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Movings/Shakings: 15 May

The biggest name in New Zealand rugby signs up with the biggest name in New Zealand milk, Wellington PR agency Ideas Shop gets into politics, Shine welcomes an experienced campaigner to the roster, The New Zealand Herald names its travel editor, Portfolio adds a digital recruitment specialist, fledgling magazine Homestyle fills a new position, Newstalk ZB is nominated for a prestigious international radio award, and super yacht guru Neville Crichton is honoured by his peers. 

Got milk? 

Everyone loves Richie McCaw. But not everybody loves Fonterra. So, to help build stronger connections with everyday Kiwis and help tell the brand’s story, Fonterra has enlisted the All Blacks’ captain as a brand ambassador until the end of 2015.

Richie McCawPhoto: Geoff Trotter, Creative Commons

“Coming from a rural background, I can appreciate Fonterra’s co-op spirit, and the way they’re getting in behind the community with programmes like Milk for Schools, and other good ideas in the pipeline,” McCaw says.

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says McCaw’s shared values and ambitions for New Zealand made him a natural fit with Fonterra, which, for a company that makes up around ten percent of New Zealand’s GDP, has some fairly large perception issues due largely to a combination of the price of milk, environmental worries around dirty dairying, issues with international partners and concerns around monopolistic behaviour.

“Richie shares our rural values of hard work and honest contribution,” Spierings says. “Fonterra is the envy of the dairy world and we want to build that image at home as well. It’s important that we stay connected to our grass roots and make a difference here, as well as globally.”

According to Stuff, McCaw’s fee would be at least $300,000-plus a year over his three-year contract, but would be more if he was endorsing its dairy products.

PR in politics

Bryce Edwards’ New Zealand Politics Daily email and document, which features in a number of national papers including The NBR and The New Zealand Herald, will now be sponsored by Wellington-based PR agency Ideas Shop.

“The PR agency approached me with an offer to help fund a research assistant for the daily production of the service,” says Edwards, a lecturer at the Otago University Political Studies department and media commentator. “As you will appreciate, it takes many hours each day to aggregate and categorise all of the material, read it all, write up my commentary, and send it out. Without an assistant to help with these tasks, it would be impossible to continue with the NZPD service. I’m very appreciative for the sponsorship of Ideas Shop. However, I am going to need additional sponsors, and hope I can obtain these over the next couple of months so that the full NZPD service can continue.”

While it’s very unusual to see PR agencies forking out to pay for independent editorial content, Ideas Shop partner Anna Kominik says it wasn’t a hard decision for the team to get involved.

“There is a lot of hard work going into producing New Zealand Politics Daily and I think, like most people who are on the mailing list, we really appreciate the quality of the analysis and the commitment to producing an independent perspective and quality product. Our hope is that others will also support Bryce and the team.”

Shine on

Shine’s model is based around having senior staff working with senior clients. And, after a couple of years as head of production/creative services at Publicis Mojo, Conan Gorbey has joined the Britomart-based agency as a producer.

Travelling man

More than 30 applications were received for the role of travel editor at the New Zealand Herald, but, as editor Shayne Currie Tweeted, there can be only one and it’s Winston Aldworth, the paper’s entertaining deputy sports editor.

Homestyle sweet Homestyle

On the back of strong retail sales and readership growth, Homestyle magazine has appointed Arlene Sisarich to the newly created role of agency account manager.

Sisarich, who’s married to New Zealand’s Next Top Model judge Chris Sisarich, has extensive experience in both publishing and agency positions, and joins the masthead at a time of acceleration in the home and lifestyle magazine category.

“Arlene brings ideas and knowledge of the market that are second to none, and we are rapt to have her join the Homestyle team,” says general manager Nicholas Burrowes.

Contact [email protected] or 09 300 7547.

Putten on the ritz 

Portfolio has added Marc van der Putten to the position of digital recruitment specialist in an effort to better cater to the needs of the growing digital sector.

Van der Putten, who initially trained as a graphic designer, joined the online world in 1996 as lead designer with Telecom NZ Internet Services Group (now Xtra), as a founding member of the design team. And he has experience in a multitude of roles spanning a period of 16 years.

He’s been consulting in the online sector for the last three years and working on a range of e-commerce related projects. Prior to that he spent seven years in the travel sector as eContent manager and Travel Channel production manager, and earlier still a stint with WebMedia both in Auckland and setting up their Hong Kong office.

He can be contacted on [email protected] and will be at SemiPermanent with the rest of the Portfolio team on Fri 18 and Sat 19 May.

Quake radio 

Newstalk ZB’s Christchurch Earthquake coverage has been announced as a finalist in the prestigious New York Festivals International Radio Program & Promotion Award, with the station’s reporting of the 22 February disaster being recognised in the Best Coverage of a Breaking News Story category.

“Many of our reporters left their families at home in broken houses because they knew how much the people of Christchurch needed information,” says general manager of talk Dallas Gurney. “… I am incredibly proud of our coverage, our team and our station.”

The awards will be presented in New York on June 18.

Super(yacht)man

Kiwi businessman Neville Crichton has been honoured with the Legacy Award at the 2012 World Superyacht Awards in Istanbul for his contribution to the global industry, his instrumental role in the establishment and growth of the New Zealand super yacht building industry, his world leading position in yacht racing and his inspiration to others.

Ed Dubois, one of the world’s leading yacht designers and founder of Dubois Naval Architects, said that without Crichton, the enormous growth in the industry in New Zealand which followed his company Alloy Yachts and which also fed the development in companies such as Southern Spars, would simply not have happened.

“I think it is also fair to say that with the rise of the New Zealand industry, its innovation and common sense understanding and engineering, other yards around the world have received motivation and ideas, and the industry as a whole has prospered. In short, I am not sure that we would be standing here today, looking at an extraordinary industry that employs so many people engaged in wonderfully innovative work without Neville.”

Neville Crichton started to export used steel yachts from New Zealand in the late 1970s and this demonstrated to him that there was a significant market around the world for high performance yachts with quality interiors. In 1982 he set up Alloy Yachts and, in doing so, started the super yacht industry in New Zealand which spurred the growth of boat and yacht building in New Zealand into a $3 billion a year industry.

His innovations and firsts are many and include in 1990 the first carbon fibre rig, saving five tonnes in weight, and in 1992 he fitted the first furling boom to a super yacht.

Crichton also has enjoyed a remarkable career as at the helm of racing super yachts, with the three ‘Alfa Romeo’ super yachts winning 174 races, including two Sydney to Hobart races, the TransPac and Fastnet Race.

At same time Crichton has also built a highly successful automotive import and distribution business, the Ateco Group, on both sides of the Tasman and counts amongst its present responsibilities Ferrari, Maserati, Citroen and, with Great Wall and Chery, bringing the first Chinese automotive brands to New Zealand and Australia.

“I am deeply honoured to receive this award,” he says. “It is judged and presented by the experts in this industry, whose expertise and opinions I value and, therefore, there is no greater honour than to have my lifetime’s worked recognised by this award. I am extremely proud of what we have achieved in creating the super yacht industry in New Zealand and that this is now a significant part of the New Zealand economy with a worldwide reputation for quality, innovation and producing yachts of the highest standard.”

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