HERO WAS CREATED To BE A PLACE WHERE OUR PEOPLE AND OUR PARTNERS CAN DO THE BEST WORK OF THEIR CAREERS.

- BEN LILLEY, FOUNDER

WE BELIEVE IN

BOUNDLESS

CREATIVITY

At the heart of our end-to-end model is something we call Boundless Creativity.

You could call it a superpower. But in essence it’s a model to seamlessly integrate every channel and discipline through the application of data and creativity.

It’s how we turn Brands into HEROES.

FROM ZERO TO HERO

Creativity is the hero of effectiveness. So we’re proud to rank among Australia’s most awarded agencies for our brand, media and digital work. Including in the Mumbrella, AdNews, B&T and Campaign Brief Agency of the Year Awards. As well as #1 independent in the Campaign Brief Hot List and #1 Australian independent at both the APAC and Australian Effies.

WE COULD BE HEROES

  • Ben started as a creative with Australia’s leading local and global agencies before launching his own independent SMART. In 2011, SMART was acquired by IPG seeing Ben named McCann CEO. McCann Australia was soon the world’s most awarded agency and Australia’s most effective, achieving global acclaim for campaigns including “Dumb Ways to Die”, the most awarded in advertising history. In 2016, Ben was named McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific Creative Leadership Chair, overseeing creative excellence and setting new McCann creative and effectiveness records for McCann’s 12+ key markets across the APAC region. In 2020 Ben launched HERO as a new independent, integrating creative, media and technology through Boundless Creativity. A regular media commentator and industry mentor on creativity and effectiveness, Ben has also judged local and global award shows, including most recently the London International Awards and is a Copyschool creative tutor.

  • Originally from South Africa, Shane moved continents a decade ago to develop world-class work at Australia’s leading agencies.

    Career highlights include inviting people into the Sydney Opera House through their selfies, creating an interactive Christmas bauble that let children know if they’ve been naughty or nice for Australia’s largest department store, enlisting A.I. to help recruit humans into the Navy and creating a dystopian future to attract students to join Monash¬ University.

    It’s work like this that that has earned him over 150 local and international awards including Golds at Cannes Lions, multiple Grand Prix at Spikes Asia as well as recognition at D&AD, One Show, The Andys, SXSW, AWARD and the Effies.

    Apart from being an ad and gaming nerd, he also boasts a strange accent and an Uber Rating of 4.89.

  • Sarah is a dynamic creative leader with a wealth of agency experience spanning over 20 years.

    She has a deep understanding of reaching consumers through strategically led creative solutions and has delivered countless brand campaigns across a wide portfolio of clients, including Vanuatu Tourism, Queensland Government, University of New England, James Cook University, Griffith University, RSPCA QLD, Ladbrokes, Terry White Chemists, Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital Foundation, Brisbane Racing Club, Isuzu International, Bolton Clarke, NTI and many more.

    Sarah leads through collaboration, empowerment and creativity to foster an environment where every voice is heard and celebrated.

  • An experienced marketing and communications professional with a passion for strategic, well-planned and effective work, Richard has an in-depth knowledge and understanding of brand, government and youth communications with an agency pedigree, business management acumen and strategic mindset.

    Specialising in agency management, brand strategy, digital and social media marketing, Richard has overseen some of HERO's most awarded and acclaimed work, for both its creativity and effectiveness. Richard's prior experience included leadership roles at CHEP and media platform Lifelounge. He now leads both HERO's Melbourne operation as well as our Toyota business.

  • Bec is obsessed with ads. And dogs. Especially her dog, Koda. A strategically-driven, creative thinker who loves building big brands and crafting the small details, Bec has been producing internationally awarded work across a range of brands for over 15 years.

    Previously Bec was Creative Director at RUMBLE Strategic Creative where she oversaw award-winning work across the likes of Tourism Events Queensland, Sunsuper, Bishopp Outdoor, Green Beacon Brewery and Ladbrokes. Driven by a passion for creativity in all its forms, outside of work Bec is a gamer who plays in a pop-rock band and loves live music, motorbikes and of course Koda.

  • Ken is a strategic advisor who draws from a diverse knowledge base to inspire action across brand, marketing and business operations – all backed by an award-winning track record in advertising, management consulting, marketing and journalism. Whether it's cutting through organisational weeds, inspiring creative lightbulb moments, crafting a clear plan of attack... or just rolling up his sleeves to work on the frontlines – Ken sharpens hazy problems to give brands a clear path to achieving their ambitions.

