Greg Hahn is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Mischief@No Fixed Address. Greg is going to go rogue and move this missive to first person. I started Mischief because I wanted to create a place where people- both employees and clients- could come and do the best work of their lives, with less layers, pretense and other unnecessary complic…

Sir John Hegarty, awarded a Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to advertising and Creative industries, Founder, Creative Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) and The Garage Soho, now adds to his title, ‘The Imposterous First Birthday Edition Season Two Finale and Episode 50 Guest’. It’s a lot. Welcome to the big time SJH. John Hegarty has been…

Dan Nelken is a Creative’s Creative. Saying this exposes the fact we haven’t read Dan’s book, ‘A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters’. If we had we would have written something far more original and spent a lot less time sweating the unavoidable mediocrity of it. Anyway, Dan Nelken is an active advertising creative who works on the world's biggest bran…

Here we are, back with the second installment of SAW IT. AM IT. A series of conversations hosted by Shannon Crowe featuring some of the brilliant creative leaders Shannon met at Cannes Lions SEE IT BE IT program in 2017. Today’s guest is Lizi Hamer. The Drum named Lizi as one of the world's most creative women, Cannes Lions selected her in the top …

Welcome to the first episode of SAW IT. AM IT. A series of conversations hosted by Shannon Crowe featuring some of the wonderful creative leaders Shannon met at Cannes Lions SEE IT BE IT program in 2017. Today’s guest is Maria Milusheva. Maria is Creative Director & Partner at Noble Graphics. Working in advertising since 2005 (17 years and counting…

In his uniquely brilliant laconic style, a way of speaking and thinking that we’ve quickly come to love here at The Imposterous Alvin says, “It feels like forever, but I am still new at this job. I've been ECD for some years now and I feel I need another 200 more to fully understand what the heck I am doing. I like the work, can't say I love the jo…

Anouk Jans creates creative concepts, brand identities, campaigns, social media strategies and digital content to help define, establish and build international love brands that shape culture. Driven by a pioneering spirit, Anouk gives brands an opportunity to rethink marketing by creating dynamic campaigns for today’s audience, with stories about …

David Smith is a creative thinker of international standing. Founded Blood UTD in 2016 - an agency that began life with a focus on doing the best work in the space of sport and fitness. But has since evolved to focus on good companies - by good, we mean companies that are focused on generating profit in a manner that is fair and sustainable. This i…

You know it’s a good day when Natalie Lam joins us on The Imposterous. Natalie is Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. She’s responsible for overseeing the creative output of more than 60 agency brands including Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis, Razorfish, Sapient, Digitas with integrated creative, d…

Much loved Australian television and radio host, and passionate mental fitness advocate Gus Worland founded Gotcha4Life in 2017, following the success of the ABC series Man Up and losing a very close friend and life mentor to suicide, as he realised he had the ability and networks to make a real difference. Gus simply does not accept the alarming s…

Veronica Beach is the original founder and now partner of the poolhouse (www.the-poolhouse.com), a social network for Producers in TV, Film & Advertising. Previously Veronica was the Director of Production at Pereira O'Dell from 2020 - July 2022 overseeing the San Francisco & New York offices from the Agency side and their In-House production depar…

Paul Middleditch has directed four feature films and is regarded as one of the top performance/action TV Commercial Directors in the world. He is Australasia's most awarded commercials Director, having over 300, with 8 Cannes Lions, 4 of which are gold, and numerous International and National awards to his credit. He was recently ranked 8th Best Co…

Pum Lefebure is a co-founder and chief creative officer of Design Army in Washington, DC, where she oversees all creative coming through the agency's doors. The Thailand native brings a global sensibility to American design - a creative point of view that draws from different cultures and resonates with diverse audiences. In this episode of The Imp…

The Imposterous, Peter Nankervis is Founder and CEO of Lighthouse Group and a passionate corporate coach working with CEO’s and guiding leadership teams to identify the right people and performance solutions to accelerate business transformation and growth. He brings to this episode a history of partnering with companies that have successfully acce…

Two great guests, two episodes in one. Where to start? Let’s begin with Steve Sammartino. Wikipedia tells us Steve is an Australian futurist, author and entrepreneur and according to Forbes, he launched Rentoid in 2007, one of the early sharing-economy, peer-to-peer online hire and rental marketplaces. Rentoid was featured in Rachel Botsman and Roo…

Meet the imposterous Elaine Li, creative director and photographer. Elaine was born and raised in Hong Kong, spent time in Melbourne, Chicago, San Francisco, and is now based in Sydney. So far in her advertising career, Elaine has planted a beer ad in people’s dreams; raised money for bushfire victims with a burnt Christmas tree; and made edible fi…

Brent Smart is a rare breed of marketer - equal parts creative and commercial. A brand builder who has taken NRMA to third strongest brand in Australia (it was 36th when he started) and is the strongest insurance brand in the world. With a track record of changing the fortunes of brands, leading NRMA to 3 years of customer growth after 7 years of d…

