Group Ethos

We have built our collective around our clients' needs, and as these evolve and change, so do we. 

Waitapu Group is a proudly local collective of independent, innovative, unconventional businesses that surround their clients' business problems with a collaborative group of subject matter experts, strategists, futurists, cultural guides, social scientists, creative thinkers and producers. 

Our approach is not conventional. Nor is it timid, or formulaic. Our ideas can be unorthodox. Sometimes uncomfortable. But they will always be stimulating, and fresh.

We are 100% Aotearoa-owned. This independence is our strength. Our oxygen. It allows us to think freely, to flex and move quickly, and work in ways that wouldn't be possible beneath a globally-owned corporate monolith. We prefer to explore ways to make things happen, rather than look for reasons not to. 

Mavericks don't like to stand still. Not for long. 

There's no future in that.

Business Consulting

We believe that co-defining the problem is key to co-designing the solution.

Across multiple retail, government and public sector clients, our challenge has often been one of integrating culture and acknowledging the past, whilst we define the future.

Many of our projects, briefs and outputs have required a high-level of community engagement that marries kaupapa Māori with human-centred design principles and service design methodologies. Our consulting businesses Rutherford and Tātou, along with the creatives at Stanley Street, have been able to honour the voices we serve and produce solutions that meet and uphold the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Rutherford Consulting Services Include:

• Transformation and Change Management
• Future-proof for  2050
• ESG & Sustainability Strategy and Roadmap
• Service Design
• Customer Experience and User Experience

Building Connections

As many clients begin to embrace a changing New Zealand, we often have briefs coming in asking to use Māori design that speaks to inclusiveness. 

By ensuring we consult with our cultural experts Tātou on our projects, we ensure we are always upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles across our business, and our clients.

Our proprietary approach supports clients embed cultural safety within their organisations. Creating a tailored programme aligned to their business objectives delivered through a series of modules that explores bicultural foundations and Te Ao Māori.

Marketing, Media & Creative

It's been a bit of an evolution for the agency landscape. As the big global conglomerates started buying agencies and divvying them up into specialist divisions, so too did big business start bringing traditional agency services in house. The segregated agency pieces started to work too independently, forgetting the whole as they fought for their part. The in-house agencies started to become process driven, cumbersome and slow. They also struggled to attract and retain talent, and the people always seem to be complaining about a lack of resource. 

At Stanley Street we're feeling like we're back in the right place. We've got it all in house again, but at the right level. The clients that stayed have begun to reframe it and realised that we are their "in-house" - which is why some of them have desks here and spend half their time integrating with 'their team' here. 

Our media teams work alongside creative and creative work hand-in-hand with our social media teams at Culture. All the while our end-to-end integrated production team are involved, checking in on logistics, holding us accountable to client budgets and working with us to craft the best output. 

We know we're more efficient, cost effective and most of all - we offer speed to market.