Pia Chaudhuri has been rewarded for a stellar 18 months as group creative director at BMF, being promoted to executive creative director. In her seventeen-year career in specialist creative, experiential, digital, PR and social agencies she has collected an extensive portfolio of award-winning work, During her time at BMF as group creative director, she has been behind some of the agency’s best work, as well as been responsible for securing a number of recent new business wins.

Earlier this year, her creative leadership secured the pitch to retain the Department of Social Services for the Government’s long-term behaviour change campaign to tackle domestic violence. Chaudhuri, creatively led Phase III of Stop It At The Start, and the COVID-19 response campaign that reminded Australians in lockdown, Help Is Here.

She has also led the work for BMF’s long-term client, BPAY, including the launch of its new brand platform, In Your Corner, which positioned the bill-paying platform as a donation tool to help drought-stricken farmers pay their bills (GRIT) and Aussies financially struggling during COVID-19 (Leasa Mann), as well as, the most recent iteration, Debit Day which helped people avoid bill shock. She also led the pitch-winning Department of Health campaign, How’s Your Head, which successfully encouraged Australians to talk about an uncomfortable subject – their mental well-being.

Alex Derwin, chief creative officer of BMF, commented, “Pia has made a huge impact since her first day at BMF. She’s courageous, principled, and has impeccable taste – all the ingredients to be not just a creative leader, but a leader in our business, and for our culture. She’s a role model to everyone here, and I couldn’t be happier to be working alongside her in taking BMF into the future.”

Chaudhuri stated, “It’s not often you start at an agency and feel immediately at home, but BMF is just one of those places. The team, the culture, the work, are all standout. 18 months later, I’m excited and humbled to have been given this opportunity and look forward to being part of BMF’s next chapter.”

On top of her full-time job as a creative leader and as a toddler’s mum, Chaudhuri is passionate and committed to creating an industry of inclusivity and equality and has driven diversity initiatives internally at BMF. She also shaped the making of The Acknowledgement Project, a short film acknowledging the Gadigal people as custodians of the land we call Australia. The film was launched internally during NAIDOC week.

Chaudhuri also found the time to lead the launch of #onlyoneintheroom (OOITR), alongside Avish Gordhan and Ant Melder. This platform is designed to create a more diverse advertising community and has joined forces with a collective of professionals from across the industry, representing more than 20 cultural backgrounds, to do so. #OOITR is a rally call to like-minded industry professionals, advertising and media agencies, industry bodies, as well as brands and clients, to partner on initiatives to tackle the homogeneity of the ad industry with tangible action.

Lastly, Chaudhuri is a regular panellist, judge and speaker on a number of local and international industry events, such as: The One Show Creative Week panel with other creative leaders, the 2021 AWARD Awards’ “Life Changing” jury and B&T’s in conversation “The Ads I Wish I’d Made” series and its “Changing The Ratio” breakfast. Next week, she will be judging the final portfolios for AWARD School.