Leading Advertising Agencies in Australia 2026: The Creative Benchmark
The Australian advertising landscape in 2026 is defined by a shift towards Hybrid Intelligence. As brands navigate a fragmented media environment across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, the best advertising agencies topping the charts are those focused on blending creative heart with technical precision and AI-powered innovation.
While there are many exceptional firms across the country, HERO is honoured to consistently rank as Australia top creative agency at award shows here and around the world.
Our Mission: We Turn Brands Into HEROES
Most recently, we were honoured to be named Australia’s Best Marketing and Advertising Firm of the Year in the 2026 Global 100 Rankings. This year, our recognition in the Campaign Brief Hot List Top 10, AdNews Agency of the Year Awards (Technology and AI) and as TrinityP3’s top Australian performer is a testament to both our people and our clients who trust us with their brands.
At HERO, our mission is simple: We Turn Brands Into HEROES. We believe that every brand has a superpower. When unleashed, it becomes an unstoppable force that sparks emotion, spurs action and shapes culture. And above all, delivers market leading performance, results and ROI.
Recognised For Award-Winning Work And Results
Since HERO’s inception, the world's best award shows have consistently ranked HERO Australia's top agency for both advertising creativity and marketing effectiveness, including Agency of the Year at the APAC and Australian Effies, New York Festivals, Campaign Brief, WINA (World Independent Advertising Awards), Mumbrella, AdNews and B&T. And global award recognition at the Cannes Lions, One Show, Gerety, Webby, Clio, London International Awards, D&AD, Adfest, Spikes Asia and One Asia awards.
These accolades are not just milestones, they’re reflections of the trust HERO’s clients place in the agency and the collaborative spirit that defines HERO’s creative culture. Even HERO’s office is award winning. The HERO HQ is the only media and marketing business in Australia listed in the prestigious Australian Interior Design Awards, the Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) and the global INDE. Awards.
Best-In-Class Case Studies
HERO’s highest profile campaigns and case studies are distinguished by not just their breakthrough creativity, but their use of cutting edge production techniques and AI technology and innovation. Some of HERO’s globallly awarded work includes:
Maybelline New York, ‘Through Their Eyes’: This work showcased the toxic harassment facing women and LGBTQIA+ communities in the Australian gaming universe. Recognised as a prestigious Silver Cannes Lion winner, the campaign saw HERO named the most awarded Australian agency at the New York Festivals and winner of the MFA Awards for Best Long-Term Results. Here's the award-winning case study.
Toyota Motor Corporation, ‘The C-HR Diamond Collection’: To position the vehicle as a premium icon, we transformed a Toyota C-HR into a literal diamond by crafting lab-grown gems from the car’s carbon parts. The world-first collaboration was awarded the Grand Prix for Media and Promo Activation at the WINA Festival and recognised at Spikes Asia. See the case study.
Mastercard, 'Transit Tales': A world-first AI-powered storytelling platform that matched rail journeys to personalised stories for over 1.2 million Sydney travellers. This cultural innovation transformed mundane travel into "Priceless" literary escapes, earning over 41,000 engagements in its first month. See it in action.
Fujifilm, ‘Instax Mindography’: In a collaboration with the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, we used fMRI brain scans and machine learning to reconstruct memories directly from the mind. This project was recognised for excellence at the Cannes Lions for Digital Craft, D&AD and Spikes Asia. See the case study.
Toyota Motor Corporation, ‘Metalmorphosis’: This campaign merged cinematography and stunt driving to tell the story of Toyota Gazoo Racing. It was recognised for its achievement in production at the Cannes Lions, D&AD and the MADStars Awards. See the film.
DECJUBA, ‘Puffer Plane’: We sent social media into meltdown with a "Fake Out Of Home" (FOOH) CGI Boeing 787 wearing a puffer jacket. The stunt amassed over 120 million views and was marvelled at by audiences from Melbourne to Milan. See the Puffer Plane take off here.
Victoria Police, ‘Senior Constable Laurie Fox’: Using Deep Fake technology, we recreated the likeness of an officer who took his own life to break down barriers around mental health. The campaign secured HERO the title of 2022 APAC Effies Australian Independent Agency of the Year. Hear Laurie’s story.
eBay, ‘Museum of Authentics’: A world-first sneaker showcase in Melbourne celebrating the rarest kicks on the planet. This grassroots campaign reinforced eBay as the home of authentic sneaker culture and was recognised at the AWARD and Caples Awards. See the showcase.
WorkSafe, ‘It's Never You Until It Is’: A behavioural change campaign that challenged the "bulletproof" mindset of family farmers. Winner of a prestigious Effie for outstanding effectiveness, it started a five-year culture change within the Victorian agricultural industry. . See the full case study here.
Menulog, ‘Snoop’: From the iconic #DeliveryDance to the "Snoop" campaign featuring Snoop Dogg, our work for Menulog helped secure HERO the title of 2021 Australian Effies Independent Agency of the Year and Social Media Campaign of the Year. Watch Snoop drop it like it's hot here.
Regional Excellence: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
Sydney: A Strategy-First Approach
Our Sydney team focuses on building large-scale integrated brand platforms that stand the test of time and deliver real business impact.
Melbourne: The Heart of the Work
From HERO HOUSE in Prahran, our Melbourne team focuses on the creative energy and "lightning" that defines our national output.
Brisbane: Supporting Local Growth
Led by Creative Director Susan Young, our Brisbane office is dedicated to helping local brands compete on a national and global stage through our unique "HERO’s Journey" process.
Award-Winning Ad Industry Leadership
HERO is led by seasoned professionals with a proven track record, including its founder and industry veteran Creative Chairman Ben Lilley.
