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Movings/Shakings: 14 October

Moving on

Metro editor-at-large Simon Wilson took to his Twitter account earlier this week to announce that he would be leaving the magazine. 

 

Wilson moved into the editor-at-large position last year in October, after around five years of editing the magazine. 

StopPress understands that Wilson has been made redundant as part of a range of changes set to take effect at Metro in the coming weeks.

Stuff reports that among those changes is the move to reduce the number of Metro magazines from ten to six.   

Bauer publisher Brendon Hill said that Bauer does not comment about staff departures in the media, but he did confirm that a few changes were taking place at the publication. 

He said that further announcements would be made next week.  

A legend on the board

Insights agency TRA has announced the appointment of Roger MacDonnell (pictured third from right) to their board of directors.

MacDonnell brings with him more than 40 years’ industry experience and will be a valuable addition to the TRA board.

MacDonnell was a founding partner, chairman and CEO of Colenso BBDO, one of New Zealand’s most consistently successful ad agency. Since retiring in 2010 he has held various board positions including the Image Centre Group (ICG), the Auckland Arts Festival, and has just finished six years on the TVNZ Board.

Throughout his long career, Roger has worked for some of New Zealand’s largest companies including Air New Zealand, Bank of New Zealand, Vodafone, Toyota NZ and Fonterra Brands.

“We are very excited to have someone of Roger’s calibre, experience and passion joining the board of TRA,” said Andrew Lewis, TRA’s managing director. “He brings with him a strategic and creative judgement that will be critical to our realising the ambitious plans we have for the business over the next few years. He is an absolute class act.”

“I am very excited about the TRA opportunity” said MacDonnell. “They are a young, super-smart company and the leading insight agency in Auckland. They are specialists in tracking changing consumer behaviour in today’s disrupted world and the type of high level insights they produce will be increasingly critical to developing brand strategies. I have found working with them in the past incredibly stimulating and am really looking forward to sharing their exciting journey into the future.” 

A triumvirate

Westhaven Indie Chemistry Interaction has made three new hires to meet expanding client needs, nabbing talent from Colenso, 99 and Image Centre Group (ICG). 

First up is Joel Buckley, a senior art director who was most recently at Colenso. Buckley, who is originally from the UK, has worked on Kiwi brands like Anchor, BNZ, Monteiths, Burger King and Spark up at College Hill. He made the move down the road to Westhaven because he says: “I love the vibe in the place. It’s a fast-growing agency and has a great future. The opportunity to be part of that was too good to miss.”

Next is Odessa Coleman, who joins as editor and motion graphics artist to meet the agency’s expanding video content production needs. Coleman, who was most recently at 99, has worked on big name retail brands like Farmers, Warehouse Stationery, Spark and New World. She says,

“I immediately saw that Chemistry is a young, dynamic agency that’s highly creative,” she says. “I was keen to work closer with clients and have more responsibility in my role.”

Strengthening the agency’s account service capabilities further is Senior Account Manager Nikki-Lee Mark, who joins from ICG, where she was responsible for the AUT, Vodafone Warriors, Hearing Life and TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards business. Mark, who will be working predominantly on the State and AMI business, says she chose Chemistry because of the strategic and creative quality at the agency.

“The relationships that Chemistry has with their clients are honest and collaborative,” she says. 

“They become an extension of the client’s marketing team, really pushing the client beyond what’s expected.”

New digs, new talent

In response to continued growth, the Motion Sickness team recently moved into a new, much bigger office located at 6/1 Cross Street in Newton, Auckland. 

Motion Sickness founder Sam Stuchbury says the new space was custom-designed to ensure that the original Motion Sickness brand was retained despite the move. 

He says the agency has grown from a garage operation between two students at university in Dunedin to a business that employs eight full-time staff and three part-timers. 

The most recent addition to the team is Jordan Stent, who has joined the creative/social team. 

“He’s a really talented creative and also a great photographer,” says Stuchbury. 

Northern expansion

Queenstown agency KBR Digital is looking to expand its operation by opening an office in Auckland. 

The agency’s founder Grant Hyland has also announced the appointment of Allanah Tatana to lead North Island-based office.. 

 Tatana, who joins from FCB where she previously served as a senior digital planner, has broad experience across a diverse range of agency clients. 

 

Hyland says that KBR Digital functions as an agency support business that doesn’t have any direct clients. 

“Instead, we focus all our attention and resources on working with agencies,” he says. “They come to us for our range of services and end-to-end media thinking, including digital media strategy, search marketing, media planning, social implementation, campaign management and programmatic buying.  We are [unique]in New Zealand, and offer fully agnostic digital media thinking and execution across all campaign and buy types.”  

Hyland says that KBR Digital, made up of a team of 12, is currently working with ten agencies across the country.

Growing team

Dentsu Aegis Network has bolstered its marketing and communications team in Australia and New Zealand with the appointment of Andrew Hewett (pictured left) in a newly created role as head of corporate affairs. 

Simon Ryan, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network ANZ, says the appointment represents the group’s commitment to investing in its marketing and communications function to support its agencies. 

“As a company, we work with some of the most prominent clients and business partners across Australia and New Zealand,” he says. “As we continue to grow and evolve, we need to build a strong Corporate Communications function that supports Dentsu Aegis Network and all our agency brands and ensures our continued position as a leader not only in our industry, but within the broader business community.” 

Andrew’s appointment follows Rebecca Tos’s promotion to chief marketing officer for the Dentsu Aegis Network in May. 

Rebecca said: “It’s brilliant to have the support of Simon and our Executive Leadership Team to put the necessary resource behind our strategy to build the Dentsu Aegis Network brand even further across ANZ. I’m so pleased to welcome the calibre of Andrew to our team as we embark on a number of exciting projects.” 

Hewett, a communications specialists with more than two decades of experience behind him, was most recently group general manager of external communications for Coca Cola Amatil. 

His appointment is effective immediately.

The talent hunter

3rdeye Recruitment has welcomed Debbie Kirkbride to its team.

Kirkbride joins 3rdeye after 26 years at Ogilvy & Mather Durban, rising through the ranks of client service.

Director of 3rdeye, Andy Sive, says: “Debbie brings to the table a career’s worth of agency insight and a deep empathy for both the candidate journey and a client’s business requirements.”

She will work with Sarah Ritchie in recruiting for client services, social, digital, strategy, PR and experiential roles.

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