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Movings/Shakings: 15 January

The ham has run out, the afternoon naps are no more and the working masses are now mostly staring forlornly at their screens once again. Here are some of the moves and shakes that occurred before, during and after the Great New Zealand Slow Down, including new things for Guy Cousins, Renee Parsons, Kenny Yeon, Starseed PR, Bullseye, Senate, Mi9, and DB Breweries. 

London-bound

Guy Cousins has taken a role as global head of strategy for team Unilever at PHD International and he will join the new London-based unit in February. 

The appointment sees him return to PHD, having joined Naked Communications in New Zealand as managing partner at the beginning of 2012. Prior to Naked he was the strategic planning director of Spark PHD’s New Zealand office and has worked on global brands like Unilever, Coca-Cola, Vodafone and Sony PlayStation.

In 2011 he was named by Campaign Asia-Pacific as Media Planner of the Year for his work with PHD New Zealand and has been a strategist in both the UK and Asia Pacific.

The appointment is part of a recruitment drive that sees a team of 30 people joining in London this month, in addition to ten in the Singapore office. PHD has employed analysts, strategists, innovators and experts across a whole host of new and developing disciplines. The hires follow PHD’s reappointment to the global communications planning for Unilever following a pitch with Mindshare, which sees the agency responsible for over 90 percent of Unilever’s products, including household brands such as Dove, Surf, PG Tips, Magnum, Persil and Rexona.

“We have set out to put together a team of people covering a range of very clearly defined different skill-sets and then single-mindedly hunted for the very best in each area,” says Mark Holden, worldwide strategy and planning director. “Our aim was to create the world’s best communications planning resource and we believe that’s what we have with the new team in place.”

“There’s a huge amount of positive energy about the new strategy unit,” says Cousins. “It’s a compelling opportunity: the chance to work with a great mix of talent, a new collaborative planning system that PHD has pioneered and some of the world’s best brands.”

In addition to managing the global communications planning across the brands, the team will work to keep Unilever’s marketing at the forefront of new media thinking across social, mobile, search, content and gaming.

Idea generation

Communications
agency Ideas Shop has opened a Christchurch office, appointing Renée Parsons as
the regional consultant.

Ideas Shop general manager Marjory Embleton says the company has long-standing regional working
relationships and a dedicated local consultant means it can work more
closely with its clients and the wider market.

“Ideas Shop is strongly
aligned with the Canterbury culture and focus on sustainability, innovation and
collaboration,” she says. “We’re excited to now
be in for the long haul, adding value with our strong connections, broad skill
and knowledge base and public sector expertise. We also see the
Christchurch office as a base from which to extend our services into the South
Island.”

Parsons brings international
and local communications experience to the role. A Christchurch local, she’s
recently worked in London on strategic communications during a major rebrand of
Girlguiding UK and in New York working in internal communications for UBS
Investment Bank.

“I’m very passionate
about Christchurch and excited to be back here in my home town applying my
trade to support its future,” she says. 

Since returning Parsons has carried out marketing and public relations for the highly-successful 2011
Christchurch Arts Festival, and acted as an account manager providing creative
and strategic advice to clients including Trade Aid, Earthquake Commission, UC
Accommodation and Study Christchurch.

She holds a
graduate diploma in journalism and a degree in mass communication and political
science from the University of Canterbury. In 2005, she was awarded the Robert
Bell Traveling Scholarship to research free daily newspapers in the UK. 

In for a Kenny

Samsung New Zealand has announced the appointment of Kenny Yeon to the role of country manager.  

Yeon’s responsibilities will include the overall management of Samsung New Zealand, with a focus on continuing the strong growth the company has experienced over the past few years. 

She has had a distinguished career with Samsung since 1994 and has extensive experience in sales, particularly in the IT division. She worked in Samsung Asia PTE Ltd from 2004 to 2009 and has since been part of Samsung’s global marketing office retail excellence team.

Previous country manager, Chang Kim, has been promoted to vice president of the SEA region. Working within the Samsung Group, he will be involved in a project to develop a new energy source for electric cars.

On target

Bullseye finished off 2012 on a high note, after being appointed as digital creative partner for both Auckland Airport and
Barfoot & Thompson in competitive pitches. 

For
Auckland Airport the first project is to completely overhaul the Shop, Dine and
Relax section of the website with the aim of repositioning Auckland Airport as
a shopping destination.  

