Kog meshes with NZ's message

By GREG ANSLEY in Melbourne

You know it's tough when it is easier to crack London than Sydney.

Chris Chetland, co-founder of New Zealand record label Kog Transmissions, has been with Prime Minister Helen Clark's business mission to Australia, tying up the loose ends of a marketing plan that turned the normal route for Kiwi music on its head.

"It's like you're the poor cousin or younger brother," Chetland said of New Zealand music's reception across the Tasman. "You're not going to be taken seriously."

Kog, a business led by electronic groups such as Concord Dawn but also involved in video post-production, software and CD-Rom production, instead began looking to London.

"There has been a natural tendency previously for New Zealand artists to come and try and break into Australia first, and then move on to the United States or England," Chetland said.

"The studies we did seemed to indicate that this wasn't actually the best plan for what we're doing in the new creative sector, the new intellectual property, high-speed technology sectors.

"It's obviously a lot harder to break into London, but if you actually break there all the other territories will fall into line."

Chetland said interest in Kog and groups such as Concord Dawn had soared in Japan and the US since the label made its breakthrough in Britain and gained international recognition in the music media.

"That spins off all around the world so it becomes a global label.

"If we had gone into Australia first we would have been perceived as a New Zealand label, a poor second cousin."

In Melbourne, Kog and leading fashion designers have joined wine producers in breaking that perception, adding to the high profile Clark's mission has gained through a usually sceptical Australian media and at high-level functions and industry meetings.

The concept of greater transtasman co-operation in world markets being pushed by the mission has grabbed attention. It was boosted by the decision by the Victorian Government to include a New Zealand scientist on the advisory panel for the Australian synchrotron project.

A synchrotron is a large hollow ring, 60m in diameter, producing beams of light millions of times more powerful than conventional microscopes, allowing advanced research and development in areas such as biotechnology and manufacturing.

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said that with strong scientific links between Australia and New Zealand it made sense to include New Zealand in deliberations on the development of new research infrastructure.

Melbourne Fashion Festival director Robert Buckingham gave the $200-million-a-year transtasman Kiwi apparel export industry a further boost at a special showing of New Zealand labels.

"Melbourne has the required taste to appreciate New Zealand designs," he said.

New Zealand labels make up half the stock of Melbourne retailers such as Faye Officer and the Blondies chain owned by Joanne Griffin.