Bastion Aotearoa has promoted Holly Dean to executive creative director and has hired four new creatives.
Dean’s promotion to ECD will see her take an increased focus on social, creators and earned. The expanded remit brings earned-first thinking closer to the heart of creative leadership, ensuring cultural relevance and participation are considered from the beginning rather than as amplification after an idea has been developed.
“Holly’s… a brave and passionate partner for me,” said Oliver Green, chief creative officer at Bastion Aotearoa. “Bringing her earned and social expertise further into creative leadership makes our creative product stronger from the outset. It’s a brilliant mix of talent and exactly the kind of team we want to keep building. When you have talent like this, every problem is a playground”
Joining the team are senior creatives Bayleigh Way and Molawin Evangelista, alongside intermediate designers Jemima Christie-Limbrick and Stella Wilson. The appointments come as Zoe Kerr moves into the newly created role of social creative.
Way joins from Droga5 London with international experience across major brands including Tourism Australia, John Lewis and Mondelēz with a focus on earned, social and integrated campaigns. Evangelista arrives from Previously Unavailable, while also running his own boutique design studio and retail space, bringing a strong conceptual art direction and filmmaking background.
Christie-Limbrick joins from Milk NZ and Stella from Colenso BBDO, adding further depth to the agency’s design capability and focus on craft. Kerr has already made an impression in her new role, working on Skinny Mobile’s hilarious new content series ‘Savvy Savers’, alongside social-first work for Essano, DoorDash and KFC.
Danny Carlsen, head of design at Bastion Aotearoa, said: “We’ve had a massive run of growth across the design business and with the work getting bigger, braver and more ambitious, bringing in seriously good people matters. Jemima and Stella are two huge additions to the Bastion design crew, bringing fresh energy, sharp thinking and a real care for craft. We’re stoked to have them on board and can’t wait to see what we create together.”
Together, the appointments reflect a broader evolution of Bastion Aotearoa’s creative product. As ideas increasingly move across advertising, social, earned and experience, the agency is building one creative team with the breadth of expertise to develop ideas that can move seamlessly between them.
Toby Sellers, CEO of Bastion Aotearoa, added: “Great agencies are built around great people, and the calibre of talent joining and stepping up within Bastion right now says a lot about where we’re heading.
“Bayleigh, Molawin, Zoe, Jemima and Stella bring new perspectives and serious creative talent to the agency, while Holly has already made an enormous contribution to the work and culture we’re building. Investing in people like this means we can keep raising the standard of what we deliver for our clients and put them in a position of strength.”
