KEY POINTS:
Eyebrows were raised this week when New York hedge- fund Elliott International nominated two Kiwi businessman - including recently appointed Infratil director Mark Tume - to join the Telecom board.
Telecom is on the fringes of the media world but National Party proposals for a huge broadband rollout will have an enormous impact on media and suggest Telecom will have a big role in media infrastructure.
And Elliott's press release - linking the nomination of Tume and Mark Cross to Elliott's calls for a wider structural break-up of Telecom - have added to questions about the way ahead for New Zealand's biggest publicly listed company.
Should Tume win a place on the board he would bolster the bridge between two big infrastructure companies - Telecom and Infratil.
The chief operating officer at Infratil is Marko Bogoievski, a former chief financial officer at Telecom who applied for Theresa Gattung's chief executive job and missed out to Paul Reynolds.
Elliott could not have chosen a more informed public relations company than Sweeney Vesty for its Telecom campaign.
Sweeney Vesty has an office in New York. But, more to the point, it has an excellent understanding of the internal machinations at Telecom.
The PR company had a long and fruitful relationship with Telecom through the Gattung era. But it has had a low profile at Telecom since Reynolds replaced Gattung.
TELECOM SEES RED
Telecom bosses were apparently furious when arch rival Vodafone obtained adverting space on the Yahoo!Xtra website, which it co-owns with Yahoo7.
The advertisement flooded the Yahoo!Xtra page with Vodafone Red and was up for only about half an hour before an irate call from Telecom forced it down.
You can understand it. Vodafone is a huge marketing threat and it would have been galling to see it on their own site.
Telecom's main reason for its joint venture is to use Yahoo to promote its products.
In the aftermath it is understood there are Telecom calls for blood from the Yahoo!Xtra staffer who said the Vodafone ad was okay.
DDB MADMAN DDB
global advertising chief executive Chuck Brymer was in Auckland last week as part of a whistlestop tour of DDB agencies in Australasia.
Agencies in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland are a small part of Brymer's empire of 250 offices in 96 countries around the world, but he says they have a high profile in terms of their creative output.
Brymer, a real-life Madison Avenue adman who joined DDB 2 1/2 years ago, was head of the well-known Interbrand consultancy and has been lauded by advertising industry titles such as Advertising Age as something of a guru. The international advertising media is inclined to hagiography with common sense concepts turned into marketing bolts from the blue.
Brymer's message is about "swarming" - the way that public opinion and consumer views are built around consumers in groups with no apparent leaders but with influence.
"If we can get to the right people in the top 10, 50, 100 or 1000 then you can exponentially take your message to millions," he said. Which sounds a little like the importance of public relations and the increasing focus on word-of-mouth as an advertising tool.
Brymer is part of a sophisticated marketing elite that in the 1960s was focused on Madison Ave in New York - the location for the Prime TV series Madmen. "DDB is still there on Madison Ave - it's quite funny the ad industry has all moved away."
And what of the louche world of advertising in the TV series? Brymer laughs - it's part fact, part fiction, he says.
Unlike the characters from the ad agency Sterling Cooper, he says in 2 1/2 years he has never had several Martinis for lunch.
NATS SPLIT
National is keeping its ad agency secret - despite the fact it will be paid with taxpayer dollars. We hear National is apparently planning a 70:30 split in its billboard advertising.
In safe electorates, billboards will be 70 per cent focused on the party and 30 per cent on candidates. In more marginal seats for National it is understood the 70:30 split is likely to be reversed.
MAGAZINE SURVEY
Nielsen Media Research will today release its report on magazine readership for the six months to June 30.
It will be interesting to see how the economic downturn has affected magazine readership. Despite the advanced slowing of the property market, the Magazine Publishers Association says there are readership increases in the home, gardening and rural categories.
The MPA said: "Just under half of 61 titles measured showed circulation increases, or no changes."
Which must mean that just over half of magazines have shown falls.
OLYMPIC SPIRIT
Advertising agencies have been reminded not to get drunk on the Olympic spirit.
The New Zealand Olympic Association had a major advertisement featuring Olympic symbols and outlawed wording pulled from a newspaper last week.
Ad agency body CAANZ refused to name the advertiser or media. CAANZ chief executive Rick Osborne sent an immediate advisory to the advertising and media players: "I understand that neither the agency nor advertiser realised it breached use of the Olympics name and symbols for organisations not officially associated with the Games - they do now but it meant some panic for all involved."
The Major Events Management Act was perceived to be aimed at protecting sponsorship for the Rugby World Cup.
But it contains restrictions around the use of a number of words, emblems etc that relate to events like the Olympics. These include phrases such as New Zealand Olympic Team, Olympics, Beijing 2008 and images of the Olympic rings and flames.
BLIGHT OFF LANDSCAPE
One of the last independent media-buying groups in New Zealand - Australian-owned Mitchell Communications - has been restructured and parted company with its managing director, media buying veteran Kevin Blight.
The change follows the loss of creative accounts for PlaceMakers, which has shifted to Ogilvy, and ANZ Bank, which has combined advertising with Clemenger BBDO in Wellington, the same company that handles its National Bank brand.
Blight will not be replaced. Another senior Mitchell Communications executive, Lauren James, left recently.
MACKAY EXITS
Assistant editor Janetta Mackay is leaving the Herald after 12 years. Staff were told this week she had decided to spend time on business projects.
Herald editor Tim Murphy said Mackay had been "an enormous influence" as a duty editor, Weekend Herald editor, features editor and news editor.
She leaves on August 29 but will continue to contribute to the paper, including during Fashion Week.
Murphy said "consequential appointments" would be announced shortly.
BAD TIPPERS
Media companies are casting an eagle eye at costs as the downturn kicks in.
Among measures announced at Fairfax is the cancellation of the annual conference and travel is now to be approved by Fairfax New Zealand chief executive Joan Withers.
Fairfax Magazines staff have been told to change the default on its colour printers to black and white.
Fast Post is banned.
And staff are reminded they are not allowed to tip for Fairfax-funded meals. Journalists who tip?
