Saatchi & Saatchi NZ upsizes in lockdown with a number of senior appointments in Auckland

After a year of rapid growth and four significant business wins including Z Energy and ANZ FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & NZ 2023, Saatchi & Saatchi NZ has further strengthened its senior team with a number of key hires in its Auckland office.

These appointments include; Ryan Price – senior creative lead, Annabel Rees – group business director, Anthony Plant – senior content creator and Jonny Almario – cultural strategist.

Ryan Price, senior creative lead has recently returned to New Zealand from the UK, and brings five years of extensive experience from his time at the company’s global headquarters – Saatchi & Saatchi London. Price has worked on both local and international clients including the BT rebrand, ASDA Christmas campaign and the recently industry revered Direct Line channel 4 idents.

Annabel Rees, group business director brings almost 20 years’ experience in advertising with her to the new role at Saatchi & Saatchi. She has been an integral team member at leading advertising agencies in both New Zealand and London, including Colenso BBDO, TBWA London, Special Group and DDB Aotearoa. Rees has played a crucial part in award winning campaigns across a diverse portfolio of FMCG, retail, financial services and charity sectors. Most recently, Rees led The Warehouse Group and Goodman Fielder accounts at DDB.

Anthony Plant – senior content creator has also recently returned from the UK, having established his career as an exemplary content director and DOP both overseas and in New Zealand. Previously working in New Zealand at Fish & Clips, Plant carves his craft with highly visual concepts, quirky humour and sensibilities that reach substantial audiences, and has subsequently shot some of Aotearoa’s greatest musical talent. Most recently working as a senior member of the BBC radio content and creative division, Plant has continued to shoot some of the world’s biggest artists, brand and cultural icons including Ed Sheeran, Coca Cola Company, Richard Hammond and Goodyear.

Jonny Almario – cultural strategist is a specialist in understanding human behaviour in the context of a changing cultural landscape, Almario brings extensive knowledge on how experiences are influenced by shifting cultural expectations on issues such as trust, transparency and new ways of working. Prior to joining the Saatchi & Saatchi team, Almario was strategist and insights lead at TRA where he partnered with some of New Zealand’s leading brands in financial services, FMCG, Telco and government across cultural insight and qualitative research projects.

Says Mark Cochrane, CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi: “After a great year of momentum, we are excited to now have all these wonderful humans join the Saatchi collective. They each bring something original, progressive, and culturally rich. The appointments are directly coming from growth, and growth is coming directly from our focus on cultural creativity. We are now excited by the imaginings in pre-production, the opportunity to get out of our houses to produce and seeing what we can all achieve in the future.”

Saatchi & Saatchi NZ is continuing to hire in digital strategy, creativity, design, brand leadership and entertainment. Contact: careers@saatchi.co.nz for more information.