Chemistry celebrates ten years of friendship, individual creativity and a culture to be proud of

From a small start-up in Takapuna to a buzzing space full of legends with a signature view of Westhaven Marina, the team at Auckland indie agency Chemistry is proud to reach its 10th anniversary.

Marking the occasion in style, Chemistry recently held a party for friends, clients, suppliers and everyone who has helped them achieve success along the way at Peter Gordon’s Homeland.

During the occasion, the four founders reflected on the evolution of the agency and the industry as a whole for themselves as individual leaders and creatives.

Says Joseph Silk, co-founder and director at Chemistry: “Over the past ten years, we’ve delivered on our original vision. The four of us had collected a wide range of big agency experience along the way, and we knew that to be successful, we had to create our own special culture.

“Most of our people have been with us for more than four years, all growing individually and professionally in this time. No less than three of our team who have moved on chose not to go to other agencies but to apply everything they have learnt at the agency and start up their own businesses.”

Says Susan Young, creative director and co-founder, Chemistry: “We wanted to make sure that everyone who chooses to work with us genuinely wants to come into the agency every day – and they feel an integral part of building something exciting. Today’s incredibly tight talent market has made that vision all the more important.”

Mike Larmer, co-founder and director, credits the success of Chemistry to how the agency plays a pivotal role in responding to client needs and looking for creative ways to fix their business problems: “We have always stuck to our guns on being an agency that responds to business challenges and drives measurable results. We don’t just want to know if people liked the work – we want to know if it met the business goals and KPIs. This way the success of the agency is intrinsically connected to the success of our clients. That is true success to us.”

Young agrees: “We always endeavour to understand more about the client than they tell us in the brief, so we can be 100% proactive with our strategic and creative input.”

While change is constant when it comes to creativity, Pat Murphy, co-founder and creative director reflects on what drives creativity at Chemistry: “We are an agency full of people who genuinely enjoy being here. I think our culture really supports our creative process. Happy people make great work and that in turn creates happy clients.

“Even when we were just a few people, we’ve always pushed ourselves towards excellence, and that hasn’t changed as we’ve grown. Most importantly, there are never any “ta da’ moments for our clients as they are always included in our creative process.”

Young describes it as “an intangible magic that only happens when smart minds armed with great insights get together in a room to map out an idea; it’s that intangible connection we have as a tight team which is impossible to beat, especially in this digital age.”

Having started as a team of four, Chemistry now has over 30 people working across the agency to drive growth for major New Zealand brands, including TAB, MTF Finance, IAG (AMI, State, NZI), Arvida, PlaceMakers, Caltex, Samsung, LeaderBrand, LBC (Shave for a Cure) and Jaguar Land Rover, to name just a few.