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Movings/Shakings: 31 July

A sales solution

​Mediaworks has announced the appointment of Mike Berry who will take up the role of its Wellington-based radio sales manager later this year.

Berry will be joining general manager agency sales Jude Taylor, and her team, Mikayla Shaw and Maree Holtom.

Berry will join the team on August 17, and will spend the first three months honing his television and online skills, before moving into his role of Radio Sales Manager Wellington from late November, according to a release.

“Wellington is a very important market, and Mike brings strong existing agency relationships and a wealth of radio experience to the team. He is the last piece of the puzzle for our agency sales division and new structure,” says Mediaworks group commercial director Paul Hancox.

Berry started in radio sales on a direct basis for ZB and ZM in 1981, worked at Instore Radio and Radio Windy, then joined the Radio New Zealand national sales team in 1991.

RNZ sales later joined with PRISM (Private Radio Network Sales & Marketing) to become The Radio Bureau, where he has been the Wellington Sales Manager since 1992.

Jude joined Mediaworks Wellington in October 2002 as Group Sales Manager TV Wellington, from TVNZ Auckland where she was GSM.

She started at PRISM in 1989, and was part of the original TRB. She also did a couple of years working in direct radio for Radio Windy and The Breeze.

Jude was promoted to general manager agency sales in May to head the new integrated sales team in Wellington, a release says.

Brand new role

Y&R has announced James Johnston will be joining the team in the newly created role of client services director, effective immediately.

A release says Johnston has more than sixteen years in the advertising industry, both here and in the UK and has been instrumental in developing successful strategies and delivering effective end-to-end marketing initiatives, across a broad range of industries and sectors.

Y&R NZ managing director Steve Kane says Johnston is a proven leader in client management and his energy and enthusiasm will be a welcome addition to the management team.

“James’s appointment is fantastic for our portfolio of clients as he’s a seasoned campaigner across specialist brands, high volume retail and fully integrated campaigns. And he’ll be a tremendous boon for the account management team as he brings a wealth of experience in developing strong client relationships.”

Johnston will be in charge of the day-to-day leadership of the Westfield business as well as agency and client business growth, with responsibility for leading the agency’s account management team.

“For years I’ve been impressed with Y&R’s creative problem solving. When I sat down with the leadership team to discuss their ambitions for the agency I was delighted to learn of their obsession with delivering real results for real clients. And working with a brilliant group of suits across a damn desirable bunch of clients is a pretty good reason to leap out of bed every day”.

Prior to joining Y&R NZ Johnston was business director at Rainger & Rolfe.

Team Wellington

NZME has established an agency-integrated strategy, planning and sales team in Wellington to focus on enabling agencies to leverage the full power of the NZME network, a release says.

NZME head of agency sales Donna Gurney says Wellington is a key market for NZME.

“We have long been committed to supporting agencies and clients with a strong local sales team. The expansion of the Wellington agency team is reflective of the increasing breadth of what we offer our partners across NZME’s portfolio and our ongoing commitment to delivering exceptional service and support in this market.”

“This team is designed to provide Wellington media agencies with the option to leverage NZME audiences across all of our channels or deal directly with a specialist as needed. It ensures them direct access to media solutions, planning and bookings working with a dedicated local team.”

The team is made up of Andrew Horan, account director integrated solutions, who has been with NZME (formerly APN) for the past five years, working across both print and digital, and more recently expanding into radio and GrabOne and Allen Ngan, an account manager for publishing who has been with NZME for twelve months, the release says.

The expanded team consists of Glen Smith, who specialises in integrated creative solutions including radio, digital, experiential and video. He has been with NZME (formerly TRN) since 2002.

Anita King is a digital specialist based in NZME’s Christchurch office. King will be stepping into the role of digital business development manager to support the Wellington integrated sales team. Prior to joining NZME she worked at Eyecorp and also managed agency clients at Yahoo!NZ in Auckland.

The team is rounded out with Paul Raeburne, area sales manager for GrabOne and the NZME Educational Media team lead by Bronwen Wilkins who produce a wide range of custom publications as well as NZME’s branded content solutions in Wellington. 

The new team is effective from Monday.

More from NZME

​NZME has also announced the appointment of Dallas Gurney into a new role at group level, focussed on growing commercial branded content, white labelled content solutions, PR and communications services for clients.

Branded content and custom content production is a key growth area in media globally, NZME chief executive Jane Hastings says.

“Given its importance Dallas is the perfect person for this role with his wealth and award winning experience in content creation.  Whether that is creating content for a client’s assets and/or creating custom content across our assets, Dallas with the strength of our teams will provide commercial solutions that deliver the results clients are after.”

Gurney has been at the helm of Newstalk ZB and Radio Sport for over five years and received the Radio Programmer of the Year award for three consecutive years in 2012-2014.

Gurney says it has been an absolute privilege to work with the team.

“When you take on ZB you are part of history and creating the future every day. I’m incredibly excited about this new role, leading a division that is all about growing clients businesses through great content.  It’s creative, it’s all about relationships and it’s everything I’ve wanted my next step to be.”

Gurney begins his new role in mid-August.

​NZME has also secured Steve Kyte from early August as general manager of Newstalk ZB to replace Dallas.

Kyte has more than twenty years experience in radio, television, online production and management internationally. 

A release says Kyte has helped launch and transform some of the world’s leading radio brands, including BBC Radio 5 Live, London’s LBC and ABC Radio in Australia. He is currently a director of Bite Media, a London based multi-platform production company and Steve Kyte Media, which offered consultancy services to media organisations around the world.

Production wizz

Nigel Sutton has jumped aboard the Blockhead bandwagon as its senior producer after a successful and extensive agency career, a release says.

The move follows four years as head of production at Special Group, where he produced campaigns for some major clients including 2degrees, AA Insurance and Smirnoff.

His time at Special Group was preceded by ten years working between .99 and Colenso BBDO, where he became senior producer, running major campaigns for Frucor, Vodafone and Burger King amongst others.

“Nigel’s the perfect fit for us. He understands agency requirements and having worked with just about every major production company in Australasia, knows all our clients,” says Blockhead executive producer Josephine Mackenzie.

Sutton says: “I’m loving it already. The guys have a fantastic reputation, are great to work with and have some exciting things on the horizon.”

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