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Movings/Shakings: 22 January

Double whammy


Brett Colliver (left) and Mike Felix (right)

DDB has appointed two more creative directors to join the team, Mike Felix and Brett Colliver who both worked at DDB early in their careers before individually moving overseas to travel and work at other agencies.

Felix began his career at DDB from 2005-2009 where he won Emerging Talent and a Grand Prix Axis before heading overseas. He’s also worked at Droga5 New York.

Colliver also returns to DDB where he worked as an art director for five years from 2007, before moving to Melbourne and then most recently working at Colenso. 

Felix and and Colliver joined DDB on the 12 January and the duo will work across the DDB client portfolio.

Moves in music

Will Farrell-Green has been appointed as director, music makers group at Pandora. He previously worked at Spark and headed the Digilife trial, which saw the Digilife team monitor 20 to 30 Kiwi homes using smarthome technology to gauge if it was a viable space for Spark to move into with Morepork.

After the launch of Morepork, Farrell-Green handed the reins to Gemma Croombs.

He previously told StopPress that specialises in testing concepts and bringing products to market, and feels most comfortable working in the start-up space. The shift to Pandora is a bit of a change in direction in for him, but the Pandora certainly suits his preference for digital businesses.       

Outdoor duo

Adshel’s general manager Nick Vile today announced two appointments to the Adshel team as the company prepares for digital growth in 2016.

Ben Gibb (left) has returned from extended sick leave to continue his role as sales and marketing director responsible for leading the marketing and sales operations of the New Zealand business. Mr Gibb reports to Mr Vile.

“I’m pleased to welcome Ben back from sick leave,” says Vile. “Ben’s return coincides with an overall focus on innovation and growth for the Company. He will be a strong asset to the Adshel New Zealand leadership team. He has strong innovation and management acumen which is important as Adshel enters its next phase of growth following the launch of Adshel LIVE last year.”

Rick Goodwin (right) also joins Adshel in the newly created role of digital and technology sales manager responsible for amplifying digital creative advertising solutions for clients. 

Goodwin joins Adshel from Yahoo! NZ where he spent over two and a half years as senior account manager and then group sales manager. He over 12 years experience in the industry having held numerous sales and planning roles at various agencies in New Zealand and the UK, including House of Kaizen, All Response Media, MEC and DDB.

Goodwin will report to Gibb, who said: “The introduction of digital screens to Adshel’s offering was a compelling proposition for me in transitioning from online to outdoor. I’m looking forward to working with the team in combining the strengths of digital with outdoor.”

Both appointments are effective immediately.

Expanding the empire

Boutique sponsorship and brand experience agency Spur has added content and production capabilities and expanded its premises. 

“As well as design, our studio is producing 3D renders so that clients can see the environments we are creating for their activations,” says managing director Nick Harvey. “When they walk into a space and it matches the renders down to the last detail, we know we’ve created a great base from which to engage their audience,” 
 
Harvey says the the ability to produce content inhouse is an important step for the agency. 

“From a content perspective, Spur has been producing quality video for our clients for many years, however it’s a rewarding step to bring this capability into the building. It enables sharing of ideas, and a really collaborative approach to the edit process.”

Harvey says the agency has already produced some great content for clients. 

“Last winter we delivered a programme of activity for Corona that included pop-up bars in Queenstown and Wanaka, snow bars on three ski fields and a series of live music events headlined by The Peacekeepers,” he says. “Content of the Snow Bar at Cardrona was shot by a local crew and edited by Spur. The clip generated 120,000 views and more importantly, exceptional engagement with 1,846 likes, 145 comments and 99 shares.”

In addition to ramping up its video capabilites, the agency has also revamped its Ponsonby headquarters.  

The Ponsonby office is now home to a specially designed zone for staff and clients, offering an internal deck, a bar, lush lawn and an eclectic hang-out space.
 
“When the rear of our building was vacated we originally looked around for another business to share the space,” says Harvey. “We realised it was an ideal opportunity to step things up in 2016 by bringing the studio and content capability in-house and breathing new life into our work environment.”

A trio of talent

Tash McGill, Matt Young and Rod MacKenzie (left to right)

Auckland-based communications agency Anthem has made three new appointments to bolster its digital and account management teams.

Tash McGill has been appointed director digital strategy and content.

In this role McGill will have a focus on developing effective brand, communication and digital strategies that deliver value to Anthem’s clients.

Previously, McGill provided digital strategy and account services to Tourism New Zealand and NZ Story for Digital Arts Network and was responsible for delivering strategic leadership and design excellence to digital platforms and channels.

Rod MacKenzie joins Anthem as executive director primarily responsible for developing and shaping communication strategies for clients.

MacKenzie was a director of PR company Network Communications before leaving the public relations profession to initiate the Brand New Zealand campaign for a joint venture between Tourism New Zealand and Trade NZ.

He moved to the USA in the mid-1990s to oversee Trade NZ’s operations throughout North America and in a 20 year career with the organisation held the roles of acting chief executive, group general manager client services and group general manager North Asia, the latter based in greater China.

Matt Young has been appointed to position of account manager working across the agency’s full range of clients.

Young has been taken onboard to build strong relationships with both the media clients.

Young has worked with a range of consumer, B2B and technology clients such as Xbox, Lightbox, Volvo, NZ Football, Auckland Airport, Compac Sorting Equipment, Visa and IAG.

Heading down under

IBM has appointed Amanda Johnston-Pell as chief marketing officer for Australia and New Zealand.

She will report to Kerry Purcell, managing director, IBM Australia and New Zealand.

Johnston-Pell will also be a member of the IBM Australia and New Zealand Board.

In this role Johnston-Pell will focus on driving collaboration across the business to deliver deep industry and innovative solutions and services to clients in the areas of cloud, cognitive, social, mobile and security.

Johnston-Pell will remain a board director of New York based start-up MOSH., which she co-founded in 2013.

Prior to joining IBM, Johnston-Pell held a number of senior executive positions in North America and corporate advisory roles to Fortune 500 companies.

Previously she also held senior positions at Telstra including executive director, brands and marketing communications group, and executive director sales and marketing at BigPond.

Playing the game

It’s just under 200 days until the start of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Volkswagen New Zealand has reaffirmed its long-standing partnership with the New Zealand Olympic Committee.

The partnership has also led to Volkswagen supporting a number of Olympic hopefuls including sailors Blair Tuke and Peter Burling, and hockey player Simon Child.

Weta

Peter Jackson has resigned as Weta Workshop’s director, but remains director of Weta Digital. 

Jetmax

Jetmax has been announced as the exclusive media supplier of Webjet.co.nz to the New Zealand market. The deal also includes Webjet.com.au and Zuji.com.au

“This is a massive win for New Zealand-based Jetmax,” says commercial director Simon Apperley.

“Webjet.co.nz currently serves over 1.6 million page impressions per month and in the coming weeks we will be offering exclusive rental car offerings, & targeted digital itinerary advertising using Jetmax’s proprietary software.”

In other Jetmax Media news, the company has also announced the appointment of Vaughan Fleming to new position of sales director. 

“Vaughan has worked with Jetmax previously and his new elevated role displays his commitment to Jetmax and this growing category,” says Apperley.

Fleming says: “My role had expanded and morphed thanks to continued growth and support from advertising agencies, Airlines and R.T.O.’s (Regional Tourism Organisations) who have embraced our technology and seen amazing results.”

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