UP COUNTRY

Creativity’s said to be better when there’s a muse and for those who base their marketing agencies in the growing regions of Waikato and Bay of Plenty there’s plenty in their surroundings to be inspired by. Amy Williams takes a look at how business is fa

Creativity’s said to be better when there’s a muse and for those who base their marketing agencies in the growing regions of Waikato and Bay of Plenty there’s plenty to be inspired by. Amy Williams takes a look at how business is faring away from the bright lights and ivory towers.

ONE OF THE MOST ubiquitous characters in New Zealand advertising is the gumboot-and-plaid-shirt-wearing farmer with rugged charm and an obedient dog. But step away from the stereotypes of provincial New Zealand and you’ll find a cluster of agencies mustering up good work and good business from their base in the country’s growth regions. They may not be winning big awards or PR-ing their account wins, but they’re attracting big clients, both locally and on the world map, have an edge to rival their city counterparts and get to avoid the hassles of big city life.

The country’s largest rural area, Waikato, is just over an hour’s drive south from Auckland and a natural satellite of business—although King St’s Chris Williams would say Auckland is a satellite of Hamilton.

Two-way traffic

Driving along the motorway to Auckland, it’s not unusual for Williams to wave as a similar crew travel towards Hamilton in the opposite direction. King St has Auckland University on its books, which left the door open for an out-of-town agency to pick up Waikato University.

Williams travels to Auckland each week, where King St has clients including the burger chain Wendy’s and Lion’s Waikato Draught, and says being based in Hamilton is not a barrier but a bonus, especially when it comes to lifestyle.

He was born and educated in the Waikato and spent 15 years completing a tour of duty at city-based agencies, including DDB, Colenso BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi and Bates, before returning home and buying then Hamilton mayor Russ Rimmington’s agency in the 1980s.

“At the time I was at a career crossroads and the options were to stay in Auckland, go overseas or do something else. This opportunity came along and I just felt at the time it seemed a good thing to do as far as family and career. Also, I could see this part of the world is so solid and there would be lots of opportunity for growth,” Williams says.

King St has grown from a staff of four to 22, including an office in Tauranga. Williams says the lifestyle attracts experienced people to Hamilton and Tauranga, and as one of the bigger agencies in the region he often gets first pluck of the talent. He says the challenge lies in making sure the people are a good fit for the company and that they’re there for the right reasons. Get that right, and they stay.

Perhaps the main challenge for King St is

We do have to overcome certain barriers from being down here but it’s not something that we dwell on. We see it as a real strength to play on. Once we start to open our mouths and tell them the work we’ve been doing it’s put to bed. CHRIS WILLIAMS

making sure they get a foot in potential clients’ doors before they’re shut.

“The thing we’ve got to overcome for a client is that they don’t have to have the big Auckland or Wellington shop … We do have to overcome certain barriers from being down here but it’s not something that we dwell on. We see it as a real strength to play

on. Once we start to open our mouths and tell them the work we’ve been doing it’s put to bed.”

When it comes to competing with the shiny city agencies, Williams says it’s no different to being next door to them and that if King St upped sticks it would retain its unique character.

Rural clients make up a large portion of the agency’s portfolio, which is where it has an edge over many city-based agencies.

“There are elements of those clients that aren’t that glamorous to the big guns. We use our local roots and experience we’ve built up to compete,” says Williams. “There’s good money to be had and the big shops could have a look at it if they wanted to. It’s quite a different category so much of it exists on good, strong relationships.”

Keeping it close

That’s a sentiment shared by Graeme Blake, who heads Pan Media and Advertising, a full-service agency based in Hamilton that also spans IT, including business intelligence software platforms.

Pan Media’s clients are mainly in the services & distribution and manufacturing industries (including Heathcote Appliances and Midlands Health) but it also services clients in Auckland (among them Golden Homes) and Australia (GetGenuine Australia). Blake, who also started the agency in Hamilton for lifestyle reasons after 20 years in design, says it’s a misconception that provincial agencies deal only in local clients, and reckons clients in the bigger cities are looking for alternatives to the big agencies.

“I’d say we present differently. We’re quite possibly more relaxed and less aggressive but our client base really enjoys that. We still get the same or arguably better results.”

Like Williams, Blake travels to Auckland most weeks to visit clients and says Hamilton is close enough to the city to be able to have a presence there without a massive overhead.

In the past three years alone, business has tripled, which Blake puts down to the ripple effect of the agriculture industry and a gradual recovery from the recession.

Planting seeds

Just over the Kaimai Range, the country’s largest horticultural region, the Bay of Plenty is home to another conclave of agencies picking up big clients.

