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.
YoungShand
- Founder: Duncan Shand
- Year founded: 2009
Tell us the story behind founding your agency.
In 2009, I took redundancy from ihug after they were acquired. I went home to tell my partner, whose response was: “That’s perfect, because I’m pregnant.” We’d just finished a renovation that was 100% over budget, and suddenly we were a family of five. I needed to find work, fast.
I’d been consulting in brand and digital strategy for five years and saw that traditional agencies were largely ignoring the shift to “online marketing”. I teamed up with Ben Young and Dan Phillips to start the agency.
Because none of us had ever worked in a traditional agency, we didn’t have a ‘legacy’ to protect. We were born as a challenger agency, focused on being more transparent, collaborative and results-driven than the multinational incumbents. We didn’t know the rules, so we just focused on growing our clients.
What’s your favourite thing about running your own agency?
It’s definitely the people – both our team and our clients.
There is nothing more rewarding than watching a team develop, learn and grow professionally over the years. We’ve seen lifelong friendships form and even a few ‘YS offspring’ join the world along the way. Seeing our clients’ businesses thrive because of a bold idea we backed ourselves to find is a close second.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned?
The most important lesson is that you have to be prepared to fail, provided you learn from it.
In our first year we put out over 200 proposals. We hustled hard, blogging, podcasting and cold-reaching on LinkedIn. I learned the power of backing yourself.
I once sent a LinkedIn note to Trevor Newman at Goodman Fielder, telling him we had “lots of ideas” to grow his brands. The truth was, we didn’t have them yet. But we knew if we could just get in the room, we’d find them.
He took the meeting, we pitched and we won the business. That ‘outsider’ perspective and the willingness to hustle for a seat at the table is what defines a true challenger. You don’t need a playbook, you just need a mission and the determination to follow through.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received or given out?
The best advice I ever received was from Tony Marks in 1994, right before a big recommendation to the Air NZ board: “Don’t oversell. Just present the facts and let the audience make the decision.”
It’s incredibly hard advice to follow when you’re passionate, but it’s the most effective way to build genuine commercial trust.
Anything else we should know?
Sixteen years later, that ‘challenger’ DNA is still the core of YS.
We still specialise in brands that want to take on the category leader and do things differently. As we move into the era of AI, that original ‘outsider’ perspective is more relevant than ever. Most importantly, make sure you have a good reason to get out of bed every day. If you don’t believe in the work, no one else will.
YoungShand is a founder member of Agency Directory – find out more about them here.
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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