From the excellent education opportunities, to the close bonds and friendships formed through boarding, Lisa Plato (nee Hiscock) views her time at St Hilda’s (1998-2001) as a defining time in her life.
From St Hilda’s, Lisa embarked on a degree in viticulture and winemaking at Lincoln University, where students were told an oversaturated wine market meant success would come down to marketing. This led to her decision to specialise in marketing and followed with post-graduate study while working full time in a marketing role at Ravensdown.
During this time she met and married John Plato, with whom she shared a passion to go into business. Through her experience as a client of ‘big’ agencies herself, Lisa saw a gap in the market for a customer-focused agency. Thus, the couple formed Plato Creative in 2007. The vision has always been to be a leading South Island agency, but even Lisa will admit she never expected growth to be as rapid as it was; Plato Creative was ranked in the Deloitte Fast50 three years consecutively in 2011, 2012 and 2013 along with winning the award for the fastest growing service-based business in Canterbury and Upper South Island for two of those three years.
Lisa has also been named as a finalist in the Next business woman of the year awards and in the inaugural Westpac Women of Influence awards in the emerging leader category in 2014.
Their growth has been steady and consistent since inception, and they are humble about the many award wins, saying it has never been about John and herself, it has always been about their clients and their team. This is one of the key elements to Plato Creative’s success; being truly invested in long term partnerships and seeing their clients succeed.
As earthquake refugees, Plato Creative have moved into their very own newly designed and built office marking a big milestone for the business as the South Island’s largest creative studio. It was formally opened by John Key on the 15 September 2016 where he recognised the building as “the coolest office of its kind…” that he’s seen. With a team of 40, Lisa is excited about the opportunities ahead and enjoys being kept fairly busy by life in general, catching up with friends (some of them from St Hilda’s days) and sharing social times with clients she’s grown close to.