REGGIE Brand Catalyst Awards Grand Jury

MEGAN LALLY

Chief Executive Officer
Highdive

BIO

As CEO and Owner of Highdive, Megan Lally is flipping the script on what it means to work with, and for, an advertising agency. Megan leads with clarity, vision, and a relentless focus on healthy relationships. In 2017, Megan joined forces with fellow Highdive founders to build the agency from scratch, reinventing the agency model to better address the challenges facing the industry. With Megan at the helm, Highdive has grown to a team of over 135 employees across Chicago and NYC, known for a unique brand of ego-less creative collaboration.   

Fondly known as the “un-sticker” within the agency, Megan’s exceptional ability to unstick the toughest problems and chart a path forward is unrivaled. This skill coupled with her “there’s always another way” mentality has propelled the agency to notable accolades including the Top 5 on Ad Age’s A-List for the past two years, and #14 on Crain's list of fastest-growing companies in Chicago, not just ad agencies. Megan was named one of Ad Age’s Leading Women of 2024, and more recently, the 2025 Campaign US Agency Leader of the Year.

Q&A with Megan Lally

Please provide one word that defines great brand leadership today.  

Clarity. 

Please share one trend you are watching closely.  

Creative use of AI 

In one sentence – What will it take to make an entry worthy of a REGGIE Brand Catalyst award?  

A creative approach to a problem that had an impressive outcome 

What advice would you offer to teams preparing submissions for the REGGIE Brand Catalyst Awards? 

Be clear about the problem that your work was meant to solve

Why do awards programs like REGGIE Brand Catalyst matter to the health and progress of the marketing industry? 

Recognizing outstanding work across the industry helps set the bar for future campaigns. We can learn from each other, and be inspired by what’s possible. 

What distinguishes exceptional brand-building work from work that is simply “good”? 

Exceptional brand-building work is work that punches above its weight. It’s taking an assignment, and turning $1 of marketing investment into $3 of value for the brand.  

How have your expectations of great marketing evolved over the past few years— and how does that shape how you evaluate work today? 

The most significant change in how I view great marketing is influenced by my Co-Founder and Co-CCO, Chad Broude. He drives “break the formula” thinking at Highdive. The best marketing breaks formulas. Strategic formulas. Creative formulas. Visual formulas. Cultural formulas. Etc. Breaking a formula is what makes marketing get noticed. Getting noticed is obviously one of the most fundamental requirements of marketing. Unnoticed marketing is a waste, pollution even.  

When reviewing submissions, what signals tell you that a program is driving real, sustainable business growth? 

 If the submission defines what real, sustainable business growth is for the brand! 

When you review the “breakthrough insight” or “aha moment” behind a campaign, what tells you that a team has uncovered something truly meaningful?  What do you most want to understand about their thinking in this section? 

 I want to see that the team uncovered something new or interesting. An insight that "people are busier than ever" is not an insight. I reject briefs like that. Go deeper. What did you learn or uncover that no one else had, and how did you exploit that to the advantage of your brand? 

Risk taking and effectiveness, sometimes friends, sometimes foes. How have you handled the balance in your marketing efforts, and how will you weigh these elements in your role as a REGGIE Brand Catalyst juror? 

Risk taking for the sake of risk taking is irresponsible. Risk taking for the sake of effectiveness is an investment. 

An effective performance evaluation framework is critical to show the value a marketing campaign delivered. What type of evaluation framework do you use when assessing marketing efforts? What metrics and KPIs will you expect entrants to provide in their submissions? 

My Co-Founder and Co-CCO Mark Gross uses one of the most simple frameworks that he got from an old client. I always default to it…. Noticed. Remembered. Understood. 

Get to know the 2026 REGGIE Brand Catalyst Grand Jurors.