Special has today announced the promotion of Lisa Fedyszyn and Jonathan McMahon to CCOs of the award-winning Auckland creative agency, with founder Tony Bradbourne moving up to the position of ‘Creative Chairman, CEO’.
“Lisa & Jonno have had an incredible impact at Special over the last three years, created world-class work and results that truly live up to our promise and name. From ‘Meddle in the New Zealand Election’ for Every Kiwi Vote Counts, and ‘David’s Unusables’ for MND NZ through to ‘Summer Never Sleeps’ for Kathmandu and ‘Last Performance’ for Partners Life and the ‘Grand Effie’ for Kiwibank’s ‘This is kiwi’ as well as taking out ‘Australia’s favourite commercial’ at the Mumbrella Awards for our work on Optus – these are just some of the many achievements that Lisa & Jonno have been pivotal in.” says Bradbourne.
“Creating the most effective, popular and progressive creative work in our industry is a pretty impressive achievement. But it’s just what Lisa & Jonno do, all with their usual humbleness and humour, and their constant drive to be better.”
“Special has grown considerably over the past few years, in New Zealand and internationally, and the promotion to CCOs will allow them to take on more responsibilities in step with that growth.”
Fedyszyn was named Campaign Asia’s ‘Creative Person Of The Year’ in 2021, with McMahon taking out the title in 2022. The promotion marks a new chapter in the duo’s two-decade-long creative partnership having created highly effective campaigns in the Australian, New Zealand, and North American markets, including Droga5 New York, DDB Aotearoa, Colenso BBDO, and of course Special.
Fedyszyn says, “After 21 years of working together, we are now legal to drink in the US and old enough to become CCOs. We’re extremely thankful to Tony and continue to learn from him. We are excited to continue to work closely with all our brilliant clients to produce the best work in 2024 and beyond.”
McMahon says, “We love it here at Special. Tony has set up something really (looks up a thesaurus in order not to say “special”) exceptional, and we’re honoured to work with such a brilliant team and all our clients, day in, day out. We’re looking forward to continuing to take the agency and our clients from strength to strength.”
Over the past year Special was named ‘Global Creative Agency of the Year’ by Campaign UK, the first time an agency from the Southern Hemisphere has been named ‘The World’s Best’. ‘New Zealand Agency of the Year’ by Campaign Brief, Campaign Asia and B&T and won ‘Best in Show’ at all the New Zealand award shows, Axis, Effies, Beacons as well as Grand Prix at Cannes, Spikes & WARC.
