Brazil bound
Russell Browne has departed his role as head of marketing at Redwood Cider Co. for a new role with Chilli Marketing in Brazil, where he will be launching the Rekorderlig brand.
His replacement is yet to be named.
Prior to his role with Redwood, which was bought by DB, he was the group marketing manager for DB.
Spanish inquisition
Angela Spain, the general manager of public relations at DraftFCB New Zealand, has been named as one of 40 under 40 faces in the Asia-Pacific region to watch by Campaign Asia-Pacific, the only New Zealander to make the list.
In 2006, Spain became the youngest ever female to hold the position of general manager in the New Zealand public relations industry at that time, a feat which saw her rapidly emerge as a leader in her field.
This year has been one of Spain’s most successful yet, following her achievement in securing four awards across the PR and Promo and Activation categories at the 2013 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as well as her appointment as a PR juror at the 2013 Spikes Asia Awards, held in Singapore.
“Angela has proven to be exceptional in her role at DraftFCB,” says Bryan Crawford, DraftFCB Auckland group chief executive. “She excels in an environment where creativity and strategic thinking are paramount, which is ideal for an integrated agency. These qualities, combined with her business sense, extensive experience and natural leadership, set her apart as a rare talent, and we are very glad to have her as part of our team.”
Spain currently advises a variety of consumer and government clients including Vodafone, Paper Plus, the Electricity Authority, the New Zealand Transport Agency, BMW/Mini, and the Health Promotion Agency.
As a member of the Marcomms Leadership Group (MLG) within the Communications Agencies Association of New Zealand (CAANZ), she is an advocate for public relations and experiential marketing and has trained students at the Auckland Business School, the Auckland University of Technology and Waikato University.
Veitch subs in
The Radio Network has announced that Tony Veitch will replace Murray Deaker when he retires at the end of the year from his Newstalk ZB and Radio Sport programmes.
Dallas Gurney, general manager talk programming, says Veitch is one of New Zealand’s most talented sports hosts and was the natural choice.
“Tony’s sporting knowledge is incredible; he is well respected as a sports journalist particularly by athletes, players and coaches. He will continue to host his Saturday programme which will be called Veitch On Sport and pick up Murray’s highly successful Sunday show as well.”
Veitch, 40, who opened up to the Herald about his past problems and the support he received after it was revealed he abused a partner in 2006, says TRN has also offered plenty of support.
“It is an honour to follow in Murray Deaker’s footsteps, he is a legend. I have learnt so much from him and I have nothing but respect for him.”
Veitch will continue his Saturday morning show, which will be called Veitch on Sport, and also pick up Deaker’s Sunday show.
Smart move
Saatchi & Saatchi New York’s managing director and ex Colenso BBDO managing director Brent Smart has been named chief executive of the office.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to lead this iconic agency,” he said in a release. “We have a great team, we work on great brands, we can do great things. There has never been a more exciting time to be in our business. There is a big canvas for our creativity as we go way beyond ads to making things that are truly useful, that’s how consumers fall in love and ultimately, how we build our clients’ businesses.”
Smart came to Saatchi in late 2011 to work on the global General Mills business. Before that, he spent seven years with BBDO, first as Colenso BBDO’s managing director in New Zealand and then as managing director of BBDO, San Francisco.
“Brent has a record as an outstanding agency leader, a strategic and eloquent contributor in our boardroom, and a fearless producer of work that is equally creative and commercial,” said Kevin Roberts, the agency’s worldwide chief executive in a statement.
Swing Lowther
Jericho Digital Communications has appointed Chris Lowther as chief executive of New Zealand operations and he joins as the regional Jericho organisation expands its Australian and Asian operations as part of ambitious regional growth plans.
“Jericho is a well-known name in digital marketing with over twelve years experience helping leading financial institutions, telcos, retailers and service providers to put their best digital foot forward,” says Lowther. “It’s an exciting time to lead the company into an expanded world of services and offerings to help clients know, react, interact and service customers in an integrated multi-channel way.”
Lowther has spent over eleven years helping organisations develop better customer relationships in senior regional roles at Portrait Software and Pitney Bowes Software. These roles included working with client-side CMOs and the C-suite on initiatives around enterprise CRM, digital marketing automation, and customer data and analytics. Lowther also has over two decades of international technology experience. He replaced Jeff man, who transitioned out of the managing director role after Jericho became a member of the Asia Pacific Digital group of companies.
