Brendan Sturrock returns from London to join EightyOne in Wellington in strategist role

EightyOne has appointed strategist Brendan Sturrock to its growing team in Wellington.

Sturrock left New Zealand many moons ago, spending the best part of the past two decades between Paris and London. He started out in account management for regional and global brands at Ogilvy Paris – branching out into strategy one extra passport and hop across the channel later.

Most recently he’s led through the line creative and comms strategy on work for a wide range of clients including Emirates, HSBC, GSK, Amazon and Toblerone at Geometry (now VMLY&R Commerce) London. And was part of WPP’s Team Energy running BP globally. But finally felt it was time to bring the family back home to friendlier – and (mostly) Covid-free shores.

Says Matt West, managing director of EightyOne: “We’ve been on a journey here at EightyOne. It feels right to have someone of Brendan’s calibre join us now. Like us, he’s fascinated in how we bring creative to life through data insight in order to change behaviour. He’s the missing piece to add to the outstanding creative team that Chris has built.”

Adds Sturrock: “I came back to NZ motivated to do what I can to give back to our team of 5 million and help people, and brands, reach their potential. So I feel incredibly fortunate to land with a smart and generous like-minded crew here at EightyOne. There’s enormous potential in this unique combination of data and creativity alongside a burning desire to take whatever we touch to a better place. I’m also stoked to have gotten out from behind a makeshift desk in the bedroom of our London flat to a lovely space in the heart of beautiful Wellington.”