The Clemenger Group New Zealand has announced a majority investment in research/customer intelligence company Perceptive Group in a move designed to add data-driven marketing capabilities to its offering.
Clemenger BBDO announced via a late press release on Friday afternoon the resignation of Clemenger BBDO and Proximity Wellington managing director Livia Esterhazy after two years with the agency.
Clemenger Group chief executive Jim Moser this week confirmed the consolidation of the Auckland-based teams at Proximity and Touchcast under the Colenso BBDO brand. So what does this mean for the Wellington arm of Touchcast? And is there still room for digital specialists in an integrated world?
After almost four years as managing director of Clemenger BBDO in Wellington, Andrew Holt has accepted the equivalent role at Clemenger BBDO Sydney, with Livia Esterhazy shifting from her role as managing partner at Assignment Group to replace him.
Industry happenings at Clemenger Group, Colenso, Air New Zealand, The Management Company and 3R.
Last year, Clemenger Group headhunted ApolloNation’s Troy Fuller and invited him into Colenso’s offices on College Hill to develop the group’s shopper marketing expertise. His expertise resulted in quick momentum and now, only a year later, it has officially unveiled Clemenger Shop as the latest addition to the group.
After a stellar 2012 on the awards front, Colenso BBDO was named the world’s best advertising agency by the Big Won report. And it aims to stay at the top. In an article that originally appeared in NZ Marketing, Ben Fahy talks commercial creativity, Kiwi clobbering machines and the increasing importance of IP with Nick Garrett and Nick Worthington.
There have been some massive changes inside Telecom recently, with chief executive Simon Moutter announcing a restructure that plans to axe between 930 to 1280 jobs by the middle of this year a few months back. And as a direct result of the decision to reduce the headcount, it has outsourced a few previously internal functions and appointed Clemenger Group-owned Touch/Cast.
Clemenger Group chief executive Jim Moser’s been pretty busy buying and selling things recently. So we really don’t know where he finds the time to play the lead role on Aaron Sorkin’s Newsroom.
A few weeks back, Clemenger Group chief executive Jim Moser was welcoming a new business to the family as justONE was fused with .99. And now he’s farewelling one of the family after selling direct mailhouse and digital print provider Mailshop back to managing director Deidre Ross.
Mergers and acquisitions have been fairly rare throughout These Difficult Times, but the Clemenger Group has made a significant addition to its communications coterie and is hoping to create a formidable advertising force by fusing .99 and direct/CRM/1-to-1 agency justONE.
Forbes to the fore on Maori TV, Susan Wood makes a TV comeback, Young & Shand & Growing, Clemenger Group welcomes its annual influx of young’uns, The Sweet Shop adds some more talent, The Blue Rose shifts timeslot, and jobs.co.nz hunts for a new way.
Beating out the world’s biggest agencies, Colenso BBDO’s stellar 2012 on the awards front means it has topped the charts of The Big Won report, which calculates global agency rankings based on awards performances. And it’s the first time a New Zealand or Australian agency has ever won the title.
Word-of-mouth agency Soup launches in New Zealand (and, appropriately enough, starts with a campaign for cat broth), Steve Tindall sleeps with the enemy, two for Tangible as Primary shacks up with PGG Wrightson, Clemenger Group opens up the Young Talent Programme for 2013, greener pastures for Fenella Humphreys, Jessica Mathias joins Pead and Hayden Hare joins Flava.
Maggie Christie integrates herself into Clems, Stefan Lepionka steps down as head juicer at Charlie’s, Heartland agency upgrades its Tracta, Newstalk ZB wins gold in New York, 8com cuts the ribbon at new Auckland office, Craig Franklin swaps Oz for New Zealand, and Tony Bozzard joins KMS Data.
After BNZ’s parent bank NAB recently shoulder-tapped Clemenger Group and asked Colenso BBDO to hop into bed with BNZ, Westpac was pushed out onto the floor and swiftly put its account up for pitch. At present, the Clemenger-owned .99, which recently had to show around 15 staff the door after the loss of Air New Zealand and Vodafone to DraftFCB, is Westpac’s retail agency but this new regional alignment and other agency changes for BNZ means it might be pretty tough to keep it that way.
