I'm James Smith.

After graduating from the University of Otago in 2002, co-majoring in Business Management and Marketing, I jumped into the corporate marketing world with both feet. For the next 10 years I worked in some of the most high-profile companies in New Zealand and the world – including Fairfax Media, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Mercury Energy and Panasonic.

Keen to work more closely with business-owners, I left my corporate career to run my own marketing franchise. I spent six years bringing outsourced marketing solutions to a wide range of clients. But after seeing so many businesses miss out on improving and developing their internal marketing capabilities, I had an idea.

That idea became Xennial.

I founded Xennial in Auckland in 2018, to help businesses build their marketing capabilities from the ground up. Rooted in strategy, the Xennial approach figures out the destination first – then creates the map to get there.

Today, Xennial is helping clients across the country make their marketing fly. I work one-on-one with businesses and their marketing teams. Taking an in-depth look at where their marketing is today, and where it needs to be – not just tomorrow, but well into the future.