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Movings/Shakings: November 23

JWT announces a new creative force, Pead PR adds to its brand and digital arsenal, Haystac launches a new events division, DDB gives Adschool pair a leg up, Adi Staite is lured away from self-employment by Synovate, Crossmark opens its Kiwi office, and The Sweet Shop picks a US boss. 

Show us your Cleve-age

JWT’s creative director Peter Ogden departed recently to head back to Australia. And Cleve Cameron, who took up the creative director role with Affinity ID in March and before that was at Toot Group, has been announced as his replacement.

“Cleve thinks of the genuinely new,” says managing director Simon Lendrum. “His willingness to explore beyond the traditional has repeatedly resulted in great work, often ahead of its time. As consumers become ever-more indifferent to brands and advertising [as his first blog post on simon-says.co.nz shows], we need to be increasingly creative and resourceful to overcome this apathy. Cleve is a genuine creative force, and I’m looking forward to putting him together with Jacqueline Smart, our Head of Strategy, and seeing what results.”

Originally from Wellington, Cameron has worked for a wide range of agencies on both sides of the Tasman including Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington, Naked Sydney, BMF, Affinity ID. While at BMF, Cameron won an Integrated Gold Cannes Lion for his work for Goodman Fielder.

Cameron’s further creative endeavours extend to music recording, short film production and a kerrazee novel called The Beop.

More Peads

Business growth across Pead PR’s brand activities and in the digital arena has led to several new appointments and a promotion, with Belinda Abernethy joining as group account director overseeing its beauty and food teams, Greg Hay appointed as senior account manager in the sports and entertainment team and Polly Atkins starting as account manager on the tech team.

Abernethy has more than 20 years’ experience in the PR industry across corporate communications, consumer public relations and a stint in the political office of the Mayor of Auckland City. And Hay is a former television journalist and executive producer and he is also an award-winning freelance director and producer of documentaries and prime time television.

“The fact is we are known for our boutique style and to succeed at keeping it fresh for bigger mainstream brands as well as smaller heat-seeking brands we need brand focused specialists,” says managing director Deborah Pead. “Digital is a growing part of what brand PR delivers and together with social media it’s responsible for new growth in the industry. Greg brings us not only expert knowledge and news media relations but also digital production which complements our suite of services and helps us deliver to the video explosion in online traffic. An example of this was setting up and filming the haka flash mob stunt for Maori Television during the Rugby World Cup. He had that on YouTube ahead of news media.”

In other news, group account director Candice Robertson has been appointed to the role of director of client services.

Pead says she will be sharing her management responsibilities with Robertson, who continues in her role as group account director of the lifestyle team and also takes over the sports and entertainment team.

Events, dear boy, events

Haystac New Zealand has announced the launch of Haystac Events, a division dedicated to delivering strategic, creative PR events backed up with a new customised measurement module. Jo Bennett appointed to lead the new entity.

Bennett, who has over nine years’ experience in the world of events and started off as an interior designer, comes to Haystac from Brand Spanking, and prior to that she spent several years working as an account director on the events team at Mango/DDB Group. During her career, she has managed significant events on a grand scale for the likes of GlaxoSmithKline, Lion Nathan, ANZ, Air New Zealand and McDonald’s.

“An event is a PR channel that needs to be selected for the right purpose,” she says. “An effective event is designed to achieve specific, measurable objectives with key stakeholders. A party is a fine idea if it’s so much more than that – if it delivers meaningful, quantifiable engagement.”

The agency will be rolling out a new measurement module aligned to the events division offer. It is fully customised to suit each client’s needs and  covers a raft of return on investment and return on objectives metrics. Bennett will be working across the Haystac client portfolio on event strategy, delivery and measurement, she will also be leading the growth of the division and associated new business.

“The PR event is a unique beast, it is designed to engage important stakeholders and often the media, and happily I think we have found just the pro for the job,” says Haystac New Zealand’s general manager Fleur Postill. “Jo has extensive experience devising and managing a wide range of PR events, and she’s a fantastic fit with our agency culture. Events have been a large part of our campaign delivery over the past two years, and feature heavily in the year to come, so Haystac Events is a natural next step for us.”

Staite of play 

Synovate, which is soon to become Ipsos after its sale was approved, has appointed renowned researcher Adi Staite to the role of executive research director to complement the recent recruitment of market researcher Duncan Stuart

Staite joins Synovate after an eclectic and distinguished career in marketing, research and advertising agency planning in both the UK and New Zealand, including senior roles with Colenso, Blackwood King (now BCG2) and, for the last four years, with his own planning and research consultancy, Bamboo NZ. His research and planning has helped win Effectiveness Awards in the UK, Europe and NZ, and he’s also been a judge for the MRSNZ awards for the past six years.

