In 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’ve learned and their best advice.
Human Digital
- Founder: Ben van Rooy
- Year founded: 2018
Tell us the story behind founding your agency.
After a career spanning corporate roles in London, New York, and Sydney, I’d seen how big organisations work and what holds them back. The constraints, the slow decisions, the inability to move at the speed the market demands. I wanted to build something different: an agency that was genuinely nimble, responsive and focused on doing great work with great people.
I founded Human Digital in Sydney in 2018, but New Zealand was always the destination. After years of working around the world, home was calling, and Auckland became the HQ and heartbeat of the agency. From that base, we now serve clients globally – proving that a lean, ambitious team operating from New Zealand can compete and deliver on the world stage.
What’s your favourite thing about running your own agency?
Marketing leaders carry an enormous load: campaigns, stakeholders, targets, budgets, all at once. My favourite thing is being the person they trust to help carry some of that. Not just as a supplier, but as a genuine partner who gets them, gets their customers and cares about the outcome as much as they do. The relationships that come from that level of trust are something I never expected when I started the agency. Deep friendships, real conversations, a window into how humans think and what they care about. That’s what “Human Digital” actually means to us – the human connection is the whole point.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned?
The most important thing I’ve learned is the balance between patience and knowing when to push. Nowhere is this harder than in winning new clients. Chase too hard and you push them away. Great relationships develop when the timing is right for both sides. But accepting work with clients who aren’t a good fit carries its own cost: it burns out your team, dilutes the work and rarely ends well for anyone.
Patience isn’t passive. It’s about reading the room, knowing when to nurture, when to push for a decision and when to walk away. Getting that balance right protects your team, your culture and ultimately the quality of work you deliver. It took me a while to learn it, but it’s shaped how we run the agency.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received or given?
The best advice I’ve received is simple: don’t resist, let go. For a driven founder that sounds counterintuitive, but it’s been the most liberating thing I’ve applied to running the agency. It doesn’t mean being passive or a victim of circumstance. It means accepting what is, releasing what you can’t control and staying open to what’s coming. In practice that means spotting a new tool or technique before the market does, recognising when a client relationship has room to grow, or leaning into an unexpected opportunity rather than sticking rigidly to the plan. Resistance is exhausting. Openness is a competitive advantage.
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.
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