Media release
From The Ridiculous To The Sublime: SublimeNZ Turns Seven
Auckland, January 2013: The life expectancy for a New Zealand start-up is often pretty short, but not so for experiential marketing agency
SublimeNZ which is celebrating its seventh birthday this month.
SublimeNZ was founded in 2006 by Kiwi entrepreneur Robert Bruce from the spare room of his parents’ home in Kapiti. From
humble beginnings the agency has grown from strength to strength and after a bumper year, care of the Rugby World Cup,
it was purchased by PPR (Professional Public Relations) in October 2012. One might say a ridiculous idea has become a
sublime experience.
“SublimeNZ has always been about creating meaningful and engaging experiences between brands and customers, normally
through the use of people,” says founder and now GM – Experiential, Robert Bruce.
“It has been exciting and rewarding watching SublimeNZ grow over the last 7 years; in some respects time has flown, but
looking back I realise how far we have come.”
SublimeNZ has recently been awarded 31st fastest growing company in New Zealand at the prestigious Deloitte Fast 50
Awards and was the only experiential agency to feature in the competition, with growth of 215.31%.
But it has not always been plain sailing as Bruce recalls, “Looking back at the GFC, it was a pretty tough time for the
experiential marketing industry. I think that period gave business owners an overdue wake-up call because there was a
lot of excess going on and the agencies without strong value propositions and reputations somewhat disappeared.”
“My mentor Peter Leitch (AKA the Mad Butcher) once told me “you can’t have what you can’t afford” and there is some real
truth to that – though it took a while to accept it!”
The agency has contracted in excess of 2000 brand ambassadors nationally to represent its wide range of top clients at
events, expos, supermarkets, or outdoors. To commemorate ‘Seven Years of Sublime’ the agency is journeying through time
by uploading hundreds of photos to its Facebook page, many of which have never been seen before.
“It has been great fun digging through these old photos and they have brought back a lot of memories. We hope that
through this some of our old crew or clients reconnect with us and perhaps share their own photos or stories about their
time with the agency. Watching some of the team grow and start their own careers has been a real thrill for me, so we
would love to stay in touch,” concludes Bruce.
To view all photos, visit the SublimeNZ Facebook page at www.facebook/sublimenz
ENDS