“Like most planners, I’ve always had a healthy disregard for most research – the type that’s ‘interesting’, but ultimately unusable, or that tries to force-fit behaviour – or even worse, creativity – into neat boxes and models. Synovate, and its previous incarnation Research Solutions have always been the exception however, and I’ve always been a fan. They’ve always ‘told it like it was’ – understanding the need to be open, flexible and innovative in delivering what agencies and clients truly needed to allow them to do what they do best.

“Ian’s assembled a great team that I’ve admired from afar over the years and I’m looking forward to working alongside them to continue to deliver research that truly inspires. Dragging me away from the independence of self-employment was always going to require a great opportunity, and this is probably the only one that could have done it. Frankly, I’m dead excited… and my wife’s ecstatic that I’ll be out of the house.”

Ian Mills, Synovate’s managing director, says Staite brings a diverse range of skills to Synovate, combining the foundation of a maths and stats degree, client-side marketing experience, an MBA, and years of developing communications and operational strategies for some of the UK and New Zealand’s biggest brands, during which he’s always been a stickler for running his own research”.

The children: our future 

As this cheeky email stunt to promote the AWARD school end of year show attests, DDB is keen on snaffling talented youngsters. And it’s decided to walk the talk by offering a scholarship to a pair of young creatives from Media Design School. And the AdSchool student team of Liz Richards and Jake Barnes (son of Daniel) were announced as the inaugural winners at the end of year show.

The award, which consists of a three month paid placement at DDB, is a “definite leap into the 21st century for the placement system” according to course leader Kate Humphries.

DDB’s Toby Talbot and new creative director Chris Schofield selected the winning team after a review of AdSchool’s current crop of Media Design School books.

“This is an industry founded on fresh thinking and there’s no better place to find it than at the Media Design School,” says Sandy Moore, DDB’s chief executive. “An award like this can springboard young creative into a great career while helping to keep our industry vital and progressive.”

DDB’s sponsorship runs until 2014, with an option to renew. All recipients have the opportunity to be kept on as permanent staff at the end of the placement.

New Zealand in the crosshairs

Michele Cuputo (Reckitt Benckiser), Grant Leach (MD Crossmark NZ), Mark Hemmings (Galderma), Kevin Moore (CEO Crossmark).

Australasia’s largest retail marketing services company Crossmark has opened its new office in Takapuna as part of an aggressive new business drive, which saw the recent appointment of a Grant Leach as managing director and executive restructure.

More than 80 guests attended the office’s opening event, where the ribbon was cut by councillor Ann Hartley and CROSSMARK Australia & New Zealand chief executive Kevin Moore.

“Our commitment to a larger office space with room to grow signifies our long-term commitment to the ongoing expansion of the business in the region,” says Leach. “We look forward to working with global retailers and manufacturers to improve category sales for clients across all retail channels.”

The office relocation coincides with the rebranding and relaunch of the Crossmark Australia and New Zealand websites (www.crossmark.co.nz), which will feature a range of retail case studies.

The company has more than 2,000 staff in Australia and New Zealand in the grocery, pharmacy, hardware, telecommunications, home entertainment/consumer electronics, specialist retail and discount department stores and its current clients include AB Foods, Kraft Cadbury, Arnott’s, Kimberly Clark, Vital Foods, Chubb, Sony, Disney, Hewlett Packard, Panasonic and MYOB.

American expansionism

The Sweet Shop has announced Andrew Traines, who has executive produced for high calibre directors likes David Fincher, David Kellogg, Mark Romanek, Andrew Douglas, David Slade, Malcom Venville and Garth Davis, as its managing director of US operations.

“The Sweet Shop offers a supremely talented roster, global support unlike any other company with whom I’ve been associated and an enthusiasm for great work and service that is downright contagious,” he says. “My main challenge is to grow their presence in the U.S. and with the help of executive producer Tracy Mays, market the current excellent global roster adding to it top U.S. talent that are up to the level we expect.”

Traines’ ability to nurture talent, facilitate and build teams landed him the role as executive producer at Propaganda, co-head for the commercial division at Anonymous where he initiated V3, Anonymous’s integrated media division, along with establishing internationally based production company BRW USA.

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