Tom Martin and Julian Schreiber are partners and CCOs at Special Australia and partners at Special USA and UK. They first established themselves as creatives, then Creative Directors of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. They then moved to New York to become the ECDs of Johannes Leonardo NY.
As creatives then CDs and now CCOs, they have been responsible for many multi-Cannes lion winning campaigns such as Four’N Twenty's Magic Salad Plate, Guide Dog Australia’s Support Scent, Tourism Victoria's Remote Control Tourist and Pedigree's K9FM. They are renowned for turning the banking world on its head as co-creators of the NAB ‘Break Up’ Campaign, which took out a Cannes Grand Prix and three Grand Prix Spikes (including the first ever Grand Prix for effectiveness).
In 2018, Tom and Julian created the highly controversial, interactive film "Stop The Horror" which helped Victoria become the first state in Australia to legalise Euthanasia. Last year it received Best of Show and the Chairman's Award at Australia's most pre-eminent creative award show AWARD, 3 D&AD Pencils as well as 3 Gold lions and a Silver at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity.
Since being at Special Group, the pair have been responsible for the Uber Eats ‘Australian Open Ambush’, ‘Shazza & Kim’ and 3 Super Bowl spots including Uber Don’t Eats where Gwyneth bites her "Smells Like My Vagina" candle. The ‘AO Ambush’ was declared as a groundbreaking media integration and completely innovative way of doing sports sponsorship. It also won 6 Lions making it the most awarded Australian job at Cannes in 2019. For Tourism New Zealand, Tom and Julian created the ‘Good Morning World’ and ‘Stop Dreaming & Go’ campaigns. ‘Good Morning World’ won at D&AD, collected a Spikes Grand Prix and was voted the world's most effective campaign at the Global Effies.
Most recently, for Virgin Australia, they were responsible for the 'Middle Seat Lottery' which claimed worldwide PR attention including appearing on Saturday Night Live. It won a Yellow Pencil at D&AD as well as also winning at Cannes & One Show.
The pair have hundreds of advertising awards to their names, including 38 Cannes Lions, a Cannes Lions Grand Prix, a D&AD Black Pencil, multiple Yellow Pencils, One Show Gold Pencils and a record 5 Best of Shows at AWARD. In 2021 alone Special Group was awarded ‘Agency Of The Year’ 14 times.
As creative leaders, Tom and Julian's daily task is to judge what it takes for an idea to be truly unique, what it takes for an idea to really resonate with people and deliver effective results in the face of the world’s cold commercial realities.
CONTACTS: Tom - (+61 ) 0417 341 809 Julian - (+61 ) 0410 540 690
A FEW OF OUR AWARDS:
SXSW: Award for Technical Achievement
Cannes Lions: Grand Prix - 1 Gold - 8 Silver - 12 Bronze - 17
D&AD: Black Pencil - 1 Yellow Pencil - 6
One Show: Gold - 1 Silver - 4 Bronze - 5
AWARD: Best of Show - 5
Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards: Grand Prix - 1 Gold - 4
Global Effie - Multi Region: Silver (The highest Effie in 2020): Good Morning World
Global Grand Effie Winners 2021 - Transportation, Travel & Tourism: Good Morning World