Mariana O’Kelly
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Co-Executive Creative Director – Ogilvy and Mather SA
Mariana O’Kelly started her career at Lindsey Smithers FCB as an assistant art director and spent an entire year there mounting layouts. Tired of losing fingers and coughing up spray glue, she then moved to London to make actual ads for actual brands, like Cable TV and Budweiser. Over the next nineteen years she worked at the cream of South Africa’s agency crop, including TBWA\Hunt Lascaris, The Jupiter Drawing Room and Net#work BBDO. By 2011, Mariana decided to settle down as a Creative Director at the country’s largest agency, Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg. Just two years later, she was promoted to Joint Executive Creative Director.
Her new position was quickly put to good use. In 2012, she brought home two D&AD pencils for multi-platform branding in 2012 for MK Music Channel. Not content with trophies that look like stationery, she then lead her team to make history by winning the first ever Cannes Radio Grand Prix for Ogilvy Worldwide with a campaign for Lucozade. Finally, just to make sure her job was definitely safe, she also picked up a Gold Lion, 2 Silvers and 3 Bronzes, making Ogilvy Johannesburg the country’s top creative agency at Cannes in 2014.
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