Page 40 - AdNews Sep-Oct 2021
P. 40

                 Meet the Team
  “And making an impact in culture is what we want to do for our brands. “When I talk about culture, it’s not just different cultures — it’s all the things that are going on in cul- ture. Culture might be from music, gamers, or different areas of the country geographically. The more we think that way, the more diverse we need to be in terms of the types of people and cultures we have in the office. So the two
are interrelated.
“We haven’t set targets at this
stage, but we ultimately want to be reflective of the New Zealand population so our makeup would mirror that of the New Zealand population.”
Colenso BBDO, based in Auckland, has clients including IAG, Spark — a major telco in New Zealand — Bank of New Zealand, Mars, Google and BMW. Watson says the agency would like to attract more youth brands, such as in the sports and FMCG markets.
A key factor in growing its agency is the appointment of Rob Campbell as chief strategy officer. He joined the agency in early 2021 and has 30 years’ experience, working internationally at agen- cies including Wieden+Kennedy, R/GA and Cynic.
“He’s one of the most well- known strategists and arrived in
Top left: Angela Watson.
New Zealand after 12 months working in lockdown which is mind blowing,” she says.
“Rob is a well known speaker, he’s a writer, he’s a mischief maker and that’s something that we love at Colenso — making mischief with the work we do.
“Like Colenso, Rob passionately believes in creativity, culture and chaos, which sits really well with the Colenso brand.”
Although New Zealand was more successful in suppressing COVID-19, the agency still found the local market was sticking to short-term thinking until recently. It has only been in the past few months that Watson has noticed the community accepting COVID-19 will continue to impose some form of restrictions in the near future.
“There’s an acceptance the world is never going to be free from COVID-19 and we have to get on with it and factor it into how we approach things,” she says. “Agencies and clients collectively have been thinking short-term.
“I think just in the past couple of months we’re starting to emerge from that. So that’s both our thinking and our clients’ thinking. We’re not having to push them but collectively we’re all buoying each other in regard to what comes next.
“It’s a great moment in time to make leaps forward and want to do things that are amazing, both at a business level and at a communication level.” Watson also notes the impact the pandemic has had on her staff’s
mental health, as it has had on people around the world.
However, one positive to emerge from lockdowns and restrictions is the realisation that her team can continue to be productive while
working remotely.
“We’ve been back in the office since the beginning of the year, other
than a couple of short lockdowns,” she says.
“There’s been some remarkable changes there because through
COVID-19 we learned you could work from anywhere. We really wanted to embrace that and retain that flexibility.
“You didn’t have to be in the office or at your desk all day. We wanted to retain that flexibility, that you could come and go into the office as required, and that you could work from home, or work from wherever you wanted. That’s been a big change.
“Enabling people to have that flexibility has had a big impact on their happiness.”










































































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