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Movings/Shakings: 20 June

Leaving school

After more than 13 years, Vivien Bridgewater has resigned from her role as the general manager of university relations at AUT.

StopPress understands that the university will not be recruiting a replacement for Bridgewater, and will instead be handing her responsibilities over to group marketing director Luke Patterson and group director of student services Joanne Scarborough.

It is understood that Patterson will take on the additional responsibilities of external marketing and PR, while Scarborough will now also be responsible for internal marketing.

Bridgewater has worked with AUT since it was initially founded, and she has played a key role evolution of the learning institute over more than a decade.

Bridgewater also currently serves as a director at ATEED and a chair at Save the Children NZ. It is thought that she will now commit additional energy to these two roles.    

In addition to these projects, Bridgewater has also has a long history of community involvement with focus on youth development, Maori and Pasifika development, and the creative industries.  

Yahoo taps Markey

Yahoo! has announced the appointment of Anne Markey to the role of head of editorial Australia and New Zealand. 

Markey joins the company with over 25 years’ editorial and management experience at some of Australasia’s leading media companies, including News Corp, SBS and Fox Studios. She has worked across digital, video, and print covering news, finance, entertainment and sport. 

In her new role, Markey will be responsible for overseeing editorial teams and providing strategic direction for content across Yahoo New Zealand and Yahoo7 properties, including news, lifestyle, entertainment, travel, finance and sport. 

“Providing engaging, entertaining and informative content for our audience is at the heart of our business and as such, we continuously strive to enhance our editorial offering across all our media properties,” said Yahoo7 director of product and audience Caroline Casey. “In this role, Anne will work closely with our editorial teams on the ground in both New Zealand and Australia. Her expertise will help to ensure that we maintain our position as the New Zealand’s Best Website [according to the Canon Media Awards] and our local editorial team can continue to develop content that interests, excites and is relevant to our New Zealand audience. 

Markey will join the Yahoo team in mid July and will be based in the Sydney office.

Crossing the channels

APN NZ Media has announced the launch of a digital business development team to work across agency sales. The team is part of APN’s strategy to increase the digital expertise within the advertising sales teams, and to continue providing multi-channel solutions for clients. 

Michael Te Young has joined APN as head of digital business development to lead the new team alongside Rogan Polkinghorne, who has been promoted from senior account manager to digital business development manager. 

Te Young joins APN on a six-month contract, after seven years at OMD as digital business director. Prior to OMD, Te Young launched Facilitate in the New Zealand market and before that he ran the digital advertising team at APN. 

Polkinghorne has been with APN for 15 months in a digital specialist role, and previously served stints at Valued Interactive Media and The Radio Bureau. He brings expertise across audience-targeting technology and a history of delivering strong solution-focused opportunities for our advertisers. 

 “As the market is moving quickly towards more sophisticated audience targeting tools, content integration and video, we saw the need to increase the digital focus at a senior level within our business,” says agency sales director Donna Gurney. “Both Michael and Rogan bring a wealth of skill and knowledge that will ensure we are well positioned to provide great solutions for our agency partners, that deliver results for our clients.” 

The digital business development team will work collaboratively across APN’s agency team to implement new digital strategies to market.      

Early mornings for veterans

Kiwi broadcasting veterans Mark Kennedy and Mark Staufer will be ‘getting the band back together’ this coming Monday, as they start hosting The Kennedy & Staufer Breakfast Show weekdays from 6am on The Sound. 

The breakfast radio team was first heard on the Auckland airwaves in the late 80s, and duo say they are looking forward to spending time in the studio with each other again, playing the great music and getting to know The Sound listeners.

Vaughan Hobbs, Programme Director for The Sound, says Kennedy and Staufer are the voice of a generation, and a perfect fit for the station that’s number one with men in the 40-59 demographic.

“This is a Breakfast Show designed for The Sound audience, many of whom grew up listening to The Top Marks,” says Hobbs.  “It will feature everything The Sound stands for: playing the greatest music ever made, with no silly games, gimmicks or B.S – presented by two legendary broadcasters.  I’m delighted we’ve persuaded Kennedy and Staufer to get back into the studio.”

Launched on New Year’s Day in 2012, The Sound’s programming philosophy of focussing on the music loved by 40-59 year-olds quickly struck a chord with Kiwis.  Since then the station has gone from strength to strength. In 2013, The Sound was named Network Station of the Year at the NZ Radio Awards. In the most recent Radio Survey, The Sound was the number one station in its target demographic (men aged 40-59).

Feasting for a living

Catherine Milford has been appointed as the new editor of Food magazine, a position she seems well suited to considering her varied career as a freelance writer, women’s magazine editor, TV producer and music PR specialist.

