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Movings|Shakings: 12 June

Wilson’s choice

After five years as editor of Metro—the eighth in the publication’s three and a half decades—Simon Wilson, is stepping down to become contributing editor. 

“More writing, less admin, more new stuff. I’m excited,” he tweeted. 

He has presided over a title that has moved firmly into the digital space; he has been a champion of Auckland (in a ‘we’re with you, but we’ll point out your flaws when we need to’ kind of way); he’s renowned as a sage for journalists young and old, as evidenced by his brilliant Ten rules of Write Club post; and, as Gary Bosher tweeted, he’s “a ferociously brilliant journalist, great arts supporter + all-round good guy”. 

Circulation has remained fairly stable during his tenure and it currently clocks in with 7,921 average net paid sales (according to Wikipedia, Wilson oversaw a 25 percent increase in Metro’s readership in 2010). But it’s not just about paper anymore. Metro has a wide array of events and the best restaurant awards are still a big deal, its Metroeats section works well online and it’s one of the most active magazine brands on social media. 

Before Metro, Wilson was editor of Cuisine and Consumer

There is no word on a replacement yet. But Metro is also recruiting for a journalist/digital editor. 

Heading stateside

Colenso BBDO copywriter Oriel Davis Lyons is heading to New York. 

Davis Lyons worked at Special group for two years before moving to Colenso BBDO in 2013, and he has won a number of big awards, including New Zealand’s first-ever Black Pencil for Pedigree’s K9FM.

Continued shuffle  

There have been a whole heap of changes at NZME in recent months, and one we missed was the departure of general manager of brand and communications Sarah Kenny earlier in the year. It’s thought she is currently working with Fresh Focus, the research company set up by Ryf Quail.

In October last year, chief marketing officer at APN Kursten Shalfoon also departed and he is now the director of Generator Consulting. 

Young restless

After four years writing for the NBR, first on the marcomms scene and more recently in the courts, Victoria Young has ventured overseas on her OE. 

Showcase shifts to San Fran

After being established around four years ago, Wellington based Showcase Workshop has opened a new office in San Francisco and appointed a US based chief executive in Jason Brooks.

Showcase works with companies Spark, The Warehouse, Mitsubishi, NZTE, Sky City and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, however the focus for the brand new San Francisco-based sales team points to four main pillars of business in the US market: manufacturing, automotive, commercial construction and finance. Locally, Showcase is also seeing a rapid rise in interest for the use of the platform to distribute health and safety information, measure safety behaviours and provide new tools for incident reporting.

“New Zealand companies have the benefit of quickly adopting cutting edge tools like Showcase for say their sales team, and then discovering it has brilliant application for managing and measuring internal comms or health and safety,” says former chief executive and now Showcase Workshop president Millie Jocelyn. “In the US, we need to be much more focused, mainly because of the size of the market. It’s a huge opportunity, so we need to section it off into manageable pieces.”

Showcase Workshop’s US based sales team have already cemented their first 90 days with a cheeky gamified plan. Each person in the team has been given a pillar and an industry vertical to work towards, with the winner coming out on top after 90 days, earning them a plane ticket to New Zealand. 

Showcase Workshop will continue to call Wellington home for its expanding technical development team.

The eyes have it

3rdeye Recruitment has added three staff, taking the total to eight. 

Sarah Ritchie (third from left) joins 3rdeye to look after client service and social roles with director Andy Sive. Ritchie has spent 25 years in the advertising and design industry with a long tenure in client service. She is also a business mentor and founder of AM-Insider.com, a website for educating and equipping account managers.

Vic Jack (fourth from left) has recently returned to 3rdeye after completing a masters degree in design. She has many years’ experience in advertising, design and digital industries both in New Zealand and in London. She looks after 3rdeye digital roles and teams with Clinton Ulyatt on creative roles.

Harriet Kelly (first from left) is teaming up with 3rdeye’s media specialist, Barry Williamson. She brings many years of media planning/buying experience in both New Zealand (at MEC) and London (with Starcom MediaVest). Her strengths lie across all media channels with a strong digital focus.

Jennifer Carrigan (second from left) has taken over from Madeline O’Donaghue (now based in London) as recruitment and online manager.

“With our new team members it means we are now able to offer expertise in every area of an advertising or design agency’s business: creative, digital, client services, social and media,” says Sive. “We have the resource, on staff, to give strategic business advice to agencies going through growth, re-structuring or acquisition phases. All our recruitment team has extensive agency experience (over 150 combined years) in the areas in which they consult—and that’s a powerful asset for our clients.”

Talent fountain

Font Talent has announced the appointment of Francesca Alexander as talent agent of digital and communications in New Zealand.

Alexander, a digital PR strategist from Los Angeles will have oversight of strategic direction, expansion and development of digital recruitment acquisition. 

Prior to joining Font, Alexander ran her own boutique digital marketing company in Los Angeles, where she developed global strategic campaigns in digital marketing. She also has extensive experience in the digital space with tech start-ups and within the fashion and beauty industry.

“Font is incredibly happy to welcome Francesca to our growing specialist recruitment team and to New Zealand – she is an exceptional choice to front the digital and communications team,” says Jacqui Barratt, director at font. “Her strong digital background and global experience is an important factor in font’s continuing efforts to provide talent agents with first-hand knowledge of this growing industry.”

Alexander’s appointment follows other specialist hires across font regionally this year, including branding and communications expert Megan Savory as New Zealand country manager. Branding and marketing expert Sandra Christie David was appointed as Singapore country manager in May.

Since its establishment in April 2013, Font has grown by close to 50 percent in revenue and doubled the size of its Asia-Pacific teams. Font is exploring expansion into new markets in 2015 and focusing on the increasing call from agencies to fill freelance roles in the region. 

Baring all

Naked Recruitment has just announced the appointment of their new general manager, Amy Daymond. 

Daymond comes with a strong sales and marketing recruitment background with an emphasis in digital recruitment. Although she has been successful across multiple industries she has carved a niche within the media and advertising sector.

“We are extremely excited to have Amy on board, she has an exceptional reputation within the recruitment industry, she is the perfect candidate to embrace and uphold Naked’s philosophy,” says managing director, Rob Martinus. “She is young, talented, fresh and driven. What more could you want in your GM.”

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