Wunderman Thompson Welcomes Rosie Bardales as CCO of NYC

Former Global Executive Creative Director of BETC Paris/London to lead creative at agency's headquarters. 

Wunderman Thompson North America Chief Creative Officer Tom Murphy announced today Rosie Bardales will join the agency’s flagship New York office as CCO.  Rosie will add star power and a boost of creative bravery to an office that is ready to expand on the momentum of their Super Bowl work for Hellmann’s and the Stand Up to Jewish Hate campaign for the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.  

Rosie has spent the past eight years at BETC where she served as CCO of their London office, and Global ECD across teams in both London and Paris. As a native Texan, she is returning home to the States, where she’ll be based in New York. While at BETC, Rosie worked across clients such as Danone, Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Mondelez, Bacardi, Rimmel, Swatch, Gant, LVMH Moet & Chandon, and Nike. She created Rimmel’s Anti-Beauty Bullying campaign, produced the first-ever song to scientifically make babies happy for Cow & Gate, and brought Sir Mo Farah back to the streets of London in Nike’s London Marathon work. 

Rosie brings 25 years of global experience at the world’s leading creative agencies such as Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, BBH London, Mother London, and Cliff Freeman and Partners in New York. She has made her mark on big-name brands like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Sauza Tequila, Burberry, Levi’s, and Powerade.

“There is great creative momentum building and growth at Wunderman Thompson New York – and Rosie’s job is to turbocharge it. Her creative smarts and contagious energy make her the perfect catalyst,” said Tom Murphy, Chief Creative Officer, Wunderman Thompson North America.   

Rosie will oversee a team of creatives, including former BBDO creative Susan Golkin, the creative mind behind this year’s standout Super Bowl spot for Hellmann’s and the Blue Square media idea for FCAS (The Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism).  Rosie will report to Tom Murphy and work closely with Sasan Saedi, CEO of the New York office, across Coca-Cola, Nestle, Unilever, Kyndryl, FCAS, and other clients. She will also serve on Wunderman Thompson’s Global Inspiration Council, created by Global CCOs Bas Korsten and Daniel Bonner.

Rosie’s hire follows the addition of Renata Maia, Global CCO of Wunderman Thompson Health, who joined the agency earlier this year from Area 23, and Ellie Bamford, North American CSO, who joined from R/GA.

“Wunderman Thompson is in an evolutionary moment of bringing together the best that creativity and technology have to offer,” says Rosie. “I’m really looking forward to working alongside Tom Murphy and the leadership team in North America as well as my new partners and teammates in New York. With all the great work coming out of Wunderman Thompson US, it feels like the right time to get back to New York, join a fantastic leadership team, lead a great group of people, and help shape the future of agencies.”

Wunderman Thompson North America was named a 2023 Standout agency on Advertising Age’s coveted A-List earlier this year for its “eye on the future” of advertising.  The agency was also awarded the inaugural Grand Prix for BtoB Creativity at Cannes.  Over the past year, the agency has attracted strong, future-forward talent to its leadership team, including Chief Creative Officer, Tom Murphy and Sasan Saedi, who was appointed CEO of Wunderman Thompson New York last year. 

“We have an obligation to constantly elevate our work and thinking for our clients so they can grow, and we can grow with them,” said Sasan Saedi. “Rosie is a growth agent, she is energy, culture, creativity, and strategy all in one and exactly what New York needs.”   

Focusing on innovation, impact, and creativity for clients, Rosie looks forward to setting a clear vision for the New York creative team and collaborating with the wider group of talent across the network. Her many years abroad have instilled in her a passion to build a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community where talent can come from anywhere and everywhere at every level. 

Rosie has been awarded globally for several of the highest accolades including Cannes Grand Prix, D&AD gold/silver/bronze, One Show gold and Best of Show, Art Directors Club Gold/Best of Show, Clios Gold/Best of Show, Andy’s Gold/Grandy, New York Festival Gold, Shots Most Awarded Campaign, British Arrows Gold, Young Guns Gold, the Emmys, etc. She has also been on Executive Boards for The One Club, The Clio’s, The New York Festival, and D&AD, and has been globally recognized as a Top Creative Influencer by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and USA Today. Her work has been published as case studies in a variety of books on marketing and advertising.      

About Wunderman Thompson             

At Wunderman Thompson we exist to inspire growth for ambitious brands. Part creative agency, part consultancy and part technology company, our experts provide end-to-end capabilities at a global scale to deliver inspiration across the entire brand and customer experience.  

We are 20,000 strong in 90 markets around the world, where our people bring together creative storytelling, diverse perspectives, inclusive thinking, and highly specialized vertical capabilities, to drive growth for our clients. We offer deep expertise across the entire customer journey, including communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology.   

In 2020, Wunderman Thompson launched Inspire, a proprietary global platform that explores what makes brands inspiring and what inspires consumers. Rooted in a rigorous, multidimensional research methodology, the platform identifies the qualities a brand must embody, the narratives it should weave, and the experiences it can design to spark people’s inspiration and culminates in an annual list of the Inspire Score Top 100 Most Inspiring Brands in the World.

Wunderman Thompson is a WPP agency (NYSE: WPP). 

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