In another round of bankland swings-and-roundabouts Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has appointed Colenso BBDO as its new creative agency, in alignment with with its Australian parent bank. BNZ spends around $10 million on advertising a year, so it’s a good win for Colenso, but Westpac may not be so thrilled… it dumped Saatchi & Saatchi for Colenso BBDO just 18 months ago.
There have been a few changes in Colenso BBDO account set-up lately, with one big loss and a few smaller gains. And now it’s announced some changes to its senior staff line-up, with executive creative director Nick Worthington being promoted to the new role of creative chairman and long-standing creative director Steve Cochran, who has worked on much of Colenso BBDO’s award-winning work over the past 13 years, replacing him as executive creative director.
The Clemenger Group, New Zealand’s largest communications group, has bought Wellington-based digital activation agency, TOUCH/CAST. The deal gives Clemenger Group the majority stake in the business, while TOUCH/CAST retains a significant share.
The big news from the past few weeks was that Vodafone has decided to review its agency partners, which left the role of incumbent Colenso up in the air and led to speculation that a decision had already been made to move the account elsewhere without the agency being involved in a pitch. And while Clemenger Group chief executive Jim Moser admits Colenso is now out of the picture, resources have been shifted to .99, which will be the epicentre of the account for the next three months and is “going to participate aggressively” in the upcoming pitch.
Questions are hovering over the Telecom account as a result of its planned demerger, and there’s some fresh uncertainty surrounding one of its main rivals, with Colenso BBDO’s hold on the Vodafone account seemingly up in the air.
…as TBWA\ makes a couple more significant hires; Radio New Zealand splits up its Morning Report hosts; Clemenger Group continues to nurture youngsters after its inaugural Graduate Programme proved a success; Carat hunts for a new general manager; another old hand joins The Pond’s freelance ranks; Mango adds a trio to its events team; and the Ministry of Economic Development signs up an event advisor.
First Brent Smart left his managing director role at Colenso BBDO for a plum posting at the BBDO mothership in San Fran. Now Adam Good is following suit, with the AIM Proximity Auckland chief executive and Clemenger Group Australasian director of digital innovation resigning from his posts to take up the role of executive vice president of Proximity Worldwide.
Despite a stellar year for the Clemenger Group gang, both in terms of awards won and cash banked, there have been a few mutterings around the traps of late about axes falling at Colenso and AIM Proximity. And while the seemingly OTT figure of 20 departures has been bandied about, Colenso’s managing director Nick Garrett says that’s certainly not the case and says it’s just slight reshuffling of the pack to respond to the current demands of clients.
Andrew Holt, currently a group account director at Colenso BBDO, will be shifting south, moving up the executive chain and battling the breeze after being appointed as managing director of Clemenger BBDO in Wellington.
After snatching the Westpac account from Saatchi and releasing a couple of rather well-received campaigns recently, Colenso is on a bit of a roll at the moment. And, as is often the way when the going is good, the hires have followed, with Daniel Wright set to join as digital creative director at the end of the month and Margot Chandler appointed as Clemenger Group’s ‘people development director’ in a newly developed human resources role.
Not content just being the chief executive of the Clemenger Group, Jim Moser will also take up a role on the Board of Trustees for the Auckland Festival, with Colenso BBDO becoming a Gold Sponsor of the 2011 event in return for advertising services.
The official release has been sent and no-one’s particularly surprised with its content: Clemenger Group has appointed Nick Garrett as managing director of Colenso BBDO, beginning 1 March 2010.
Got charisma? A passion for creativity? Direct marketing in your bones? The AIM Proximity CEO role is up for grabs.
Former CEO Darryn Melrose will be leaving at the end of the month after a six-year tenure. Interim CEO, Jim Moser (CEO Clemenger Group), is sad to see Melrose go …