…as Jim Tully and Peter Bush take their place among New Zealand’s media greats; Freeman’s Bay indie Republik opens an Australian office; the Saatchi & Saatchi regional HQ shifts to Singapore from Sydney as Chris Foster takes on a big new Asia Pacific role; Fairfax looks for some creative, integrated inspiration in its new Auckland offices; and Method Studios is acknowledged for its digital work at the New York Communicator awards. Words and pictures
The Canon Media Awards always feature the usual argy bargy between the big print players as they claim various victories. But they also reward individuals right across the journalistic spectrum. And one of the greatest honours is the Outstanding Achievement Award, which was won this year by journalist Jim Tully and photographer Peter Bush.
Tully, a go-to-guy when media are looking for media commentary, is currently the head of Canterbury University’s School of Social and Political Sciences and this is his 25th and final year of guiding post-graduate students into journalism. He spent 18 years working in daily newspapers where he held the positions of editorial manager and assistant editor of the Auckland Star and editor of the 8 O’Clock weekend newspaper, before joining academia.
Tully was the inaugural New Zealand Journalist of the Year in 1978 when the forerunner to the Canon Media Awards was launched.
“In the past 25 years Jim has inspired and shaped the futures of many of the country’s best known journalists and editors. I am sure his experience and wisdom will be greatly missed by his students and colleagues,” says Canon’s country manager Mike Johnston.
Bush, a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit and Queen’s Service Medal, started his photojournalist career as a cadet for the New Zealand Herald in 1948 and shot his first All Blacks Game in 1949 on glass plates.
“Peter Bush’s career is legendary,” says Johnston. “He has been a fixture on the sidelines of All Blacks test matches over the past six decades, while also finding time for news and landscape photography. Peter has been a devoted Canon EOS user for some time and his images capture all the energy, emotion and history of our nation’s favourite sport. We are incredibly proud to be able to recognise Peter’s career and honour him with this award.”
Wizards of Oz
After almost ten years in Freemans Bay, indie agency Republik has opened the doors to its Sydney office.
“It’s no real surprise, it’s not been a matter of if, but when,” says Republik director Paul McNamara. “Over the past two years we’ve enjoyed a lot of success across the Tasman and it’s now time to lay down a foundation for us to build on. In the short term creative and production will continue to be managed out of Freemans Bay, but this will change as demand on resource increases. There’s a lot of opportunity for us in Oz and we’re really excited about the potential”.
But you can’t have a new office without new humans, so it’s appointed ex marketing manager at Commonwealth Bank of Australia Mason Williams to start up the account service team in Sydney.
Before crossing over to the client side, Williams was senior account director at George Patterson Y&R for almost four years, working on Panasonic, Waratahs Rugby, Telstra, AGL, Star City and LG Electronics. Prior to that he worked at a number of Sydney based agencies in senior account service roles.
“Mason joins us with a huge amount of account leadership experience and a hands on attitude, which is critical when you’re setting up. He’s actually not a bad bloke, apart from being a staunch supporter of the Wallabies,” says McNamara.
Fostering change
Chris Foster has been appointed chairman and regional chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Asia Pacific, with the role based in Singapore. And this new appointment means the Saatchi’s regional HQ will shift from Sydney to Singapore.
For the past three years Foster has been chief executive of Fallon, Minneapolis and has led a highly successful turnaround of the agency’s operations. He replaces Ian Rowden at Saatchi’s, who was based at the Sydney office and is thought to be returning to the US. The release didn’t mention his departure.
Kevin Roberts, chief executive Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, said Foster was an outstanding leader for the Asia Pacific region, having had previous roles in the region for Saatchi & Saatchi 1998-2005 in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
It’s certainly a big job and Foster’s region is made up of 13 nations: India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Malaysia, Australia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and New Zealand.
“Chris is an inspirational leader,” says Roberts. “His return to Asia Pacific is good news for clients and for our people. He is a world-class brand navigator with very successful US experience to add to his previous decade in Asia.”
Foster’s region – which excludes China – has one third of the world’s population, over two billion people. “Serving the everyday needs of these people is a serious business and Chris is our natural leader for this region.”
Foster has been Saatchi & Saatchi’s chief executive in Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, GM of international accounts in Asia Pacific, and global equity director for the agency’s client Procter & Gamble, where he led a team of more than 400 overseeing the laundry and home care business globally.
“Chris will work hip-to-hip with our chairman and regional chief executive of Greater China, Justin Billingsley, to drive growth throughout the region and create a united team that serves half the world’s people.”
Office Space
Speaking of office shifts, Fairfax Media has moved two of its Auckland office premises to one central site at 2 Hereford Street, Auckland Central.
The new office will accommodate more than 200 people in total, including those from Fairfax Corporate, the Ad Network Sales & Research teams, Fairfax Corporate Communications and the Fairfax Auckland Digital team, all previously based at 110 Customs Street West. They join a team from Fairfax Sundays Business unit, Fairfax Group IT Services, and the Sport, Business and Auckland content bureaus, who moved from their base at 155 New North Road.
Chief executive Allen Williams thinks the new “vibrant” location, just off Karangahape Road, will be conducive to producing the creative and market-leading work Fairfax Media is renowned for.
“Combining two of our Auckland sites into a single hub is a physical manifestation of our integration. The cross-channel integration across our newspapers, magazines, online, mobile, apps, tablet, video and digital TV, is both in terms of our high quality journalism, as well as our advertising sales. Now, we have both of these under one roof.”
The Fairfax Media Magazines division in Auckland will remain in its existing premises at 317-319 New North Road, Kingsland, as will the Auckland Suburbans Group, which is based at Central Park in Penrose.
Method to the madness
Auckland-based digital agency Method Studios has taken a gold and two Distinctions at the 17th Annual Communicator Awards in New York.
“Of course it goes without saying that we love the recognition for our work” says Samantha Ramlu, Method’s managing director. “But it’s also great to see an increased appreciation in the value that fun and engagement bring to digital advertising.”
Method won gold for its work on Much Moore’s www.icecreamland.co.nz site and distinction awards for the Twinings website (www.twinings.co.nz) and The Retail Institute’s edugame www.servicestar.co.nz.
The Communicator Awards honour creative excellence for communications professionals, receive thousands of entries from around the world and are judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts.