    Ken brings a diverse range of brand experience, from NAB, Google, Toyota, Honda, Coles, Fiat Chrysler and Porsche, to Microsoft, Officeworks, Tesla, AAMI, Oracle and Brown Brothers.

  • A Chartered Marketer and award-winning strategist, Lu brings over 2 decades of global experience working across the media, marketing and advertising industry, both on the client and brand side as well as in creative and media agencies. Her career began at TBWA in South Africa and senior roles in Marketing at PlayStation and Virgin Mobile, before she moved to Australia in 2011.

    Lu's brand and creative agency experience includes head of strategy roles at the likes of Naked, VML, BMF. Mindshare and Dentsu. She has lead strategy on large scale consumer, B2B and social change campaigns both locally and internationally, across all facets of strategic planning, from Brand, Marketing and Content Strategy, to Channel Planning, Consulting, Behavioural Science and Brand Innovation.

  • Well-connected and results-driven, Ebony brings extensive public relations and strategic marketing experience working on some of Australia's most high-profile brands. Adept at aligning business objectives with concepts that tap into current culture to reach and positively influence target audiences, Ebony prides herself on creating reputation-building campaigns that deliver measurable results.

    Previously senior Communications Manager at AMPR, Ebony has led impactful communications across events, activations, partnerships, press and social strategy campaigns including as project lead on NGV Gala and supporting on Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020, as well as campaigns for Toyota, Engie, Swisse, Elizabeth Arden, Chemist Warehouse, Revlon, PUMA, L’Oreal Biolage and Maybelline.

  • An experienced Head of CX, Mik’s deep expertise has been built on working with large and small businesses seeking to implement both human-centric design and mindset at the core of their communication and operation models.

    Mik’s career has taken him around the world, from BBDO Paris to Razorfish to Dentsu, as well as founding his own agency Willis Collective. He is an expert in leading digital disruption and transformation across a diverse portfolio of clients through customer experience and user experience mindsets and principles.

    From brand transformation, research, digital strategy and integrated campaigns, to platform design and development, social media management and data and analysis, Mik's deep industry experience includes Toyota, Mastercard, Kmart, Levi Strauss & Co., McDonald's, Unilever and L’Oreal Paris.

  • Kate is a unique individual with expertise in the use of analytics and performance measurement in creative businesses. A PhD in Marketing Research, Kate also lectures at the University of Sydney on Marketing Research, Analytics & Insights

    A strong believer in balancing long term and short term goals Kate is also actively involved in academic research to improve accountability of advertising and demonstrate the value of creativity. With over 20 years’ experience in marketing research, media and analytics Kate has worked for a diverse range of agencies and clients, including as General Manager of Annalect where she was responsible reporting, analytics, planning tools and training programmes on data driven decision making.

  • With over 20 years’ experience in marketing, branding, and communications in Australia and Europe, Dominic cut his teeth at leading agencies such as Clemenger BBDO in Australia and McCann-Erickson London.

    He established his business development prowess early, with an impressive new business record in roles for Landor – winning major clients such News Limited, Carlton United Breweries, and General Mills– and later at Blue Marlin, where as General Manager and then Managing Director, his clients included GlaxoSmithKline, Reckitt Benckiser, Schweppes, and Unilever. Dominic was also Managing Partner at Interbrand in Australia, where he worked with George Weston Foods, McDonald’s, and on the re-branding of Telstra.

    Across his career, Dominic has kept a desire to innovate – and to find new ways to do so, at the heart of what he does. Returning to Landor in 2011, he helped the business double in size, and ushered in a new Major Innovations capability, before moving to Cowan as CEO and Head of Global Growth where he worked extensively across APAC, re-positioning the business as an Innovations and Communications Consultancy and reinvigorating the client base.

  • We HERO diversity of every kind, this includes being a dog-friendly business. And this is Tiger, our agency dog.

    Yes we know, he isn’t a ‘real’ dog. But he used to be and Tiger was a true HERO of a dog. In fact, he was so irreplaceable that when his time was up, well we just couldn’t replace him. So here he is now, sort of.

    Of course we do welcome real dogs too. Even if they aren’t all as quiet and as calm as Tiger.