VML

VML CEO Paul Bradbury is stepping down after joining at the start of the year; Dr. Adam Kennedy, a veteran industry leader with 20+ years of international and local experience, is named to succeed him as CEO.

Leadership read: A change at the top rarely stays at the top. VML's move reshapes the layer beneath it in Media as a new leader sets priorities and the team re-forms. Watch the first two or three appointments that follow; they signal direction more reliably than any statement.

curated · 2026-11-12 · context →

Jon Cook stepped down as VML and WPP Creative Boss after three decades at the company. Eric Campbell is his successor.

Leadership read: A change at the top rarely stays at the top. VML's move reshapes the layer beneath it in Media as a new leader sets priorities and the team re-forms. Watch the first two or three appointments that follow; they signal direction more reliably than any statement.

curated · 2026-10-02 · context →

Walter T. Geer III, Chief Creative Officer of Innovation for North America at VML, departed after six years. Geer led a team of nearly 20 people across New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Departure effective immediately and unrelated to WPP restructuring.

Leadership read: A change at the top rarely stays at the top. VML's move reshapes the layer beneath it in Media as a new leader sets priorities and the team re-forms. Watch the first two or three appointments that follow; they signal direction more reliably than any statement.

curated · 2026-08-06 · context →

VML won Agency Network of the Year at the New York Festivals Advertising Awards, signaling strong market positioning and creative excellence

Leadership read: VML winning Agency Network of the Year at New York Festivals is less a reputational milestone than a commercial one. Award recognition at this level functions as third-party validation in pitch processes, shifting the burden of proof in competitive reviews. What changed operationally: the network now enters new-business conversations with external credentialing that reduces the time spent establishing creative authority and concentrates pressure on delivery capability and geographic reach instead. The related signals set here is thin for direct comparables; the 12 partnership signals tracked in the last 90 days are drawn predominantly from fintech, cross-border payments, and defense infrastructure, with only a Grey Goose/USTA activation touching the media and brand sector. That limits pattern-grounding to a narrower read: across media and creative network activity this year, the visible trend is consolidation of creative capability within fewer large networks, with scale and integrated tooling becoming the competitive differentiator over boutique creative output. VML's recognition sits inside that consolidation narrative. For creative networks at this scale, the functional demand the pattern surfaces is consistent: leadership capable of connecting creative output to measurable commercial outcomes, product and technology integration across creative and data workflows, and commercial leaders who can translate award-level positioning into retained fee structures rather than project revenue.

curated · 2026-06-18 · context →

VML appointed Mark Verhagen as Group Executive Creative Director for Brisbane and Perth offices. Verhagen joins from VML Indonesia where he served as ECD and helped elevate the office into one of Indonesia's most awarded creative agencies.

Leadership read: The move commits VML to a unified creative leadership structure across two geographically separate Australian markets, Brisbane and Perth, that have historically operated as distinct cost centres rather than a coordinated creative unit. Pulling Verhagen from VML Indonesia, where the brief was award trajectory and regional profile, signals that the ambition for these offices is similar: lift competitive standing in markets that are easy to underinvest in from a Sydney or Melbourne headquarters. The internal transfer also compresses onboarding risk while preserving network IP and relationships, a deliberate structure, not a default. The related signals are thin on direct creative-industry comparables; of the twelve strategic hires tracked in the last 90 days, the most relevant are Showpony Hobart's senior producer appointment and Smith & Western's sonic branding consultant hire, both pointing to boutique and mid-market creative agencies investing in specialist craft leadership in non-primary markets. That's a pattern worth noting: creative investment is not concentrating exclusively in tier-one cities. VML's move sits inside that same current. Across agencies activating leadership in secondary and tertiary markets, the functional demand pattern runs toward creative operators who can also carry commercial accountability, building client relationships and new business pipelines without the proximity advantages of a capital-city hub. The market is moving toward operators who can manage creative output and revenue growth in the same role, without a dedicated commercial layer beneath them.

curated · 2026-06-17 · context →

VML created new hero campaign for Colgate's extended AFL partnership featuring Carlton captain Patrick Cripps

Leadership read: VML's role here isn't simply executing a creative brief; it is anchoring a rights extension for Colgate across one of Australia's highest-reach domestic sports properties. That means the agency has moved from campaign production into partnership stewardship: managing a live sports rights relationship, talent integration with an active AFL captain, and the brand-health narrative that holds an "Official Smile Partner" designation credible over multiple seasons. That is a different commercial and strategic obligation than a standalone campaign assignment. The related-signals set across the last 90 days shows partnership activity concentrated at two poles: infrastructure and capital-intensive joint ventures (Orange-Morrison's €3bn data-centre JV, REalloys-JS Link) and brand-to-talent or brand-to-property deals (Specsavers insuring Beau Greaves' eyes for £1m, Reebok signing Karol G, WMT Digital and Taymar embedding into university athletics programmes). VML's Colgate-AFL work sits squarely in the second cluster, agencies and brands increasingly treating sports and athlete partnerships as long-duration platforms rather than campaign vehicles, with renewal and extension as the measure of success rather than reach metrics alone. Across agencies and brands operating in this corridor, the pattern surfaces rising demand for commercial leadership at the intersection of sports rights, talent management, and health-category brand strategy, operators who can manage renewal cycles, hold talent relationships across competitive windows, and translate sponsorship assets into measurable category authority rather than awareness alone.

curated · 2026-04-22 · context →