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Movings/Shakings: 17 July

Product promotions

Back left to right: Anna Ma, Mabel Wong, Christine Jones,  Jesica MacKinnon, Front left to right (sitting): Stacey Perillo, Justine Kotkin. 

Stuff has realigned its product management team, with the promotion of eight members, all female, into senior leadership roles.

Mitchell Mak, head of product management, says the company made a conscious decision to focus on talent within its organisation.

“Often businesses feel the need to look externally to diversify thinking and ideas, but we already had a lot of smart people who, despite being committed to their work, were in roles that didn’t allow them to maximise their capabilities.

“This realignment gave us the opportunity to consolidate several dispersed business functions into one product management function, enabling us to manage the lifecycle of our products from conception through to end of life, and setting us up to deliver on the business’ strategic objectives by 2021.”

Stuff’s product management function is now responsible for commercial and advertising products, user-facing audience/content products, and editorial/newsroom products and tools.

Auckland additions

L-R: Brian Turner and Kerri Tait.

Colmar Brunton has announced two appointments, with Kerri Tait moving into the chief client officer (Auckland) and Brian Turner as head of client service (Auckland).

Tait has a strong background in senior client and agency relationships, business development and project management, and has been with Colmar Brunton for three years, previously holding senior roles at APN, Fairfax and Tangible Media.

Turner has more than 15 years of experience in market research, originally in international and boutique agencies based in London before his move to New Zealand.

Leading a team boasting a wealth of expertise, Turner’s role will ensure clients’ needs are always at the forefront and offer a holistic approach to develop bespoke strategic solutions and customised insights delivery.

Sarah Bolger, head of Colmar Brunton, is thrilled at Tait and Turner’s appointments and says it is part of a wider strategic approach.

“As we continue to develop our business to ensure we are responsive to client needs, we need to be structured in a way that ensures we are delivering across the full extent of our insight capability.

“Kerri has a natural aptitude for spotting business solutions for her clients. Her energy, motivation and her outstanding client service capability makes her the ideal person to take on the chief client officer role in Auckland. With Brian having an overarching view of the client service team, their variety of skills and capacity will enable us to respond in a way that is more agile and meaningful to clients.”

Do the hula

L-R: Blair Glubb, Jared Ward and David Lyall. 

Corporate event agency Uno Loco has recently launched Hula, a specialist B2B design, content and communications agency.

Chief executive is Blair Glubb, a leading practitioner in B2B marketing, also brings digital start-up and strategy expertise to Hula (and Uno Loco) from his time in executive roles locally and offshore.

General manager Jared Ward brings expertise gained in New York and London with Jack Morton, book-ended by 9 years at Madant/Uno Loco.

David Lyall, as director of strategy, has a background that includes five years with Designworks.

Sparkling return

Carat New Zealand has appointed Jonathan Sorensen to the role of group business director.

Sorensen’s 13-plus years of agency experience includes time in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, working on major brands such as Coke, Mastercard, Air New Zealand, Fonterra, and Kia Motors. He re-joins Carat from OMD, where he has held leadership roles across strategy and communications planning for the last four years.  

Carat New Zealand general manager Alex Lawson says Sorensen’s “varied experience and strategic thinking” as critical to his appointment.  

“We’re committed to securing the best talent that the market has to offer to help lead us into the next phase of our Carat journey here in New Zealand. Jonathan represents that type of talent, absolutely. He could not come more highly recommended by our agency and industry partners, so we’re thrilled to have him back on board. His will be an immediate asset to our clients, who I know are itching for him to get started.”  

Sorensen says he is “absolutely pumped to be joining the amazing group of people and clients who have built Carat into the market leader it is today”.

“There’s an infectious buzz of momentum within the business right now – it’s exciting to jump in and become part of an agency with this level of energy. Carat’s consistent focus on delivering strategic, well-informed and creative communication solutions is something I’ve always respected. With the added power of Dentsu Aegis Network, I believe their output has been supercharged.”

Sorensen started with Carat on 9 July.

New face

Fish & Clips welcomes Jeff Wood as a commercials director to its roster. 

 Saffron Jackson, head of content at Fish & Clips, says Wood has diverse abilities and design prowess, “with an expert and technical eye. We’re stoked to have his experience with us at Fish & Clips.” 

Wood’s fascination with film began young, experimenting with scratch film loops and studied design before consolidating his career in film making and digital media, working with a myriad of clients and honing his skill-set.

Wood has received critical acclaim and awards for his work across multiple genres, such as Best Design, The One Show, Spikes, British Design Museum Top 100 List, film finalist and a Gold Lion at Cannes for his interactive music video for the Pet Shop Boys’ Integral.

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