QMS signs ex-SCA creative leader as outdoor company’s first CD

September 29, 2025 10:39

Ben Dillon-Smith is officially joining QMS

Outdoor media business QMS has appointed a former Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) creative and content leader as its first creative director (CD).

Ben Dillon-Smith was revealed as the company’s CD in a media release shared on Monday morning.

In his role, Dillon-Smith will be in charge of steering QMS’s creative strategy and operations. At the same time, he’ll collaborate with the organisation’s marketing, strategy and sales teams to create “digital out of home creative solutions as part of QMS’ in house creative services team, QUBE”.

Dillon-Smith will report to Tennille Burt, the chief marketing officer at QMS.

“I’m delighted to welcome Ben at such an exciting time for our business,” Burt said in the release.

“QMS has built a strong reputation for delivering innovative and effective creative solutions for brands and Ben’s addition will complement and extend this work, helping us elevate our offering even further for greater impact and cut through for our clients’ campaigns.”

Dillon-Smith has more than two decades of experience as a director and creative producer in several mediums, including experiential, podcasts, film, TV, digital and radio.

His career has seen him complete three stints at SCA: the first in the early 2000s as an assistant program director and on-air announcer; the second covering more than six years where he filled director roles and served as head of campaign response and activation; and most recently as creative specialist and creative lead for radio stations Fox FM, 2Day FM and the Hit Network.

Outside of SCA, he spent two years at rival company ARN, where he worked as an executive producer of the Jonesy and Amanda Breakfast Show in 2005, and was national network on air brand director in 2006.

As a freelance creative producer, Dillon-Smith contributed to campaigns from major brands, including AAMI, McDonald’s, NRMA, David Jones, Woolworths, SBS and Samsung.

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He spoke highly of his new employer and his appointment in the release, saying, “I’m excited to be joining QMS at such a dynamic time for the business and the OOH industry as a whole. Outdoor has never been more relevant or exciting, and QMS has built a reputation for pushing the creative boundaries in Australia through its growing digital network.

“I am energised by the team’s innovative approach to all things OOH and beyond, and look forward to working with them alongside our clients to deliver outstanding creative campaigns that really connect with audiences.”

Dillon-Smith’s appointment as QMS CD begins effective immediately.

The creative’s appointment comes months after SCA revealed a significant strategic redirection for 2Day FM in Sydney — a move characterised by a deliberate push to attract younger listeners by playing “more new music than any other commercial radio station in Sydney”.

SCA chief content officer Dave Cameron

“Without putting an exact time on it, we’ve been contemplating this move for quite a while and moving all the right pieces of the puzzle together,” Dave Cameron, SCA’s chief content officer, said to Mumbrella on the day of the format switch.

“It started with Jimmy and Nath trialling last year. We moved Emma into somewhat of a trial spot and that team has just rocked it together.

“And the final part of the puzzle that we’ve been doing, in tandem with getting the Breakfast show sounding as energetic as it now is, is actually thinking about doing something different with the format that I don’t think has been done in a couple of decades in this market.”

It’s a move that gave the station “slight audience increases over the past two [radio ratings] surveys”, from the week commencing June 16, 2025.

Last week, SCA revealed it has entered into a partnership with West Coast Radio to usher the commercial radio network’s stations — Wave FM and Coast FM — into its LiSTNR digital audio network “to expand digital audio access and monetisation across Western Australia”.