Special NZ snares Matt Swinburne from AMV BBDO London for group creative director role; David Shirley departs FCB NZ for CD role

Special has hired two new senior creatives to further bolster its world-class creative team. Matt Swinburne is set join as group creative director and David Shirley as creative director at the end of this month.

Swinburne (left) joins Special from London where he worked at AMV BBDO leading global work for Mars and Bacardi. He has also worked at Droga5 New York and Mother and Havas in London.

He created the standout Snickers ‘Fix The World’ Super Bowl commercial in 2020, and the ‘Design Museum Supermarket’ for Bombay Sapphire – where he turned a London art gallery into a supermarket so it could legally stay open during lockdown. His portfolio is deep with award-winning work for Diageo, New York Lotto, Toyota, Snickers and Bacardi to name a few.

Shirley (right) joins Special after six years at FCB. There he made a worldwide impact with his ‘Swim Reaper’ campaign which has won 17 awards since 2017. His long list of award-winning campaigns includes ‘Department of Lost Nights’ to promote responsible drinking, the VR experience “Escape my House” for Fire Emergency NZ, and a WorkSafe campaign to encourage employees to ‘follow their gut’.

Swinburne and Shirley will be key figures in Special’s fast-growing creative department, which has helped the agency be recognised as “Global Creative Agency of the Year” by Campaign Magazine in the UK as well as ‘Most Effective Agency in Asia Pacific’ by APAC Effie Awards.

Tony Bradbourne, Special Group founder and CEO/CCO, is excited about the new editions:  “At Special, we are all about bringing the best minds together to help make the impossible happen. This focus on brave and incredibly effective work for our clients is what has put our name on the world stage and I’m delighted to have such strong talent join our team and continue this philosophy.”

Swinburne is looking forward to starting at Special at the end of the month: “I’ve been a huge fan of Special for a while. They’re a brilliant, world-class agency, and bunch of good buggers too. I couldn’t be more excited to be coming to join their incredibly talented and ambitious team.”

Shirley admits he has been watching Special from afar for years and jumped at the chance to work with the agency: “Special has that all-important ‘Why don’t we?’ attitude. It’s an approach that has freed them to make brave, effective and groundbreaking work that has led to recognition and accolades the world over. If there’s one word to sum up Special, it’s ‘ambition’. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to be part of that?”

Special has seen huge success in the last year, having won the trifecta of major advertising awards for “New Zealand Agency of the Year” by Campaign Brief, B&T and Campaign Asia.