30. Kathleen Swanson, creative director at Anomaly LA
Swanson recently wrote Gatorade's Emmy-nominated retirement film for Peyton Manning, which was based on the hundreds of handwritten notes he had sent to family, teammates, and friends during his NFL career.
She joined Anomaly from TBWA\Chiat\Day LA in July this year.
Back at her former agency, she was also working on the Airbnb account and worked on the home sharing site's biggest global ad to date, "Never a Stranger," plus a Disney "Jungle Book"-inspired ad that showed treehouses you can rent on the site.
29. William Esparza, executive creative director at R/GA Hustle
Esparza was a teenage graffiti artist but after graduating at the Art Center College of Design he jumped into the ad industry, working at agencies including MAL, The Martin Agency, Cutwater, and TBWA\Chiat\Day.
At RGA Hustle, Esparza has been particularly instrumental in driving the agency's partnership with Apple's Beats.
The agency brought home a haul of nine Cannes Lions awards this year for its "Straight Outta Somewhere" meme generator, which allowed people to create their own NWA-style logos. More than 9 million memes were created, with everyone from The White House to other brands, such as Snickers, taking part.
The "Straight Outta Somewhere" meme generator tied in with the release of the "Straight Outta Compton" movie.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip Ad28. Jason M. Peterson, chief creative officer at Havas Chicago
Big campaigns from Peterson in recent months include sending Dos Equis' "Most Interesting Man in the World" on his final journey — to Mars — and #SaidNoSchoolEver for Hefty, which sarcastically called out a lack of school funding in the US.
A keen photographer, Peterson also runs a hugely popular Instagram page, with more than 750,000 followers, while around 100,000 people follow him on Snapchat.
Through his social media accounts, he has collaborated with Lollapalooza and Chicago Bulls on photo shoots.
"The Most Interesting Man in the World" takes his final journey.
27 & 26. Alec Brownstein, VP of creative and Matt Knapp, creative director at Dollar Shave Club's in-house agency, The Agency
Here's the fun Super Bowl spot.
25. Alyson Warshaw, chief creative officer of Laundry Service and Cycle
Warshaw is responsible for all creative at social media agency Laundry Service and she's in charge of content at Cycle, which works with social influencers and professional athletes.
One of her standout pieces of work was the LG V10 launch campaign, which the agency says was the most successful campaign in the brand's history, delivering 425 million impressions and 70 million engagements. It included an activation with skateboarder and MTV star Ryan Sheckler and a separate campaign featuring 30 influencers.
In May, she was named "Content Marketer of the Year" at Digiday's annual content marketing awards.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdThe LG V10 campaign saw content distributed across Ryan Sheckler's social channels.
24. Jay Russell, chief creative officer at GSD&M
Russell was named one of the "30 most influential people in food" this year by Adweek, thanks to his work with brands like Chipotle, Whole Foods, Avocados from Mexico, and Popeyes.
Outside of food, he also leads creative work on brands as diverse as Southwest Airlines, Goodyear, and the US Airforce.
And outside of work, he cofounded a sparkling water brand Rambler, which is set to launch at some point this year.
Here is the GSD&M Super Bowl ad Russell helped create for Avocados in Mexico
23. Sergio Gordilho, co-president and chief creative officer at Africa
Gordilho originally studied as an architect and has tried his hand at being a cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic designer.
In 2015, Gordilho was named one of the most influential admen in Brazil, according to GQ, he was inducted into the National Marketing Hall of Fame by the Brazilian Academy of Marketing Abramark, and he was ranked number one in Archive Magazine's international creative director rankings.
In the past two years, he has helped the team win 20 Cannes Lions and 2 Grand Prix at the Clio Sports Awards.
Here's some recent work Gordilho led for ESPN: "Invisible Players"
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip Ad22. Nils Leonard, free agent
"To The Pub" was created to encourage people to get down their local boozer.
21. Debbi Vandeven, global chief creative officer, VML
The Gatorade Snapchat Lens was viewed more than 160 million times
20. Colin Jeffery, chief creative officer at David&Goliath Los Angeles
Jeffery has spent the last nine years at David & Goliath, looking after brands including Kia, Coca-Cola, Beats by Dre, Universal Studios, and NFL Media.
D&G has produced some memorable work for Kia recently, including its "Soul Hamsters" campaign and Super Bowl ad "Walken Closet," starring Christopher Walken and his sock puppet friends.
Aside from Kia, Jeffery has led D&G's work with burger chain Jack in the Box, including a spot set at sea, depicting its mascot as an explorer.
Jeffery also featured in Adweek's Creative 100 list this year.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdThe Christopher Walken Super Bowl spot for Kia:
19 & 18. José and Joaquín Mollá, cofounders and co-chief creative officers at The Community/La Comunidad
Over the past year, the agency has won more than 80 creative awards, including Cannes Lions and One Show Pencils. It was also recognized by AdAge as the "Multicultural Agency of the Year."
Last year, Joaquín spent much of his time in Argentina, helping with Mauricio Macri's presidential campaign. Macri wasn't expected to win, but did, and took office in December.
As far as more traditional campaigns are concerned, the two brothers have worked on a spot for Verizon that saw the agency recreate the Kelis "Milkshake" music video to promote the network's prepaid phone packages.
They were also the creatives behind Corono Extra's "Dear Summer" campaign that brought to life "Winter" as a character, explaining how it feels about Summer. The ad was only meant to air in the Hispanic market, but the campaign was so successful, it ran in the national general market too.
