Former Mango group business director Kat Day joins Special PR in the role of creative lead

Special PR has appointed Kat Day as creative lead, as the new PR offering from Special Group continues to grow at pace.

Day’s role will see her working alongside head of PR and influence Kelly Grindle to create standout creative campaigns for Special PR clients including Jaguar Land Rover, Tourism Fiji and Forsyth Barr as well as adding PR firepower to group-wide clients including Contact Energy, NZTE and Lion New Zealand.

Day, who moved to New Zealand in 2019 from the UK, joins Special from Mango, part of DDB Group, where she was group business director.

Before that, she was part of the senior leadership team at creative powerhouse Taylor Herring (recently acquired by Publicis Groupe). Famous for its eye-catching creative campaigns for clients including Samsung, easyJet, Disney and Paddy Power, Taylor Herring is the most awarded mid-size agency in the UK.

She has also held senior roles at London agencies Mischief (part of Engine Group) and Good Relations (VCCP).

The appointment comes hot on the heels of Special PR winning the only PR Lion awarded in New Zealand from the 2022 Cannes Festival of Creativity, and Special New Zealand’s international accolade of ‘Global Creative Agency of the Year’ by Campaign UK.

Special has been through a remarkable period of growth and has transitioned from a small independent Auckland agency to a world-class creative company with offices in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, London and Los Angeles.

Says Grindle: “We’re so lucky to have someone of Kat’s stature choose Special PR. She brings a wealth of experience to the role, having worked on some of the UK’s most talked about creative PR activations. I don’t think we could have found a better person to supercharge our creative output.

“The opportunities to deliver bold creative campaigns for our awesome client roster are pretty much endless, so it was important for us to find someone who shares our ambition to deliver stand-out work that moves the dial.”

Says Day: “Joining Special is quite frankly a dream come true for me, having admired the agency’s creative work from afar since I arrived in New Zealand. There is a huge opportunity to drive fame for brands as well as foster meaningful connection with consumers in the earned space and Special is at the forefront of that thinking with a long history in creating campaigns that get people talking. I can’t wait to roll my sleeves up and get stuck in!”

Day has started at Special Group with immediate effect. She is based in the Auckland office and can be reached on kat.day@specialgroup.co.nz