A new radio leader
MediaWorks Radio has appointed Wendy Palmer as chief executive of its radio business, which includes national radio brands The Edge, The Rock, MORE FM, Kiwi FM, RadioLIVE, LiveSPORT, The Sound, The Breeze, George FM, and Mai FM. (Image credit: NZ Herald)
Palmer, who has been with MediaWorks for eight years, has a breadth of experience in the radio sector across sales, programming and research, and she most recently served for seven years in the position of general manager of the Auckland radio operation.
“Wendy is a genuine all-rounder with proven commercial leadership. She has a deep understanding of the opportunities available to our business, and the experience, expertise and personal qualities to lead the Radio business to new successes,” says MediaWorks group managing director Sussan Turner.
This move sees Palmer take over from Belinda Mulgrew, who resigned earlier this year to focus on Giltrap Engineering, a company she co-owns with her husband.
At this stage it is still unclear who will replace Wendy Palmer as the general manager, but MediaWorks group comms manager Rachel Lorimer says the media company is currently recruiting for that role.
ANZ names Cunnington’s successor
Following on from a period of growth over the last three years, ANZ has promoted three members of its marketing team to senior positions.
From left to right: Astrud Burgess, Sue McGregor and Matthew Pickering.
Astrud Burgess, who has worked since 2008 and most recently served as the head of marketing planning and business banking marketing, has now been appointed the head of marketing at the organisation.
This move sees Burgess replacing Mike Cunnington, who left the bank to take up a position as the deputy commissioner at the IRD in Auckland in the Information, Intelligence and Communications department.
The second appointment comes with the announcement that Sue McGregor has been appointed head of sponsorship and corporate marketing. McGregor has worked at ANZ for over six years, and this appointment will require her to continue consolidating the sponsorship groundwork she has laid in her previous role in which she led brand sponsorship for business.
In her new role, she will retain these responsibilities but she will now also focus on ANZ’s corporate marketing function, which covers institutional, commercial and agricultural businesses, as well as all business sponsorships, partnerships and events.
Finally, Matthew Pickering has been appointed to position of head of brand, retail and business marketing after serving as ANZ’s head of retail marketing for a period of just over two years.
According to Pickering, the trio, which he forms part of, has been responsible for managing the transition and growth of the ANZ brand over the past few years.
Swimming star joins Silvermoon
World-record holder and renowned Kiwi swimmer Sophie Pascoe is no stranger to gold and silver, having won a combined medal count of ten from the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games. Now, Pascoe is surrounding herself with gold and silver jewellery of a different kind, as she inks a four-year sponsorship deal with Christchurch-based retailer Silvermoon.
“Christchurch-born Sophie is one of New Zealand’s most well-known sporting professionals and is a determined, courageous young athlete, as well as a role model and ambassador for many,” says Silvermoon founder Simon Thwaites.
And the deal also makes sense for Pascoe, who has previously expressed interest in becoming involved with the fashion industry once her swimming career comes to a close.
“The past few years have been an amazing journey for me – it’s great to be able to work in areas outside of sport that I also have a passion for,” said the swimming star in a release.
Silvermoon was started in 2000 and now has 12 stores around New Zealand, but this longevity was seriously challenged by the Canterbury Earthquakes. The first major quake destroyed the company’s old head office and the Colombo Street store, while the second earthquake destroyed the New Colombo street location, the Eastgate outlet and resulted in an eight-month closure of the Palms outlet. Despite these challenges, the company has managed to grow, and Thwaites attributes this resilience to the continued perseverance of his loyal staff.
Over the last three and half years the company co-owned by Twaites and Peter Dobbs, but on 31 January of this year Thwaites took sole control of the company.
“We were both looking at future investment opportunities and came to amicable agreement that Peter would pursue new opportunities that would utilise his breadth of business experience and I would purchase the balance of Silvermoon and focus on its continued growth,” says Thwaites.
Responding to growth
Digital experience agency Touchcast has expanded its operations significantly over the past two years, with staff now numbering 70-plus across its Auckland and Wellington operations.
Due to this continued growth, the agency’s founder and managing director Andrew Hawley has announced several new appointments.
“Touchcast Auckland recently welcomed a new strategy director and a creative director, and a new role [titled] head of experience has been created to serve both Auckland Wellington offices.”
Matt Barnes has been appointed as the the agency’s new Auckland creative director, and he expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of joining the Touchcast team.
The new recruit was previously at Shine, where he served as a digital creative director for the agency for a year and three months. At this stage, Shine has still not appointed an official replacement for Barnes but it’s thought that freelancer Trevor Read has been brought in fulfill the former digital creative director’s duties temporarily.
Prior to working at Shine, Barnes spent two years in Sydney, working with Host Sydney and BMF Advertising.
The Touchcast Auckland office has also welcomed Will Joyce in the position of strategy director. Joyce began his digital agency career as Chief Operations Officer for pioneering streaming video and content application developer Net Ventures. Working with brands such as Telstra, AFL, NRL, Yahoo, Macquarie Bank, National Press Club and internationally with banking and telco firms, such as DBS Bank in Hong Kong and British Telecom, he helped create audiences for content, and the associated membership and subscription models for the brands he worked with.
Joyce’s most recent stint was as the general manager of Brisbane-based Decoder, and this move brings him back to New Zealand for the first time since 1994, when he last worked as a national service consultant at Dun & Bradstreet.
And the staff shuffle hasn’t been restricted to Auckland, with Wellington office also undergoing a few changes.
Rod Schofield has been appointed a Managing Partner, enabling Hawley greater flexibility to work across both offices and key accounts.
Over a 30-year career Schofiled has been a creative director of advertising, direct marketing, and design companies, and a general manager of a through-the-line communications company. He has worked on projects for ACC, Mitsubishi, Tui Beer, The National Bank, Breast Screen Aotearoa and Telecom. Schofield is responsible for the health of the Wellington organisation, strategic oversight across all projects as well as the day to day happiness of both staff and clients.
And the final change at Touchcast comes with the announcement that Mark Glenn has been promoted to fulfill a dual-role as creative director for Wellington, and the new cross-office role of head of experience. Glen has over 14 years’ UX experience and has tackled a range of the most complex service design challenges to complex digital experiential events.
“As Head of Experience for Touchcast I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to work closely with our clients to champion the customer and help them deliver amazing experiences that influence perception or behaviour and drive sales,” says Glenn.
In the driver’s seat
Big Picture Media has recently been awarded the Airbus Auckland Bus media contract, making the outdoor advertising agency the exclusive supplier of Auckland Airbus bus back and bus side advertising.
This means that Airbus Auckland will not be renewing this supply agreement with iSite Media, which is thought to have previously held the contract.
The bus media contract now gives Big Picture Media access to several key locations covered throughout the Auckland CBD from the Ferry Terminal, Queen Street and through to hard-to-reach suburbs en-route to Auckland domestic and international Airport.
In addition, the Airbus service runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, ensuring that advertising enjoys maximum visibility.
This wins comes at good time for Big Picture, with the agency recently also winning bus media contracts for Christchurch Airport Route buses and for the Nelson Bus Service.
