Every year, StopPress catches up with a group of industry leaders from across Aotearoa to talk about the year that was. From the highlights and the lowlights to their favourite foods, fruits and Christmas traditions, they give us a little insight into 2025 as well as a look forward to 2026.
Louisa Kraitzick is partner at Pead and lead of Houston Issues Management.
In 2025, Pead opened a new specialist division, Houston Issues Management. Tell us why you opened this division and how this has shaped Pead’s trajectory this year?
Brands invest heavily in building equity, yet many spend almost no time thinking about how they’ll protect it. One issue, big or small, can derail sales, damage relationships, and rattle team culture.
Over the last few years, we saw more and more organisations caught unprepared for issues they could have easily mitigated. That’s why we launched Houston Issues Management: to support companies in the heat of a crisis, but also to lift their preparedness long before anything goes wrong.
A personal ambition for me is to raise Aotearoa New Zealand’s overall issues‑management literacy. That’s why we’re releasing free guides and articles for everyone to benefit from, as well as direct services.
In terms of impact for the business, we’ve met new clients who need specialist issues support, and people who want to do phenomenal branding building work, within a group that has best-in-class issues management capability – in case they ever need it.
Pead also won a bunch of awards throughout the year for last year’s World’s Largest Haka. That campaign was a mammoth effort – how did this recognition make the team feel?
We are immensely proud of the haul of awards that our work for Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust generated this year.
It’s us at our best, delivering creative execution with a strategic lens. It means our clients can achieve their business objectives, not just attention when they work with us.
We were thrilled with the outcome. Not only did this nation-building campaign reclaim the World’s Largest Haka Guinness World Records title Aotearoa New Zealand, but we also raised over half a million for Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust.
What was your highlight and most challenging moment of the year?
Two stand out moments for the agency were winning the PRINZ Supreme Award for the World’s Largest Haka and coming out on top for a global creative campaign pitch for Xero.
As for my most challenging moments of the year, they all came from learning the juggle of adding mum life to co-owning a business.
What trends did you follow closely this year and how will this shape your work in 2026?
We follow so many trends. But this year GEO – generative engine optimisation – has to win. We’ve spent a huge amount of time moving past all the snake oil being sold to companies about GEO to actually drill down into how to do proper GEO audits and how to adapt existing comms programmes for GEO.
In 2026, if you’re not optimising for generative engines, you’re leaving yourself open to invisibility. And we’re not about to let that happen! Having a full PR programme (not just media relations!) takes you a long way with GEO, but there is more businesses need to action.
I’m also currently knee deep absorbing the academic research on why the PESO model for communications planning is dead. So that might pop up in 2026 too!
What are you most looking forward to in the new year?
AI has made content abundant.
Anyone can write, create and capture a prompt, but not everyone can think, be creative and connect to a strategy. We are seeing the death of average in our industry because it doesn’t get cut through, and an election year will make this even more pronounced.
To get cut through and provoke the right action, you need be nuanced, you need to be real, you need to add value to your audience’s life. To get cut through you need to be a storyteller, not a content producer.
Practically, that means next year is about partnering with businesses that treat communications and marketing as core operating infrastructure, so they can earn attention, be discoverable, and drive results. As a communications enthusiast that’s all super exciting for me.
Quick fire five
Favourite season?
Spring. You can’t beat the joy of those first warm days after a dreary winter.
Go-to recipe?
Mushroom Stroganoff.
Where is your happy place?
In my garden, under an umbrella while my son toddles about.
Favourite Christmas tradition?
Christmas Eve dinner with my immediate family, before the onslaught of a rambunctious Christmas Day, and lighting Hannukah candles with my husband’s family.
What’s something about you that other people might not know?
Based on the number of NDAs I sign for work there are lots of thing I know that others don’t! But when it comes to me, I still meet people who are surprised that my main mode of transport is my bicycle.
