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 across the APAC region. In 2020 Ben launched HERO as a new independent, integrating creative, media and technology through Boundless Creativity.

  • Souad believes that humanity should be at the heart of every interaction, whether it be brand and customer, business and employee, or client and agency. As a strategic consultant to executives at world-leading organisations, Souad helps to plan and deliver regional and global marketing initiatives at scale. She has lived and worked in the UK, Singapore and Australia and has worked with some of the world’s leading technology companies, including Meta (formerly Facebook), Google and Telstra.

    A vocal advocate for business as a force for good, Souad’s experience also includes cause-related and community marketing. She is a passionate DEI advocate and is on the Steering Committee for Rare with Google’s Leadership Accelerator for underrepresented talent. She has lead pro bono programs, spearheaded an internal mental health awareness initiative and is a passionate mentor and trained coach.

  • A financial and business management professional, Zain’s qualifications and memberships span The Institute of Chartered Accountants, Certified Practicing Accountants, Institute of Internal Auditors and being a fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia.

    He maintains full oversight of our finance and commercial support services. Having led multidisciplinary teams for over 12 years in two creatively recognised advertising agencies, Zain is a passionate and highly effective leader, driven by his core focus on people, process and technology.

  • 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.

  • With a passion for social-first creativity, Ben’s award-winning campaigns include some of the world’s leading brands like McDonald’s, Heineken, Kellogg’s, Red Bull, XBox and Volkswagen, earning recognition at Cannes, Clio, The One Show, The New York Festivals and AWARD.

    Ben’s experience spans global agencies including M&C Saatchi, JWT, DDB, Y&R and Leo Burnett. He also launched his own indie O'Shea & O'Brien. Red Bull was his founding client, building valuable experience of a truly social-first platform and creating events that were among the first to blow up in social feeds.

    A natural creative leader, Ben’s been involved with AWARD School for over 10 years as a tutor, running the school for two years as Head Lecturer teaching and nurturing upcoming talent. He’s a regular speaker to various university and school groups about the impact unexpected creativity has on business success.

  • 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.

  • 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 Australia Grand Prix 2020, as well as campaigns for Toyota, Engie, Swisse, Elizabeth Arden, Chemist Warehouse, Revlon, PUMA, L’Oreal Biolage and Maybelline.

  • Tallon is Head of Strategy at Hero Melbourne, which means he's often found thinking too long about things whilst staring off into the distance, wistfully. Tallon has dabbled with Brand, Comms, CX and Research over his decade in advertising and is dedicated to using strategy and science to change brands, behaviour and business for the better. He's a passionate pianist, belligerent boxer, able alliterator and proud papa to Border Collie pup, Billie (after Holiday).

  • Kate is a unique individual with expertise in the use of analytics and performance measurement in creative businesses. 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.