2000 Wildcard Agency of Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2000 Wildcard Agency of Year
- BRAVE NEW WORLD -

AUCKLAND – 16 February, 2001 – Just seven months after the company was formed, Brave New World was last night named Wildcard Agency of the Year by AdMedia and CAANZ (Communication Agencies Association).

Launched in July 2000, Brave New World is an integrated communications company that provides for its clients a complete solution of strategic, creative, branding, media services, data analysis and measurement services.

According to David Gapes, Editor of AdMedia, “the Wildcard Agency of Year Award was established to recognise an organisation or individual that has achieved something extraordinary in the advertising industry. Significantly, Brave New World is the first full service agency in New Zealand for over a decade.”

“We are absolutely delighted to accept the inaugural award of Wildcard Agency of the Year,” says Frank van der Velden, CEO of Brave New World. “This reinforces our belief of the importance that integrated communications plays in the ‘new economy’ at present – and moreso will continue to play in the years to come.”

“With the NZ online industry experiencing rapid growth, we are appreciative that the CAANZ committee and AdMedia emphasised the significance of integrated communications, the bold move we have made into this space and also recognised an agency as young as ours.

“Last year, Steve Shearman (Director of Futures) and myself made a major commitment by establishing an integrated communications company, providing both digital and traditional services for a variety of clients (e.g., TV advertising for LandRover, email marketing for Roadshow and online advertising for NZPost eBill). What we established was a totally new business not seen before in New Zealand - an agency of the future.”

"Our strategy is to build long term relationships with clients currently focussed on Australasia, covering all aspects of communications and media channels. We are also in a perpetual search mode for high-performing communication and marketing specialists who have an interest in being part of a winning formula."

According to van der Velden, while there is exceptional growth in the online industry, it could be even greater. ‘Ad Agency inertia’ is described by a Jupiter Research Report on Online Advertising (2000) as being the single most deterrent to growth in online budgets. “Our focus is taking a balanced approach,” says van der Velden. “We see huge upsides as clients rebalance their budget to better reflect the channels that their customers are now using.”

The formation of Brave New World has bought together a blend of new and traditional communications talent that has enabled the founders to form a truly integrated communications company, or as some would describe it the ‘Ad Agency of the New Economy.” The team includes Angela Fulljames (General Manager, BNW - Wellington), Amanda Cropper (Account Director), Terry Levenberg (Strategist), Boyd Wason (General Manager – Database Marketing). Key additions this year have also added extra strength: Marcus Hawkins Adams (Creative Services Manager), Lou Devine (Group Account Director) and Tony Brown (Account Director).

END

About Brave New World
Brave New World offers a blend of traditional and new world communications for clients, leveraging the opportunities of integrated digital channels through next-generation communication tools. With a team of seventy, Brave New World provides a complete solution of strategic, creative, branding, data analysis and measurement services. Brave New World merged the talents of New Zealand’s largest online advertising company, WebMasters Network Limited and the leading design house Dave Clark Design Associates to form the new communications services company in mid 2000.

For further information, please contact:
- Frank van der Velden, Brave New World, tel: +64 9 358 2448, mob: 021 445994,
email: frankv@bravenewworld.co.nz

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