The Imposterous

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 overtime, Shannon’s work-life balance was skewed very much in the opposite direction. Shannon believes this made her ideas stronger. In fact, 2016 saw Shannon named one of the world’s 50 most awarded copywriters, and in 2017 that ranking rose to #8. Shannon is currently Creative Director at Thinkerbell. Still working the way she has and remaining highly effective because as Shannon puts it so eloquently advertising is not about the hours - it’s about the insights. 

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. Jo Sellars started her career in Mojo Brisbane working with advertising heroes Mo and Jo. Over the years she has worked on Australia’s biggest brands, shooting commercials all over the world and leading Creative departments with care. Leading by example always. Grant Rutherford is an industry name of note.  Grant created, in our humble opinion Australia’s best ad, only pipped at the post from winning a Film Lion Grand Prix - ‘The Big Ad’. He now runs a Strategic consultancy East of Everything and is the the Founder of the incredible Snowdome Foundation.

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, The One Show, D&AD pencils and Campaign's Creative of the Year. Merlee is Cannes Lions Radio & Audio Jury President 2021, ADC 100th Annual Awards Jury President for Interactive, ADSTARS Executive Judge for Brand Experience, The One Show Asia jury member and LIA Jury President this year. She is one of CNN’s Leading Women, and an author/illustrator of a handbook “Everyone Can Be Creative”, a mom to 4 creative girls, and an inspiration in breaking the glass ceiling in this mad men’s world.

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+Kennedy, Amsterdam, Creative Director and Partner at DoubleYou, Barcelona. Jab is a rare mix of Swedish and Argentinean, speaks five languages and has worked in five countries and might not stop there. He has worked on brands as diverse as Nike, Audi, Electronic Arts, Coca-Cola, Google, Doritos, Barclays, Heineken, Chevrolet and on recent award-winning campaigns at BBH for IKEA, Mentos, The Guardian and Samsung.This episode also introduces you to our 100th follower on Instagram. @niccimartin_draws and her illustration of what The Imposterous would be if it was an animal pretty much sums up this inspiring, entertaining and colourful conversation.

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, and three tours of duty judging the Cannes Lions.) Her work has been recognized repeatedly at all these award shows. In 2017 she served as Jury President of the Print and Publishing Jury at the Cannes Lions – the first female Jury President from Africa. Fran is Chairman of the Academic Board of the Red and Yellow School of Advertising – South Africa’s leading advertising school and has an MBA from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

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 included Not Happy Jan for Yellow Pages and The Milk campaign, featuring the legendary Retired Milkman, Roger Daly. Sarah then moved to BBDO New York briefly before being snapped up by the worldwide creative chief of Saatchi Bob Isherwood as a Regional ECD on Procter & Gamble, and she spent the last decade as Global ECD for JWT New York. Her work has appeared on more Hall of Fame reels than any other individual and she is the only person to have work appear in three of the four AWARD Decade showreels. 

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 the agency to become the most awarded agency in China in 2014 and 2015. Kitty was named top 10 Creative Directors of the Year and top 10 Distinguished Advertising Women of the Year. In 2011, Kitty was the organizer and host of the Cannes Lions forum “Beyond Mad Man: Towards Gender Balance in Creative Roles”. She was honoured by AdAge as one of the Women to Watch in Advertising in China in 2013. Kitty is the author of “Advertising Without Lipstick” a book about her life and experience in advertising.  In January 2016, she turned a new page in her career and joined Facebook as Head of Creative Shop, Greater China.

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 famous work for NIKE, Spotify, IKEA, P&G, Converse, Chrysler & the rock band Metallica, won awards for everything from global Olympic ad campaigns to airport lounges and has an alumni of planners who now hold senior positions at Apple, Facebook, Reddit, Wieden+Kennedy, Mother, Uncommon, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & Supreme. But the thing he’s most proud of is being called an “asshole” by Dan Wieden, Richard Branson & Lars Ulrich.

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 Creative Studio alongside Lucy Jameson and Natalie Graeme and is on a mission to build brands the world is happy exists.   On their 4th birthday, they are doing that in ways that’s influencing the entire industry.

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 as one of the top 10 Next Creative Leaders. Laura has helmed many a holy grail of Superbowl ads and worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Morgan Freeman, Peter Dinklage, Matthew McConaughey, Little Nas X and Post Malone. Laura is a star of the industry and an inspiration to many creatives be they fresh out of college or industry veterans.