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Movings/Shakings: 21 April

Hopping on the juggernaut

Paul Mant has been appointed sales director at Trade Me, bringing an end to his two-year stint as the general manager of of Adhub. 

Mant confirmed the change in a release sent out to the Adhub mailing list:

“After five years as part of the Adhub family, I have decided to pursue a new challenge and head off into the sunset. It’s great to be part of an industry that is continually evolving and morphing, meeting so many great people along the way! The next chapter for me is to join the team at Trade Me as sales director and reunite with ex-Adhub general manager Josh ‘The Wizard’ Borthwick, so will still be in the digital realm but back at the publisher side of the fence.”

Adhub has over the past few years forged a strong partnership with NZME, and Mant also thanked the media conglomerate for its continued support. 

“Although Adhub has run as a small team, we are part of one much larger team with the support of NZME and I would like to thank all of the people we work with at NZME for their continual support and I will watch on with interest to see the many exciting changes ahead.”

StopPress is still waiting for confirmation from Adhub regarding Mant’s replacement.

UPDATE: Adhub is still in the process of recruiting a replacement for Mant.  

Bom dia

Nick Swallow, the director of brands and marketing at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), has relocated to Brazil, where he is currently studying Portuguese before taking on the role of regional director of South America on location in Sao Paolo.

Swallow has been with NZTE since December 2012 and before that held a range of marketing roles at AUT University over the course of an eight-year stint with the academic institution.

Before that, he also held roles at Watercare and Fujitsu. 

Business leadership

NZME has appointed Fran O’Sullivan to the newly created position of NZME editorial director of business. 


 
“Fran is the definition of quality journalism,” says the conglomerate’s chief executive Jane Hastings. “Her leadership and respected connection within the business community will further strengthen NZME’s business content. We are excited to have secured New Zealand’s best to lead business for the future.”  

O’Sullivan will work across all NZME business brands and platforms, including digital, publishing, radio and events. She will work closely with the New Zealand Herald business editor Liam Dann and NZME Radio’s general manager of talk Dallas Gurney, together with NZME’s other journalists and radio hosts. 
 
“I’m thrilled to be joining NZME at this exciting time under the new leadership team,” said O’Sullivan. “I have a passion for high-quality business journalism and the opportunity to take a hands-on role working collaboratively with NZME’s talented team across the whole business is too good to miss.” 
 
O’Sullivan launched the annual Mood of the Boardroom report and the annual China Business Summit. She is also a multiple winner of the Westpac Financial Journalism Award and the Qantas Reporter of the Year. 

In other NZME news, Chris Reed has changed roles at the Herald, moving from deputy editor into the new position of morning editor. He’s also taken back responsibility for the NZME News Service, which he set up and launched in 2011. 

According to a release, “the morning editor role is a key part of the Herald’s digital news-gathering operation, ensuring resources are targeted at the right stories at the right times to drive audience.”

Reed has been on the NZME (previously APN) payroll since 2007, starting at the Herald on Sunday as a news editor. Prior to that, he was at Fairfax, where he held various roles as a reporter, sub-editor and editor over a seven-year stint.   

Leaving the telco

Vodafone external communications specialist Brad Pogson has taken up a new position with PR consultancy Porter Novelli, starting on 29 April.

Pogson was promoted to the communications specialist role last year after the departure of external communications manager Michelle Baguley, who after 11 years with the company joined Spark Digital. 

Before taking on the new role, Pogson had been with Vodafone for around two and half years, first serving as communications advisor between June 2012 and May 2013 and then as an external communications advisor from June 2013 to November 2014. 

Vodafone has still not appointed a replacement for Pogson, however media enquiries can still be directed to external communications manager Fleur McFarlane and external communications specialist Kirsty Hansen.    

Into the niche

Social media marketing agency Socialites has created a new general manager role, appointing Colenso group business director Victoria Graves to the position.

While at Colenso, Graves was responsible for a range of brands, including Tourism Fiji, ATEED, Samsung and Burger King, and was involved in award-winning “Motel Burger King cheat on beef” campaign.

Impressed by Graves’ experience amassed over 15 years at New Zealand and UK-based agencies, Socialites managing director Wendy Thompson asked Graves to join Socialites.

“The demand for our specialised marketing services is growing exponentially as companies recognise the power of building brand-loyal communities,” says Thompson. “With our expanding list of large corporate clients the time is right appoint a general manager, and Victoria’s strong digital and advertising experience leading large teams makes her the perfect pair of shoes for the job. We share the same vision of the future of marketing and the opportunities ahead are massive. Plus, I’ve heard on the grapevine she bakes a killer sausage roll.” 

