Women to Watch 2021: Peita Pacey, OMD

Peita Pacey

Head of strategy
OMD
Australia

With 21 years’ experience in the media industry, Peita Pacey has found her purpose—producing the best strategic work she can, and fostering the best strategic thinking in others.

But her two decades in the industry have not always been smooth sailing. Like many other women climbing through the ranks, Pacey was often told to ‘hide how you feel’ or ‘man up’, and was ultimately expected to fit into a mold of who she ‘should’ be. However, once she made the pivotal decision to stop listening to those voices, she has gone on to achieve great things.

In the last year alone, Pacey’s strategic leadership and pitch contribution has helped secure new business growth for OMD Australia worth AU$30 million, with account wins Greencross Ltd (local) and Canva (global). And her leadership and involvement across the Sydney client base has contributed to some of OMD’s highest client satisfaction scores ever.

With an ambition for OMD to be the smartest strategic agency in Australia, Pacey has been clear on the way to achieve this—‘improve the product, improve the people.’ Firstly, to improve the product through process, she set out to train all staff in strategic capability, aiming to better service clients and create a superior product. To that end, she designed, built and executed OMD Australia’s inaugural Festival of Design, a 14-day national training scheme covering OMD’s end-to-end planning process.

Secondly, to improve the people through inspiration, Pacey introduced The Creative Council, a committee of passionate OMDers working on key projects beyond the day-to-day and ‘The Strategy Chair’ a four-week secondment into the strategy team to help democratise strategic thinking across all teams. These initiatives have not only become a resource for talent spotting and mobilisation across OMD, but have led the team to win multiple awards and nominations.

A member of the MFA Awards Committee, and Diversity, Equality & Inclusion Committee, Pacey is also working to define the industry’s first DE&I Charter which will guide adoption and training. She is also a champion for mental health in the workplace and has been a trained mental health first aider since 2020, a key resource for OMD’s 550-strong team when they need help or guidance. 

Pacey continues to blaze her own trail in the industry, so much so that when her team achieves something it hadn’t previously thought possible, her colleagues now refer to it as the ‘Pacey Effect’.