Jericho, which works with clients like Telecom NZ, Advintage, The Warehouse, IAG and Flight Centre (NZ), signalled its intentions for rapid regional growth in late 2012 with the appointment of Paula Harrison (nee O’Connell) to lead Jericho as group chief executive. Harrison was formerly managing director of Returnity, the successful Photon Group company sold to Salmat in 2010.
“As a regional provider with a local focus, we’re expanding the way clients can know, react, interact and service their customers across any channel,” she says. “From 13 years experience with some of the best CMOs in the country, we know the next twelve months are going to see some amazing digital campaigns.”
It’s twins
3rdeye has added two seasoned talent managers, with Clint Ulyatt and Gudrun Kendall joining the recruitment agency team.
“Clint has built an outstanding reputation for himself in the industry and is known for his disarming honesty and integrity, among other things,” says director Andy Sive. “He’s got an outstanding track record with clients and candidates alike. He’s a great score for us.”
As part of the creative industry for over 20 years, Ulyatt has previously turned his hand as an actor’s agent and worked in advertising as an art buyer and account manager. Following on from six years as a cornerstone player at The Pond working in contract and freelance, he has spent the last year with Font working in permanent placements. His focus at 3rdeye will continue on creative roles in design, art direction/writing, digital and production.
“I’m really looking forward to working with Andy, Lucy, Gudrun and Laura. It’s a tight team with real depth. And I’m prepared to overlook Andy’s support for the Springboks.”
Kendall joined the team earlier this year as a senior talent manager specialising in advertising and digital Talent. She has spent 12+ years in the multi-media industry and has worked in online editing and studio management in Wellington, through to digital producing and project management in London, to integrated agency client service in Auckland and now over to the recruitment side of the fence.
Otagooooooooo
Otago University students Ella Newell and Isabella Howard have won the student section of Australian Planning Idol for their idea Bedtime Stories.
The brief was for the United Nations and the generation of donations for Syrian Refugees and lecturer Roel Wijland, who was present to collect the award in Sydney, says it was very cool for his young students to be involved in the project and to be successful overseas.
“We were stoked with the kind words on the evening. This included a specific mention of the strong entry from Hillary Rock-Archer by head judge Gareth Kay [it received a highly commended]… During the sessions the presence of Syrian students, and their haunting family stories, made a lasting impression on the planning class and the final entries.”
This year, Otago University launched a dedicated planning course as part of its new advertising specialisation, The Brandbach, which is a virtual invention and online collaborative platform, with a year three course in creative marketing communication and year four modules in concept development and planning. The Idol was one of two main projects in this year’s planning class; the other was a collaborative exhibition with the Dunedin School of Art, Art & Money.
The senior course modules have portfolios access and include a range of marketing, school of art, literature and computer science students. The specialisation will also have a new Diploma for Graduates Endorsed in Advertising from 2014 onwards. Some students participate as part of dedicated research Masters with advertising themes.
Nice work
The Kenexa Best Workplaces Survey has revealed the top organisations to work for in New Zealand. And Overland Footwear took out the Overall Winner (and Large Workplace Category winner) for the second year in a row.
In 2013, 243 organisations participated in the survey, which sees employees rank their own workplaces.
- Check out the hall of fame here.
Other category winners were Warehouse Stationery (Best Enterprise Workplace), Mars New Zealand (Best Medium-Large Workplace), Giltrap Audi (Best Small-Medium Workplace) and Kellogg Company NZ (Best Small Workplace).
VTNZ (Enterprise Workplace Category), FMG (Large Workplace Category), Leading Edge Communications (NZ) (Medium-Large Workplace Category), Living Cell Technologies (Small-Medium Workplace Category), and Student Job Search Aotearoa (Small Workplace Category) were recognised for having the greatest improvement in their overall score from 2012 to 2013.
It also handed out the Five-Year League and Ten-Year League Awards. Veteran recipients of the Five-Year League Award for 2013 were AA Insurance, Inspire Group, Mars New Zealand, Maven International and Overland Footwear. Joining them in 2013 for the first time are ADInstruments, Hyundai Motors NZ, South Taranaki District Council, Southern Cross Health Society and Trade Me. Flight Centre (NZ) is the sole recipient of the Ten-Year League Award in 2013 and both categories are an astounding demonstration of sustained workplace excellence.
In 2013 the new Enterprise Workplace Category was established bringing recognition to more organisations than ever before. This category recognised organisations employing 750 or more employees. It signifies that more larger organisations are recognising the need to build a great workplace where employee engagement is high, and demonstrates that organisations of this size are capable of doing so despite the unique challenges they face in managing the workforce.
