30. Christine Call, creative director at Omelet LA
Christine Call created Pokemon's Super Bowl spot this year. Her script celebrated Pokemon's 20th anniversary and was ad agency Omelet's debut at the Super Bowl. It has since become Pokemon's most-viewed video, with 24.3 million views so far.
Also at Omelet, Call has worked with many big name brands including Moët & Chandon, Netflix, and HBO.
Before joining Omelet, Call worked as a copywriter at Deutsch, TBWA\Chiat\Day and BBDO.
29. Kat Gordon, creative director at Maternal Instinct and founder of The 3% Conference
Kat Gordon's work at the 3% conference has helped to make an impact on the number of women in creative leadership roles. Within its first year of existence, the percentage of female creative directors in the Communication Arts Advertising Annual went up from 3% to 11.5%.
This year Gordon brought back the Super Bowl Tweetup, which called on women in the advertising industry to to tweet their reactions to ads under the hashtag #3percentsb. The hashtag gathered more than 9 million impressions.
Gordon founded her own ad agency, Maternal Instinct, which works to bring clients to the "mom market." Before Maternal Instinct, Gordon worked as a copywriter for many years.
28. Brandy Cole, creative director at TBWA\Chiat\Day
Brandy Cole spent the past year working with massive brands including The Grammy Awards, Bud Light, and PepsiCo. One of Cole's recent highlights was working as a senior art director on a short film, "Compton: Witness Greatness," for this year's Grammys.
In 2015 Cole was made an associate member of The Recording Academy, fulfilling a "lifelong dream." She's also currently the manager and creative director for Australian rock band, Mere Machine.
Cole has spent nearly seven years at TBWA\Chiat\Day. Before joining the firm in LA, Cole worked at Tribal DDB Worldwide.
"Compton: Witness Greatness," featuring Kendrick Lamar:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/hqw9ciSmhCE
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27. Lexi von der Lieth, account director at R/GA HUSTLE
Not many account directors can boast of having a pro surfing career like Lexi von der Lieth. However, it's her advertising work throughout 2015 and the start of this year that earned her a spot on the list. Recently, von der Lieth worked on Airbnb's first ever global video campaign, where she apparently convinced 80% of the talent in the ad to work for no money, due to budget restraints.
She has also been highly commended for her work on the Beats by Dre account at R/GA HUSTLE. Von der Lieth was one of the most highly-nominated women this year.
26. Lena Kuffner, creative director at Chandelier Creative
Lena Kuffner is the creative lead on Chandelier's Old Navy account. This year Kuffner managed to persuade Snoop Dogg and Julia Louis-Dreyfus to star in the clothing line's Black Friday campaign. She also worked on a long-form digital strategy as part of the successful campaign, which has helped Old Navy become Gap's top selling brand.
Kuffner started out in advertising as a set carpenter before becoming a production designer and eventually creative director. Other brands Kuffner has worked with include Apple, Lacoste, Nike, Target, J. Crew, Banana Republic, Virgin, and Google.
25. Claire Morrisey, creative director at 72andSunny LA
Claire Morrisey led Dropbox's first ever advertising campaign last year. She also worked on Google and Star Wars' dual-screen mobile game "Lightsaber Escape," and, most recently, was part of the team that made Google's Year In Search 2015 film.
Morrisey is involved in many projects within Google's philanthropic arm: she's worked on clickable posters for Google's Bay Area Impact Challenge and helped create public art tributes to American Disability Act advocates.
24. Marissa Shrum, strategy director at Mother New York
Shrum leads the strategic and creative teams for both Target and Microsoft.
Her most recent work for Target hopes to inspire women of all body shapes not to miss out on wearing swim suits. The campaign — #NOFOMO — for Target, hopes to rubbish the stereotypical idea of a "bikini body."
For Microsoft, Shrum helped develop the One Million Square Feet of Culture campaign.
Colleagues say that Shrum's special quality is her "ability to tap into cultural moments, big and small, from female body image to dance subcultures, from New York to New Orleans." Before her six-year career at Mother New York, Shrum worked on strategy at McCann Erickson.
23. Julia Neumann, creative director at Mullen NY
Neumann joined Mullen's newly opened New York office in 2015, where she is creative director on the JetBlue account. The brand recently ran a campaign to celebrate the airline's partnership with the New England Patriots, starring Rob Gronkowski whose uncle happens to be JetBlue's chief pilot.
