As One Plus One Group’s Kelly Bennett gears up to represent New Zealand at Cannes Lions this month, he shares his thoughts on themes emerging in the PR industry, suggesting quality over quantity and encouraging entries that break out of the mould.
Browsing: Kelly Bennett
When it comes to corporations, history shows that consumers tend to forgive accidents—and even stupidity. But willful deception is another kettle of fish. And Volkswagen inventing technology to cheat on its emissions tests is about as willful and deceptive as it gets (if it wasn’t so evil, you could almost applaud their inventiveness). So far, it has had a major impact on Volkswagen’s share price (and other car brands’ share prices), it is getting ready for a recall of 11 million cars, billions of dollars in fines are on the cards and the first of what could be many lawsuits have already been filed. Some believe it could bring Volkswagen to its knees. So can the company recover from this reputational car crash? And what can marketers learn from the saga?
Kurt Vonnegut is now seen as a counter-culture icon. But before that he worked in PR for General Electric before he hit the big time. And he can teach people in this industry something, says Kelly Bennett.
Eschewing cliches of elderly figures trying to hear their grandchildren, One Plus One and Augusto have used two New Zealand music legends to produce content marketing cinematography that demonstrates hearing aids.
Around one year after launching, One Plus One Communications has signed up as an affiliate of Publicis Groupe-owned MSL Group, which has more than 100 offices in 46 countries. And founder and managing director Kelly Bennett says the deal means it will be able to offer international muscle to local clients if the need arises, add international clients requiring assistance in this market to its roster and potentially work with other Publicis Groupe agencies in New Zealand.
The traditional PR model may be eroding, but PR agencies and corporate comms teams still serve an important business function, says Kelly Bennett.
Some see him as a journalistic pioneer. Others see him as a narcissistic megalomaniac. And Andrew Fowler’s chronicling of Julian Assange’s rise and fall will help you decide which side of the fence you sit on—and should be of interest to anyone with a passing interest in the media—writes Kelly Bennett.
After departing Eleven PR a few months back and passing the TBWA\ baton to Lauren Vosper, Kelly Bennett has officially launched his new PR consultancy One Plus One Communications and is looking to fill the gap he believes exists “between some of the more well-established, traditional corporate PR agencies and others, which are often housed within advertising agencies or media companies, that offer consumer and activation services”.
There’s been plenty of change at TBWA\ over the past few months, with Todd McLeay and Toby Talbot coming on board to take over from David ‘I’m not fucking retiring’ Walden and Andy Blood. And now there’s some more change, with Eleven PR’s founder and managing partner Kelly Bennett leaving to set up his own corporate public relations business.
As the 25th anniversary of the film How To Get Ahead in Advertising approaches, Kelly Bennett offers some advice on how to avoid being corrupted by the worst excesses of the industry.
The fourth Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity in Singapore saw close to 5,000 pieces of work submitted from 22 countries across 16 categories. Eleven PR’s managing partner Kelly Bennett participated as a juror in the PR category and shares his thoughts on some of the work and the judging process.
New Zealand is a nation built on exports, and historically they’ve come from the primary sector. All going to plan, the country will be exporting more of its IP in the future and that’s what Eleven PR, which was established in New Zealand, launched in Australia less than two years ago and won the PR agency of the year award at last week’s Mumbrella Awards, is planning to do.
TVNZ’s Eric Kearley joins Rick Ellis at Telstra, Air New Zealand shifts some troops, Copper prepares for growth with a double, Rory Carter opens the doors of Red Dennis, Getty bolsters its APAC marketing team, CAANZ welcomes a new recruit, Kip Brook heads into academia, and James Mok and Kelly Bennett get the call up for Spikes Asia.
The Research Agency welcomes an international research heavyweight, Eleven\PR snatches a couple from PPR, Ambient Group ramps up its experiential and talent offering, Firebrand does some of its own recruiting, Rob Fyfe wraps up warm with Icebreaker, Komli NZ wins About.com, In Motion Post gets a slice of Bunnings, JOOB announces one of its regional big dogs and a couple of Auckland dining hotspots get some international attention.
Kelly Bennett, the founder and managing partner of Eleven PR New Zealand, has been tapped on the shoulder and will lead the expansion of brand activation, experiential and PR services for the TBWA\ network throughout Asia Pacific.
… as Federation adds both staff and clients, Designworks appoints an experienced business campaigner to the new role of client strategist, Magnum hits double figures, Eleven adds two new accounts, Mike O’Sullivan to pass judgement in London and video and social/casual gaming network VENA adds an Asia Pacific COO.
Journalism is dying a slow and painful death. At least, that was the argument put forward by award-winning UK reporter Nick Davies in his 2009 book, Flat Earth News. Well, I disagree entirely.
We were thinking of what approach to take when looking at KFC and their Double Down. The ridiculously effective campaign that proved any PR is good PR managed to run some stores out of bacon (we are presuming it’s real bacon), some stores to have queues outside and some stores probably with broken toilets.
But after looking at the most popular trends on Twitter in New Zealand, aside from seeing #doubledown at number four, something that stood out was the number one trend which had a “promoted” badge next to it. That trend? #McDFrozen.
After five years operating successfully in the Kiwi market, TBWA\’s consumer PR and experiential agency Eleven PR is opening its doors in Sydney, with Rob Lowe, former senior account director at One Green Bean in Sydney, enlisted to lead the charge.
Omnicom-owned Fleishman-Hillard has jumped into bed with Omnicom-owned ELEVEN\PR in an effort to expand its extensive global and Asia Pacific footprint to New Zealand, while “broadening both firms’ areas of expertise and geographic reach”.
Kelly Bennett
It’s been a relatively stressful time for TBWA\ of late: around the same time the ASB account left the building, Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand (PlayStation) was also undertaking a thorough competitive review of its PR account. And it would’ve been a pretty bad look to lose that business too, but in news that’s sure to bring comfort to the Mayoral Drive offices, ELEVEN\PR, part of the TBWA\ Group, retained the account.
A senior, seasoned technology client quipped to me the other day that the growth of so called ‘social media experts’ reminded him of the rise and rise of the dotcom gurus who sprouted like mushrooms in the late nineties. But you know what? Not only does the prevalence of social media seem familiar, for someone like me (and those of my vintage), it’s actually reassuringly old fashioned.