Former Good Morning host Mary Lambie now runs her own media training business. Photo / NZ Herald
A familiar face steps up to help Christopher Luxon; Just who is pulling the PR strings for the two main leaders? RNZ host apologises to Winston Peters; Women’s sport media survey; 10-point plan to help the ad industry cut consumer emissions.
The National Party has called on one of New Zealand’s most familiar television faces in what appears to be an attempt to broaden the appeal of leader Christopher Luxon.
Former Good Morning presenter Mary Lambie – who runs a media training business – has been hired by the party as its leader strives to attract a bigger and wider cross-section of the public.
Luxon needs to break loose of corporate speak, according to many seasoned political observers, and to appear more natural and self-assured in interviews, especially on screen and radio.
He appears sometimes too tightly aligned to talking points – repeating them regularly – rather than responding naturally to questions. His on-screen presence is often completely different to 1-1 interactions, where he is warmer.
While Labour languishes in the polls – the most recent 1 News-Verian poll has the Government at 33 per cent (down 2 percentage points on a previous poll) – the National Party is not faring as well as many political commentators believe it should.
National’s party vote is at only 35 per cent in the same poll (also down 2 percentage points) while in personal ratings, Luxon (20 per cent) remains behind Chris Hipkins (24 per cent) as preferred prime minister.
Those personal polls are meaningless, other than they give parties, and the public, a fair idea of trust levels and whether a leader is getting cut-through.
In a one-line statement to Media Insider, a National Party spokesman said: “Mary Lambie has been helping the National Party with media training”.
Lambie, who hosted Good Morning from 1997 to 2003 and now runs the media training business Socius Media, said she was in the middle of a training session when Media Insider called yesterday.
She promised to come back to us and once she eventually did, said she had nothing to add to National’s statement.
According to her website, media services include a half- or full-day session with Lambie, “an award-winning journalist and broadcaster with 30 years experience in television, radio and print. Professionally lit and filmed by a skilled TV producer at TVNZ (Auckland).”
Her programme includes “dealing with journalists, the media landscape, conducting a great interview, key messaging, managing tricky questions, radio and TV delivery and styling advice”.
“Media training can be conducted at either TVNZ or at your place ... for either one-on-one or small group sessions.”
Lambie later confirmed that TVNZ studios were not being used for any of the National Party work.
There are a range of testimonials on her website from various businesses and leaders.
“The half-day session was highly valuable for our team. As was the opportunity to learn and practice in a real-world setting on radio and camera,” wrote Rebecca Burton, of the NZ Society of Anaesthetists.
Other politicians have used former television stars and producers in the past.
Janet Wilson helped Sir John Key and Sir Bill English – both for campaign and television debate preparations – while Brian Edwards and Judy Callingham were credited with helping improve Helen Clark’s performances on television.
Former political reporter now lawyer Linda Clark is understood to have helped Dame Jacinda Ardern during her time in politics.
Herald political editor Claire Trevett, who uncovered Lambie’s role, said: “How a politician comes across on camera is pretty crucial since it’s how most voters get to see them. Some need a bit more help than others.
“Luxon is a quick study and not daunted by cameras, but he’s also quite a talker and bombards people with lists, so it’s a work in progress.”
They are both popular and very well-liked but – according to some close to them – don’t particularly like one another.
One, a former swashbuckling, shoe-leather reporter who investigated Team New Zealand and myriad business issues in a career spanning New Zealand’s two biggest newsrooms.
The other, a slightly more nerdish but well-respected political strategist who crossed from the Greens to Labour, with stints at New Zealand Rugby and the country’s most powerful education union.
Their styles are diametrically opposite, but Hamish Rutherford – chief press secretary for National leader Christopher Luxon – and Andrew Campbell – chief press secretary for Prime Minister Chris Hipkins – have similar personalities in a handful of respects: confident and self-assured with a relentless focus on their bosses.
They both also shun the spotlight, preferring their names remain in the background. They and their teams – they have several people in their media units – always want journalists to refer to them as a spokesperson, or not at all.
But in an increasingly tight election race, their work and strategic nous will play a critical role in how their leaders acquit themselves in front of a camera or microphone and, therefore, the success or otherwise of their party’s overall performance.
With just 78 days until the election, just about every briefing document and every public utterance matters.
