Thompson Spencer co-founder and group chief executive Melanie Spencer is the sole New Zealander named among Campaign's 2026 Women to Watch Asia Pacific winners.
Thompson Spencer co-founder and group chief executive Melanie Spencer in an official portrait.
Thompson Spencer co-founder and group chief executive Melanie Spencer has been named among Campaign's Women to Watch Asia Pacific 2026 winners, putting a New Zealand agency founder on a regional list of marketing, media, advertising and communications leaders.
Spencer is the only New Zealander among 25 women recognised across the Asia-Pacific region. The award places her alongside leaders from markets including Australia, Singapore, India and China, and gives the Auckland-founded agency a fresh regional proof point at a time when New Zealand firms are increasingly competing for international work.
The recognition follows a year in which Thompson Spencer has been positioning itself as what it calls a connection agency, joining strategy, creative, media, production, social, influencer, performance and technology under a more integrated model.
That shift matters because the agency market is being pulled in several directions at once. Clients want specialist execution, but they also want fewer gaps between brand strategy, creative ideas, content, media buying and measurable performance. Spencer's role has been to bring those teams closer together without losing the specialist capability that made the business valuable in the first place.
Thompson Spencer's work now reaches beyond New Zealand. Recent international client references include London City Airport, First Table in the United Kingdom and Musashi in the Middle East, alongside New Zealand work for organisations including Auckland Transport, Bupa and Noel Leeming.
Spencer credited the Thompson Spencer team for the recognition, framing the award as a reflection of collective momentum rather than an individual finish line. That is also why the story fits a founder-economy lens: the award is not just about one executive profile, but about how a New Zealand-founded creative business is building the systems, talent and confidence to operate across borders.
For Kiwi agencies, that is the useful signal. Regional recognition can help local firms hold their ground in pitches, recruitment and partnerships, especially when clients are comparing New Zealand capability with larger offshore markets.
Spencer's award does not settle that contest, but it does give the sector a visible example of a New Zealand founder-led agency being taken seriously on an Asia-Pacific stage.
UC student founder Zac Hemmings has won a KiwiNet award for Cluttr, putting a hands-on resale start-up into the national innovation pipeline.
A national campaign is using coffee, hot chips, baking and market tastings to turn property-search data into local experiences.
A new profile of Christchurch's Ministry of Awesome argues that the harder work for founders begins after the pitch event, when customers, accountability and commercial traction take over.