Turning Japanese
Andrew Davis has been promoted to the role of assistant general manager of marketing at Toyota. He took up the role of marketing manager in July 2012 before being promoted to corporate marketing manager in the middle of last year.
Neeraj Lala, who was the general manager of marketing, product planning and used vehicles, is moving away from his marketing role and will focus on growing the company’s large used car business.
Screening process
TVNZ has welcomed four new humans to its sales and marketing division.
Jonathan Symons has been appointed general manager, data and insights, and commenced work last week. He began his career with AGB McNair before moving to a 15 year period with ASB Bank, initially developing its database marketing and research programmes and then moving into marketing leadership roles including executive management as head of marketing. Most recently he has been contracting to various business units in the Ogilvy NZ group.
Also starting in the New Year was Lyndsey Francis, who joined as general manager of media solutions and insights team. Frances has extensive buying, planning and strategic experience across the UK and NZ markets and was most recently managing director of Total Media NZ and a member of the CAANZ Media Committee.
Lynley Kirk-Smith has been appointed as general manager, marketing, and will start in early March. She replaces Annemarie Browne, who took the marketing director role with Orion Health. Kirk-Smith is currently head of brand experience with Telecom and has previously held senior marketing and communication roles at Vodafone NZ and Air New Zealand. She is also a former NZ Marketer of the Year supreme award winner.
Yael Milbank has also been appointed general manager of digital sales and will join TVNZ from TradeMe where he is currently head of advertising sales. He has an extensive background in online sales, having worked previously for News Limited’s News Interactive in Sydney, XtraMSN and Yahoo!Xtra. He starts in April.
TVNZ is currently recruiting for a general manager of digital media following the departure of Tom Cotter late last year. And trade marketing manager Lexie Ribot is soon to go on maternity leave.
The marketing team has recently come under Jeremy O’Brien’s oversight and his title has changed to head of sales and marketing to reflect this.
“These are highly regarded and respected people in their fields who can shape and deliver the future direction of TVNZ,” says O’Brien. “As a business we can’t afford to stand still; by adding new talent to the team we will ensure we remain fresh, motivated and continue to challenge the status quo. I could not be more pleased with the calibre of the people who are joining us – they will be tremendous assets.”
Elsewhere in TVNZ land, the Herald reports Craig Stanaway has left his role on Seven Sharp. A humble man, he told The Diary: “I’m taking an indefinite break. It’s not too dissimilar to the All Blacks taking a sabbatical. I know the newsroom really rates me and Seven Sharp didn’t want me to go, but I took the holidays to think about things.”
Lark on board with SLI Systems
Marketer and digital specialist Andy Lark has joined the board of Kiwi cloud search software specialist SLI Systems.
Lark says he’s joining the business at a time when it has technology leadership and momentum in the market.
“SLI is exceptionally well positioned to take advantage of the swing to e-commerce as customers’ preferred channel for shopping. I’ve seen the power of SLI in accelerating e-commerce through improvements in search, traffic and analytics.”
Lark runs Group Lark, working on digital and social media for brands. He was most recently the chief marketing and online officer at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The Kiwi is also the former vice president and general manager of large enterprise marketing and online at Dell and has led marketing teams at LogLogic, Sun Microsystems and Nortel Networks.
SLI Systems was established in 2001 and listed on the NZX this year.
SLI co-founder and chief executive Shaun Ryan says Lark has played a key role in defining the company’s marketing strategy for the coming year.
Handy Andy
Resn’s ex head of strategy Andy Williams has been named as the managing director and executive producer at production company B-Reel, which creates digital, commercials/branded content and feature films.
Williams was most recently in US-based roles with Barton F. Graf 9000, LLC and 72andSunny, where he excelled in refining agency digital capabilities, digital thought leadership and managing the user experience department. He will be based in New York for this new role.
“Andy is someone in the industry we’ve known and admired for a long time,” says Anders Wahlquist, co-founder and chief executive, B-Reel. “With his background working at top agencies and production companies and his ever-present Kiwi humour, he’s a treat to both B-Reel and New York City and we’re excited to have him.”
