New global one-to-one agency launch

Embargoed until
1pm Thursday 7 June 2007

Australasia leads the way in new global one-to-one agency launch

Kiwi marketers will be among the first in the world to have access to a new global network specialising in one-to-one communication.

The launch in New Zealand and Australia of Rivet is expected to heat up competition in the direct marketing sector.

The Auckland office of Rivet has grown out of Draft, the biggest specialist direct agency in the US and one of the largest in the world. Rivet will be a sister agency to Lowe’s brand agencies across the Lowe Worldwide network, based on a model successfully used by Draft and Lowe in New Zealand.

Rivet will focus on ‘creating conversations between people and brands’. Judi Lewis, Rivet’s new CEO of Australasia, has made a significant contribution to both the concept and brand development of the new offering.

“We all know that media choices are proliferating faster than ever before, and consumers are enjoying more and more control,” says Lewis. “No longer is it good enough to simply talk at customers – relationships are no longer formed on the basis of one-way communications. We are living, breathing, random individuals and do not sit around waiting for a pre-defined customer lifecycle programme.”

In New Zealand, Rivet’s Managing Director will be Matthew Scott. Scott is originally from London, where he ran the Prudential business for TBWA and helped the agency win a Gold Lion at Cannes for the ‘Plan from the Pru’. He subsequently spent seven years in Sydney, where he was Client Services Director at MercerBell and looked after clients including Diageo Australia, Adobe and Sun Microsystems.

Chris Hunter, Executive Creative Director, will head up the Rivet creative departments in both NZ and Australia. Hunter has European and Australasian experience on some of the world’s biggest brands, including Hewlett-Packard, Pepsi and Vodafone. He is one of the few direct marketing creatives who have won the world’s top marketing effectiveness award, the US Gold Echo.

In NZ, Matt von Trott has been hired as Rivet’s Interactive Creative Director. Trott is one of the most experienced interactive creatives in southern hemisphere, and an expert in motion graphics, design, animation and new media. His clients have included Vodafone, Telecom, Nokia, Air New Zealand, the NZ Police and Navy, and Shihad.

Rivet’s Auckland and Sydney offices are already working closely together, offering advantages for brands looking to build relationships on both sides of the Tasman. Rivet clients will get access to the IPG Planning Toolkit – the only agency planning toolkit that is the product of a best-practice study – as well as the cutting-edge interactive resources of the IPG Emerging Media Lab.

Rivet’s NZ MD Scott said that the growth in digital and interactive media meant “global is now local. Communities are no longer simply geographic, and brands need to understand and relate to that.” He added that Rivet would take a creative approach, using personalised, individual communication to develop brand relationships. “Marketers are often overwhelmed by the technological capabilities of new media. We’ll be focusing on the quality of the communication and brand relationship.”

Foundation clients for Rivet in New Zealand will include Genesis Energy, Les Mills International, GlaxoSmithKline and Roost Mortgage Brokers.

ENDS

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