Liz Fraser has been appointed to a Group Executive role as Group Head of Revenue for MediaWorks. The new role is charged with growing group revenue, and creates a single interface for customers across MediaWorks’ range of assets; television, radio, digital, social, product integration and sponsorships.
“We have unparalleled reach, touching 3.8 million New Zealanders across our many TV, radio and digital platforms, and having a single leader with the ability to work across those assets, and interface with our major agency and direct clients will generate increased value for our customers, and for MediaWorks,” said MediaWorks Group CEO Mark Weldon.
“There is no better qualified person than Liz for this critical role. Liz has a deep background in media, is great with people, loves her clients, and represents the best of MediaWorks’ brand values – fun, energetic, professional and successful. I am thrilled to welcome Liz to our executive team.”
Liz Fraser said: “It is an exciting time to be working at MediaWorks and I am looking forward to taking our unique and substantial media offering to market, and providing a client-centric value proposition to our agency and advertiser partners.”
Liz Fraser has been Director of Sales and Marketing for MediaWorks TV since October 2012, overseeing the company’s Sales, Integration and Marketing divisions.
Fraser takes up her new group responsibilities immediately. She will continue to manage the TV Sales and Integration teams.
PHD Group has expanded its strategy team, appointing Gareth O’Connor as strategy director and promoting James Davidson to the role of senior strategist. The team will work across PHD Group’s three divisions – Spark PHD, PHDIQ and Spark PR & Activate – and will be led by group strategy director Jane Stanley, who has been with the business since 2011.
Originally from Scotland, O’Connor has worked at PHD London on Unilever, along with spells at Starcom and Mindshare working on IBM, Samsung, EMI and Activision.
“Along with big-name brands in the UK, Gareth has prior experience in Auckland-based media agencies, and we are delighted he’s now been enticed back to Kiwi shores,” says Stanley.
O’Connor has admired PHD group in New Zealand for many years for its outstanding strategic thinking ability. “Internationally, New Zealand is renowned as one of the strongest PHD offices,” he says. “Combining this local strength with my international experience, I feel it will be a winning combination for clients and the overall business. I’m thrilled to be coming home and I can’t wait to get started.”
“O’Connor will be a very welcome addition to the agency’s Connected Specialists offering,” says Stanley.: “We have so many specialists under one roof; from trading to social media, from activation to search, from media relations to mobile. Coupled with our connected ways of working and powerful strategic tools, we deliver a depth of expertise and holistic multi-channel approach that sets us apart. It’s great to have Gareth on-board as we position ourselves as the agency of the future.”
Davidson has been with Spark PHD for nine years, working on NZ Lotteries, Vodafone and Sanitarium. During that time, he has demonstrated exceptional strategic ability.
“We’re consistently impressed by James’ ability to distil the team’s thinking and drive the development of truly innovative campaigns,” Jane says. “Now our clients across all arms of the business – media, digital, and PR and activation – will benefit from his results-focused planning skills.”
Davidson is also instrumental in running the industry-first gamification tool Source – a “game-changing” planning approach with a strategy framework and live engine that allows everyone across the global PHD network to work together in real-time – encouraging collaboration and deeper thinking.
PHD Group ceo Louise Bond says expanding the strategy team is all about giving clients an unparalleled strategic approach in a world that’s increasingly digitised, socialised and connected. “Insight-driven strategy development is at the heart of everything we do. Our strategic strength is not only crucial to our own success, it’s essential in delivering world-class campaigns and excellent results for our clients.
“Combined with our creativity, our strong industry relationships and our commitment to flawless execution, our growing Strategy Team will ensure we stay ahead in the fast-changing media landscape.”
Davidson’s new role is effective immediately and O’Connor joins the team on 20 October.
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