Here's the Verizon "A Better Prepaid" spot:
17. Susan Hoffman, executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy Portland
Hoffman, alongside the partners at W+K Portland, manages the core creative work within the agency.
Recent campaigns coming out from the shop include Nike's "Unlimited" Olympics campaigns, celebrating extraordinary athletes like the 86-year-old Iron Man-competing nun.
Hoffman has also led creative on Secret Deodrant's recent campaigns that aim to challenge cultural norms. W+K also helped launch the Galaxy S7 with a surreal ad called "Dreams."
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip Ad16. Katie Stanners, Saatchi & Saatchi global CEO
15. Gerry Graf, founder and chief creative officer at Barton. F. Graf
The "Unfairy Tales" campaign won a Gold in the Cyber category at Cannes.
14 & 13. Eduardo Marques and Rafael Rizuto, executive creative directors at 180LA
Marques and Rizuto are joint executive creative directors at 180LA and joined the agency in March 2015.
Within a year of joining the company, the agency has become the most-awarded agency in the TBWA Network Worldwide, taking home 10 Lions at Cannes this year.
Recent projects include UNICEF's UNfairy Tales, an animated series that brought to life the stories of children caught up in the Syrian crisis, and "Dream Adventures" for Expedia, which used 360-degree video to take children battling cancer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital on vacation.
The duo are also said to have helped the agency win key accounts including Miller Lite and Asics Global.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdHere's that Bai drinks commercial
12. Karen Costello, EVP and executive creative director at Deutsch
The "Grander Parents" spot:
11. David Lubars, chief creative officer at BBDO Worldwide
Lubars has been listed as the world's most-awarded chief creative officer two times in the past four years — and this year he was the runner up. During his career he has personally won over 100 One Show pencils and 100 Cannes Lions.
He joined BBDO in 2004, helping the agency be named "agency of the year" by various trade publications 15 times during his tenure — most recently as Adweek's 2015 US agency of the year and Campaign's 2015 network on the year. BBDO was also ranked the number one agency in the Gunn Report, which compiles the most-awarded campaigns.
As far as work is concerned, Lubars recently helped create AT&T's "Close to Home" ad as part of its "It Can Wait" campaign, which aims to stop drivers using their smartphones whilst behind the wheel.
Other recent work includes the "Candyman" remix to celebrate 75 years of M&Ms, a fun billboard ad for Snickers for what would have been Marilyn Monroe's 90th birthday, and a neat idea using Russian nesting dolls for fitness chain Brick, designed to help people keep track of their workout plans.
AT&T's hard-hitting "Close to Home" ad.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip Ad10. Pam Scheideler, partner and chief creative officer at Deutsch LA
Scheideler became partner and chief digital officer of Deutsch LA's office in February this year, looking after a team of more than 200 employees.
She has also been one of the brain's behind Deutsch's most talked-about recent work. From Volkswagen's "Unleash Your rrr" that allowed users to record videos of themselves making revving and brake screeching noises in order to control a car; Taco Bell's AI TacoBot that let customers order their food via Slack (and won a Bronze Lion); and Target's "Share The Force" online time capsule.
Volkswagen's "Unleash Your Rrrr" analyzed your vocal pitch to create a customized video of a Golf R driving around a race track.
9. Shaun Mcilrath, global chief creative officer at Iris Worldwide
Mcilrath also helped lead this fun campaign for NESCAFÉ Original, surprising a man on his way to work.
8. Margaret Johnson, executive creative director at Goodby, Silverstein and Partners.
Johnson has been with the agency for 20 years. In 2012 she became GS&P's first female partner and in 2015 she moved into her role of executive creative director.
In her first year of taking over GS&P's creative department, she helped the agency win 13 Cannes Lions and was listed as one of AdAge's "Standout" agencies of 2015. AdAge also listed Johnson as one of its "women to watch" for 2016.
Some of Johnson's recent credits include "Emilys Oz" for Comcast/XFINITY, an ad that showed how a girl who is blind reimagined "The Wizard of Oz"; an Oculus Rift experience for the Dali Museum; anti-cyberbullying campaign "#I Am a Witness for the Ad Council; and Doritos Rainbows, which were inspired by the LGBT Pride flag.
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdThe Emily's Oz campaign has notched up more than 7.6 million views on YouTube.
7. Will McGinness, partner and executive creative director at Venables Bell & Partners
McGinness has been behind a number of the most talked-about pieces of creative over the past year.
For Google, McGinness led creative on an incredibly uplifting ad about a transgender man's transition. It won The New York Festivals' Finalist Award.
Elsewhere, he helped create Reebok's "Be More Human" brand platform, including the "Perfect" spot starring Ronda Rousey; he led creative on Audi's "Commander" Super Bowl spot; and he helped REI create the campaign that saw it close its stores on Black Friday to inspire its employees to embrace the outdoors.
The REI campaign took home the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes and the One Show's Best in Show.
This video explains REI's "#OptOutside" campaign
6. Nick Law, chief creative officer at R/GA
Here's the Emmy-winning "Love Has No Labels" ad:
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip Ad5, 4, & 3. Danny Brooke-Taylor, Helen Calcraft, and Andy Nairn, founding partners at Lucky Generals
Lucky Generals produced this spot for Amazon:
2. Ben Priest, chief creative officer at Adam&Eve/DDB
The award-winning Harvey Nichols ad:
1. Ted Royer, chief creative officer at Droga5
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdThe beautiful Piccards advert for Hennessy.