Emma Wilkie Joins Ogilvy as Executive Director for Global Creative Excellence
Ogilvy has announced the appointment of Emma Wilkie as executive director, global creative excellence. Emma, renowned for her role in transforming the Gunn Report into a globally recognised benchmark for creative excellence will join Ogilvy’s Worldwide Creative Council and support the agency’s global creative community across its 120 offices in 90 countries. She will report to Liz Taylor, global chief creative officer and support her in a chief of staff role.
Emma brings a wealth of experience and deep industry knowledge to Ogilvy, starting with her foundational work on the Gunn Report. She was instrumental in developing it into the definitive authority and benchmark for best-in-class creative, effectiveness and media ideas from around the world. Using her in-depth knowledge of local, regional and global advertising award shows and agencies and travelling extensively internationally, fostering key industry relationships along the way, Emma was able to draw on her unique perspective of the industry to champion the best in class. In addition to the Report and Rankings, Emma spearheaded the development of The Gunn Report Archive to help educators develop student programming and as an historical advertising reference library. In 2019, she oversaw the Gunn Report's transition to new ownership and its relaunch as the WARC Rankings. The last two years Emma has help grow and elevate The Immortal Awards, Little Black Book’s global advertising award show, an invaluable experience that has given her a new insight into how best to approach the applauding and awarding of ground-breaking ideas as well as building creative reputation. She's also worked on the agency side, beginning her career at DDB London, so she understands the end-to-end creative process.
In her new role, Emma will leverage her extensive experience evaluating creative work and analysing industry trends to ensure creative excellence remains at the heart of Ogilvy’s operations. Her experience with the Immortal Awards, recognising truly exceptional and enduring creative work, will be instrumental in guiding Ogilvy's creative vision. She will work closely with Taylor and the Worldwide Creative Council to further elevate the agency’s creative output and reputation.
Liz Taylor, global chief creative officer at Ogilvy, said, “Emma’s expertise in identifying and celebrating world-class creativity is unparalleled. Her passion for creative excellence, combined with her understanding of the global industry landscape and her recent experience with the Immortal Awards, makes her an invaluable addition to our team. And as smart and talented as she is, she is also an incredibly lovely human, beloved by so many in this industry, myself included. We are thrilled to welcome her to Ogilvy.”
Emma said, "My passion has always been to celebrate and nurture exceptional creative work, and I see a powerful opportunity to do that at Ogilvy. I'm excited to contribute to the agency's continued success, bringing the experience I've gained through the Gunn Report and most recently with the Immortal Awards. The agency's commitment to impactful creativity aligns perfectly with my values, and I'm thrilled to join Liz and the global creative team to continue pushing creative boundaries.”
Emma joins Ogilvy at a time of exceptional industry recognition, achieving the pinnacle of both creative excellence and effectiveness. Ogilvy became the first network to consecutively top both WARC's Creative 100 and Effective 100 rankings (2023, 2024), solidifying the agency’s reputation for delivering ground breaking ideas with measurable results. This success was further validated by numerous accolades, including Network of the Year distinctions at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Clio Awards, D&AD Awards, and London International Awards. Ogilvy was also recognised as Global Network of the Year by leading industry publications such as Ad Age and Campaign.
