CB Hot Suit Takes: Dave Bentley, Managing Director, AKQA New Zealand
CB Hot Suit Takes is our new Q&A series for extremely busy CEOs and senior leaders across the industry ~ covering careers, creativity, challenges and the song that sums it all up. Next in the hot seat is Dave Bentley, Managing Director, AKQA New Zealand.
1. What made you get into advertising?
I was really drawn to the idea of inventing new digital experiences and back then you had to join the ‘interactive’ department of an ad agency. I started at Euro RSCG in Sydney which is now Havas.
2. Which piece of work are you most proud of, and why?
The impact our work has on New Zealanders. With clients like Spark, IRD, Foodstuffs, MediaWorks, Lotto, RBNZ and Contact Energy, the transformation work we create here at AKQA NZ genuinely reaches and adds value to almost all Kiwis on a daily or weekly basis.
3. What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role right now?
Making perpetual change part of our operating model – being positioned to embrace always on experimentation of new tech and the resulting evolution of products, services, tools, and commercial models.
4. What’s the most recent thing you’ve learned – professionally or personally?
I’m a little bit obsessed with an AI Agent tool called Tasklet. It’s like having a team of experts and go getters helping me to make better timely decisions and get shit done!
5. What song best sums up your career so far?
To Space by Kings of Leon – Like me, as a band they are mid-career. The song really struck a chord with me because there’s a tension between knowing time is finite and feeling that the biggest ideas and bets are still ahead. There is a sense of balancing fragility with ambition all in the same moment…damn, that got heavy.
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