Ogilvy Melbourne appoints award-winning, best-selling author Hilary Badger as new ECD

CB Exclusive – Marking a new era in its creative leadership, Ogilvy Melbourne has appointed multi-award winning creative and best-selling author Hilary Badger as executive creative director.

Bringing more than 20 years’ experience across Australia and New Zealand to the role, Badger will oversee a stellar team of Melbourne-based creatives working across a range of clients.  She will work closely with Ogilvy’s chief creative officer Toby Talbot and the agency’s broader creative capability.

Ogilvy Melbourne managing director Gavin MacMillan said Badger’s strategic creativity and unconventional thinking made her a great fit for Ogilvy, particularly given the brand’s belief in the power of creativity to transform business.

Says MacMillan: “Hilary is a driven, next generation leader who is a great fit with our clients, our people, and our culture.  She’s also a demonstrated cracker of big brand platforms and behaviour change campaigns.

“I look forward to working with her and the great things I know she’ll achieve with our team.”

Badger was most recently at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, where she spent ten years in two stints, rising from copywriter to group creative director.  During this time, she worked with clients in a variety of industry sectors including government, FMCG, insurance, auto, telco, tourism and sport.

She creatively led two campaigns for Treaty with the Victorian Government’s Department of Premier and Cabinet, galvanising an already strong interest in social impact and behaviour change.  She is a best-selling children’s author, with two book series for middle primary readers, a young adult novel and a biography to her name.

Says Badger: “I’m so optimistic about the future of creativity at Ogilvy.  I already have a strong relationship with some of the team, and I’m looking forward to building on my relationships with the faces that are newer to me.  Working with Toby Talbot is a career-long ambition realised. He has an incredible track record as a transformative creative leader over so many years. It’s exciting to be part of what he is building as we bring Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and New Zealand together in this new world of Borderless Creativity. Ogilvy has a dream client list, with brands doing such innovative work here and overseas. And I’m ambitious to partner with new clients too.”

Says Talbot:  “In Hilary we have someone with immense experience in the Melbourne market, and ten years at the top of her game at an iconic agency like Clems Melbourne. She’s a serial pitch winner. She is a formidable writer. Not just consistently penning pitch winning advertising ideas but she’s also a successful children’s writer published in 20 languages to boot. She can connect with different audiences given her broader writing career.

“But for me her real superpower is her ability to roll up her sleeves and inspire her team. I can’t wait to see what they are capable of this year,” he concluded.

Ogilvy announced in late 2022 that Melbourne’s long-standing executive creative director David Ponce de León would leave the business and take a 12-month sabbatical from the industry.