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Movings/Shakings: 14 August

On the boil

Australian word-of-mouth marketing agency Soup has opened an Auckland office as part of the agency’s wider expansion plans. And Kathleen Gunther, who has moved from Soup’s Sydney headquarters, has been tasked with driving the Kiwi operations as new business director.

To kick things off, the agency has been appointed to two new product launch campaigns: Nestle’s cat broth line, Purina Fancy Feast Broths (yes, that’s right, cat broth) and L’Oréal Paris Elvive Extraordinary Oil. 

“We’re excited to be working with some of New Zealand’s leading FMCG brands and agencies,” says Gunther. “These campaigns are about engaging brands with influential consumers and giving them the opportunity to be among the first to try out new products in categories they’re passionate about. Whether it’s connecting a brand with people who love food and wine, or devoted pet owners, clients are increasingly understanding the value of not just targeting the right demographics, but also targeting influential consumers within that demographic.”

Soup’s expansion into New Zealand comes in the same year as the opening of its London-based UK office with foundation client Reckitt Benckiser.

“As experts in understanding the influential consumer and harnessing the power of word-of-mouth as a marketing channel, we can use our deep insights in other markets,” says Sharyn Smith, Soup chief executive and founder. “The work we’ve previously done in New Zealand has shown there’s a great appetite for the expertise we bring to clients. The size and diversity of the UK also presents a great opportunity for Soup, and we anticipate a busy year across all our operations.”

Swapsies

Steven Tindall, who made a bit of a name for himself as a trader at OMD and even engaged in a bit of argy bargy with TVNZ over rates, has taken a role in revenue and operations with, guess who, TVNZ and, much like Paul Maher, who’s now trying to spread the MediaWorks gospel around town after a stint at TVNZ, is in the interesting position of doing exactly the opposite of what he was doing previously. 

Two for Tangible

Tangible Media has announced a couple of new additions, with Scott Churchill and Sara Wilkins joining the team. 

Churchill has joined as the brand manager on NZ Rugby World. He came from a fixed term contract at Rugby World Cup 2011 on the hospitality sales front and before that spent six years with Reachmedia in various sales roles, predominantly concentrating on new business for unaddressed mail, targeting and digital solutions.  

Wilkins has joined as the brand manager for Primary and Idealog. She worked on agri-newspaper and magazine titles in Rural Press (Fairfax) and previous to that she was with NBR as agency account manager. 

Speaking of Primary, the magazine will now join PGG Wrightson’s rewards programme and be mailed to 9,500 members bi-monthly.

PGG Wrightson has been a regular advertiser since Primary’s inception in 2011 and the announcement comes on the back of a big month for the magazine, including a partnership between University of Waikato School of Management, the appointment of high profile agribusiness academic Professor Jacqueline Rowarth as editor and a shift to bi-monthly publication from quarterly. 

“We are always looking for ways to add value to our most loyal customers,” says PGG Wrightson general manager of marketing Shannon Galloway. “Primary is a high quality magazine and we are sure it will be well-received by our members.” 

Bright sparks flying

Applications for the Clemenger Group’s 2013 Talent Programme are now open, with the company offering ten spots on the nine month programme, which begins in February 2013 and gives successful candidates the opportunity to work in New Zealand’s leading communications agencies in Auckland and Wellington

Jim Moser, chief executive of Clemenger Group, says the programme gives young talent a unique insight into the different departments of various agencies, and the vast communications expertise within the Group. 

“No other communications group in New Zealand has the breadth and depth of best-in-class companies like the Clemenger Group,” he says. “Our talent programme exposes intelligent, creative young professionals to the inner workings of brand, retail, direct, experiential, public relations, media and every other communications discipline within one group structure. The future leaders of our industry are going to require sound knowledge of the various functions of marketing communications in order to be successful – and we can provide that foundation for them.” 

Colenso BBDO, Clemenger BBDO, .99, Aim Proximity, Porter Novelli and Raydar will all select a graduate from the pool of applications. The successful applicants will then rotate through that agency’s departments over a period of three-months to get a taste of the various skills possessed by the agency. Candidates will then be offered a six-month placement and paid an entry-level salary for this period.  

“The Clemenger graduate programme is the most enlightening, exciting, and frightening thing that I’ve ever done. It was an invaluable crash course in all things advertising – from writing briefs and giving presentations, to going on shoots and meeting clients,” says Eloise Jack, a 2011 graduate now working for Colenso BBDO. 

Moser says they aim to put graduates in a position where they can be offered a full-time role within the Clemenger Group at the end of the nine-month programme. 

“We’ve had a remarkable success rate with the programme over the past few years, with 95 percent of participants being offered a job in one of the Clemenger Group’s agencies after completion,” he says.  “We have always strived to gain and develop an unfair share of exceptional talent in our Group of companies and The Clemenger Talent Programme helps us identify and invest in these future industry leaders.”

The Clemenger Group is part of the global BBDO network and is New Zealand’s largest and most successful group of communications companies, with a total of 13 businesses in the group representing over 40 percent of the entire media market.  

Applications close at 5pm, 31 August 2012. For more information, or to apply go to: http://www.gradconnection.co.nz/clemenger-group/

Greener pastures

Fenella Humphreys, campaign manager, acquisition, at APN NZ, has taken a new role at Greenpeace NZ as relationship marketing manager. 

Welcome Mathias

Jessica Mathias has been appointed senior account manager on the lifestyle team at Pead PR. 

She graduated with a Bachelor of Communications studies from Auckland University of Technology in 2003 and has worked in both corporate and consultancy roles in Auckland and Christchurch on a range of lifestyle, fashion and food accounts. 

She was most recently an account manager at Auckland-based consultancy Goode PR.

Hare on air 

Hayden Hare has joined the Flava team, working on-air as the Drive-By host from 2pm-7pm weekdays (which has the largest listenership across all shows during the week) and also as the Flava promotions manager. 

He was previously been network programme director at Mai FM.

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