson, chief creative officer, Leo Australia
Andy Fergusson has been Leo Australia’s chief creative officer for nearly three-and-a-half years after joining the Publicis agency as its ECD in January 2020 after a decade at Droga5 in Sydney and New York.
Leos has been quite the hot shop within the Publicis stable of late, after winning all the creative work for Suncorp’s brands last year and ANZ’s creative. The work, particularly the sprawling reinvention strategy for Suncorp, has been impressive, too with smart, non-traditional executions showing that it is approaching very modern problems, such as climate change, with very modern solutions.
Leo has been no stranger to awards shows, either, winning the Grand Effie last month for its Suncorp work. Its work for other clients, including Johnnie Walker, Prime Video and Superloop was impressive too. Things are bubbling away nicely at Leos, and we reckon there’s still more in the tank.
5. Mandie van der Merwe & Avish Gordhan, co-chief creative officers, Saatchi & Saatchi
Mandie van der Merwe and Avish Gordhan are the first of two creative duos on our list this year and have helmed the creative operations at Saatchi & Saatchi for just shy of two years following a year at Dentsu Creative.
Their work at Saatchis has resulted in some strong work, including the ‘In A Pickle’ campaign for Toyota—a finalist in this year’s B&T Awards. Gordhan judges for D&AD and recently completed his first marathon. He described his pace as “leisurely” but anyone who can run further than the of the road, we consider an elite athlete.
van der Merwe, on the other hand, is judging the upcoming One Show and has chaired the AWARD Council for just over two years, giving her an important role at the apex of the Australian creative sector.
4. Simon Vicars, chief creative officer, Colenso BBDO
Few creative bosses in the Antipodes are more celebrated than Colenso BBDO’s Simon Vicars. Colenso’s list of awards is longer than the arms of most giants—there are multiple Clios, Cannes Lions, One Shows and more. In fact, it’s one of only a handful of agencies around the world to win back-to-back Grands Prix in Cannes.
The New Zealand agency excels with its innovative, unusual work for brands like Pedigree and Whiskas.
As he told us, previously, “It’s quite easy to win, actually, but it’s really hard to win consistently”.
Vicars and the team, including excellent strat boss Rob Campbell, made the often drizzly Auckland a draw card for creative talent around the world, recently luring James Bennett from Wieden+Kennedy London.
3. Paul Reardon, chief creative officer, TBWA Melbourne
Paul Reardon keeps a low profile in the industry. But he is widely regarded as one of the finest creative bosses in the country. His 14-year tenure with TBWA (back when it was Whybin\TBWA) is remarkable and he’s led the agency to consistently produce exceptional, market leading work.
TBWA has been on a real hot streak of late, too, picking up the creative accounts for ahm and Kraft Heinz to name but three. In fact, TBWA represents an calm island of stability in the otherwise choppy waters of the industry. Its ‘Welcome to Melbourne’ campaign is also a finalist in the B&T Awards and won multiple Cairns Crocodiles trophies earlier this year. And we don’t think praise comes much higher than that.
2. Dave Bowman, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe ANZ
Dave Bowman has been the Publicis Groupe’s overall chief creative officer for two-and-a-half years following just under six years at Google, where he finished up as its APAC head of creativity.
Helming the operations and working extremely closely with overall head honcho Michael Rebelo, Bowman has played a large part in assembling the jigsaw puzzles at Saatchis and Leo to bring the agencies their recent successes. He’s also highly involved in the Publicis ‘Power of One’ model which sees its creative, media, PR and other capabilities together to deliver extra success for clients.
Naturally, he sits on slew of juries, from Cannes Lions Awarding juries to D&ADs, too.
1. Barbara Humphries & Damon Stapleton, co-chief creative officers, Droga5 Australia & New Zealand
Barbara Humphries and Damon Stapleton are the co-CCOs at Droga5 in Australia and New Zealand. The Accenture Song-owned agency has been consistently smashing out leading work for brands including the Meat & Livestock Association, Asahi, VB, NRMA Insurance and more.
It has also recently been tasked with Transport for New South Wales’ Safety Marketing and the creative and media accounts for Optus and it revealed its first work for Tourism Australia earlier this year.
Humphries and Stapleton have had the large shoes of Tara Ford, who moved to Droga5 London earlier this year, to fill. But they seem to growing into them at some pace and Droga5 is showing no signs of slowing down.