Born in England, Milford worked as a freelance journalist there specialising in lifestyle writing including food, health and wellbeing and also working in television and the music industries.

Together with her husband, Milford moved to New Zealand in 2003 and took on deputy editor roles successively in three of the country’s leading women’s publications.

Over the course of her career, Milford has worked with some of New Zealand’s finest chefs, among them Simon Gault, Josh Emett, Ray McVinnie, Ray McVinnie, Annabelle White, Jo Wilcox and Peter Gordon.

But she’s seen enough evidence of home-cooked talent to know good food doesn’t always need to come out of a restaurant.

“While I take immense pleasure from watching the professionals at work – and of course tasting their dishes – all New Zealanders are capable of making little nuggets of heaven in their own kitchens,” Milford says.“In this country we grow, farm and harvest some of the best ingredients in the world, and all it takes is a little imagination – and a good recipe – for everyone to be able to put really delicious, innovative meals on the table.”

Milford believes her wide experience in lifestyle media will help her meet the multiple challenges of editing magazine.

“New Zealand is fast becoming very multi-cultural. As such, the range of what Kiwis are learning to put on our tables is incredible. From Asian to European, Middle Eastern to Mexican, we have a wealth of options to try,” she says. Food magazine has been around for nearly 25 years beginning as a 16-page supermarket leaflet in 1990. It has evolved over the years to its present lively format and is now the number one food and wine magazine in New Zealand.”

Food magazine publisher Tim Connell paid tribute to outgoing editor Sarah Beresford who is leaving to travel.

“Sarah has made a tremendous contribution to the success of the magazine during her eight-year tenure for which we thank her. She goes with our best wishes for wonderful times in her planned travels.”

Sweet win

The Sweet Shop director Steve Ayson has taken out the highly coveted awards for direction and humour at the recent AICP Show held in New York last Friday night.

Celebrating the craft of the commercial, the 2014 AICP Show awarded Ayson’s comedic spot “Momsong” for Old Spice in both the prestigious Direction and Humour categories.

Ayson worked alongside Aussies creatives Justine Armour and Ruth Bellotti to create the spot making this a nice accolade to the creative talent of Australia and New Zealand.

The spot, which comes out of Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, has already been a fixture on the awards circuit, picking up two gold pencils at the One Show Awards in New York last month.

Joining the ad beat

NBR has added Campbell Gibson, the son of editor-in-chief Nevil Gibson, to its team to cover advertising and media news stories.

Gibson only recently graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts in politics and ancient history, but he already has some work experience under his belt, having served a five-month internship at Pead PR in addition to contributing to the New Zealand Catholic as a youth page writer for almost three years.

Madness at Mazda

Mazda New Zealand will be getting a healthy dose of madness over the coming year as they hitch a ride with drifting superstar Mike Whiddett. 

Known to millions as ‘Mad Mike’, Whiddett has won drifting championship titles from all four corners of the globe, indisputably lives up to the title mad, and is now proudly supported by Mazda New Zealand. 

“Mad Mike is a kiwi who has won hearts and minds not only here in New Zealand but around the globe, he’s recognised on the international stage as one of the world’s best drifters and we are stoked to be helping his drive for excellence,” says Glenn Harris, general manager of vehicle sales and marketing at Mazda New Zealand. “Sports cars are part of our DNA and still to this day our racing heritage shines through in our current vehicles, we cannot forget where we have come from and what makes Mazda unique. Mike is the full embodiment of the Mazda spirit,” says Harris. 

Whiddett has enjoyed a successful career behind the steering wheel, winning the NZDrift Nationals numerous times, placing second at the 2013 International World Drift Challenge in Sydney, coming first at the 2012 World Powerslide Champs in Gatebil Norway and finishing first overall at the 2009 Formula D Asia Pacific World Drift Champs in Thailand. 

Last year, Whiddett drifted through the Crown Range’s 47 corners, as part of a video shot in collaboration with Red Bull. The footage has already attracted over three million views on YouTube.

Whiddett has now set his sights on developing another addition to the Mad Mike Motorsport garage. The aim is to have all three custom vehicles competing in the Formula Drift World Championship (held through USA, Japan, Asia and Australasia) and he believes the deal with Mazda could help them to achieve this.

There are a number of components to the sponsorship arrangement, perhaps one of the most vital benefits for Mike and his team is access to genuine Mazda parts for MADBUL and BADBUL plus the integration into the global Mazda network. 

“Not only are we going to be supporting Mad Mike from New Zealand, but we can now connect him and his goals with our colleagues and expertise across the Mazda global network. All of which will ensure he has the full horsepower of Mazda behind him,” says Harris. 

 

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