Throughout his career, Williams has worked with a multitude of clients including Activision, Target, Google, Samsung, Anheuser Busch, Carl’s Jr and Sonos. He previously headed strategy at Resn, where he helped create ground-breaking work for Google, Toyota, Puma, Dominos and MySpace. He has been recognised numerous times by The Webbys, One Show, SXSW, The FWA and AIMIA.
A new path
Jennifer Duval-Smith and Nicholas O’Flaherty have unhitched their wagon from Ogilvy and set up their own PR and comms agency called Camino.
According to their website: “Camino is a new public relations consultancy that combines strategic counsel, corporate communications, proactive media relations with online influencer outreach. Whether you are in FMCG or technology, a start-up or industry giant, B2B or consumer facing, you stand to benefit from Camino’s proud track record of communication-driven business results.”
The pair founded Bullet PR in 2000, which was acquired by Ogilvy in 2010.
Going upstream
Internet radio service Pandora has announced two new appointments—both from MediaWorks—to boost its growing presence in the New Zealand market.
With a global following of more than 76 million listeners a month, Pandora is the largest internet radio service in the world and in December it passed the one million listening hours-a-month mark in New Zealand, with each user listening for an average of two-and-a-half hours a day.
New Zealand’s commercial director, Melanie Reece, who left MediaWorks to take up the role, says Pandora New Zealand has reached a point-of-scale that will very shortly see the organisation launch its commercial model in New Zealand, and it has subsequently appointed two account directors, Stephen Old and Rita Steel.
With over a decade of digital experience, Old has worked with some of the world’s largest technology companies both locally and overseas. He was most recently a senior account manager at MediaWorks and he says Pandora New Zealand will offer exciting opportunities for advertisers.
“Pandora is best-in-class in the music streaming space. The vast majority of listeners are on mobile and the cut through opportunities this affords advertisers are exceptional.”
Steel, an ‘integrated advertising professional’, has more than ten years’ experience in the advertising industry and a passion for new media platforms.
“Pandora has a highly-engaged audience who love Pandora’s leading discovery and personalisation features. Internationally, Pandora is a global leader in brand advertising and my aim is to make it New Zealand’s as well,” she says.
Reece says it’s time to let New Zealand’s advertising market know Pandora, which is the world’s third highest earning mobile advertising platform behind Facebook and Google, is open for business.
Ya Heerde?
Massey University’s professor Harald van Heerde has been placed 14th equal in the world for marketing research by the American Marketing Association (AMA).
The AMA’s productivity report measures the number of articles published in the four premier academic marketing journals over the past five years.
With nine articles published in the top four publications (Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Science), Professor van Heerde is the only researcher from Australasia in the report’s top 50. That places the Albany-based academic alongside professors from such prestigious universities as Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia.
“I was really pleased to see our little corner of the world showcased and included in the rankings,” he says. “It’s good to be out there competing against others who work at the top schools in America.”
Originally from the Netherlands, Professor van Heerde moved to New Zealand in 2006 and joined Massey in January 2013.
“It’s nice to be able to represent Massey like this and be part of a culture where success is celebrated,” he says.
Professor van Heerde has a PhD in economics and his research focuses on measuring the quantitative effect of marketing, including the impact of advertising on sales. While he plans to remain productive in his research, he says quality is more important than quantity.
“It’s not just a matter of numbers though, it’s about getting the right information published that is going to impact marketing academics and marketing practitioners around the world.”
The birth of Beryl
Mat Ellin and Andy Timms have opened the doors at Beryl, a creative code and high end VFX workshop.
Formerly of Auckland based post production house Mandy, Ellin and Timms join executive producer Katie Knight. Flame artists Paul Dickson and Greg Flannagan, founders of Cause+FX, have also been enlisted to head up VFX at Beryl.
Beryl specialises in the development and production of a range of digital tools, including apps, interactive billboards and other interesting devices, as well as more traditional VFX tasks.
Cause+FX will still be maintaining and expanding its services with clients in other regions and it has also signed on with LA production house FKA Entertainment.