As we saw this week, after Cabinet Minister Kiri Allan’s resignation, there has been scrutiny on Hipkins’ and Luxon’s responses in a potential minefield.
Both leaders handled themselves reasonably well, albeit with one or two questionable comments.
Hipkins made a throwaway line during his weekly interview with Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking, when the host asked him about the “astonishing turnover” within the Labour Cabinet.
Hipkins told Hosking that he’d find a similar turnover “under your friend John Key’s Government”.
The next day, Hosking said a lot of ZB listeners had picked up on Hipkins’ “your friend” comment, which they had described as a “low blow”.
“Don’t be upset on my behalf,” Hosking told his audience. “I couldn’t care less. I have a thick skin. John Key is not a friend of mine. No one is a friend of mine; I don’t have friends as a general rule.”
Luxon was also in the spotlight.
As Newsroom’s Jo Moir reported, the National leader “walked back” on comments he made on Monday when he referred to Allan: “Personally, I would have wanted some reassurance from a clinician or from someone that actually the individual is good to come back to work”.
By Tuesday, reported Moir, Luxon “denied saying he was calling for a clinician to advise or sign off on a minister returning to work after mental health struggles, telling media, ‘No, I didn’t say that, I said I wanted some reassurance that they’re okay’.”
So who are the two key men in the background, pulling the public relations strings and dealing with media?
Insiders and media representatives say Campbell, who joined Ardern’s office as chief press secretary in 2018 – before transferring to Hipkins when he became prime minister this year – is amenable and respected.
“He’s incredibly good at what he does. There’s no one that has anywhere near the level of passion, knowledge and insight. He basically burps political quotes; he’s amazing,” says one person.
Various sources describe an almost Lone Ranger-type character – a common theme was of someone who was not necessarily a great delegator but whose strengths come to the fore during a drama.
“He pulls out brilliant results because when he realises that everything’s come into a crisis, he pulls it all together and does it all himself, which means it normally turns out really well.
“But he makes his life a lot harder than he needs to. He won’t let go; he can’t delegate.”
He can spot a good media opportunity, such as when Ardern muttered “arrogant prick” under her breath in Parliament, a comment directed at Act leader David Seymour. A mini-drama became a charity opportunity, with more than $100,000 raised for prostate cancer when Ardern and Seymour signed a copy of the official Parliamentary transcript.
One source says Campbell’s mettle will be tested this election – it’s the first time the party “have been in the s**t” on his watch.
Campbell also has a reputation in some quarters of telling people how to ‘suck eggs’ – good at presenting a problem, and also suggesting the solution.
I experienced a form of this recently when Campbell texted me after I had raised questions about Labour’s social media spending.
He gave a very articulate outline about why I needed to be asking the National Party the same questions and making sure I had approached them.
“Of course I have,” I replied, “I’m not a cadet reporter mate.”
I was being cheeky.
“Good to know,” he replied.
Another senior media industry editor says: “The affectionate nickname for him on the campaign is ‘Gary’ – Gary from Veep – because he used to carry Ardern’s snacks etc and was constantly running round looking for things like portable printers”.
They describe Campbell as a “fairly calm” operator who has so far avoided a historically high burnout rate for people in similar roles.
He has a “slightly Eeyorish demeanour when things aren’t going Labour’s way”, they said, but he “doesn’t hold grudges and very rarely loses his rag”.
He has, apparently, adjusted well from Ardern to Hipkins (the pair knew each other as university students).
Ardern was a lot more hands-on with her communications and media strategy; she would often push and debate Campbell, whereas Hipkins will generally follow his chief press secretary’s advice.
Campbell will have far more success in ensuring Hipkins engages on human-interest pieces with the media.
One source says Hipkins doesn’t get nervous ahead of the likes of the weekly Hosking interview – they believe it would serve him well to be a little more on edge. “He’s comfortable saying he’s not across details, ‘you need to speak to someone else about that’.”
Ardern, they said, tended to be more nervous, wanting to have more detail and seeking to explain issues in more depth.
Backing up Campbell is deputy press secretary Richard Trow – a very relaxed former journalist who has strong relationships with the parliamentary press gallery.
In the team are Gia Garrick, another former journalist, who is considered a rising star and possible future chief press secretary; Zach Vickery who is a very organised and safe pair of hands, with a focus on foreign affairs (he’ll often accompany the prime minister and the media pack on overseas trips); and the respected and experienced Charlotte Gendall, also very smart, highly organised and bringing strong insight into how the public sector works.
