Over a career spanning three decades, Liz Taylor has amassed numerous awards, but her first accolade came when she was around 12 years old for a book-writing contest. Her winning story was about a young girl heading off to summer camp. “I got the bug,” she says. “I felt like I could tell stories and create characters. Move people in different ways. Make ’em laugh, make ’em cry. It was a pivotal moment.”
Now, for the second time, she has topped The Drum’s World Creative Rankings list as the most-awarded chief creative officer in the world, an achievement she feels “pretty fantastic” about.
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“It’s incredibly humbling, as trite as that may sound,” she tells us. “A true ‘pinch me’ moment. That being said, it’s never really about me. This is a testament to our client partners who believe in the power of creativity and the sheer brilliance of our creative teams around the world.”
Taylor adds that she feels “so lucky” to be surrounded by immense talent and some of the best people in the world at Ogilvy. She sees her role as creating an environment where the team can do the best work of their lives. She’s the one there to “break down barriers” that may be in their way and champion their ideas to “make sure they see the light of day.”
Back in 2023, Taylor became the first woman to top the esteemed list – a momentous achievement but also a reflection of the lack of female diversity in the C-suite of adland. With herself and VML’s Debbi Vandeven securing first and second place, respectively, this year is a proud moment for Taylor. Especially, she says, as they are both from WPP agencies.
“I’m never going to be truly satisfied until we see real, across-the-board representation. It’s just common sense – it makes our work better. The more voices we have in the room, the more perspectives we bring to the table, the stronger and more resonant our ideas are going to be.”
The creative leader admits it’s still “frustrating” to see a lack of representation among chief creative officers. However, she’s “incredibly inspired” by the number of phenomenal female chief marketing officers Ogilvy has had the privilege of working with this past year, citing Aude Gandon at Nestlé, Lorraine Twohill at Google, Leslie Berland at Verizon, Mie-Leng Wong at Mondelez, Marcela Melero at Dove, Esi Eggleston Bracey at Unilever and Jill Cress at H&R Block.
“There are so many. These women are forces of nature and they push us to be better, to be bolder. There are so many things that make this job a dream, but having this incredible network of women around me, supporting each other – that’s definitely one of the biggest.”
Taylor believes that having great female leaders at the top of the world’s largest companies sends a “powerful message” and tells people that they belong in this industry. “Their voices matter, their perspective is relevant, which is so important because diverse teams create better work. Period. And the data backs it up.”
She believes that diverse teams approach problems from different angles and see things in unique ways. “They challenge the status quo in ways that homogeneity can never do – by definition. And when it comes to brands, the world is one giant, insanely diverse, customer base – and it’s only growing more so.”
One of her mantras is that if you’re going to win in the marketplace, you need an agency that understands that reality and knows how to operate within it. “Representation is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a fundamental business imperative. It’s the right thing to do, but because it’s the smart thing to do. The future depends on it.
“I’ve also always had a restless spirit, a need to explore new things and push myself beyond my comfort zone,” she explains. She resonates deeply with David Ogilvy’s ethos of “divine discontent,” which is the idea of “never settling, having the courage to take risks, pushing boundaries” and pursuing “greatness over OK’ness” every single time.
At the same time, she acknowledges the importance of surrounding herself with “people who believe in you” because, as she puts it, “no one succeeds in a vacuum.”
Over the past 30 years, Taylor has played a role in creating fantastic, industry-defining work. Yet, she firmly believes that she still hasn’t done the “best work of her life” yet. When asked to name a favorite ad from her portfolio, she shudders, “Don’t make me pick!” While there’s a lot she feels proud of, a few stand out from the past year.
One of those is ‘Transition Body Lotion,’ an idea the Ogilvy team in Singapore poured their “hearts and souls” into for over two years. “They were given what was a standard comms brief and went back to the client with an idea for an entirely new skincare product. It addressed a specific need within the transgender community and was also inherently tied to the brand’s mission of giving everybody healthy skin. So smart.”
Meeting members of the trans community and hearing how the product made them feel – how they felt seen by the brand – was an incredibly powerful moment for her.
Then, of course, there’s last year’s Super Bowl campaign for CeraVe. Who could forget it? “Talk about the modern magic of creativity. It’s a brave, iconic, multifaceted campaign that brilliantly combined core product benefits with an entertaining, earned-first and influencer-driven approach that truly made the brand land in culture.”
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Lastly, she highlights the groundbreaking work for Powerade. From shifting perceptions about mental health with ‘The Vault,’ featuring Simone Biles’s journey back to the Olympics, to actually influencing corporate policy with ‘The Athletes Code’ – a contractual provision allowing athletes to pause their partnership commitments for mental wellbeing without losing their sponsorships.
“Each of these not only pushed boundaries but pushed past them. Knowing when great work is upon you, those game-changing moments for your clients, not taking ‘no’ for an answer and showing why you didn’t when all is said and done – that’s it. That’s the dream.”
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