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Tell us the story behind founding your agency.<\/p>\nIn the June-August 2026 issue of NZ Marketing magazine, we asked agency founders to tell us the story behind why they started their agency, their favourite thing, what they\u2019ve learned and their best advice.<\/p>\n
Tell us the story behind founding your agency.<\/p>\n
Born out of the fast-paced world of media, These Guys I Know began with a simple, recurring line.<\/p>\n
After leaving her role as marketing director at MediaWorks<\/a>, founder Amanda Wilson kept saying: \u201cThese guys I know can do that\u201d \u2013 shorthand for a trusted network of smart, proven people who could respond quickly to solve problems.<\/p>\n Those informal connections grew into a deliberate model \u2013 a flexible, on-demand consultancy bringing the right people to the right challenge, without the overhead or rigidity of traditional agencies.<\/p>\n Today, These Guys I Know is an award-winning consultancy known for high-impact, culturally resonant work including Thanks Driver<\/a>, Make Room for Newsroom and the Z Manu World Champs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Blending strategy and execution through integrated communications, it offers initiatives such as pay-for-performance publicity, outsourced marketing service Tidy Little Package and content production offerings \u2013 Heavyweight (for long-form, including TVNZ<\/a>\u2019s Heavyweight with Dave Letele<\/a>) and Lightweight (for shorter-form, social-led storytelling).<\/p>\n Amanda Wilson and Ant Farac started These Guys I Know in 2018.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your favourite thing about running your own agency?<\/p>\n Our favourite thing about running These Guys I Know is having the freedom to focus on work that matters \u2013 being selective about the projects we take on and how we spend our time.<\/p>\n It\u2019s great being able to focus on the work and its impact \u2013 rather than other things (like office politics!) We\u2019ve created a model that is outcomes-focused, where time is spent on solving problems and creating impact.<\/p>\n We also really enjoy creating work for others \u2013 particularly those who want to work flexibly around other commitments including childcare \u2013 and creating opportunities for people through effective communications. That can be life changing.<\/p>\n The most important thing we\u2019ve learned is that you don\u2019t have to do things the way they\u2019ve always been done! Actually, sometimes it\u2019s better to completely ignore the way things have always been done.<\/p>\n We didn\u2019t come from a traditional agency background, so when we built These Guys I Know, we didn\u2019t follow that model. (We don\u2019t know that model!)<\/p>\n Instead, we designed it from a client perspective \u2013 based on pain points we\u2019d experienced ourselves. That includes getting into things as quickly as possible, being fast and responsive, without kerfuffle or layers of sign offs. We didn\u2019t know traditional agency models \u2013 but we did certainly know about brand, content creation, media channels and how to build audiences and capturing attention. That serves our clients very well.<\/p>\n We\u2019re also genuinely interested in the work we do \u2013 and very selective about that \u2013 and value alignment. It drives a better result for all.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the best piece of advice you\u2019ve received or given out?<\/p>\n If you work in a factory that makes ducks, you better be sure to pop your head up sometimes to make sure a duck is actually coming out the other end! This seems like a silly line, but it proves pretty effective in keeping our relentless focus on outcomes.<\/p>\n Anything else we should know?<\/p>\n These Guys I Know\u2019s co-founder and creative director is Ant Farac who created the Three brand identity<\/a>, Newshub and other high profile media brands and campaigns.<\/p>\n Ant was part of the original bro\u2019town team and directed Heavyweight with Dave Letele.<\/p>\n This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 87, June-August 2026. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.<\/p>\n Essential marketing intelligence. Don\u2019t miss it.<\/p>\n Read more stories from issue 87 here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the June-August 2026 issue of NZ Marketing magazine, we asked agency founders to tell us the story…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[246880,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-560289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-issue-87","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Amanda-Wilson_These-Guys-I-Know_2026-copy-819x1024.png\")
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Recent work from These Guys I Know.What\u2019s the most important thing you\u2019ve learned?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Founder-Button-3.jpg\")
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