She is also a driving force behind the Art Heist for Good campaign in 2015, while she was still at Deutsch. The controversial video for Water is Life depicted the theft of a gigantic piece of art by street artist JR from the Kibera slum in Kenya. The artwork was sold and profits were pumped back into Kibera to fund sanitation projects.
22. Laura Janness, chief strategy officer at Barton F. Graf
Laura Janness led strategy on this year's Clash of Clans campaign featuring Christoph Waltz and James Corden. It received 7 million views in its first 24 hours and has now reached more than 104 million. In 2015, Janness' Clash of Clans ad featuring Liam Neeson was the most watched Super Bowl ad.
Janness is known for her "non-traditional research methodologies," her nominee said. The partner at Barton F. Graf joined from Google Creative Lab, where she was involved in the launch of the Chrome Browser. Janness has also worked at Deutsch, Goodby Silverstein, and Leo Burnett.
21. Jessica Coulter, creative director/copywriter at BBDO New York
Jessica Coulter has spent the last few years working with HBO, Foot Locker, Twix, and FedEx, among others. She is partially responsible for NBA player James Harden's ultimately unsuccessful venture into R&B.
In 2015 she also created glow-in-the-dark cat hats after massive demand following a a tongue-in-cheek ad for Lowe's.
Coulter's work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, The One Show, Clios, AICP, Effies and Communication Arts. She's hotly tipped to continue rising in the ad industry, having been named one of just ten “Next Creative Leaders” by The 3% Conference and The One Club.
20. Ruth Bellotti, senior art director at W+K Portland
Art director Bellotti has had won Gold at both Cannes and the One show for the last two years running. All of her (23) awards over the past couple of years have been for Old Spice ads. In 2015, Bellotti created the "Dad Song" and "Mandroid" commercials for the men's deodorant company. Bellotti's past clients include SuperDry, NFL, and Oreo.
Before joining Wieden + Kennedy, Bellotti worked at Publicis Mojo as a creative. She lives and works in Portland.
19. Becky Power, creative director at Mindshare
Power led the "Feel Wimbledon" campaign this summer for Jaguar, which was one of the official sponsors of the annual tennis tournament. The ambitious campaign used biometric wristband sensors to analyze the mood of fans as the tennis matches progressed. The data was posted on Jaguar's social media channels.
Alonside her work at Mindshare, Power was also recently a judge in the IAB's Creative Showcast Awards and she is a member of the D&AD's media jury.
Before starting at Mindshare in April 2015, Power spent nearly two years at Lowe Open and held various roles at Full Six.
18. Maryanne Butler, head of design and creative director at Framestore New York
Maryanne Butler launched the design department at Framestore in New York. Her most recent success is the ambitious virtual reality film, "The Nature of Industry," which Butler helped create in partnership with General Electric and The New York Times T Studio. As part of the project, more than one million subscribers to the NYT received a free Google Cardboard headset to try the VR content.
Butler started her career at Australian visual effects house Animal Logic 20 years ago, where she worked her way up from design assistant to senior visual effects compositor and supervisor. Butler joined Framestore London in 2002 before making the move to New York in 2004.
17. Hollie Newton, executive creative director at The Sunshine Company
Aged 33, Newton is one of Europe's youngest executive creative directors. She has led award-winning campaigns for Nokia, Honda, Lurpak and Volvo. She's won six Cannes Lions and two Cannes Grand Prix awards during her career.
This year Hollie Newton took a leading role in UK TV channel BBC3's online-only relaunch.
Newton is an active spokesperson for SheSays, a mentorship program for women in advertising. Before joining The Sunshine Company, Newton worked at Grey London, where helped on the award-winning LifePaint campaign.
16. Megan Skelly, group creative director at 360i
Megan Skelly has been busy over the past year. Her #WeighThis campaign for Lean Cuisine aimed to redefine the brand as about more than just dieting. It did this by bringing women next to a scale and surprising them by not weighing them, but instead asking them about their biggest achievements in life.
The campaign has continued into 2016, with an installation in New York City's Grand Central Station.
The experienced creative director has been in the industry since the 1990s, in which time she's worked on many campaigns for massive brands including LVMH (Hennesey and Moet,) Clinique, Coca Cola, Intel, Verizon, Reebok, New Orleans, and Nestle.
