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Employers thrilled, delighted and excited as new folk take up various posts

As The Day Today so famously said: “Facts times importance equals news”. Here’s some now, and this time it’s about various industry comings, goings, movings, shakings, to-ings and fro-ings.

Gone Bananas

Bananaworks, the Auckland-based cross-cultural communications agency, has formed an alliance with Hyve Communications and DFVBY, both of Wellington, to broaden the provision of marketing communications services to organisations wanting to access the growing Asian market.

Bananaworks, which has built a solid client list (ANZ, BNZ, HSBC, Inland Revenue, Kiwibank, Westpac, ACC, Electoral Office, Ministry of Health, NZ Police, TAB, Telecom, Te Papa, Western Union and Yellow Pages) over the five years it has been in operation, puts together fully integrated multi-media, multi-lingual campaigns to complement home-grown communications delivered in English.

“We have many smaller clients who also need to communicate in Chinese, Korean and Japanese for example,” says Kenneth Wang, Bananaworks’ chief executive. “There’s no doubt this need will continue to grow as New Zealand businesses recognise the value in communicating directly with the growing local Asian market – the number of Asians here in New Zealand increased almost 50 percent in the five years to 2006 and is expected almost to double by 2026. If we’re to take advantage of that, we have to gear up – hence the Bananaworks’ alliance with Hyve and DFVBY, long-established agencies who already work together and have complementary skills and expertise.”

Hyve has considerable experience creating Asian language communications for New Zealand companies entering those markets. Patrick Velvin, Hyve’s founder, says the agency sees the need to look both ways – talking to Asians in New Zealand, and helping New Zealand companies to communicate in Asia. And this alliance is a logical way to grow.

Hyve has for many years worked jointly with DFVBY (Donnithorne Fordyce Vintiner Birss & Young) which was established in 1993. DFVBY has a background in agriculture, horticulture, education, government bodies, technology and general business.

“In Wellington, particularly, there are areas we can help broaden the potential and scope of complementary cross-cultural campaigns,” says Gerard Birss. “We’re confident this alliance can provide enhanced cross-cultural communications services which are more and more becoming an essential part of marketing strategy”.

Ocean liner

Marketing communications veteran Andy Allison has joined Ocean Design’s advisory board and Richard Janes, who has been chairman of Ocean’s advisory board for more than a decade, says the appointment reflects a “deepening of the company’s offer in business strategy”.

Allison has a strong background in business, establishing and running marketing communications company Presence for 12 years prior through to its sale to ASX-listed Photon Group in 2006. His background is in farming, journalism (financial correspondent with Reuters) and 20 years in marketing communications. He is also a founder and director of proactive screening service, Pre-empt.

“Andy’s experience brings an additional dimension to the company and is an important step in the further development of Ocean Design,” Janes said. Along with Janes, he joins Rachel Hopkins and managing director Blair Mainwaring.

Janes says a unique feature of the advisory board is that the three non-executive directors are former clients of the business.

“We have each experienced Ocean’s unique style first hand, and have been inspired to help perpetuate and develop this,” he says.

In addition to involvement in the primary sector (Richard Janes), professional services marketing (Rachel Hopkins), public affairs and business development (Andy Allison) and strategic and creative direction (Blair Mainwaring), the directors also bring geographical diversity, covering Auckland, Wellington and the South Island.

Twenty plus one

Kevin Eade has started at Twenty as digital and business manager, a dual role of business development across the whole agency as well as leading the evolution of Twenty’s digital services.

Eade has returned after 11 year in London where he co-founded a Kiwi run digital agency called Glass, working with brands such as San Miguel, Honda, Lloyds TSB and NHS.

“This is a real opportunity for me to make my mark through applying the skills, knowledge and experience gained in the UK within what is an exciting, emerging and rapidly growing digital landscape here in New Zealand,” Eade says.

One of Twenty’s founders/directors Simon Breed says the company is incredibly lucky to have secured Eade’s services.

“London is one of the most progressive, competitive and challenging places to set up a digital shop – or any kind of agency for that matter. His success in building a digital agency from start-up to over $3m and 20 staff plus proves his capabilities and tenacity. His experience will add substantial depth to for our clients in the digital space.”

Pond adds to retail arsenal

Peter Radich, a versatile designer across retail, promotions and direct response, and Narelle McAllum, a “chic retail art director with strong flair in fashion, lifestyle and homeware”, have both joined the ever-growing list of freelancing Pondies.

Radich is a accomplished commercial designer, art director, design manager, retail and DM extraordinaire and his ten years in the advertising and design world has included stints at DDB (as retail design manager) and AIM Proximity (where he was senior designer of direct).

He specialises in retail design as well as design for direct across telecommunications, FMCG, food & beverage, corporate and retail sectors and he’s worked with Air New Zealand, Vodafone and Cadbury. And, with a shortage of good designers focusing in these disciplines, his talents have been in high demand since joining (check out past goodness here).

McAllum, formerly of Colenso .99 fame, where she worked primarily on the Farmers fashion account that has enjoyed strong growth and store expansion over the same period, is renowned for her “colourful, feminine, fun and irreverent style”. She also did work for other clients including Vodafone, SkyCity Cinemas and Hardy’s.

She specialises in shop signage, point of sale material, retail stationery and visual merchandising across fashion, beauty and home interior (designer bathroom supplies, no less) clients. See her handiwork.

Recruitment recruits

Recruitment and human resource consulting business Hudson has made a number of new appointments to its ICT practice in Auckland and Wellington.

John Coventry has been appointed director of Hudson’s national ICT practice, based in Wellington and he brings more than 20 years international experience to the role. He has been responsible for managing the resourcing of large specialist teams for some of the world’s leading technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard and British Telecommunications.

“A wave of demand for top quality ICT people is fast approaching as New Zealand businesses ramp up their IT investment post-recession and the government defines the way forward for large-scale projects, such as the government ultra-fast broadband plan,” he says.

Annabelle Klap has been appointed as director of the Auckland ICT practice, further supported by four new specialist ICT recruitment consultants. She comes to Hudson from another recruitment firm where she has specialised in ICT recruitment for five years, after a career in sales.

Her team, with 20 years combined ICT recruitment experience, includes Pri Sandhu, Kara Smith and Monica Mahendru, and Martin Wong.

“My team truly understands the skilled experts that are needed to help New Zealand businesses shift IT from a cost centre to a department that delivers real competitive advantage,” she says.

Arts on the Horizon

Independent Hamilton brand marketing agency Bold Horizon has signed up as the new sponsor of the National Contemporary Art Award, hosted annually by Waikato Museum and renowned for the challenging and thought provoking entries it attracts. It will now be known as the Bold Horizon National Contemporary Art Award, and the first prize remains at $15,000.

“Our brand philosophy and tagline is ‘we see what others don’t’, which has a close fit with the contemporary art award, where artworks often challenge people to look beyond their own perceptions and to see things from a fresh and alternate perspective”, says Bold Horizon chief executive, Wayne Attwell.

Atwell says being involved as the major sponsor of a major creative award is timely, as Bold Horizon continues to extend its presence beyond the Waikato and into other regions.

“Bold Horizon will be working alongside the Museum team to develop a promotional campaign strategy and graphic material”, says Mr. Attwell. “Our online expertise will be put to good use as we help Waikato Museum develop an online presence for the award, which is expected to extend the geographic reach to include a wider international audience.”

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