On the National side, Hamish Rutherford is an equally popular but more forceful operative – assertive but not bullying.
He is also highly respected and was a sometimes combative and hard-hitting reporter – some of that persona has carried through to his new role. He’ll be upfront with members of the parliamentary press gallery if he feels they’re missing a point.
Like Campbell, he is very enjoyable company in a social setting, not that the two of them get along.
“Hamish and Andrew don’t get on; they don’t understand each other. It goes way back,” says one source, referring to Rutherford’s time as a journalist for the Herald and Stuff.
Another source says while the pair were never close, they were friendlier before Campbell took up the role in the PM’s office five years ago. Rutherford had several exchanges with him as a reporter.
Rutherford’s biggest challenge will be his lack of experience as a press secretary during an election campaign, tied in with a relatively inexperienced political leader.
Rutherford joined Luxon’s team in April last year, after two and a half years as Wellington business editor for the Herald and the previous four years as Wellington business bureau chief for Stuff.
“He’s got a hugely strong brain,” says one political expert. “And he’s got the right brain for Luxon because he obviously gets the business-politics crossover. He’s really ambitious.”
Rutherford was an old-school style of reporter, never content at sitting at the desk to chase a scoop.
He valued strong contacts and was extra energised if he felt he was getting the run-around. His work on the Team New Zealand “whistleblowers” story brought him into conflict with one of New Zealand’s most iconic sporting franchises – but always with his journalistic principles at the forefront.
One of his biggest issues during the election campaign will be trying to humanise Luxon, who is struggling to lose the veneer of a corporate high-flyer.
These factors are undoubtedly top of mind, as evidenced by the hiring of Mary Lambie.
“Things won’t go wrong on his watch, but he hasn’t got enough media training and that kind of experience to actually advise Luxon,” says one insider.
“It’s his first job in anything except journalism, and yes, that brings an awful lot of skills – you get information, you tell a story. But it’s different in journalism – it needs to be balanced. In PR it still has to be truthful and honest and everything but it doesn’t have to be balanced because you’re telling one side of the story.”
Another source says Rutherford will also have the likes of former parliamentary staffers and now MPs Christopher Bishop and Nicola Willis looking over his shoulder.
He is likely still coming to grips on advising Luxon: “How to keep them calm or how to rev them up. And then how to give them feedback about their performance in a way that improves them, that doesn’t break the confidence.”
Rutherford does have some big guns in his unit. Supporting him is Key’s former chief press secretary Julie Ash and another former Key press secretary Lesley Hamilton – both will be vital in terms of advice and experience of an election campaign.
The team also includes Jasmine Higginson - a ministerial press secretary when National was in government - Rebecca Dunlay and Matt Young. Dunlay was initially hired under Judith Collins’ leadership: her first day on the job was the day Luxon took over from Collins.
Sir Bill English’s former chief press secretary Joanne Black – an acclaimed writer and former journalist – also works for Luxon.
Neither Campbell nor Rutherford were keen to comment on their roles, in keeping with their belief they are in the background.
“I’m currently away from the office taking long-planned, but now very badly timed, leave this week ahead of the election campaign,” Campbell wrote in an email. “Thanks for the opportunity to chat, but my role is a behind-the-scenes one and it’s for politicians to discuss the campaign strategy and tactics on the record.”
And Rutherford: “I need to be completely up front – and I suspect you’ll get this from others – that my job is to remain in the background. I knew that when I took the job.”
Next week, Media Insider looks at the press secretaries of the Act, Greens, Māori and NZ First parties.
RNZ hasn’t had a good run of it lately, with an independent inquiry still under way into how a digital journalist was able to escape scrutiny and add pro-Kremlin content to a range of Ukraine-Russia war articles.
This week, one of the hosts of its flagship Morning Report programme, Corin Dann, apologised to NZ First leader Winston Peters for off-the-cuff comments he made on-air earlier this month.
The apology directly followed an often awkward interview on Tuesday morning between Dann’s co-host Ingrid Hipkiss and Peters.
It all unfolded like this:
Hipkiss: Good morning, Mr Peters, welcome to the programme. Now you had your launch over the weekend. I know your campaign slogan was ‘take our country back’. Who are you taking it back from?
