Showpony Adelaide General Manager Sophie Young Promoted to Managing Director

Sophie Young has been appointed as the managing director of highly-awarded advertising agency Showpony Adelaide, marking a significant shift for the South Australian creative industry.

Sophie commented: “We have such a talented team here in Adelaide with exceptional chemistry. I feel privileged to be taking the reigns of such a famously creative agency. With our strong recruiting last year, I’m excited by what we will do for our clients in 2021.”

Showpony has gone from strength to strength in South Australia over the agency’s 25-year history. Founders, Jamie Scott and Parris Mesidis, are delighted for this legacy to be continued under the leadership of young and creative director, Rory Kennet-Lister.

“Our agency has grown by about fifty per cent in the last year and Sophie’s leadership as general manager was fundamental to that expansion." said Jamie. "We’re so fortunate to have someone of Sophie’s calibre and experience leading our team.”

Jamie and Parris will maintain a strong connection to the agency overall but will turn their attention to client strategy and the agency’s growing Melbourne office.

Parris, group creative director, Showpony Adelaide, remarked: “Adelaide is in safe hands with Soph and Rory. We’re looking forward to seeing the amazing client work that this energetic young team can produce.”

Sophie has been an integral part of Showpony’s history in Adelaide, joining as an account manager in 2006. Despite a three-year absence to take up a management role in New York, her heart was always with the Adelaide creative agency, returning in 2014 as account director and partner, then general manager.

“I first started at the agency back in 2006." she said. "After leaving to accept an opportunity in New York, I returned to Showpony because I missed being involved with the world-class creative campaigns that this agency produces. Throughout my career, the work that I’m most proud of includes the campaigns that seek to influence social change. It’s those campaigns that demonstrate how the creative industry makes a positive contribution to society. I look forward to continuing the creative and cultural legacy of Showpony.”

Sophie stands alone as the only female leader of a large creative agency in Adelaide.