Gary McCreadie has joined Special Group New Zealand as executive creative director after leaving 303 MullenLowe Sydney in July this year.

McCreadie had moved into his leadership role at 303 MullenLowe in June 2018 to look after the agency’s clients, Audi, Netflix, TK Maxx, Harley Davidson and Budget Direct.

He had arrived in Sydney in September 2014 from BBH London to join TBWA\Sydney as executive creative director. At BBH, he was joint global creative director on the agency’s largest and most awarded accounts, Lynx/Axe global and The Guardian. While he was there, BBH held titles including Campaign Agency of the Year, British Arrows Agency of the Year and APG Agency of the Year.

At TBWA\Sydney he led David Jones, Foxtel, MJ Bale, Virgin Mobile and AirBnB. He was also a founding partner of Ugly Sydney.

Tony Bradbourne, co-founder and partner, Special Group, stated “We’ve been searching globally for quite some time to find someone of Gary’s world-class talent. He’s worked at brilliant agencies, produced brilliant work, run some very impressive pieces of business and is a proven great creative leader – yet he’s somehow managed to remain humble and extremely funny to boot.”

McCreadie commented, “What attracted me most to Special group was its pretty intense creative ambition. It’s just a little place but super up for it. The high level of thought and craft that has come out of there so far has set a lofty bar. It proves that its ambition is not just hot air and I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”

Bradbourne added, “Finding someone with the right attitude and energy is very important for the culture of Special. Gary has managed to charm every one of the Special team he has met, we’ve no doubt he will have an immediate impact on both our clients’ brands and the culture of Special.”

Over the past two years, Special has won Campaign Brief New Zealand Agency of the Year, been ranked by the Global Effie index as #3 Independent Agency in the World and by Idealog as New Zealand’s Most Innovative Marketing Company.

Bradbourne stated, “We are always looking for ways to be better, ways to improve and innovate. A big part in achieving that is making sure you stack the company with the most talented people you can find in the world.”