Golden nappies
Marketing and promotional agency Belowtheline has been recognised by the worldwide association of marketing agencies, winning gold at the 2013 Globe Awards in the direct marketing category for its Huggies Animal Toys campaign for Kimberly-Clark.
Over 120 judges from 15 countries representing agencies, clients, academia, media and industry associations carefully reviewed over 300 campaigns from 25 countries in the latter part of 2013. Every campaign had to be an award winner in its own country before it could be put before the judges.
The campaign had previously won silver at the 2013 APMAs, thus qualifying it to enter. It was the only New Zealand winner at the awards.
Involving a collect and redeem mechanic and the creation of a range of highly collectable wooden toys, the Huggies campaign built brand loyalty with mums with babies. Communicated across TV, online, on pack and instore, the campaign resulted in the highest ever weekly redemptions of toys versus previous promotions, highest ever recruitment to the Huggies Club and record levels of satisfaction and other key brand measures.
“To be acknowledged alongside global powerhouse agencies and against campaigns with much bigger budgets well it’s major kudos for a Kiwi indie like us,” says director Christine Abbott.
A total of 74 awards—gold, silver and bronze—were made across 25 categories.
Top Kea
Kea has appointed Craig Donaldson as interim global chief executive.
Donaldson joins the Kea team in its Auckland headquarters and will continue to foster the development of Kea for the benefit of its fast growing membership base. He temporarily replaces Sue Watson, who spent three years in the role and left to become chief executive of a new New Zealand arm of the Commonwealth Education Trust.
“Over recent years, Kea has enjoyed significant growth and is now one of the country’s strongest links to a borderless nation of New Zealanders living around the globe,” he says. “The organisation is helping this growing community of more than 200,000 to better engage with businesses at home and abroad and, in doing so, making meaningful connections that contribute to our great country … We have an inspiring array of global events and initiatives to amplify New Zealand’s standing this year, so it is an exciting time to be closely involved.”
Donaldson has held senior management positions at some of the world’s largest financial institutions, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Banker’s Trust. He currently sits on boards for organisations across a range of sectors and previously co-directed Kea’s North American operations.
Transition mode
Last week, The Commerce Commission gave clearance for Bauer Media to purchase five titles from APN’s New Zealand Magazines‘ division, NZ Women’s Weekly, The Listener, Simply You, Simply You Living and Crème. And it has released some more information for advertisers around the transition of these assets, with Bauer Media formally acquiring the titles from March 1.
Bauer Media operation of titles will start from the following cover dates:
- New Zealand Women’s Weekly – Cover date 17th March
- The Listener – Cover date 15th March
- Crème – April issue
- Simply You – Autumn/Winter issue
Additionally, from February 3 2014, the Bauer Media sales team will be able to assist with any advertising enquires across March issues onwards. Any activity placed or planned with New Zealand Magazines prior to March 1 will still be handled by the Advertising team at APN.
For Auckland agency bookings across March issues onwards, the current Bauer account manager will assist with the New Zealand Magazines‘ portfolio. Eileen Thompson will remain the point of contact in Wellington for any New Zealand Magazines‘ enquiries.
Bauer is currently working on migrating the New Zealand Magazines‘ digital assets. But in the meantime, advertisers should continue to deal with the APN online team.
“This is an extremely exciting period for the team here at Bauer,” says commercial director Paul Gardiner. “Our extended portfolio now reaches over 2 million New Zealanders aged 10+, and we look forward to working with you across our diverse titles and platforms. I’d like to thank you in advance for your patience over the transitional period.”
Heading north
More Kiwis’ are waking up with Simon Barnett and Gary McCormick as the duo’s top rating More FM breakfast show began broadcasting in Auckland, Wellington and the Waikato on Tuesday.
Christian Boston, network programme director for More FM says “If there are two guys that are made for radio it’s Simon Barnett and Gary McCormick, and it was really exciting to introduce them to our wider audience yesterday.”
More FM Breakfast with Si & Gary is the #1 breakfast show in Christchurch and Nelson and broadcasts in to all markets from 5:30am weekdays.
