Special NZ's CCOs Got Their First Jobs With a "Spite Folio" And Bin Full of Ice

Lisa Fedyszyn and Jonathan McMahon met when they were 19. The years since have seen them work in Australia, New Zealand, and North America, across agencies such as Droga5 New York, DDB Aotearoa, and Colenso BBDO.

The pair joined Special in June 2020, helping the agency land the title of Campaign UK Global Creative Agency of the Year in both 2023 and 2024. Last year, the duo rose to the role of chief creative officers. 

LBB’s Tess Connery-Britten caught up with Lisa and Jonathan to find out more.

LBB> How did you two get into advertising?

Jonathan> In high school, you had to choose your five subjects for the last year of school. I had a mix of random stuff and just tried everything from mathematics to politics to literature to graphic design. At the end of the year, I didn’t know what I wanted to do at uni, but I figured that I liked graphic design the most. I got into graphic design at RMIT, and advertising was one of the subjects. I realised, actually, I like that more.

Lisa> I was doing everything from painting to photography to textiles to sculpture, and finding my way. The difference was having an immigrant and working class background, people ask, 'well, how does that get you a job?' It had to be something like architecture or graphic design, but it couldn't be fine arts, because what does that do? I found graphic design, and that's where we start to intersect and get quite similar in our stories, because while it was interesting and beautiful, it felt really narrow, whereas advertising felt exciting and really broad – whether that’s true or not.

We got our first job with a bin full of ice and a brick. We had quite a spicy interview, and we did it for a 24-hour folio-redo turnaround – a spite folio, we'll call it. We delivered it to the agency in a bin filled with ice that had the new folio on the bottom.

Jonathan> So they'd have to reach all the way down to get it. And they did.

Lisa> We started there the next week.

LBB> Special began in New Zealand, and has grown exponentially since its launch. What does creativity look like in a business as it expands in the way yours has?

Lisa> We are much smaller than you think from the output, and the output is because we are smaller. We have a lot of really specialised disciplines that converge, and that's why we can make so much good work. From a design department that are purely graphic designers, to PR that are best in class at their discipline, to our digital department.

We have our individual clients, but when we converge, that's when a lot of magic happens and that's when you see so much great work come out. We're all our own little, nimble departments, but we're not siloed.

LBB> It’s a situation that reflects New Zealand in a lot of ways – producing bigger things because of your smaller scale. A lot of impressive work comes out of New Zealand despite not being a very big country, why do you think that is?

Jonathan> I think a lot of it has to do with where we are in the world, it's what makes the country and the people special. We're down at the bottom of the world, we're away from everything else. When you're down here, you have a different perspective.

New Zealand brings a different energy, attitude and effort. We're resourceful and scrappy, and we get things done – you see that in the fact that so many Australians and New Zealanders go on and land great jobs overseas. We don't have the money like you see in American campaigns. You have to be a bit craftier down at this end of the world, so you dig in a lot harder. Everyone from the agencies to the clients, the production partners; they're all very, very ambitious and willing to make things happen.

LBB> Tell me a bit about how you see your roles as CCOs, and how you nurture the creative culture at the agency?

Lisa> We're all on the tools. From cracking ideas, improving ideas, building decks, you have to be across every part of it – and that's not for every client and every project, that would drive everyone insane. It's less micromanagement and more really running together. So in terms of how we nurture the team, you do it by example. You manage everyone differently, you find out what's special about them, see what drives them, what makes them excited, and really help them bring themselves to the work as fast as possible. That is part of the culture here, because it's a creative culture.

Jonathan> You don't want to make a mini you, it's lovely to have different perspectives and thoughts coming from everywhere. If someone brings me something I've never thought of, that's great. You want to encourage everyone to be their own person and draw from life experiences or whatever else interests them.

Lisa> Because otherwise it's just a room full of people who were brought up on ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Police Squad!’, and that's not a broad range of work.

Jonathan> There are definitely times where Lisa and I have made a reference, and everyone else looked at us going, 'what are you talking about?'

LBB> Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, can you tell me a bit about what you are looking forward to most?

Lisa> There's so much opportunity. We're coming out of a recession, and I think Australia and New Zealand are still feeling that shrinking, but it feels like there is expansion and excitement coming out of that. New opportunities, new ways of thinking, new ways to talk to people, new spaces to be in, to be clever, to be nimble.

Creativity needs opportunity, and it feels like we're starting to really come into that. What's really exciting is starting to see all the work that's popping up from other agencies, because we all rise when we're all doing great work.

LBB> And on the flip side of the coin, anything you’re particularly concerned about?

Jonathan> What I’m looking forward to and what I worry about are probably the same thing – that I don't know what's going to happen next. I just go with it, roll with the punches. Projects that you don't know are going to happen, or clients that you don't know you're going to have can pop up two months later, and before you know it, you're making something amazing. Sometimes bad things pop up along the way too.