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Movings/Shakings: 23 February

A trio of appointments

MediaWorks has announced a string of new hires across the company.


Matt Fussell, Stephen Old, Jessica Farrow

Matt Fussell has joined as digital commercial manager, direct. He brings with him experience from a career in OOH, radio, TV and digital across the UK and Australia. In his most recent role at SBS in Sydney, he was responsible for commercialising its digital platforms and worked with the sales team to double its digital revenues.

In the new role, Fussell will be working alongside MediaWorks’ direct local and national businesses to drive its commercial strategy and deliver growth across its TV, radio and news digital platforms.

The second hire is Stephen Old, who has joined as digital commercial manager, agency.

The move sees him return to MediaWorks, having previously left in 2014 to be part of the commercial launch of Pandora NZ where he was responsible for its go-to-market strategy, revenue growth, and market education on audio digital advertising.

Across both his Pandora and MediaWorks roles, he has a track record of high achievement and has been recognised by the industry by winning the accolade of Digital Sales Person of the Year at the inaugural IAB awards last year.

In his new role, he will be working across the agency markets to drive its commercial strategy and deliver growth across its TV, radio and news digital platforms.

The final hire is Jessica Farrow, who joins as Bravo commercial manager.

Farrow has also returned to MediaWorks, having worked here previously in the TV sales team before leaving to expand her experience across print, digital and content creation at Fairfax. 

Farrow will be working alongside the other Bravo commercial manager, Caylee Geldenhuys, and the TV sales teams to create new opportunities for brands to integrate with Bravo.

MediaWorks says the trio will support its sales teams as a channel specific resources to drive commercial strategy, product innovation and outstanding solutions for its customers in key areas.

“We are thrilled to have Matt joining our business, and Steve and Jess returning to the MediaWorks family.”

Growing the team

Two years after setting up shop, strategic brand agency Culture & Theory has welcomed Steve Clark to the team as a senior planner.

Clark has over 30 years’ experience at agencies including BBH, Mojo and Colenso and TBWA, and will now work with strategy director Jonte Goldwater and creative director Nick Riley. The pair established Culture & Theory in 2015.

The appointment comes as the agency works on a project for Westpac in a strategic role alongside DDB. The project is helping the bank continue its commitment towards becoming a more customer-centric organisation.

Graham Wright, Westpac’s brand and sponsorship director, says Culture & Theory has helped the bank refocus the organisation so it can deliver meaning internally, and for its customers.

“The world of banking is undergoing enormous and exciting changes. Customer expectations, competition beyond the traditional banking models and external regulatory forces create the need to be clearer than ever in our role for customers and the community.”

The agency has also appointed a general manager who will join the agency in March.

Going international

Colenso BBDO chief creative officer Levi Slavin, and head of brand, communications and experience at Spark Sarah Williams have joined the Digiday Media Awards Europe 2018 panel.

On the panel, Slavin will be calling on his experience, having won over 100 international awards including one Black and five Yellow Pencils and D&AD.

About joining the panel he says: “To be judging with some of the most prolific, innovative people in the world is phenomenal. Digiday has been on my radar for a while because the work looks less and less like advertising – there’s some really intriguing categories this year. And I get to reacquaint myself with the best work being produced in Europe.”

Williams adds that having recently switched to client-side after 20 years with agencies, she’s excited to see the creative work from the last year.

She joined Spark from Colenso BBDO towards the end of 2016.

Moving up

Pead PR has a new managing director in Sarah Munnik, who is stepping up from her previous role as group account director.

Munnik has been with the agency since 2016 and in taking on the managing director role, succeeds Becky Erwood, who left Pead PR to pursue other opportunities.

Founder and CEO of the agency Deborah Pead says Munnik is a proven leader with a flair for developing people and winning new business.

“With more than fourteen years of public relations experience, Sarah has an impressive reputation as a leading communications professional.”

Crossing the ditch

New Zealand-based talent specialists Razzbri has launched in Australia, following a year of growth.

It also comes after its recent acquisition in late 2017 by global workforce solutions provider Adcorp.

Adcorp’s chief operations officer Mark Jurgens says the acquisition of Razzbri and the launch of the brand in Australia forms a key part of its investment strategy across Australia and New Zealand.

“The acquisition of Paxus in 2014 provided us with strong market coverage across technology talent, which we will see extend to the digital market following the launch of our new digital brand.”

Founder of Razzbri Trudi Batson has now taken on a managing executive role and says the attraction to Adcorp was the opportunity to work with its management team to expand Razzbri’s footprint into Australia and South Africa.

Razzbri will form part of Adcorp’s Adcorp Professional Services (APS) division, which consists of nine individually branded companies that operate in the Southern Hemisphere, predominantly throughout Australia and South Africa.

While the focus is currently on establishing Razzbri’s Sydney and Melbourne offices, further plans are already in play to open offices in Wellington and Christchurch later this year.

Joining the gallery

TVNZ has appointed Jessica Mutch to the role of political editor.

She steps into the role as current political editor Corin Dann moves to host current affairs show Q+A when it returns to TVNZ 1 March.

Mutch says she is excited to be returning to the press gallery “at a time where we are seeing a sea-change in New Zealand politics”.

Taking a break

Following the closure of Paperboy in January, editor Jeremy Hansen has left Bauer Media.

At the time of the closure, Bauer managing director Brendon Hill told StopPress the company was working with Hansen to determine his next move.

Hansen has since left and tells StopPress he has no firm plans at this stage. He is enjoying some time off.

A change of lead

Last month it was announced Dean Cook, former head of marketing at Farmers, will be joining The Warehouse Group in March to take up the role of general manager of marketing for the Noel Leeming/Torpedo7 Group.

StopPress understands Cook will be taking over from Maryanne Smith who has resigned from the role.

Smith joined Noel Leeming Group in 2010 and has since worked in a number of roles including marketing manager (Noel Leeming / Bond+Bond) and Lifestyle Appliances, general manager of marketing for the Noel Leeming Group, and most recently general manager of marketing for the Noel Leeming/Torpedo7 Group.

StopPress has contacted Smith about her move and will update the piece accordingly.

Taking the reins

Serko, a travel and expense technology solution, has appointed Nick Whitehead as head of marketing.

Whitehead brings with him over 15 years’ experience launching innovative products into new segments and helping technology brands enter new geographies. Most recently, he was head of marketing for Viostream, an enterprise video platform headquartered in Australia.

A pair of new recruits

Sudima Hotels and Resorts has appointed Dzin Alekzander as marketing and communications manager and Dipika Patel as digital marketing manager.

Alekzander is no stranger to the tourism industry, joining Sudima after six years as marketing manager at ATEED (Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development).

Prior to this, he was the marketing manager for Ngāi Tahu Tourism.

Meanwhile his new colleague, Patel previously managed the brand and digital transformation for Bupa New Zealand. Patel, who has a breadth of experience in SEO, online content and website development, will now lead Sudima’s digital strategy within the marketing department.

New year, new start

Simon Wedde, former group account director at Dow Design, is now head of client service at Krunch.co.

Wedde had been with Dow Design since 2013 and according to his Linkedin profile, joined Krunch.co in January of this year.

The move follows Dow Design acquiring Goodfolk in December last year and forming Dow Goodfolk.

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