July 17 2026, 11:51 am | BY Ricki Green | No Comments
Independent creative agency EightyOne has appointed Tom Sykes as Executive Strategy Director, adding significant strategic experience to the agency’s senior leadership team.
Sykes has spent more than two decades helping shape strategy for many of New Zealand’s best-known and most admired brands. He brings deep experience across brand, customer and business strategy, along with a reputation for combining commercial clarity with creative ambition.
Sykes joins EightyOne from Principals, where he spent three years as Strategy Director leading brand strategy across New Zealand, driving major branding and employer branding projects for clients including Fonterra, Chorus, Oceania Healthcare, Southern Cross Healthcare and BNZ. Prior to that, he was Head of Strategy at Droga5 ANZ (formerly The Monkeys Aotearoa), where he co-created the agency’s strategy department and led work for clients including ASB, Meridian and Fletcher. He has also held senior strategy roles at McCann NZ (formerly DDB NZ) and Saatchi & Saatchi. Sykes began his career in South Africa, holding digital and social strategy roles across several Cape Town agencies including King James and M&C Saatchi Abel.
EightyOne Executive Creative Director and co-founder Chris Bleackley said the appointment reflects the agency’s ambition to bring together the strongest strategic and creative thinking possible: “Tom is one of those rare strategists who combines experience with curiosity, commercial thinking with creativity, and intelligence with humility.
“He has helped shape some of New Zealand’s most successful brands, but what excites us most is the way he thinks. He asks better questions, gets to the heart of a business problem and understands how strategy can unlock more ambitious creative work.”
Sykes will work alongside EightyOne’s existing strategy and creative leadership team, partnering with clients across brand, communications and business challenges.
Bleackley said the appointment comes at an important stage in the agency’s development: “We’ve spent the past year building stronger foundations for the next phase of EightyOne. Tom’s appointment is a big part of that. Our ambition is simple: to do work that has a genuine impact on our clients’ businesses and earns a place in culture. Great creativity needs great strategy behind it, and Tom adds even more weight to that belief.”
The appointment further strengthens EightyOne’s senior capability as the independent agency continues to grow its client portfolio and invest across strategy, creative and client service.
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