Ben Lilley, Founder & Creative Chairman
A creative by trade, Ben Lilley started out with some of Australia’s leading agencies, including George Patterson Y&R (now VML), McCann and DDB, before launching independent agency SMART. Described by AdNews as “one of the best known independent advertising success stories in Australia”, SMART was acquired by IPG in 2011. The agency was merged into McCann, where Lilley was installed as Australian Chairman CEO and then Creative Leadership Chair for McCann Asia Pacific, overseeing creative excellence across Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. In 2020 he acquired McCann Australia, along with his first agency SMART, back from IPG and launched HERO as a creative independent.
A passionate advocate for creative effectiveness, Lilley’s agencies HERO, SMART and McCann Australia have consistently achieved local and global accolades for their creativity and effectiveness, including at the Cannes Lions and Agency of the Year at D&AD, New York Festivals, APAC and Australian Effies, London International, Spikes Asia, Campaign Asia, Campaign Brief, Mumbrella, AdNews, B&T and AWARD. McCann made history as the world's most awarded agency for campaigns including the globally acclaimed "Dumb Ways to Die" and is the only Australian agency to have ever been awarded the Cannes Lion Grand Prix for Creative Effectiveness. While today HERO consistently ranks as Australia's top agency for both creativity and effectiveness, including Agency of the Year at the APAC and Australian Effies, New York Festivals, Campaign Brief, WINA (World Independent Advertising Awards), Mumbrella, AdNews and B&T.
Lilley has been recognised in the MediaWeek 50 Power List, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, AdNews’ Forty Under Forty, as well as CEO of the Year and Mumbrella Agency Leader of the Year Awards. A regular media commentator and industry mentor on creativity and effectiveness, he also judges at local and global award shows, including the London International Awards and as Jury Chair at the WINA (World Independent Advertising Awards) and is a Copyschool creative tutor. Outside of the industry, Lilley is involved in the broader community through the Young Presidents (YPO) Organisation, the Australian charity Igniting Change and Richard Branson’s foundation Virgin Unite, and has served on the board of the Advertising Federation of Australia.
Susan Young, Creative Director
Boasting a global body of work that's as commercially sharp as it is creatively recognised, Sue’s career has spanned the world. From South Africa, the UK, New Zealand and now Australia, Sue filled senior creative leaderhips roles at some of the world's leading network agencies before she co-founded one of New Zealand's most respected independents, Chemistry.
Susan's professional foundations were built as a copywriter across top network agencies in Johannesburg, London and Auckland, rising from senior writer to Creative Group Head to Head of Copy across creative shops including Draft FCB, RAPP and iris Worldwide. During her time at iris, the agency grew into one of the world’s largest independent agency networks, seeing Sue run creative across a client list that included Sony, Disney, Diageo and Unilever. At DDB/RAPP New Zealand, the wins followed: within six months of joining she had picked up a Cannes Lion, a Gold International ECHO Award and a Silver Caples Award, and the agency was named AdMedia Interactive and Direct Agency of the Year.
Sue then co-founded Chemistry in Auckland alongside three partners, serving as Executive Creative Director for over a decade. Under her leadership, Chemistry grew into one of New Zealand's most respected independent agencies. Her work across that period was recognised at Cannes, Caples, ECHOs, Adfest, Eurobest, the Aerials, DMAs and the TVNZ Marketing Awards, among others, with the Chemistry team taking home five International ECHO Awards in a single year. She also served as a visiting lecturer in advertising creativity at Auckland University of Technology, and was selected for the Executive Jury of the Gerety Awards, a role she described as a natural extension of her long-running commitment to championing female creative leadership.
Sue’s deep brand experience across her career spans McDonald's, ANZ, Sony, Ericsson, Disney, Volkswagen, Westpac, Diageo, Unilever and Pfizer, among other local and global blue-chip brands. It's a client list that reflects genuine range across B2C and B2B, and genuine experience making work that has to actually perform, not just win trophies. Now at HERO, she brings that global craft and commercial instinct to a national team and the kind of briefs she's always done her best work on.
Andrew "Woody" Woodhead, Creative Director
Woody’s spent more than two decades building a body of work that blends world-class creative leadership with craft and cultural relevance. He came up through Leo Burnett Melbourne, rising steadily over eight years from mid-weight writer to Creative Director, earning recognition at every major international show, from Cannes and Spikes Asia to D&AD, Clio and AWARD. By the time he reached Creative Director, he'd accumulated more than 200 global accolades, including the Cannes Grand Prix for Good for Scope's "See the Person".
"See the Person" was built around the band Rudely Interrupted and a music film called "Eyes Closed", challenging how Australians saw people with disability. It remains one of the most awarded pieces of purpose-led work to come out of this country. Since joining HERO, Woody’s run as Creative Director has continued to see him produce some of Australia’s most talked-about work including Maybelline New York's "Through Their Eyes" campaign. This Cannes Lion-winning campaign was inspired by the insight that 83% of female-identifying gamers in Australia have experienced offensive behaviour online. The work put male gamers into the female experience through voice-modification software and earned Maybelline their first ever Cannes Lion, with UN Women celebrating it globally in the lead-up to International Women's Day.
Woody’s HERO leadership spans Toyota, Bakers Delight, Mastercard and state and federal government communications, reflecting the kind of integrated CD output you'd expect from someone with deep expertise across film, digital and earned-first social and PR creativity. AWARD School-trained, with a broader academic background across arts, journalism and business communications, Woody’s also served as an AWARD School tutor and global award-show judge.
the HERO’s Journey
Finding the right fit among the top advertising agencies in Australia is about more than just rankings. It is about a shared journey. We call our process The HERO’S JOURNEY, or Connecting Logic with Lightning.
We’re privileged to work with some of Australia’s most iconic brands. They are the true heroes of our story.