High five
Off the back of a fruitful 2012 that saw RAPP Tribal win both Campaign Asia-Pacific Australia/NZ Digital Agency of the Year and New Zealand Digital Agency of the Year, Rapp Tribal has announced the appointment of five new team members, two of them new roles.
Tracy Smithers has joined as client services director. She comes from Mercury Energy where she led the consumer marketing team. Prior to this she was at RAPP UK for 14 years working on noteworthy clients including T Mobile, Orange, Marks & Spencer, Vero and Oxfam.
Nicci Doak joins the team as a replacement senior writer. She spent three years as senior writer at M&C Saatchi and as copywriter at both Rapp and Saatchi & Saatchi.
Craig Fraser comes aboard as new senior designer. He has seven years’ experience both in-house and in agency, including sharpening his graphic design skills at Ballantyne Taylor and AIM Proximity, followed by three and half years at Paragon 2 working on brands like ING/OnePath, Johnson & Johnson and Air New Zealand.
Sokpart Pao and Jake Siddall have also joined as replacement copywriter and art director respectively. The young team has come from Publicis Mojo where they spent a year working on accounts such as Adobe Photoshop, MacKenzie, Volvo, Panasonic and the Auckland City Mission.
“We climb into 2013 with an enhanced leadership team and a talented creative line up,” says Rob Limb, managing director. ”It promises to be an exciting year for us.”
There is no new business for Rapp Tribal to announce just yet, but spokesperson Rebecca Rassie says “there has been an influx of new projects within the DDB group that warranted these new positions”.
In other RAPP Tribal news, Andy Bell has moved into the role of director of planning and consulting alongside Emma McLean who will be leading the customer experience department. They will work closely with Tim Wood who has recently joined as creative director. And just up the hall, Shane Bradnick started as DDB’s creative director yesterday.
Space race
Promotional marketing agency Apollo has merged with experiential agencies Synergy in New Zealand and Impact in Australia to create ApolloNation, which now consists of a team of 60 people across Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne.
Bringing together the complementary disciplines of shopper, promotional and experiential marketing, ApolloNation also incorporates a strong strategic and insights team, along with creative and digital expertise.
“We are constantly looking at ways to improve the services and skills we can offer our clients in what is a very dynamic and rapidly evolving space,” says David Fish, managing director of parent company Aegis Media’s activations division. “Today cements 12 months of planning and development behind the scenes to develop the next generation of activations agency, providing a rich and complementary service offering focused on delivering campaigns that drive our clients’ businesses forward. We have not just looked to broaden our offering, we have made considered and progressive investments to bring in the best people in our industry and develop the best possible skill set and tools to underpin our extensive experience in this space.”
Synergy, New Zealand’s largest activations staffing agency, will continue to operate and will now focus on its core offer of brand ambassadors, in-store sampling and boutique merchandising.
ApolloNation has developed the market’s first dedicated Integrated Activations Planning tool (IAP), allowing for end to end planning and creative development across shopper, promotional and experiential marketing.
“IAP brings a comprehensive level of strategic planning to the ApolloNation’s services, covering more than 50 consumer touch points on the path to purchase and allowing us to delve into shopper behaviour and consumer insights from both our own and our clients’ shopper research,” says Fish.
Key clients of ApolloNation in New Zealand include DB Breweries, Fonterra, Nestle, Heinz Wattie’s, Coca-Cola and Mitre 10.
ApolloNation is led by Auckland general manager Troy Fuller, Sydney general manager Richard Woods and Melbourne general manager John McKay.
In with the new
Tim Newman has taken up a new role as director of digital media at OMD. He was most recently with TelstraClear, where he was responsible for building, managing and delivering a social media strategy.
Southern sounds
The Radio Network has launched two new initiatives to grow its audience in Christchurch, with Rugby World Cup winning ex-All Black Andy Ellis joining the Classic Hits 97.7FM breakfast show and R ‘n’ B station Flava launching in the city.
“Andy is a local hero, a family man and has a wicked sense of humour,” says Andrew Britt, Christchurch general manager.
Ellis will continue to play rugby for the Crusaders along with his radio hosting duties.
“It’s a big change from being a rugby playing landscaper but I’m really excited to be a a rugby playing breakfast host on Classic Hits 97.57FM,” he says.
As for Flava, it will be broadcasting on 88.0 and 107.4FM, adding to the Radio Network’s six existing stations Newstalk ZB, ZM, Classic Hits, Coast, Radio Sport and Radio Hauraki.
“The Flava music mix is very contemporary and aimed at a younger audience than ZM,” says content director Christian Boston.
Jetting in
Jetstar has announced the appointment of Grant Kerr, general manager of Air Nelson, to head its New Zealand operations.
The new Auckland-based position will oversee the airline’s operations, customer experience and stakeholder relations in New Zealand and will lead the carrier’s more than 500 New Zealand team members. Kerr, who will report into the Jetstar chief executive in Australia and New Zealand, will also be responsible for Jetstar’s community partnerships, such as the successful Flying Start charity programme.
David Hall, Jetstar chief executive Australia and New Zealand, says the appointment is important for the airline as it focuses on improving its New Zealand services and getting more people to fly more often.
“Grant is joining Jetstar New Zealand at an exciting time. With a fleet of nine aircraft operating 400 domestic and 100 international flights each week, Jetstar has reached a scale where we are a viable and cost effective choice for both business and leisure travellers,” he said. “This new appointment is a further commitment to New Zealanders that Jetstar and our low fares are here for the long-haul.”
Hall said the new head of New Zealand role would focus on improving operational performance and ensuring the airline continued to grow its share of the market.
“We know New Zealanders appreciate having a choice when flying domestically and internationally and they have embraced the low fares that Jetstar offers,” he said. “We want to improve the customer experience, in particular focusing on our on-time performance. While we have made some improvements in this area, we know our passengers want the assurance of consistent service as much as they want low fares. This will be a major priority for Grant and the team … Grant knows the New Zealand aviation market well, with many years of experience in airline management. His local knowledge and understanding will be valuable as we continue to improve and grow our New Zealand operation.”
Kerr is expected to start in the new role in the second half of this year and will join recent senior appointments to the New Zealand leadership team including manager flight operations Richard Falkner, manager crew base Jo-Ann Day-Townsend and communications manager Phil Boeyen.
