Ogilvy Sydney has combined international and local talent to form a new, joint executive creative director role, the first of its kind within the Ogilvy ANZ network. Awarded creative, Clark Edwards, is relocating from the UK to join Ogilvy PR’s current creative lead, Bridget Jung, in the newly created joint creative leadership role from June.  As joint executive creative directors, Jung and Edwards will work across all Ogilvy Network business units based out of Sydney.

Edwards was most recently a creative director at AMV BBDO London and won two Cannes Grand Prix last year for Sheba Hope Reef. With over 20 years’ experience at leading agencies, The & Partnership and Leo Burnett, the move marks a return to Australia after a previous stint at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. He will oversee creative across all of Ogilvy Sydney’s creative product as well as several key clients within the agency’s stable.

Jung is a highly experienced leader, bringing 25+ years of creative experience and a global perspective to the role. She has spent most of her career in Paris at DigitasLBi and OgilvyOne. She joined Ogilvy PR more than five years ago as its executive creative director, before being appointed as chief creative officer in 2019.  She has been instrumental in launching and developing Ogilvy PR’s highly successful Earned Creativity mantra, an integrated, earned-led approach to ideas across social, influencer marketing and earned-generating advertising and was recently appointed to the AWARD Council.

Ogilvy Sydney managing director, Michelle Holland, said the concept of a joint role was developed after recognising “the expanding requirement of creative thinking across and throughout all of Ogilvy Sydney’s capabilities.

“We recognise that creative thinking has a place at the table regardless of the platform; from digital and CX, PR, brand, through to business solutions and new capability development, creativity has no borders.  In the combination of Clark and Bridget, we have found digitally led, innovative, next generation leadership that grasps and embraces the link between branding and service design, CX and design thinking – the kind that our growing team needs.”

Clark commented, “It’s an amazing time to be joining Ogilvy. A bunch of like-minded creatively focused people, all intent on doing the most interesting work out there. Plus working alongside Toby and Bridget, well, it’s icing on the cake.”

Jung added, “I’m pumped.  Super excited about partnering with Clark and bringing together different shaped teams to produce interesting and unconventional work.  There’s a new creative energy at Ogilvy and an exciting creative vision. I’m thrilled to be part of it.”

Ogilvy ANZ chief creative officer, Toby Talbot, said with Clark’s hire and the new joint ECD structure, the ANZ creative leadership “is now officially complete.  

“We now have a tight group of like-minded ECDs who have the chops to turn borderless creativity into a living, breathing real thing. We have Hilary Badger in Melbourne. We have Kristal Knight in Auckland. And in Ogilvy Sydney, we now have Bridget Jung and Clark Edwards, super talented joint ECDs with complementary skillsets to cover all intersections of our business. To attract someone of Clark’s pedigree we must be doing something right.”

As part of the new creative structure, a number of additional roles have also been created within Ogilvy PR as well as Ogilvy Health which will be announced soon.