TBWA\New Zealand snares Matt Kingston from Assignment for head of strategy + planning role

TBWA\New Zealand has announced the appointment of Matt Kingston as its new head of strategy and planning across TBWA Group New Zealand.

Kingston (far left) has held senior planning positions in some of the leading agencies in the region, including five years at Host Sydney, followed by six years at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, and most recently, Assignment Group.  He has led strategic thinking for some of New Zealand and Australia’s most loved and successful brands, including Tourism Victoria, Air New Zealand, Carlton and United Breweries, Z Energy, National Australia Bank, Fonterra, Mercedes-Benz, and IKEA.

Kingston will partner with Catherine Harris (centre), Shane Bradnick (right), Kate Heatley and Angelina Farry in the day to day running of the agency across clients like ANZ, Independent Liquor, 2degrees, Nissan, solarcity, DeLonghi and Sony PlayStation.

Kingston has a reputation for developing effective, culture-leading thinking that inspires organisational change and great creative work.

Says Harris: “Matt’s an extremely talented strategic thinker, an amazing partner to clients and creatives and shares our agency vision and values. Matt will be working closely with our chief creative officer Shane Bradnick and I to drive our clients business forward and continue to grow TBWA. His talent and style are an indication of where next for TBWA and Matt shares our passion to create a modern, world-class agency, based on the power of TBWA’s Disruption philosophy. In-line with the broadened offering we are building, we will announce further new hires soon.”

Kingston says that he, Harris and Bradnick share an ambitious but uncomplicated vision for what a modern, world-class agency can and should be.

Says Kingston: “I’ve loved getting to know the great people at TBWA and I am excited to work closely with Catherine, Shane and the team. We’ll ultimately be judged by the work we make and the impact it has, so I am really just looking forward to getting stuck in.”

Kingston will be joining the TBWA\New Zealand team at the end of February.