Peters: No, that’s not our slogan. Excuse me it is, ‘Let’s take back our country’.
Hipkiss: Oh, I beg your pardon.
Peters: Let’s get the reporting right in this campaign from day one, please.
Later in the interview, Peters took issue with the comment that Dann had made earlier in July.
Peters: Can I say something ... you were talking to Corin Dann on the 18th of July on this programme. He said about New Zealand First coming back, “you wouldn’t rule it out – I hate to say it”. Does that sound like a taxpayer organisation being neutral...?
Hipkiss said it had been an off-the-cuff comment by Dann.
Once the interview finished, Dann stepped in.
“Let me take the opportunity to apologise. I did make that comment. I didn’t mean to, it was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek comment,” said Dann.
“I regretted it the instant that came out of my mouth. I was trying to make the point that you can never rule out the possibility that Winston Peters may in fact come back.
“I’ve certainly covered him and his politics for many, many years. So I will take this opportunity to apologise for making that comment. It was something I wish that I hadn’t said.”
New Zealand is in the throes of sporting fervour, generated by the fantastic Football Ferns and their stunning opening World Cup victory over Norway. Their stumble against the Philippines mid-week was equally captivating – mainly for the debate over the frustrating VAR technology, offside rule and disallowed goal.
Sport NZ has released today its annual survey which measures coverage of women’s sport over the past 12 months.
Buoyed by the likes of the Black Ferns’ incredible Rugby World Cup victory, as well as performances by the White Ferns and Silver Ferns, coverage of female sport has now hit record levels – from 15 per cent of total coverage in 2020 to 28 per cent last year.
The worldwide average is an astoundingly low 4 per cent.
Even discounting the top-flight female tournaments last year, women’s sports coverage has increased generally, Sport NZ says.
Sport NZ is delighted by the progress.
“It just shows you when you put some focus into something and dedicate some conversation and bring the low performance to the fore, and then have a discussion about how you can improve those numbers, you can actually see the improvement,” says Sport NZ chief executive Raelene Castle.
Coverage of women’s sport goes hand in hand with Sport NZ’s wider strategy of building high-performance female coaching capability and expanding opportunities for young women to play community sport in the first place.
With the performances of the Black Ferns and Football Ferns likely to inspire new generations of athletes, Castle says there is no reason the percentages can’t get to equitable levels and even above 50 per cent during some months. “Certainly 50-50 is aspirational.”
She says it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. “It’s that consistency of quality content. And when you see that, you also see improvement in the media wanting to cover it.”
In total, 84,120 articles and pieces of content were analysed last year.
Every major New Zealand media outlet lifted its coverage of women’s sport – percentages ranged from 26.8 per cent (NZME) through to 36.7 per cent (TVNZ).
“I’m proud of the focus our team has put into women’s sport in recent years – the proportion of our stories focused on female athletes continues to climb,” says NZME head of sport Winston Aldworth.
“There’s real willingness in our organisation and across the industry – but the true drivers of success are quite rightly the athletes themselves. These sportswomen are sharing their stories with a relatable, human manner that often seems to have been ‘media trained’ out of top-flight male athletes.
“As with the old line about Ginger Rogers doing everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels – the sportswomen we celebrate are often crushing it on the world stage, while at the same time overcoming old barriers of gender inequity at home.
“Kiwi sports media runs a far greater proportion of stories about women’s sport than anywhere else in the world, and as journos we should be proud of that. But there’s still a long way to go.”
Part of that includes the need for more female sports reporters. “It’s still not where we want it to be,” says Castle.
The survey said that themes “around high performance, athletes being hard-working, driven, ambitious and talented all increased significantly in 2022″.
“Negative narratives around disappointment, struggle, and bad luck continued trending upwards in 2022. This was slightly influenced by reporting on the White Ferns’ unsuccessful ICC Women’s World Cup campaign, although the trend is still evident with this specific example excluded.
“These findings suggest that female athletes do not necessarily need to be successful in their sporting endeavours in order for news media to report on them.”
For the trainspotters, TVNZ’s 1 News made a subtle change to its election logo last weekend.
For several weeks, including last Saturday night, the Your Vote 2023 logo still looked, confusingly, like a stuck odometer.
By Sunday night, all was well with the world; someone had seen sense.
The change coincided with new-look, on-screen graphics and captions.
