Special crowned CB NZ Agency of the Year ~ “We’ve never stopped changing, never sat still”

Regionally and globally, it was a big year for one New Zealand agency. Recognised as Global Creative Agency of the Year by Campaign UK for the second year running, the agency delivered exceptional work and the world took notice. Capping off a dynamic year of achievement and growth, Special New Zealand is Campaign Brief’s NZ Agency of the Year.

Special made history in 2024 by being named Campaign UK’s Global Creative Agency of the Year for the second year in a row – an achievement no other agency in the world has accomplished. It was a defining moment, not just for Special, but for the NZ industry.

“From the start, we have been driven by seeing something – a product, a brand, a behaviour, an industry even – and trying to make it better,” says Special’s founder, Creative Chairman, NZ CEO Tony Bradbourne.

“Or, to quote a brilliant Honda commercial from 18 years ago: ‘Hate something, change something, make something better’.”

Bradbourne admits when you stack the agency’s collective efforts up, every single person’s hard work, and their clients’ success, and have it judged by some world class CMOs, CEOs and editors on the other side of the world as the ‘Best in the world’, then it’s not just a nice accolade to get at the end of another tough year, but a nudge that makes him think the agency is on the right track.

And, that a start-up in Auckland, from the 126th smallest country in the world, that dreamed of being the best agency in the world, could achieve it by not following everyone else, but by doing it their own way.

“We’ve not just been trying to create the best work and build the best relationships with clients – but also an agency from scratch, and a global network from scratch – and all from a part of the world where it’s never been done before. So, when we get awarded these titles it’s a nice recognition of what we’ve all created together.”

Seventeen years ago, Special launched with the ambition to create innovative work with PR at its heart – campaigns that would drive engagement and deliver real business impact. That ambition was set in stone from the agency’s very first campaign ~ Orcon ‘Iggy Pop’ ~ which won a Cannes Lions Grand Prix and four Effies in 2009.

Since then, Special has continued to push boundaries, with expansion into Australia in 2014, growing into a global network with eight offices around the world, the launch of Special PR, and building a Wellington office, when multinationals were pulling out.

“We’ve never stopped changing, never sat still,” says Bradbourne. “Founding Partner Heath Lowe affectionately calls Special ‘forever a work in progress’.”

This mentality has been at the core of Special’s success – not just in advertising but in driving industry-wide change. From co-developing ‘The Inclusive Code’ to create awareness, understanding and new tools to better communicate with, and represent the 25% of kiwi living with some sort of disability, to launching Special Pathways, a fully paid sponsorship for Māori entering the industry, Special is not just reacting to change – it’s creating it.

Alongside the agency’s creative success, Special was also named #2 Most Effective Independent Agency in the World and #1 Most Effective Asia-Pacific Agency in the Effie Worldwide Index and Most Effective Independent Network by WARC. These aren’t just awards – they’re proof of impact.

“These awards are really all about our clients’ success,” says partner and chief strategy officer Rory Gallery. “You don’t win them by chance. They take a lot of effort, brave standout work, and measurable objectives put in place from the beginning.”

Beyond the agency’s achievements, Special’s leadership was also recognised on a global scale in 2024. The agency’s joint chief creative officers, Lisa Fedyszyn and Jonathan McMahon, were named Global Creative Leaders of the Year by Campaign UK, and Bradbourne was named Global Agency Leader of the Year.

For Fedyszyn, the recognition is a testament to the power of creative partnerships: “The win meant that sticking together for 22 years was worth it,” she says. “It’s built on trust – throwing everything out there until you get to ‘brilliant’ and encouraging each other to be better.”

Inspired each day by her agency team, the CCO adds: “We’re all here to improve each other’s work, I see it in our team everyday – they’ll make an improvement on a project that’s happening at the desk next to them, or change another team’s case study for the better, or offer each other different perspectives big and small, but all in the service of lifting the work for our clients.”

At the heart of Special’s sustained success is a culture that fosters creativity and ambition.
“Clients can sense the places that have created the conditions for the best work,” says Gallery. “So yes, we do lots of things to keep people motivated to do their best.”

Chief creative officer Jonathan McMahon believes the secret to Special’s creative output is simple: “We just want everyone to be themselves. Bring their own perspective to every brief and tell us the stories they want to tell.”

Special PR has also had a banner year, leading the way in an industry that has transformed significantly over the past decade.

“The New Zealand PR industry has undergone a significant period of change – what worked well ten years ago won’t hit the same benchmark today,” says Special PR managing director Kelly Grindle. “We have been successful at leading the charge on a truly integrated approach to PR – one that blends content, experience, influencer, partnerships and media relations to achieve results. Ultimately, one which helps shape and build the tone of voice and perception of brands.”

In just under three years, Special Wellington has redefined the city’s advertising landscape, producing award-winning work for Wellington City Mission, Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa, High Performance Sport NZ, and the National Cyber Security Centre.

“Wellington has a proud creative reputation and our desire to contribute to this legacy is fuelling us every day,” says Special Wellington executive creative director Mark Forgan.

Special’s commitment to having a full-service team on the ground has been a game-changer, allowing the agency to work closely with clients and respond to challenges in real time.

Adds Forgan: “Tough times haven’t gotten in the way of ambition for us and our clients – it actually pushes us to be more surprising and unexpected. From rebranding Family Planning to Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa and launching ‘Emotional Support Bits’ – all the way to recruiting for the NZDF, we have such an amazing diverse set of challenges we’re able to help our Wellington clients.”

