KEY POINTS:
DDB Group has parted company with popular adman Mike Watkins after he spent seven unhappy months as account director on the McDonald's account.
Watkins has been given a generous compensation package from his old employers so he won't be going hungry.
He was disappointed by the outcome having joined DDB after leaving a "a great job" and a long-term future as general manager of M&C Saatchi.
He will be taking two months off and will be considering his next move.
Watkins said McDonald's had reviewed the client service part of its advertising business during his short term and decided to make a change.
"McDonald's is a great brand and it's fair to say they do things their way," he said.
The relationship between a heavily marketed brand like McDonald's and its account director requires a close rapport especially given the complex issues during the fight to stave off regulation in the present environment.
DDB New Zealand chief executive Sandy Moore said the parting was amicable but noted that McDonald's had been with his agency for 20 years.
After difficulties on the McDonald's account, it was decided it was best to move on. It had been a difficult decision because Watkins was a good mate.
It is not unusual for adverting clients to make changes where rapport is lacking.
But when they do not work, it is unusual for an agency to part company completely with its executive.
What went wrong at McDonald's during those seven months?
A different beast
There have long been reports in the advertising world that all was not well in the McDonald's ad account, which is one of this country's biggest.
But these have been rejected by McDonald's NZ's recently appointed country manager - Australian Mark Hawthorne.
Hawthorne has brought a more demanding approach to the local operation and says sales here are now growing faster than in Australia.
He had "quite liked" Watkins but the relationship had not worked out. McDonald's was "a different beast" to a lot of advertising accounts.
In particular, Hawthorne referred to the marketing committee, which represents the franchisees making up 75 per cent of the operation, and which has a say on how the account is run.
McDonald's advertising is run by DDB globally and marketing approaches are often tested in Australia and New Zealand for use in bigger territories - the McCafe and Deli Choices concepts are cases in point.
The New Zealand account has been run in the past by larger-than-life Australian Michael Godwin, who moved back to Sydney and now runs McDonald's there.
When he left, DDB poached Sonya Berrigan but she stayed just three months before moving back to Saatchi & Saatchi.
McDonald's has also been going through a period of rapid change in its marketing approach. So too has DDB, whose group head in New Zealand, Marty O'Halloran, took charge of both countries.
Fixing staff troubles
The Employers and Manufacturers Association has found a way to ginger up its annual conference by hiring Bill Ralston to deliver a keynote address.
Ralston's speech will focus on "the present employment relations and human resources legislation and how it affected business, the point of view from a business unit manager and what needs to change".
He is likely to give an entertaining speech but some former workers with direct experience of his approach to staff relations were rather bemused at the choice.
It is not surprising Ralston finds himself back on the speaking circuit. Last time he was a freelancer - after leaving his job as Metro editor - he occasionally ran meetings and seminars for Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey.
Talking to Bill
Ralston seems to have a few part-time roles on the go. Apparently as part of the audition for the new TV3 breakfast programme, Sunrise, contenders are asked to interview Ralston, whose public comments made plenty of headlines when he was TVNZ's head of news and current affairs.
TVNZ reporter Ali Ikram is understood to be a contender for the male host role on Sunrise. Ikram was one of the higher profile reporters at One News who volunteered to take redundancy.
We hear TVNZ has been caught short by the TV3 decision to launch Sunrise after clearing out many of its own Breakfast staff and has been trying to rehire them.
Whaea is the word
Maori Television is staying whaea - (Maori for "mum" dummy) - on its plans for a new second channel to run on Freeview. But I understand it is likely to be launched near its birthday celebrations alongside the new World Indigenous Broadcasters conference from March 26-28.
Under the new arrangements, it is expected the new channel will be nearly all Maori language content and the existing Maori TV channel will be able to develop its programming in English from a Maori perspective.
It's not clear where the extra money is coming from or whether National will support the concept if it leads the Government next year.
Film grants
Film folk need not have worried they would be forgotten by sports-mad Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard becoming fixated on the Rugby World Cup and the America's Cup.
Faced with a choice of going to the rugger or to the movies, Mallard and his Cabinet colleagues decided both should be given taxpayer hand-outs. This week, Cabinet approved a veritable lolly scramble. It met a film industry plea that the large budget production grant scheme be increased from a 12.5 per cent rebate to 15 per cent for projects of more than $15 million. The increase in the grant is part of a push to attract the production of big Hollywood movies here, as some producers have started to steer clear.
The other big push is to encourage the Hollywood movies to stay beyond the production into the post-production phase, such as film processing and editing, and the Government has held its hand out to post-production companies such as Peter Jackson's Park Road Post, Digital Post and Images Post. It is offering a new post-production grant, returning 15 per cent of any local post-production spend of $3 million to $15 million..
Keeping film-makers here after production might be a big ask as the film-makers are often quite keen, after several weeks in New Zealand, to head back to the Hollywood Hills.
Jackson - whose King Kong movie received taxpayer grants of $48 million - has spent a lot of money on Park Road Post to create a facility in Miramar.
Made for TV
The large budget screen production grant has long been unpopular with local producers. Only a few movies ever clear the $15 million required so it is a subsidy for Hollywood and for the companies that service Hollywood productions to spend money on New Zealand technicians, caterers and so on.
The change will help producers who make lower budget made-for-TV movies by allowing them to "bundle" projects. Under the old rules, these projects - sometimes budgeted at $5 million or $6 million - would not get the 15 per cent subsidy. It is these projects which play the biggest role in keeping the film industry alive, in Auckland at least. With the new rules, they can bundle mini-series together into $30 million lots for the hand-outs, which seems attractive enough.
However Paul Carran, of Film Factory, says the new incentives, while welcome, are unlikely to lift the number of Hollywood projects coming here because of the high exchange rate.
Little word
No word yet on who will take over the joint editorial role at ACP overseeing Metro and North & South. Gossip is that Sunday Star Times editor Cate Brett turned down the job. Another name mentioned is Paul Little, former editor of the Listener and Metro, who has been working on the TV show Charlotte's List.
