Creative Director / Client Marketer / Filmmaker
Deb Hagan is an internationally acclaimed creative director, brand marketer and filmmaker who takes data-driven insights and crafts campaigns for multi-billion dollar retail brands and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. A passionate people person known for unifying and scaling cross-functional in-person and remote teams of 40+ people.
Throughout her career, Hagan has worked at some of the industry’s most prestigious agencies including TBWA Chiat/Day, Fallon, BBDO, and The Martin Agency. With a thirst for making sure the work is working, in 2022 Hagan joined performance marketing agency, Marketing Architects, with an eye towards creating remarkable work that works remarkably. Their disruptive All-Inclusive TV model enabled Hagan to pull all of the levers of strategy, creative and production, to deliver data-driven ideas across her $134M portfolio while ensuring that every dollar the agency invested was seen on screen. Her portfolio grew over $45M in 2023, making it the best year in the agency’s 25-year history.
Her creative work has received nearly every international award including two Cannes Gold Lions as well as Silver and Bronze Lions in the same year for two different campaigns. People Magazine and TV Guide noted Hagan’s work as “Top Five of the Year.” Entertainment Weekly and Time magazines ranked it as “Top Ten of the Year,” and Adweek vaulted her The Weather Channel campaign to the “Top 100 of the Decade” as well as her work for EarthLink as one of the top of spots of the year. Hagan’s work has also been recognized in Clio, One Show, Effies, Belding Awards and the Richmond Addy’s.
As a director, Hagan’s career started with national TV spots as well as her short film debut, PEE SHY. PEE SHY quickly became an official selection of 73 international film festivals, and winner of over 20 best-film honors. PEE SHY was ultimately bought by HBO and iTunes. In 2009, she was honored by the American Film Institute as an AFI legacy.
Hagan then made her feature film debut with the coming-of-age teen comedy, COLLEGE. The MGM feature film opened to a very wide release and made its budget back prior to DVD sales. A member of the Directors Guild of America since 2000, she has served as a Delegate to the DGA National Convention.
But Hagan has also played on the other side of the business - as client marketer for the world’s largest company, Walmart. As Senior Director of Advertising and Creative at Walmart, she led creative development and production of all General Market advertising produced in the United States. Hagan’s main focus was delivering an effective, highly creative product that was on strategy, beloved by the greater Walmart leadership team, and produced very efficiently.
In addition to her creative development, Hagan was instrumental in changing the way Walmart does commercial production. Through reinvention and innovative ways of producing, she reduced average costs per spot by 25%; narrowed turn around times by utilizing pre-negotiated preferred post vendors; and maximized spend by shooting in tax incentive areas like Illinois.
Under Hagan’s leadership, Walmart’s advertising consistently garnered national recognition at major creative award shows. Most importantly, the advertising helped turn around Walmart’s sales trend from nine quarters of declining same store sales to many months of positive growth.
Hagan is a mom of three and spends a sh#t ton of time running between soccer fields and equestrian rings. :)