Admen aim to strike world between the eyes with Kiwi campaign

By Karyn Scherer

Paul Jeffreys is having difficulty wiping the smile off his face.

The managing partner of ad agency M&C Saatchi made media headlines last week, when the Tourism Board confirmed it had chosen his agency over Wellington firm Goldsack Harris Thompson for its new global campaign.

The board had been considering ideas from the two agencies since dumping its initial choice for the plum contract, Saatchi & Saatchi, last month.

Neither Jeffreys nor his immediate boss, M&C Saatchi's Asia-Pacific chairman Tom Dery, are about to slag off their competitors. But they will admit that the belated victory tastes particularly sweet, as the agency is only three years old.

It is believed to have missed out by just a whisker during the original pitch last July.

It has been so busy working on the account over the past few days, it has not yet had time to celebrate, says Jeffreys: "We will, but not at this stage."

For those unacquainted with the Machiavellian machinations of the advertising industry, the fact that the new agency also bears the Saatchi name is bound to confuse.

In an ironic twist to the Tourism Board saga, the new agency takes its name from the original founders of Saatchi & Saatchi, Maurice and Charles Saatchi.

The brothers set up the new agency in 1995, after being dumped from their old firm by unhappy shareholders.

There has been speculation in Britain that M&C Saatchi might launch a takeover bid for its bitter rival, but, according to Dery, such reports are "complete rubbish".

The New Zealand office was set up in February 1996. There are now 13 staff in Auckland, and another three staff in Wellington. It is likely more will be hired.

The pair are unable to talk about their plans for the Tourism Board, as the board has yet to share their ideas with the industry. Dery will only say that the campaign will be "very exciting and powerful.

"The board was looking for a framework that would ensure we could talk to a whole range of different markets with a whole range of different products.

"By having this very strong framework, we're able to do that and therefore cater to the needs of the whole industry."

The board also accepted, he says, that it couldn't be everywhere at once.

"We can't talk to all segments all the time, so what we have to do is prioritise and make sure when we do talk, we do it really well and cleverly."

The campaign is intended to be launched by the middle of the year, which doesn't give the agency much time to put its ideas into practice.

"The idea is to go as fast as possible, but not with undue haste," says Dery.

The campaign, as we all know by now, is intended to capitalise on the Rugby World Cup, the America's Cup and the millennium bonanza of New Zealand being the first nation to see the dawn of the new century - "the edge of the world" theme.

The board's new chief executive, George Hickton, has already been quoted as saying that Saatchi & Saatchi's plans have been dropped in favour of a more pragmatic and authentic image, including video clips of the All Blacks relaxing at leisure attractions, and yacht racing in the Hauraki Gulf.

But Dery and Jeffreys admit to some puzzlement over such reports. That might be the plan for some work that is being done for the Discovery Channel, but that is not what they have been working on, they insist.

"If you're in the market for an overseas holiday, this campaign should strike you right between the eyes," says Dery.

The contract will give the agency billings of around $60 million - a figure that automatically catapults it into the top 10 in this country.

In Britain, he notes, M&C Saatchi is now the eighth-largest agency. It is also doing particularly well in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

Its New Zealand office, it has to be said, has had a difficult beginning. Two of the original partners, Roy Meares and Jeremy Taine, left early on to set up their own agency after a dispute over equity. Two key clients, Ansett New Zealand and DB Draught, left with them.

Internationally renowned creatives Fergus Fleming and Richard Grisdale replaced them amid much fanfare in early 1997, but seven months later they, too, were gone. Another of the original partners, Ian Christie, has also since left, to join Saatchi's Wellington office.

Such toing and froing seems par for the course in the ad industry, and Dery is philosophical about such hiccups.

"Our first ambition was to survive. I think we've survived and we've done remarkably well."