Bullseye
will now work in partnership with Auckland Airport’s existing agencies.

“We
selected Bullseye because of its strategic customer-centred thinking, paired
with in-depth Sitecore knowledge,” says Marijke Zwaagman, manager marketing and brand, Auckland Airport.

“This
is a really exciting project for Bullseye to be a part of; together we are
repositioning the experience and designing a digital window into shopping at
the Airport,” says Claire Stewart, Bullseye New Zealand’s business director.

For
Barfoot & Thompson, Bullseye’s first project is the redevelopment of its email marketing programme. 

Bullseye was formed over ten years ago and was purchased by STW Group in late 2011. It opened an office in Auckland early last year, kicking off with the account for New Zealand-based Tui Products, a 100-year-old gardening and pet product company.

They’ll drink to that

Moët Hennessy
NZ,
which manages some of the most prestigious champagne, wine and spirit brands in
the world, has appointed Starseed PR to manage PR for its entire portfolio. It will partner closely with Darkhorse for event management.

The portfolio includes Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon,
Hennessy, Glenmorangie, Belvedere, Grand Marnier, Krug, Ardbeg, Ruinart, Chandon, Cape Mentelle and 10
Cane. Starseed PR also retains both PR
and event management for Moët Hennessy owned Cloudy
Bay. 

“We are pleased to appoint Starseed as
our preferred PR agency. Its proven performance, industry reputation and
creativity make it the right partner to move our brands forward in exciting
new directions,” says Rai Banbury, brands manager Moët Hennessy NZ.

Starseed PR’s growing client list of lifestyle
and luxury brands includes BMW, Cloudy Bay, Number One Shoes, Wella
Professionals, Primal Earth, Dominate, Saviq, and Regal Drycleaners. It also helps with charity work for The Village Project.

“The whole Starseed team is buzzing. We popped a few corks over the
break and now we’re ready to do some great work,” says Karen Maurice-O’Leary, Starseed PR’s creative director. “Moët Hennessy NZ is
run by a like-minded team looking for some fresh creative thinking, which is
perfect for us.”

Three’s a crowd

Mi9,
the re-branded trade division of MSN New Zealand, has made three new
appointments. 

Rajitha
Kurukulasuriya has been appointed campaign manager. Responsible for advertising
campaigns running on Mi9’s behaviourally targeted advertising network MMN
(Microsoft Media Network), she most recently held the position of advertising
solutions specialist at business directory provider Localist.

Simon
Soulsby has been appointed account manager. He oversees agency accounts,
spearheading display advertising and content integration across msn.co.nz.
Soulsby was most recently business development manager at media services
provider Reach Media.  

And Emma Edwards has been
appointed digital associate producer. A former freelance journalist, she joins
Mi9’s trans-Tasman news and content team and oversees New Zealand lifestyle
news and content production for MSN.co.nz. 

By hook or by Crooks 

SenateSHJ has appointed Dee Crooks as a consultant in its Auckland office. 

Her career in communications spans more than ten years and includes time spent in Auckland and London. She specialises in media relations, issues management and internal communications. 

Crooks joined SenateSHJ from HSBC Bank New Zealand where she managed the internal and external communications programmes and also the bank’s corporate sustainability agenda. In addition, she has worked for the Bank of New Zealand, Grant Thornton (London) and BDO (London). 

Prior to this, she was the company spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium and was an account manager at another PR consultancy. She has a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in Public Relations and Communication Management from the Auckland University of Technology. 

DB’s new import

Andy Routley has been chosen to take up the role of managing director at DB Breweries from the long-serving Brian Blake, who announced in November he was stepping down after 20 years at the helm.

Routley,  an Englishman who is relocating from the UK with his family for the job, has worked in several global brand businesses including the Unilever divisions of Lever Rexona and Lever Faberge (Unilever Home and Personal Care) and SAB Miller where he was global brand marketing director for Miller Beer for four years. 

Most recently he has been the UK managing director of the US publicly listed home and personal care company, Church and Dwight Ltd. His FMCG experience is extensive and also includes broad sales and marketing positions in the UK, Europe and Australia.

“I know that Brian Blake has played a significant role in DB over the past 20 years and I greatly appreciate the strong position that he leaves the business in, with DB achieving double digit profit growth over the past three years,” says Routley. 

Brian Blake will stay on at DB in the capacity of chairman with handover of the managing director role taking place in March. 

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