One of Australia’s top creatives Ben Coulson joins Dentsu

News 26 Sep 2023 - 3 min read

One of Australia’s top creatives Ben Coulson joins Dentsu

By Arvind Hickman - Editor – Media | Agencies | Consulting

Highly awarded creative leader Ben Coulson joins Dentsu Creative in December

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Coulson, who has worked on iconic campaigns including Burger King’s McWhopper, Schweppes' Burst and VB’s Talking Boony, joins Dentsu Creative a week after its Chief Creative Officers Mandie van der Merwe and Avish Gordhan left to join Saatchi & Saatchi, and a round of redundancies at the wider holding group.

Dentsu Creative has appointed Ben Coulson as its new Chief Creative Officer for ANZ days after the departure of creative duo Mandie van der Merwe and Avish Gordhan to Saatchi & Saatchi.

He most recently served as Chief Creative Officer at the Hero network – a collection of agencies including McCann Australia – for three years, and was formerly Chief Creative Officer of Clemenger BBDO, VMLY&R, and George Patterson, and has also had stints in North America, UK, Europe, Asia and New Zealand.

Dentsu Creative ANZ Chief Creative Officer Kirsty Muddle said: "Ben will accelerate our agenda to make great work; work that demonstrates what Dentsu can do for brands and businesses when we harness all of our capability, media, experience, technology, data, and gaming. He has the experience and credentials to get us there."

Coulson added: “Dentsu has the capability to deliver creativity well beyond traditional methods. They are quietly assembling a squad of very talented people, and the global network is catching fire. All compelling reasons for me to crash this party.”

The Dentsu Creative leadership team is comprised of Chief Client Officer Cate Stuart-Robertson, Chief Creative Officer Ben Coulson, CEO Kirsty Muddle, Chief Strategy Officer David Halter and Melbourne MD Katie Firth, another new recruit (pictured below).

The Dentsu Creative leadership team

Coulson joins Dentsu Creative in December. Recently, the holding group has undergone through a restructure with dozens of staff exiting from across its different agencies.

He is one of Australia’s most revered creative leaders, twice being ranked among the Top 5 CCOs in the world at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and picking up 87 Cannes Lions and 43 D&AD pencils during his career.

He has worked with brands including Tourism Australia, Telstra, Qantas, Toyota, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Frucor Suntory, Burger King, Schweppes, Unilever, Carlton United Breweries, AFL, Mastercard, Visa, Mars and Vegemite, and others across Australian and New Zealand, North America, UK, Europe and Asia.

Some of the more memorable campaigns Coulson has worked on include Schweppes' Burst, Burger King’s McWhopper (see below), VB’s Talking Boony, Life Saving Bins, Qantas’ I’ve Been Everywhere and AFL’s A League of its Own and Melanoma Likes Me.