Former TVNZ reporter turns media guru in London

By YVETTE ADAMS

Many New Zealanders come to Britain bright-eyed and full of enthusiasm and are brought down to earth with a huge thud when they discover how tough making it there can be.

After working for TVNZ for seven years, including two years on one of the highest-profile murder cases the country has seen (the Ben Smart and Olivia Hope case), Emma Hart arrived in Britain confident that her CV and personality would dazzle potential media employers.

"I went in to the BBC and they said, 'Honey, there's no chance you'll ever be on TV here'.

"It was because of my voice and my accent, even though I'd been practising 'This is Emma Hart for BBC1 from Nairobi', in my best BBC voice for weeks before the interview. It was a real blow to my confidence."

Hart was determined, and eventually managed to gain some work producing for BBC and ITN. But it was unsatisfying.

"It's very different to journalism in New Zealand. Here you're stuck on your tush 12 hours a day and mainly rewriting other people's stories. It's very electronic, very conveyor belt. I became anxious to be back out talking to people."

In a quest for success in Britain, she made a jump to the world of public relations and talked her way into the London office of US PR agency Edelman.

"I worked there for a year and loathed it but within a short space of time I had set up a broadcast/media division there offering an across-the-board package getting our clients on air.

"No one understood how you get on TV and what to do once you're on there. I concentrated on getting chief executives into shape, telling them what to do and helping them work out their message."

The new division was hugely successful and, after only a year with the company, Hart considered setting up her own media PR company.

"I wasn't fearful but I had doubts about setting up HP Media, as you do. I thought 'Hang on, you've never run a business before. And this is central London! There might be other people doing this ... But I had client support from day one and it went from there."

Hart set up HP Media to train clients and get them media air time. Her regular clients now include heavyweights such as KPMG, DHL and Levi's.

"Many of the people I deal with think corporate and cannot distil and deliver their message in 20 seconds.

"Reputations are so easily crushed by a wrong word or a poor performance.

"I say: 'Tell me a story. Make me understand'. And once I've trained them to a certain level, I slot them in on the CNNs and the BBCs."

Hart's bold move to work for herself has brought her a huge amount of job satisfaction.

"The best thing about it is I only do what I like. I love training. I love media. I love communication. If you've got energy you will be surrounded by clients. If you like what you do and you're energised and fuelled by what you do, how can you not be successful?"

Hart also regularly stands in for Ian Sinclair, UK and European correspondent for TVNZ.

"Through the war I was doing it quite often because he was away and involved in that. And last year there was a lot of work with them too. So I'm getting the best of both worlds really."

Hart still admits to bouts of restlessness, but she says when it comes to living in London she's happy.

"I love London. It makes you smart. Trends are set here. You can't help but see the opportunities everywhere you go. You can't be bored here. It can be hard, but it's certainly not boring."