What is is about Assignment Group? Mark Harricks left VCCP after less than a year as executive creative director and joined Assignment in March.

Toby Talbot has just left DDB, where he was chief creative officer for two years, to become a managing partner at Assignment Group also. He is being replaced by Ben Welsh, who has left M&C Saatchi where he was creative chairman Asia, to rejoin the agency where he worked for five years in the 1990s.

Managing partner, Peter Briggs joined in September 2015 after 15 years heading up Clemenger BBDO in Wellington and Melbourne.

Managing partner, Philip Andrew joined in September 2015 after 25 years as executive creative director and chief executive officer of Clemenger Wellington.

Talbot will become the third managing partner in Assignment Auckland. The agency also has a Wellington office.

What is Assignment Group? According to those who know it best (Assignment people) it’s “a small, hand-picked team of New Zealand’s finest communications minds who have all opted for what we believe is a better way. Assignment is designed for us to stay focused on what we do best – working together alongside great clients to come up with great ideas.”

Marty O’Halloran, chairman, DDB Group Australia and New Zealand, commented, “DDB Sydney is in great shape and I am immensely proud of what Toby Talbot, Andrew Little and Nicole Taylor have achieved as a team in the last two years. Toby has created an outstanding creative culture that extends throughout all parts of the organisation and is evidenced by the campaigns we are now producing.

“Naturally, we are very disappointed to lose Toby. I have personally worked with him for nearly 10 years across two agencies. He has unquestionably done a brilliant job in Sydney and leaves behind a very strong creative department with a lot of outstanding talent to continue the creative trajectory. We will announce Toby’s replacement in the coming weeks. Toby will always be very much a part of the DDB family and we respect his decision to return to New Zealand.”

Talbot rejoined DDB in July 2014 from Whybin\TBWA New Zealand, where he was chief creative office from March 2013. Although he was born and raised in the UK, he spent most of his career in New Zealand – eight years at Colenso BBDO, two years as creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi and five years as executive creative director of DDB New Zealand. He also did a brief homeland stint in the UK, where he was executive creative director of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R just before he joined Whybin.