15. Ecole Weinstein, group creative director at Havas Worldwide Chicago
An experienced creative director for Havas Chicago, Ecole Weinstein has worked for many leading brands including Anheuser-Busch, Blockbuster, and Michelob. Campaigns like #PartyHardMoms and #
Weinstein also worked on the #HavasPeepShow campaign in 2015. The live installation in Chicago advertised topless girls. However, when pedestrians stopped to look in, they were met with sobering statistics about breast cancer. In the first week more than 10,000 people use the hashtag #HavasPeepShow, raising more than $10,000 for the cause.
Weinstein joined Havas in 2008, after learning her trade as a copywriter at FCB.
14 & 13. Nikki Baker and Leslie Shaffer, creative directors at GSD&M
This GSD&M creative duo led Walgreens' "Whatever Makes You Feel Beautiful” initiative this year, which is about the real life conversations women have about beauty.
Together they have also worked on Southwest Airlines’ “Transfarency,” which tackles the issue of the lack of transparency in the airline industry. They also run the Zales account together.
The pair are best friends as well as colleagues. Together, they recently launched a podcast, Last Week’s Balls, and they have also written a screenplay.
12. Stacy Milrany, creative director at Publicis Seattle
Stacy Milrany has been the driving force behind T-Mobile's brand image for the past nine years. Her visually bold and musical campaigns for the mobile phone company have starred Kim Kardashian, Drake, and Steve Harvey.
The creative director's ideas have been known to spill over in her home studio, in which "words, sketches, and sometimes complete sentences pinned throughout the room," according to a colleague.
Milrany's other clients have included Chevy, Visa, Opel, Virgin Records and Adobe. Before coming to Publicis, Milrany spent time at Fallon, Strawberry Frog, and Goodby Silverstein & Partners.
Stacy Milrany was creative director on this recent T-Mobile ad:
http://www.vimeo.com/video/138204010
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11. Rachel Spiegelman, president of Pitch
As president of LA agency Pitch, Spiegelman changed the official agency mantra to "Return on Creativity." This led to the "Stop Donating to the Homeless" campaign for the Weingart Center.
The ad explains that giving money, shelter, and help to the homeless is more usefully seen as an investment than a donation. She also worked on the major rebranding of Burger King's children's menu: KING JR. Right now Spiegelman is working on a TV campaign for Pepsi's premium cola drink, "1893," and an ad for Netflix original "Orange is the New Black."
"Stop Donating to the Homeless" by Pitch for the Weingart Center.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/XCkbZpVzd1M
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10. Kerry Keenan, co-founder, principal of Half Irish
Keenan left Deutsch New York to return to Half Irish — a branded content shop she co-founded — in late 2015.
Over the past year, she has worked on the PwC brand refresh, a Twitter Nicebot which helped to combat online bullying, the first ever Pinterest yard sale for Krylon, and Water Is Life's provocative “Art Heist for Good.”
She has won a string of awards during her career — Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils, Andy's, and more — and was a Cannes Lions judge in 2015.
9. Vicki Maguire, joint executive creative director at Grey London
In the past year, Maguire worked on a powerful spot for Mumsnet that used a real 999 call made by a 5-year-old girl after her mother collapsed from an epileptic fit. She also ran a powerful spot for UK charity Scope that aimed to "End the Awkward" around disability.
Maguire was promoted in November last year from deputy executive creative director to joint executive creative director.
Maguire jokes on her website that she got into advertising (which she's now been involved with for 15 years) after her fashion design career was cut short by an inability to draw. She has since won awards at Cannes, D&AD, and the One Show.
8. Margaret Keene, executive creative director at Mullen LA
Margaret Keene leads the creative team at Mullen LA. One of her most recent triumphs is Acura's safety commercial "The Test," which was voted the "Best Automotive Television Advertising in the World" by the One Show.
She also worked on the Acura Super Bowl spot, "What He Said." Additionally, Keene helped devise #BigGameAdd for California Avocados, where avocados were mixed with other products advertised during the Super Bowl to make surprising recipes.
Keene rose from the role of switchboard operator at TBWA\Chiat\Day to her current position near the top of the industry. She's been honored with awards at the Cannes Lions, D&AD, Webbys, FWA, AICP, The One Show, and the Clio awards.
Acura's safety commercial,"The Test"
http://www.youtube.com/embed/DfvpF4RRGAE
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7. Kate Stanners, chief creative officer and partner at Saatchi & Saatchi
Over past year, the Saatchi chief creative officer and UK board member has not been afraid to take creative risks.