Mietta started her career in Sydney at Ogilvy and Droga5 working across brands KFC, QANTAS, Coca Cola and Sunbeam Appliances. Seven years ago Mietta made the move to New York where she’s since created influential campaigns for The New York Times, The Jed Foundation for Teen Suicide and Kraft. Her work has been featured on CNN, Buzzfeed, The Wall St…

Damon is Chief Creative Officer and one of the founders of The Monkeys Aotearoa. Before that he was Regional Chief Creative Officer of DDB (New Zealand and Australia). He was formerly Chief Creative Officer of DDB New Zealand where he won over 20 Agency of the Year titles, including DDB New Zealand being named agency of the year in Australia. Befor…

The term “thought leader” is vastly overused. But when it comes to Valerie Young, she’s that — and more. Widely considered the world’s foremost expert on impostor syndrome, Valerie is uniquely qualified to help organisations, workshop facilitators, coaches, and individuals to stamp out impostor syndrome. Valerie earned her doctoral degree in educat…

How we got Jeff Goodby on The Imposterous still baffles us. But then we remember Laura Petrucelli talked him into it so yeah, it had nothing to do with us. Back to feeling like imposters. Jeff, along with his friend Rich, started this whole Goodby Silverstein and Partner thing. Jeff grew up in Rhode Island and graduated from Harvard, where he wrote…

Jane Caro AM spent 35 years as an award winning copywriter and 7 years teaching Advertising Creative in the School of Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. Jane is a Walkley Award winning Australian columnist, author, novelist, broadcaster, documentary maker, feminist and social commentator. These days Jane is a full time writer, speaker…

Faker by Tom Spicer. Spoken by Rupert Degas. As Tom Spicer says, “If ever there was something in desperate need of a rebrand, it’s imposter syndrome. It definitely sounds bad. But so many amazingly talented people have encountered it and lived to tell the tale, how bad can it really be? In fact imposter syndrome might just be the reason for their a…

Not every conversation on The Imposterous ends with us looking at each other saying, ‘Well, she’d be good to work for’. But this one did. Emma’s career spans 25 years, from junior writer, to Group CD, through to Executive Creative Director and Board Member at Clemenger BBDO. Now ECD at M&C Saatchi Melbourne Emma has won multiple international award…

Claudia Cristovao is the Head of Google Brand Studio APAC. She studied Communication, Film and Fine Art between Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and London and is an honors graduate at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and holds an MA from Saint Martins in London. Claudia has worked as a writer, brand developer and Creative Director for Nike, …

David’s son Cameron better known as Cam has led international creative shops including Droga5 New York and Sydney, Publicis London, AMV BBDO, Grey, BMF; for the last four years he’s filled the Chief Creative Officer’s chair at M&C Saatchi Australia. Cam has been awarded hundreds of times at international awards including a coveted D&AD Black Pencil…

Julian Cole is a strategy consultant to global brands including Apple, Facebook, Disney, Snap and Uber. Previously he held the role of Head of Comms Planning at BBDO and BBH in New York. Julian has helped create award winning work for PlayStation, Bacardi, Pepsi, Google and Coca-Cola. With a void of practical information online, in 2017 he started …

Cindy Gallop likes to blow shit up. She is a brand and business innovator, consultant, coach and keynote speaker available to work with anybody who wants to change the game in their particular sector. People go to Cindy for radical, innovative, groundbreaking, transformation - Cindy does not do status quo! She can help you own the future as the lea…

Ben is one of the region's top creative leaders, known for his inclusive leadership style and strategic rigour. Over the years he and his departments have won numerous Australian and international creative and effectiveness awards. In 2015, Ben was voted Campaign Asia’s Best Creative Talent for Australia and NZ. His inspiration is the reader, the v…

Anais is a Kiwi-turned-Aussie copywriter who’s changing behaviour for the better. In just her sixth year in the industry, Anais has created ideas for Cadbury, Subway, WNBL, Isuzu, Suncorp, and various Government clients. She won the B&T 30 Under 30 Grand Prix and Creative categories in 2021, adding to her growing list of international and local ind…

Over the course of his career, Andre G Gray has made integrated campaigns for varied categories, from deodorant to Ultraboosts, leading global campaigns for brands like adidas, Gatorade and Nissan. Mr. Gray is the author of Digital Anthropomorphism: Humanizing the Brand, a staunch advocate for underrepresented voices and lives to add to the cultura…

Multimedia artist Graham Fink is one of the world’s most respected, and highly awarded, creatives. Fink works in the fields of film, photography, painting, illustration and technology. Graham Fink’s career has been defined by never being satisfied with the status quo, whether that’s in the world of art or advertising. Fink loves to explore the idea…

Matt joined McCann Health as Global Chief Creative Officer in January of 2019. Formerly Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of J. Walter Thompson where he led the agency to win a total of 80 Lions, more than it had ever won in its 150-year history. Matt was described by Britain’s Campaign magazine as a “unicorn” in the communications industry. Matt ha…

Rachel is a brilliant creative, just not in the way you might think. But she is most definitely something we’ve all thought about from time to time, ex-advertising. Prior to a long and rich career in production and creative services in such esteemed doorways as Droga 5, McCann and Leo Burnett, Rachel took a pause and quit. Since 2020 she has been a…