Asked why she made the leap from a major agency to join a team of ten at Socialites, Graves replied: “I think it’s really exciting where social is heading. Social is often at the heart of everything we do – it is what we check first thing in the morning, where we find most of our news, how we organise our events, and where we have direct and casual conversations with our family, friends and favourite brands. It’s also where you can “test and learn” new technologies and tactics more quickly, with analytics allowing social marketers to improve and demonstrate their results immediately.I think Socialites have found a terrific niche – they are well respected in the industry, and have done the work putting in the foundations and I’m looking forward to helping the company grow to be a much bigger business over the next few years.” 

Anthem expands

Anthem, the communications agency founded in April 2014 by Jane Sweeney and Carolyn Kerr, has made three new appointments to service its expanding list of clients. 

“It’s been an extraordinary first year for us, and we’re working with around 40 clients, both large and small companies across a range of sectors – everything from banking and finance, to property, tourism, technology, Not-For-Profit and public sector,” says Sweeney. “Carolyn and I want to maintain a strategic focus on all our clients’ business with us so are developing the team to assist us deliver our hallmark service.”

Sweeney says that the new hires will broaden the company’s corporate, governance, marketing and brand development expertise. 

Bridget Lem has been appointed to the position of senior account director. She is an award-winning corporate communications and public relations professional with more than 15 years’ experience. She has worked with large and small organisations across numerous sectors in New Zealand and internationally, including Samsung Electronics New Zealand, BP, Sanitarium, DB Breweries, Frucor and Turners & Growers. 

Two account directors have also joined the agency, Sarah Geel and Jennifer Dowdeswell.

Until recently Geel was the senior sponsorship manager for Vodafone New Zealand and was responsible for through-the-line sponsorship campaigns for the Vodafone Warriors, Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards, Team Vodafone Sailing and The Parenting Place (Parents Inc.) as well as Vodafone’s celebrity ambassador programme. Prior to her work with Vodafone, Geel worked on Visa’s integrated Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the Rugby World Cup and Valerie Adams’ sponsorship activity. Geel has also previously worked with Anthem’s principals Sweeney and Carolyn Kerr. 

Dowdeswell brings with her more than seven years’ experience in PR and communications management in London and Western Australia. She has experience in developing and delivering complex stakeholder engagement strategies; handling proactive and reactive media relations for a diverse range of government, corporate and consumer clients; crisis communications and reputation management; and the production of high quality communications collateral across a multitude of channels. 

“We set out wanting to be more than simply another PR agency,” Sweeney says. “After talking to a large number of CEOs and senior executives involved in public affairs and marketing we decided we would aim to reinvent the concept of a PR company altogether. From the start we wanted to grow fast with a client base that places a premium on its communication strategies.”

A new Beat

Boutique agency Beat Communications recently brought James Boult on as a principal in the business. The appointment comes on the back of the agency’s move towards a full-service communications offering rather just traditional PR.  

“We’ve been developing our business model to meet the evolving needs of our clients,” says Director Katharine Broughton. “James has been an integral part of the growth of Beat over the past five years and his appointment fits with the new direction of the agency.” 

Prior to joining Beat, Boult worked as a journalist at Drinksbiz magazine for approximately five years.  

This appointment comes at a good time for Beat, with the agency recently adding Simply Squeezed, Drambuie, Republic Home, and Dress For Success NZ to its client portfolio.

Road trippin’

​Contiki will be using YouTube as a promotional tool for the fourth year in a row—and this time Kiwi starlet Jamie Curry will be joining the trip. 
 
The RoadTrip kicks off on 18 April, starting in Bangkok, and will see Contiki take 10 influential YouTubers on a custom trip around Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, sharing the experience with an audience of millions.
 
Jamie Curry, who recently also collaborated with Coca-Cola Australia, says she’s excited to travel in Asia with Contiki.

“It seems like such a cool place with a really interesting culture,” she said. “I’m excited to meet other YouTubers and everyone I’ve spoken to about Contiki says it’s a really great and fun experience”.
 
Contiki will create a web series for their YouTube channel that chronicles the YouTubers journey. During the RoadTrip of July 2014 this earned the brand over a million views and more than 30,000 subscribers in one week. The YouTubers organic content gathered more than 20 million views; the vast majority of this was promoting the Contiki travel experience in an authentic way.

Group marketing director Alexis Sitaropoulos says the secret of working with YouTubers and digital influencers is collaboration.

“Contiki thinks as an editor, networks as a friend and acts as a YouTuber, working with creators to provide the experiences they want for the content on their channels,” says Sitaropoulos. “It really comes down to the quality of our product. When you are confident in the delivery of the experience, and trust the creator knows how to engage their audience, you can afford to be less prescriptive.” 

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