Recently, she was behind the "Pampers Pooface" campaign — a 75-second compilation video of babies pulling ridiculous faces. The campaign was lauded in the trade and consumer press. She was also the chief creative officer on HomeAway's recent spot that poked fun at rivals like Airbnb by illustrating the perils of the sharing economy.
In her long and triumphant career Stanners has had many highlights, including creating NSPCC's "Full stop," T-Mobile's "Life's for Sharing" viral sensation, and Ikea's "Furniture findings."
6. Susan Credle, global chief creative officer at FCB Global
Former Leo Burnett chief creative officer Susan Credle started her new role at FCB this January. Despite taking six months off in-between roles, Credle still had a productive year. Highlights include the "Brand of You" campaign that saw Fifth Third Bank offer a program for grads to land jobs, an ad that saw Esurance endorse same sex marriage, and a cute Mother's Day film for Hallmark.
Credle previously spent 24 years at BBDO, where she worked on a number of huge campaigns including creating the famous M&Ms characters, before joining Leo Burnett in 2009.
Credle told Adweek that her new role at FCB is "to inspire the global team, lift them up and establish a global culture that gives everybody a role and a mission."
Fifth Third Bank's "Brand of You" ad
http://www.youtube.com/embed/MByMsLpLndk
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5. Judy John, CEO and chief creative officer at Leo Burnett Canada
Judy John is both CEO and chief creative officer at Leo Burnett Canada. This year the Always "Like a Girl" campaign, which John spearheaded, won many awards, including, the 2015 Emmy for outstanding commercial and the Grand Prix and Glass Lion at Cannes. This year Judy John also stepped in front of the camera, starring as herself in an advert about clueless interns.
John began her career as a copywriter before joining Leo Burnett Toronto in 1999, rising to become CEO in 2011. The businesswoman claims on Linkedin that she learned her work ethic and management style from years of waiting tables at her parents' restaurant.
4. Lisa Bright, executive creative director at Iris
Bright's recent stand-out work was on Jeep's Super Bowl ad, "Portraits," which has generated more than 12 million views on YouTube. It was also awarded the Super Clio for "Best Ad of The Big Game" and was Adweek's top pick of the Super Bowl ads.
Bright has also recently led the pitch and execution of the global redesign of mobile carrier The People's Operator and worked on a zombie choose your own adventure-style digital campaign for Clearasil Ultra.
Beginning as a copywriter at Iris in 2012, it took Bright just four years to rise to the executive creative director position at Iris. She's won awards for her work with Diageo, Reckitt Benckiser, Philips, and Barclaycard.
3. Karen Costello, EVP, executive creative director at Deutsch
Costello was instrumental in working with Target to create the "first ever live music video" with Gwen Stefani at the 2016 Grammys.
She also thought up Target's Star Wars campaign and has worked on other music partnerships involving Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Imagine Dragons and Adele. In addition, she has recently worked on a docu-style ad for Angel Soft that paid tribute to single moms on Father's Day and a tear-jerker of a follow-up ad, "Grander Parents," which told the story of grandparents who look after their son's daughter when he goes to jail.
Costello has worked at Deutsch for more than 18 years. She joined the ad firm as the 12th employee at the LA office, but is now one of several hundred.
Gwen Stefani's "Make Me Like You" was acted out, filmed and broadcast during a four-minute ad break.
2 & 1. Susan Hoffman and Colleen DeCourcy, global creative executive creative directors at Wieden + Kennedy
Colleen DeCourcy and Susan Hoffman oversee all the ads that come from Wieden + Kennedy's eight offices worldwide. In 2015, W+K won "Agency of the Year" at the Shots awards and Digital Agency of the year at the Campaign Big Awards, for which the pair must take a decent slice of the credit. Recent campaigns include Bud Light's Super Bowl campaign, The Bud Light Party, a fun jazz-era spot for Dodge, and a Grammys spot for Delta,
DeCourcy joined Wieden + Kennedy in 2013 after leaving Socialistic — a social media agency she launched herself. DeCourcy previously outed herself as the author of "Confessions of a Female Ad Exec," where she cited examples of sexism at different points in her career.
Hoffman on the other hand has been at Wieden+Kennedy for more than 30 years, joining the agency as employee number eight.