The Aunties is the brainchild of Phoebe Sloane, Creative at Special and brought to life by the eleven women of the Melbourne Advertising and Design Club (MADC) committee. The Aunties is a program that aims to inspire, protect, connect and champion women of all ages and backgrounds across Melbourne’s creative industries, through tailored mentorships…

Prior to moving to Spain t0 join 14 as CCO, Toby (not Tony) held the role of CCO at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ for three years. Before that he was CCO at DDB Sydney, and was behind the most awarded mobile campaign in the world #comeonin for Sydney Opera House, and before then at DDB New Zealand, where he took home the coveted title of Campaign Asia Magaz…

Paul has spent many years working in advertising in the UK, Australia and New Zealand including ECD roles at some of these country’s largest advertising networks. Paul co-founded his own agency, Barnes, Catmur & Friends Dentsu and while working he often writes articles for the business press as well as car and fishing magazines. Paul now lives on t…

In 2008 Josy Paul started BBDO India from the backseat of his car. In 2016, he was named Creative Agency Head of The Year by the Indian Advertising Association. Josy is among the most influential people in Indian advertising - according to The Economic Times. Campaign Magazine awarded him Creative Person of the Year for India and South Asia multipl…

A promising career in fashion design was cut short when Vicki discovered she couldn’t draw. Encouraged by her mentor Paul Smith to write her ideas down instead, Vicki soon found her way into the world of advertising. Vicki joined Grey London in 2009, creating campaigns for clients including British Heart Foundation, Lucozade and Marks & Spencer. Sh…

Episode 11 -Shannon Crowe exited from full time agency life on 4th January 2016. Not so coincidentally, her son was born the very next morning. It was a unique set of circumstances that saw Shannon take a step back and in doing so her perspective has widened. Her days are now spent amongst the people we try so hard to reach. So after years of overt…

Daniel Lobatón helped create the highly-awarded “It’s a Tide Ad” campaign, currently ranked #1 on WARC’s Effective 100. Now we could stop there with his introduction but that would seem a bit sucky, so...Daniel became CCO at Saatchi & Saatchi in March of 2020 after three years as Executive Creative Director at the agency, overseeing work on Tide. S…

Merlee Jayme, Chief Creative Officer at dentsu international APAC may have been silent in the past but it’s her beliefs and achievements that now demand to be heard. Known for work that pushes Insights and innovation, Merlee has won major awards that include a Cannes Lion Grand Prix for Mobile, Gold and Silver lions for outdoor, Grand CLIO, LIAA, T…

Jo Sellars + Grant Rutherford are our imposter syndrome tag team smackdown champions. Jo talks about her favourite piece of work being Grant’s Barry Dawson campaign for Cougar Bourbon and Grant sums up his respect for Jo by saying ‘Even her shit ideas are better than my good ones.’ But platitudes aside, let’s get into their insecurities and fears. …

Episode 8 - Joakim Borgstrom (Jab) has a secret weapon that helps him see the world differently. Jab is the Worldwide Chief Creative officer of the black sheep at BBH. Prior to this, Jab held a number of leadership roles, including Creative Director/Director of Innovation at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, Creative Director at Wieden+…

Fran Luckin is by far the smartest and funniest person we know. Her poetry is quite shyte though. Fran is the Chief Creative Officer of Grey Africa. Fran has been named one of the Top 10 most influential people in South African advertising and has judged international and local creative awards shows (including D&AD, the Clio Awards, The One Show, a…

Sarah Barclay makes the work most of us dream of and won’t rest until there’s equality in Creative Department leadership. After winning AWARD School Sarah was discovered by The Campaign Palace Melbourne, and among her many highlights there, she created Sic ’em Rex for Holeproof. After several years, Sarah joined Clemenger Melbourne where her work i…

Kitty Lun has successfully navigated the double whammy of being both female and Asian on her way to the very top of the game. Born in Hong Kong and studied advertising at Baptist University, Kitty rose quickly and jumped the sacred fence from Creative into management. As Chairman/CEO at Lowe China, Kitty achieved tremendous business growth and led …

Rob Campbell is determined to create an environment where his team feels safe to be dangerous. Now Head of Planning at Colenso and used to be a session guitarist for some of the World’s most well-known, terrible pop stars. He’s lived and worked all over the world and led strategy across America, Europe, Asia and Australasia respectively. He’s made …

Laura Petrucelli managed to convince Post Malone to get a Dorrito face tattoo and taught Morgan Freeman how to Snapchat. Currently Executive Creative Director at Goodby Silverstein and Partners San Fransisco + New York. Laura has been included in Adweek’s Most Creative People in Advertising and both the 3% Conference and the One Show have named her…

Nils Leonard is a creative champion with a long list of MotherF&ckers to prove wrong. An agitator for change and diversity in the industry, Nils is a regular speaker and judge at industry events, is on the board of trustees of D&AD and is listed as the Sunday Times 500 most influential people in the UK. More recently Nils has founded the Uncommon C…