With accolades including B&T New Zealand Agency of the Year (five years running), Campaign Asia New Zealand Agency of the Year (four out of five years), and Campaign Brief New Zealand Agency of the Year (four times), Special’s dominance in the market shows no signs of slowing.

“We live by Heath’s mantra: ‘forever a work in progress,’” says Fedyszyn. “Never looking back, always solving the next big client problem.”

From Contact Energy’s Fourth Trimester, ensuring warmth for newborns, to Kiwibank’s ‘This is Kiwi’ repositioning the bank as modern and progressive, to DB Breweries’ Export Ultra ‘Cold Call Back Service’, Special’s work is not only creative – it’s effective.

At its core, Special’s success is not about following trends; it’s about leading them. And as the agency leaders continues to push boundaries, one thing remains certain: they’ll keep doing things their own way.

The Work seen and noted in 2024:

DB Export – Cold Call Back Service
Special brought back Vanilla Ice to solve one of the most serious problems facing New Zealanders — forgotten beers exploding in freezers across the country! This unique blend of PR, humour and a ‘call back service’ from the man himself created waves across the globe. Combining radio, social, outdoor – and multiple different call-backs unique to events like Christmas Day, Valentines Day, and Cricket One-Dayers, the campaign had all the hallmarks of a number one smash hit.

KFC – Gravy Train
Special turned a 155-tonne train into KFC’s first ever locomotive restaurant. The agency immaculately designing the entire experience from top to bottom.

Tourism New Zealand – Star Grazing
Why settle for one, two or a three-star restaurant, when you can have a restaurant with the most stars in the world? Because the Michelin guide doesn’t extend all the way to Australia and New Zealand, Special created an extraordinary restaurant from scratch – to show off NZ’s world class cuisine – and invited 20 of the world’s top restaurant critics, to do what Michelin couldn’t. The unique activation drove $42 million in global coverage deeming it Tourism New Zealand’s most successful campaign ever.

Wellington City Mission – Wellington’s Greatest Deed
With rising homelessness in New Zealand’s capital, the Wellington City Mission decided to build a home for the homeless. Everyone who donated got their name on the ownership deed – making it an ownership deed so big it was placed on the side of a skyscraper for all to see. Each donor’s name was then hand-written as the donations rolled in, generating huge attention and driving more donations, over the target of $350,000. Turning ‘The World’s Biggest Ownership Deed’ into ‘Wellington’s Greatest Deed’.

Tip Top – The Trumpet Drawer
Special created the ultimate refrigerated snack drawer to hold New Zealand’s ultimate snack – The Trumpet. Yes, the internet went wild with the film clocking up over 2.7million views (no doubt leading to lower office productivity across the entire country).

Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa – Emotional Support Bits
When people find things difficult, they often reach for some emotional support – whether that’s a dog or cat friend or favourite water bottle. So, to get Kiwis more comfortable talking about sex, Special created ‘Emotional Support Bits’. But not just any ‘bits’ – your very own bits! The agency got influencers to draw their ‘bits’ then made them and got them to share them. Creating a huge amount of laughter, and most importantly, conversations. The agency then offered this to everyone to create their own ‘emotional support bit’ and to get comfy chatting about bits.

Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa – Rebrand
Family Planning is Aotearoa’s largest national provider of sexual and reproductive health services operating since the 1930s. A lot has changed since then, so Special created a completely refreshed look, feel, name, logo and set of assets.

NCSC – The Scamathon
$3.8 million. That’s the amount New Zealanders unwittingly give to cyber scammers every single week. And, they take it from Kiwis by preying on their kindness, generosity, and trusting human nature. To show the scale of this unfortunate display of collective generosity, National Cyber Security Centre’s annual Cyber Smart Week riffs off the ultimate donation mechanic: the Telethon.

Squirrel – The Squirrel Effect
Special created the ‘Squirrel effect’ on an unsuspecting public, to wake them up to a new way to save.

Betcha – Bet It Out
1,000,000 years of human conflict in 60 seconds to get Kiwis to put down the swords, guns and clubs and bet it out instead.

TAB – Get Your Bet On
Special relaunched TAB in New Zealand and introduced the country to ‘Hunchland’.

Otago – The Great Migration
To drive enrolments to the most southern university in NZ, Special took over 600 pieces of students’ user generated content to create a visual masterpiece documenting the fun and excitement of the great migration south.

Contact Energy – Flatties
Special created a new world for Contact Energy, where humans and nature all live together in one big flat, to talk about Contact’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2035.

High Performance Sport – Olympics
Special created a billboard to celebrate every Gold, Silver and Bronze the country won at the Paris Olympics. It was the first billboard the Olympians saw when they returned home, something they proudly shared on their social feeds.

KFC – KFCurrency
McDonald’s runs its Monopoly promotion every year in October, so to disrupt it KFC turned Monopoly money into ‘legal tender’ and allowed people to buy real KFC with it. It turned KFC’s weakest month into a hit, growing sales by 8.6% – even though they gave away a lot of free chicken.

Tui – Complaints Hotline
Tui was bringing back its controversial billboards, so Special did the responsible thing and created a ‘Complaints Hotline’ to take feedback seriously.

Kiwibank – Real Kiwi Stories
Special used real Kiwi stories to tell the story of hitting your savings goal with Kiwibank.

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