Whybin\TBWA Auckland’s Planning Department Grows

Senior planners Clare Leitch and Steve Clark have joined Whybin\TBWA Auckland in permanent roles, rounding out the agency’s offering headed up by David McIndoe.

Clark, originally from the UK, has held a number of senior planning roles locally and abroad including time at BBH London, as a founding partner of Starcom Motive in the UK, and also Publicis Mojo where he was New Zealand’s first channel planner to set up a team in 2005. His work has won awards at Cannes Lions, the Effies and CAANZ.

On the decision to join Whybin\TBWA permanently, Clark says that the new-look team was a big factor. “TBWA has a new energy that’s infectious and some serious talent to make things happen. I’m excited to be a part of that.”

“I’ve always believed in the power that context can add to content. As a planner with a strong media background, in today’s expansive media environment, that means seeing opportunities for brands to disrupt everywhere,” adds Clark.

Leitch, also from the UK, has held senior positions abroad including time at Leo Burnett, Starcom and CIA, as well as New Zealand (Mojo) where she looked after strategic and channel planning.

She has a wealth of experience across a range of industries including FMCG, alcohol, media and tourism brands and is looking forward to applying this knowledge to many of the agency’s clients.

“Whybin\TBWA has a really captivating energy with an impressively collaborative culture that really gets how to connect brands to people in a meaningful way. With increasingly blurred lines between media and creative disciplines, communication becomes less about spin and more about authenticity and utility. Understanding how brands can be at the heart of this is a really exciting place to be.”

 McIndoe says he’s pleased to have both joining the agency and excited about the depth and level of experience they bring.

 “When it comes to strategic planning, it’s not just a case of working across all the channels available, but incorporating the unique power of the moment and interaction they can create into the creative process,” says McIndoe. “It’s about creating ideas that people invite in. You have to consider the experience our ideas create for people in that fleeting moment, the reaction it elicits, and how that experience plays back to the role of the brand in their lives.”

He adds, “Clare and Steve are experts at this. They have huge experience across both B2B and B2C clients and are experts at taking strategies and creative ideas and turning them into outputs that create change. We’re very fortunate to have them with us.”

Whybin\TBWA Auckland's Chief Executive Officer Todd McLeay says that with the team now at full steam, the agency has all the strings to its planning bow that it needs to add even more strategic value to clients’ business.

“Planning is all about building ideas that are disruptive not just in their message but how they are encountered and Clare and Steve are at the top of their game when it comes to that,” says McLeay.