Special CSO named best in the world

AUCKLAND, Thursday: Rory Gallery, the chief strategic officer at Special New Zealand, has been named Global Strategic Planner of the Year at the Campaign Global Awards in London.

Special founder/ceo Tony Bradbourne said: The win is the latest global recognition for the effectiveness of Special’s work for their clients, after being named as Asia Pacific Agency of the Year at the APAC Effies, and being ranked the #4 most effective advertising and creative agency in the world by industry organisation WARC.

“Rory leads a team of accomplished strategists who have spearheaded much of the agencies success including strategy director Jolene D’Souza, strategy & CX director Ursula Nichols, and strategists Amy Willemse and Sophie Cairns.

Rory Gallery said: “It’s a true honour to be recognised by my peers with this award, but it’s actually a testament to the hard work of our full team but mostly our brave and collaborative clients – I owe everything to them.”

“Special is an agency that believes the most creative work is the most effective work, and we’ve proven it time and time again with globally recognised campaigns.  It’s an exciting time to be here and we’ve got a lot of great work coming up for our partner clients that we can’t wait to share.” 

“It’s a true honour to be recognised by my peers, but it’s actually a testament to the hard work of our full team and our brave clients.”

Bethany Omeri has recently been appointed as head of strategy in Special Wellington.

Tony Bradbourne: “I couldn’t be prouder for Rory. He’s a brilliant partner to me and our clients and a really important part of the incredible culture here at Special, and has built such an incredible and internationally recognised planning department.

“I love working with him as much as our clients do. We all know that the most awarded creative campaigns are the most effective campaigns, it’s been proven beyond doubt over the past decade, so it’s great to see Rory recognised globally at the highest level for championing that focus on creativity to deliver effectiveness.

“Rory joined Special four years ago with a remit to make the agency’s strategic output as world renowned as its creative output, in partnership with core Special clients.

“And this year alone three Special campaigns have been ranked in the world’s top 100 most effective campaigns by WARC – #3 Meddle in the New Zealand Election for Every Kiwi Vote Counts, #13 Good Morning World for Tourism NZ and #54 Do Something New, New Zealand also for Tourism NZ.

“Special Group started in Auckland before expanding to Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, London and Wellington with a unique business model that breaks down the silos between advertising, design, media, PR, digital and innovation.