Insiders grows up

AUCKLAND, Wednesday: After 12 months of organic and new business growth, Grey Lynn indie Insiders has added another five talented humans to its team.

Agency co-founder/chief creative partner Craig Whitehead said: “Kate Castle joins as senior account manager, with a diverse career history spanning graphic design, e-commerce, and acting (she may have even starred in one of your ads).

“Thomas Jarrett-Hoare joins as a senior designer/design manager, bringing vast design and studio management experience to the team.

“Brent Sharkey joins as senior creative artworker, having spent close to a decade at .99/Proximity.

“And creative duo Hanna Grant and Jack Becroft join the team art director and copywriter – both jumping ship from their media and account management beginnings in search of more creative pastures.

“It’s been a bloody exciting couple of months at Insiders. After recently moving in to our new digs in Grey Lynn and hiring a great bunch of new people – dare I say, we’re starting to feel like a real agency.

“It’s certainly a step up from Jarad O’Hara and I running the place from our bedrooms.”

“Our model is to get alongside our clients and their in-house creatives & designers and act as a true extension of their teams.”

“Sliding firmly under the radar, Insiders has quietly gotten along with their business and in a short couple of years has become a trusted strategic, creative and production partner delivering commercial creativity to some of Aotearoa’s leading service organisations and retailers.”

Co-founder/chief business partner Jarad O’Hara said: “The Insiders model and philosophy has always been to get alongside our clients and their in-house creatives and designers and act as a true extension of their teams.

“This involves wrapping around the way they like to work with us whether that’s in house, in a cafe or in a teams call. We love working on the inside and have loved turning the agency model inside out.”

It started with .99
Whitehead and O’Hara’s backgrounds are in retail and are best known for founding and running retail powerhouse .99, something they did together for over 15 years.

They say they do have further growth plans for the agency but not to the scale they did with .99.

“We reckon the optimum size for us is a team of 25-30 partnering with a select five or six large clients.

“That way we can keep the service standards up, the quality of the work up and create long-term relationships.

“We’re over half way there already, it’s certainly been a great ride so far!”

• insidersagency.com