Global experience design agency Imagination has appointed Laurel Cook as strategy director for its Australian business.

The appointment follows a strong 2025, in which the team grew by 30 per cent and was awarded Agency of the Year at both Campaign and the Australian Event Awards.

Cook brings a career that spans management consulting, agency leadership, and technology across the US, UK, and Australia. She spent four years as chief customer officer at immersive tech platform Curiious and has a track record of cutting through organisational complexity to find the story that actually moves people to act.

At Imagination, Cook leads the agency’s insight and strategy capability and sits on the senior leadership team. Beyond core client work, she will also develop Imagination’s standalone strategy offer, providing direct commercial value to clients independent of project delivery.

Cook’s appointment reflects a deeper ambition: to craft ideas with such insight and narrative that they travel far beyond the moment they’re experienced.

Alistair Wilson managing director of Imagination Australia said: “There’s a lot of talk about whether human creativity is under threat. We think it’s the opposite; human creativity has never been more valuable. But great creativity doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from insight, from crafting the story, from proof that it worked. Laurel brings all three. Because when you buy Imagination, you get imagination,”

Cook said: “Communication, when it’s done right, is the most powerful catalyst for change a business has. That’s always been my belief. What drew me to Imagination is that this isn’t an agency where strategists brief creatives from a distance. Storytellers, designers, content creators, production and strategists work as one team. That’s how you deliver strategic insight and measurable business influence alongside executional excellence. I’m here to make sure every idea starts with a truth that gives the creative work an edge people can’t walk past,”

Cook joins a team operating under the creative leadership of Dan Simon, working alongside creative director Vanessa Tucker and global creative innovation director Stephen Van Elst.

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