This week, we engage with Bailey Mackey, the deputy chair of New Zealand Rugby and CEO and founder of screen production business Pango Productions. Pango is behind hit shows such as Match Fit.
New Zealand Rugby is currently developing a new digital channel, NZR+, to broaden the appeal of the sport, including top-flight teams such as the All Blacks and Black Ferns.
Just how much of a role does the advertising, marketing and media industry play in consumers’ carbon footprints?
According to one recent UK study, advertising adds an extra 32 per cent – almost one third – to the carbon footprint of every British citizen.
“It’s quite an alarming statistic,” says DDB joint head of planning Charlotte Marks.
“The very simple premise is that the more ads we see, the more stuff we buy, the more stuff we buy, the more stuff gets made and, as a result, the more emissions,” says Marks.
“That stat in particular has been under some criticism because some people ‘go well, how much does advertising generate consumption overall versus just driving switching between brands?’”
Nevertheless, that statistic spurred Marks into action, completing a Cambridge University course in sustainable marketing, media and creative, and producing research into ways the advertising industry could help consumers reduce their “brainprint”.
Marks has produced a fascinating piece of research – and a 10-point action plan – to help guide agencies and brands to build sustainability:
1. Embrace purpose
2. Switch your products
3. Partner up
4. Measure eco-effectiveness
5. Don’t make it about you
6. Make it entertaining
7. Be honest
8. Show positive behaviours
9. Watch out for greenwashing
10. Change your language
Behind the brainprint action plan is a simple philosophy, says Marks: helping clients grow their businesses but reduce emissions at the same time.
DDB chief strategy officer Rupert Price backs up the point with a real-life example.
“We’re still in the foothills really of climbing this mountain. But you know, even some of the conversations we’re having now… VW is one of our clients and our recommendation to them is ‘just talk electric’.
“Even though the majority of your sales will still come from petrol vehicles, talk about the future.
“Don’t talk about the current because the more that we can get people’s mindset into the future, which is living in a more sustainable way, the more likely we are to get their behaviours to start changing now rather than wait for the solution to come.”
Marks says conversations with clients about sustainability are becoming easier, through a combination of customer demand, regulation and policy, and competition.
“When one brand adopts more sustainable messaging or talks about more sustainable products, I think that forces the whole of the category to go, ‘What are we doing? What can we be talking about?’”
Her first action point – embrace purpose – deals with a “trickly kind of word in the advertising industry”.
“We often interpret it to mean brand purpose.”
She cites the work of Unilever and its then CEO Paul Polman who, 12 years ago, moved a lot of brands to becoming more sustainable to meet the climate change challenge. “At the time, it was considered quite revolutionary.
“He told investors not to expect any sort of short-term wins. And if they’re looking for quarter-on-quarter aggressive growth, you know, Unilever is not the brand for them.”
The “switch your products” action point is perhaps best highlighted by the likes of the automotive industry and the VW example above.
The change in marketing position already appears well under way – in 2018, 7 per cent of car advertisements in the UK focused on electric vehicles; in 2022, it was 73 per cent.
Perhaps one of the biggest two challenges on the action plan is “not making it about you” and “making it entertaining”.
In other words, says Marks, put the consumer at the centre of your campaign. Ikea, she says, is now always highlighting how its customers are using its products in a more sustainable way, rather than boasting about the reduction of plastic products in its portfolio.
And Burger King, she says, has made entertaining ads about its new “Impossible” non-meat range of burgers. While in reality the non-meat products don’t represent a huge proportion of their sales, it raises awareness.
Changing your language is highlighted by the Guardian’s change in policy – four years ago – that included consumers now being called “citizens”; climate “change” is now climate “crisis” and a climate “sceptic” is now a climate “denier”.
Price says Marks’ brainprint research will help clients and others in the media industry to look at the world in a different way.
“As soon as you start adopting that mindset, your whole view of everything changes. The journey we’re really on is, how do we now bring our clients with us? How do we bring New Zealand consumers with us?
“My sense is here in New Zealand, there’s a lot of people who are waiting for the answer to come... the point being the answers are kind of in front of us now, we just need to start looking for them.”
Marks’ research also comes on the eve of the launch, next week, of Ad Net Zero – the wider advertising industry’s plan to cut emissions.
Marks invokes the spirit – and quote – of one of DDB’s founders, Bill Bernbach.
“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarise that society. We can brutalise it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”
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