Wave Creative Communications Agency was started 21 years ago, and current managing director Glenn Dougal bought into it around ten years ago. Based in Mt Maunganui, Wave has grown to 14 staff,

Not being in one of the main cities, people tend to think the skills aren’t here, but once they work with us they find that our skill set is just as good, if not higher, than some of the larger agencies. GLENN DOUGAL

all of whom have experience working in big agencies overseas and all of whom are senior.

He says basing the business at The Mount helps to retain staff.

“Agency life is a pressurised business. A lot of people come down and say ‘I’d like to work in Mt Maunganui, it must be a relaxed agency’. But if anything, we have to work a lot harder than others to prove our mettle. Not being in one of the main cities, people tend to think the skills aren’t here, but once they work with us they find that our skill set is just as good, if not higher, than some of the larger agencies.”

Dougal says its first client, the Port of Tauranga, is still with them today and local kiwifruit exporter Zespri is coming up to a decade.

It’s not just local big-name clients, but also international companies that are looking for marketing expertise from the regions. Wave has worked for DFS Galleria here and overseas for a decade and Dougal says being an independent business helps.

“I think they see us as a bit of a hot shop here. We’re one of New Zealand’s largest independent agencies. A lot of our clients have a real affinity with that, they want to work with a New Zealandowned agency.”

He says he’s got a list of about 30 companies he’d like to work with in the future but is focused on adding value to what Wave offers its existing clients.

“For us the growth is coming in not just doing their advertising or marketing, but their strategic plans and other business. Once we understand a company’s brand strategy it’s all the other touch points about how that rolls out through their business.”

Out of the Woods

Just a short stroll down the Mt Maunganui main street is Woods, a creative agency that focuses on brand development.

Reuben Woods started the agency with his wife Michelle out of their house in Papamoa nine years ago. At the time they had one client, Design Mobel, but they’ve since grown to employ seven people servicing national and international clients.

They moved from their office in Papamoa around two years ago to allow for more growth— and to be closer to the beach and the schools their children attend.

It’s an attractive lifestyle and when looking to employ a new senior designer recently, Reuben (who cut his teeth working for agencies in London) says there was no need to even think about advertising. He simply looked through a handful of CVs he’d been sent.

Woods has many Bay of Plenty-based exporters and national businesses on its books. It manages the brand of home building company Generation Homes, and recently re-branded the solar electricity business PowerSmart. And he plans to attract more big clients over the next year. He’s passionate about the Bay of Plenty region and wants to help local businesses achieve success.

“Our vision for the business is to design the future of the Bay of Plenty. There are so many businesses based here that are international businesses and we want to add value to them,” he says.

Woods was a runner up in last year’s Export NZ BOP emerging exporter of the year award, and the only finalist from the region in the Best Design Awards in 2012.

Woods’ business has an interesting link to the Cook Islands, where it has a branch. He and Michelle have a natural affinity with the Pacific, being keen surfers, and Reuben’s dad John Woods owns the Rarotonga-based daily newspaper Cook Islands News.

Reuben sends one of his staff to the Cook Islands office every two months to service clients based in the Pacific, including Pacific Voyages, a sustainable ocean transportation business, and The University of the South Pacific based in Fiji.

Family affair

Standing slightly apart from the cluster of agencies at The Mount is another Bay of Plenty-based agency Family Design Co, which is based in Tauranga’s CBD. Barbara and Trent Sunderland founded the agency five years ago when they were expecting

their first child. They’d both been working overseas and after returning to Auckland the lifestyle of the Bays—and the fact that Trent’s family lived in the region—attracted them south.

Interestingly, Barbara says the business first survived off clients from out of town, but is now an even split between local and elsewhere.

“The biggest challenge is being able to build up local business. It takes a while for people to build up credibility. We’ve been able to retain clients in Auckland and Australia but work out of Bay of Plenty.”

Her team recently picked up AMP Capital as a client, which owns the Bayfair Shopping Centre. They created a campaign around winter fashion in April, with great results.

AMP Capital’s marketing manager Louise Chapman says they ran a competition with prizes of shopping vouchers, and expected around 300 entries but got a whopping 9,000. She says the key to its success was making it highly visible through local media and also interactive through social media and free styling sessions at the mall. Chapman says using a local agency was crucial to its success.

“Chosing a local agency has definitely got its benefits from the cost perspective. They don’t charge like an Auckland agency. And they know how the community works here, it’s different to the bigger cities.”

As for future business in Tauranga, Barbara says Family Design Co is in the middle of rebranding to reflect its mainly corporate clientele (including Rinnai). And she can see plenty of opportunity for growth in the region.

“It used to be seen as God’s waiting room but there’s been a real shift. There’s a lot more 30s professionals who’ve seen opportunities to move out of bigger cities but still have a career.”