Pair exit Ogilvy to join TBWA Melbourne’s fresh planning team

Virginia Pracht

TBWA Melbourne has today announced key new appointments and promotions within its strategy and planning team.

Virginia Pracht joins as co-head of planning to lead the agency’s strategic outputs. Originally from Germany, Pracht has more than 15 years’ experience working in creative agencies and has led strategy across almost every category, including clients such as AAMI, Cadbury, Western Australia Tourism, Specsavers, Australian Open and Allianz.

She joins from her most recent role as head of strategy at Ogilvy Melbourne.

Pracht will work in partnership with Eloise Liley who has been promoted to co-head of planning.

Eloise Liley

Liley joined the agency in 2020 and has been an integral part of jumpstarting the collective’s refreshed strategy department, as well as being part of the agency’s most recent major win, NAB.

Together Pracht and Liley will lead the strategy offering across both the Melbourne and Adelaide agencies.

Zac Martin

Zac Martin joins the team as strategy director and will lead communications planning across multiple accounts. Martin also joins from Ogilvy where he worked on brands such as Mondelez, AAMI and Swinburne Online amongst other clients.

TBWA Melbourne managing director Ricci Meldrum said: “We’re incredibly excited to announce the expansion of our planning team in this period of growth. The appointments of Virginia and Zac, and internal
promotions within the planning team, will bolster our strategic outputs across all aspects of the business and set a positive trajectory for the year ahead.”

Liley said: “We’ve been waiting a while for Virginia and Zac to join us – and are over the moon that day has arrived. The agency has an amazing team of strategic thinkers and we couldn’t be more pleased with the new appointments.”

Other planning team updates include the appointment of Dhivia Pillai (senior strategist) from whiteGREY and internal transfers of Jack Gilligan (data, strategy and technology manager), Thaissa Tanaka (junior planner) and Laura Wiseman (junior planner) from the collective’s media, social and business management teams respectively.

By Andrew Banks