New country, new role
Mark Pickering, formerly with Brand Spanking, now calls Singapore home after joining global creation agency Chimney Group as its creative strategist and business director for APAC.
The move to Singapore adds another country to Pickering’s CV, having worked in agencies across a number of markets, including Australasia, the UK and Ireland. He began his role as creative strategist with agencies FCB Inferno, BD-Network, Brightspace Media, The House and Hey Human, before moving to New Zealand in 2006.
Over the past 12 years as creative strategist and director, Pickering built experiential agency Fluxx: Ideas in Motion, which merged with Brand Spanking three years later.
He also sat as chair of the Commercial Communication Council of NZ’s PR, Experiential and Social Media Committee (PRESCOM), working with other agencies to educate and grow these marketing channels.
Pickering said after more than 20 years of success in the field of experiential marketing, it was time for a pivot into a global creative and business leadership role.
“In recent years, I’ve seen content creation and distribution form a key part of campaigns in New Zealand and around the world, and this has enabled us to achieve outstanding results for our clients as well as win a few awards along the way.
“Being asked to be part of one of the most successful and creative global content development networks at Chimney was too good an opportunity to turn down, and I am very excited to bring my knowledge and skills to this dynamic team in Singapore.”
Pickering will also work alongside managing director Camilla Andersen to develop the business strategy with Chimney’s head office in Stockholm and lead business growth across APAC. He will also work closely with Chimney’s Australia office, based in Sydney and led by Lewis Hunt.
About the new hire, Andersen said: “I originally met Mark 12 years ago, working with him as a client at Fluxx on my Vodafone Music projects and I was impressed with his knowledge and strategic thinking. After four years of successive growth in APAC, the timing is just right for someone of Mark’s experience and capability to join the team so I was keen to get him up to Singapore. More and more of our work is about delivering a holistic service to brands who want results, and I am very pleased that Mark agreed to join the team to spearhead our expansion.”
He will continue as a Non-Executive Director with experiential agency Brand Spanking in New Zealand.
A Corporate communicator
Pead PR has appointed of Torben Akel as corporate account director, to work with clients including Precinct Properties, Made Group, and New Zealand King Salmon.
He joins Pead PR after three years at Network Communication leading corporate accounts including Foodstuffs, Mobil and Nikko AM. He was previously a reporter for Newshub Nation, One News and Newstalk ZB, and a producer for primetime consumer affairs shows on TV2 and Three.
Pead PR managing director Sarah Munnik says Akel’s “experience in journalism, production and writing, and more recently corporate comms for leading retail and finance companies, gives him the skillset [it]need to tell those stories.”
Akel says he chose to join Pead PR because of its solid leadership, rapid growth, broad client mix, and a specialist social and content team.
“I’m especially excited to now be working with some of the country’s leading property companies at a time of rapid expansion and renewal in Auckland and other centres.”
Signing on
Sweetshop has signed highly-acclaimed director Nicolas Jack Davies for global representation.
Davies is a natural storyteller with a reputation for highly cinematic, innovative and emotive work across film, television, commercials and music videos.
Commercially, he humanises brands by bringing a sense of drama and passion, working with clients including, Barclays, Mailchimp, Intel, Google, Nike. YouTube, Facebook, Stella Artois, The National Lottery, Dr Martens and FedEx.
Nick’s work has been nominated at the Grammy Awards and MTV MVAs, and has won a host of awards across advertising, film and TV, including a prestigious Grierson award for Channel 4 documentary Payday.
