Spotlight on Women Creatives: Tara Ford, executive creative director, DDB Sydney

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TARA.jpgAs part of a daily series Campaign Brief shines the spotlight on the top female executive creative directors and creative directors in Australia…

Tara Ford is the Executive Creative Director at DDB, Sydney. She was Australia’s representative at last year’s Cannes Lions on the Promo & Activation jury.

Tara has worked at advertising agencies around the world including TBWA (London) and Wieden and Kennedy (Amsterdam). Over the past 4 years she has won a total of 16 lions at Cannes including a Grand Prix and 12 shortlists, across 5 different campaigns. This includes her GAYTM campaign for ANZ Bank which was also named the ‘Best Direct campaign in the World for 2014’ by the Big Won and #1 ‘Best of Print/Outdoor/Design for 2014’ by Creativity-online.com

TARA-FORD-Experience.jpgOverall her work has won in excess of 200 awards, on a range of clients, both for creativity and effectiveness. They span across the disciplines of social media, promotion and activation, experiential, direct, media, PR, integrated, print, print craft, outdoor, film and design. Other awards include D&AD, Webby Awards, One Show, British Television, Midsummer Television, Creative Circle, Kinsale, Mobius, London International and New York Festivals, Caples, Clio, Locus, Spikes Asia, ADMA, AWARD and B&T.

Her experience ranges from cars, banks and politics to fashion, alcohol and gaming. Brands include PlayStation, Nike, Absolut, ANZ Bank, Medibank and Nissan to name a few.

As well as Cannes, Tara has judged and chaired various award shows including New York Festivals, AWARD Award (Aus), Adfest (Asia), AADC (Aus), Women in Media Awards (Aus), Creative Circle (UK) and the Roses Awards (UK).

She has been an active mentor to young creative talent through the Cannes ‘See It Be It’ and young Lions Program, RMIT student program, Miami Ad School and AWARD School.

She was also a panelist at the inaugural 3% Conference Australasia.

In between all this, Tara also squeezes in raising her four spirited boys and making art.

For the full up-to-date list of all ad agency creatives and producers and production companies in Australia and New Zealand go to Portfolio & Reel