Vicki Maguire
Chief Creative Officer, Havas London
Vicki Maguire, Chief Creative Officer, Havas London
After two decades in the advertising industry, it’s fair to say that Vicki Maguire knows a thing or two about advertising, most importantly, the fact she doesn’t know it all. “I didn’t go to ad school, so basically I’m self-taught. Twenty years later, every day’s a school day,” she says. “The last few years in this industry have been a rollercoaster, and Covid has accelerated that. [To] anyone who thinks they know the way forward, [I’d say] mate, we haven’t got a clue. And that’s what makes it exciting.”
This straight-talking, no bullshit approach, coupled with resilience, a genuine thirst to learn and righteous rage against a stale, pale, male industry that’s not changing quickly enough, has propelled Vicki through the ranks to her current role as CCO of Havas London. It’s a far cry from her first disastrous career in fashion design, followed by a stint on her mum’s market stall in Leicester. “Being sacked from my dream job gave me resilience. It’s also given me this happy-go-lucky belief that something will come up. I can look after myself, and out of that comes a certain degree of freedom.”
Following stints at top agencies like Grey, Wieden+Kennedy and Mojo, Vicki’s portfolio bulges with “advertising that doesn’t look like advertising and makes a dent in culture.” Take her film for the British Heart Foundation starring Vinnie Jones, and his exhortation to “push hard and fast on the sovereign,” to the tune of Staying Alive. It’s garnered more than 45 major awards, but more importantly, has saved close to 100 lives, “which is worth more than any silverware or certificate,” she says. Ditto The Angina Monologues, also for the BHF, which brought comedian Victoria Wood out of retirement for a show to raise awareness of heart health risks for post-menopausal women. As a CCO, she’s continued to champion culture-shifting work by her creative teams: most recently, educating Londoners about previously unsung Black achievements via the Black Plaque Project with Nubian Jak Community Trust.
Alongside the work, she’s blazed a trail for female creatives – from becoming Creative Circle’s first female chairperson in 2016, to scoring the top job at Grey London and now Havas. Part of a “depressingly small” coterie of women who’ve climbed the career ladder but not pulled it up after themselves, she remains outspoken and “with an opinion on everything. Every opportunity I get to say my piece, I will take – because if I don’t, they’ll ask a man.” Yet things have come a long way since her first agency gig, when she had to traipse down four flights of stairs to borrow a tampon. “I am so stoked – not only by the number of women coming into the agency, but the seismic shifts happening at a senior female creative level,” she says.
Having “worked for the best and learned from the worst,” Vicki reckons that generosity – of spirit, of time and of talent – is an underrated but key quality for leadership. As is asking herself the perennial question: ‘can I do brilliant work and not be a twat?’ Something tells us she’s managed that feat.
Interview by: Selena Schleh / Photography by: Jon Lawton
