Media moves
L-R: Nicky Greville and Catherine Hamilton.
MBM has announced Catherine Hamilton has joined as investment director. Previously national trading director at VMLY&R, Hamilton takes charge of the agency’s media trading.
MBM managing partner Sean McCready says this is the third time he’s hired Hamilton having worked with her at Clemenger BBDO and Y&R.
“She’s an absolute star and, I believe, the best investment director in New Zealand and it’s great to have her on board. With MBM’s media buying reaching substantial levels, the time was right to add her exceptional talent to the roster and our decision is already paying off for our clients.”
Joining Hamilton on the management team is Nicky Greville who started as client service director in May.
Greville also comes from VMLY&R where she was general manager media. Prior to that, she was strategy director at PHD. With a slew of awards and having managed a stellar cast of clients, Greville brings her considerable strategic media chops to MBM, working across a large portfolio of accounts.
“While a relatively new mum herself, initially Nicky takes on Penelope Brown’s responsibilities while she’s on maternity leave, however she will continue in a leadership role at MBM beyond that,” McCready says.
“We are excited to have Nicky on board. She’s very experienced, a great thinker and passionate about doing great work. Her strategic skills and passion for data-led communication fit the MBM ethos really well. Our team is really enjoying working with her”.
Happy place
L-R: Wendy Thompson and Melanie Spencer.
Melanie Spencer has joined Socialites as managing partner, coming on board to help founder and chief executive Wendy Thompson grow the business.
Spencer has been a trailblazer in the digital marketing space over the last 20 years and her ambition is infectious with Socialites going from strength-to-strength.
“Melanie is a very welcome addition to the team. Our business is growing quickly, and I need someone with an agency background as well as business growth and team development experience. But most importantly – someone I gel with and has similar values and drive as me,” Thompson says.
Experience in marketing and communications in both Sydney and Auckland and working with heavyweight clients in property, banking, food & beverage, aviation and fashion, Melanie thrives when helping businesses prosper, whether it’s her own or the clients’ she represents.
She has over a decade of agency experience but has also jumped the fence and gone client-side, enabling her to understand a client’s viewpoint.
Spencer will work on running the agency and Thompson will focus on special projects, such as offering social media services to businesses who have a presence in several regions across APAC (Socialites Engine Room) and setting up the Socialites China division, helping kiwi companies connect with the 400k+ Chinese speaking population living and visiting in New Zealand through social media.
“I truly am in my happy place. Ever since I was a young girl I was obsessed with magazines and dreamt of building a media company. I love nothing more than helping businesses tell their story and in this digital age, social media is now the most powerful platform to express themselves. Both Wendy and I are incredibly ambitious women, with similar values and the same vision,” Spencer says.
New faces
L-R: Vinay Shriyan and Megan Keene.
Scroll Media’s managing director Jane Ormsby has announced two new hires at the digital ad network.
“I am tickled pink to have the highly experienced Vinay Shriyan join the team as programmatic and operations director to manage the operational side of the business.”
Shriyan has years of technical experience at realestate.co.nz and stuff.co.nz and Acquire Online and will use his experience to develop several new integrated placements including native, data capture and carousels.
With the move into more integration, sponsored content and native opportunities across Scroll’s 12 premium publisher sites, senior technical expertise will allow for efficiencies at scale for advertisers.
Scroll has also welcomed sales manager Megan Keene to manage and grow the agency and direct client’s business. Keene has come from a sales roles at AA Travel and NBR, experience that will come in handy educating clients on the advertising opportunities across Expedia, NZX and interest.co.nz among others.
Scroll is also jumping across the Tasman with new shared office space in Sydney to accommodate the Australian publisher partner sales offering.
