MELBOURNE – McCann Melbourne’s Pat Baron has been named National Chief Creative Officer of McCann Worldgroup Australia, a role that has remained unfilled since John Mescall’s move to become Global Executive Creative Director at McCann Worldgroup in New York.
Speaking of Baron’s promotion, Rob Reilly, Global Creative Chairman at McCann Worldgroup said: “In my three years at McCann, I’ve loved seeing the steady stream of world-class work coming out of Australia. It’s because I have a world-class creative boss there: Pat. McCann Australia’s success is due in a huge part to his hard work and dedication to making McCann a special place.”
Since Baron’s return to McCann Melbourne in 2012, McCann has made Australian history as the world’s most awarded agency in The Gunn Report, Won Report and AdAge Awards Report, for campaigns including V/Line Guilt Trips, the Australian Government’s Impossible Orchestra and Dumb Ways to Die. The most awarded campaign in history, Dumb Ways to Die, featured in both the AdAge Top 15 Ad Campaigns and Gunn Report 20 Best Commercials of the 21st Century.
Baron’s Lion-winning work has since included campaigns for Tigerair, Melbourne International Film Festival and even the creation a new English word – “Phubbing” – for Macquarie Dictionary. During his tenure, McCann Melbourne has also been named Agency of The Year by Campaign Brief, D&AD, London International, Spikes Asia, Campaign Asia, Mumbrella and AWARD. And top Australian agency in the World Advertising Research Centre, APAC Effies, Asian Marketing Effectiveness & Strategy and Australian Creative Effectiveness Awards.
McCann Worldgroup Australia’s CEO, Ben Lilley, commented: “Pat’s creative record speaks for itself. In his new role, he’ll help ensure the ongoing excellence and effectiveness of our creative product nationally across each McCann Worldgroup Australia entity. Today this includes McCann, McCann Health, SMART, MRM and The Red Republic, headed by a brilliant team of creative leaders including Matt Lawson in Melbourne, Jerker Fagerstrom and June Laffey in Sydney and Ben Davis in Queensland, so I couldn’t be more excited by our national creative line-up. In my regional role as McCann Worldgroup APAC Creative Leadership Chair, Pat has also been a great support and will continue to help us craft and elevate our creative product across the Asia Pacific region.”
In 2014 Baron was named ANZ Creative of the Year Australia by Campaign Asia Pacific. And in 2015 he was the first ever recipient of the Creative of the Year award at the Australian Creative & Effectiveness Awards. In 2016, Baron ranked as one of Gunn’s top 50 CCO’s in the world. He has also actively supported the industry on award juries for CANNES (Film), the ONE SHOW (Film) the New York Festivals (Film), SPIKES Asia (Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio and Print Craft), AWARD (Promotion and Experiential, PR and Media), Sirens, is an AWARD School judge and an Australian Creative & Effectiveness Awards ADMA AC&E jury president.
