Tori Lopez is the Managing Director of Special Australia and has been in the advertising industry for 19 years. As Special’s first employee in 2015, she has played a key role in shaping the agency’s growth and success over the past decade.
She has led some of Special’s most high-profile clients, including Uber and Uber Eats, and helped drive the success of the Tonight, I’ll Be Eating campaign, which, under her leadership, expanded across APAC and into eight global markets. She also led the Australian Open Ambush campaign, which earned 43 industry accolades for creativity and effectiveness, including D&AD, Cannes Lions, One Show, and an Effie for Long-Term Effectiveness.
During her time at Special, the agency has grown from 1 to 130 employees and has been recognised with 42 Agency of the Year awards and is currently AdNews and Mumbrella Agency of the Year, the Most Effective Independent Agency in the World (Effies & WARC), and Campaign’s Global Creative Agency of the Year.
Before joining Special, Tori spent five years in New York at Droga5, Anomaly, and Mother, working on iconic global brands and campaigns, including Newcastle Brown Ale’s Super Bowl hijack campaign, “If We Made It,” which won 12 Cannes Lions.
Tori is an active industry contributor – a tutor for the Advertising Council of Australia’s Advanced Account Manager course, a Mumbrella and AICP judge.). She was also recognised as a B&T Women in Media finalist (2022) and was #4 on B&T’s Agency Growth Leader list (2024).
Passionate about both creativity and the people and culture that make great ideas happen, Tori is committed to fostering an environment where brilliant ideas thrive and people feel supported. She has led initiatives such as progressive parental leave policies, Special’s Reconciliation Action Plan, and the Work Better Feel Better program to enhance workplace well-being
