AUCKLAND, Today: Stuff has appointed two directors to its agency sales team, as well as four national business directors in specialist categories, across Retail, Travel, Automotive and Finance – a move aimed at giving clearer focus to both the specialist advertising verticals for growth and key agency relationships.
The new national business directors lay the foundation to deliver better customer insights and advertising solutions across specialist verticals, while the agency sales directors will enable the team to better service advertising agencies and their clients.
Appointed in December last year, Matt Kum is the media sales who heads up Stuff’s agency sales team. The newly created position aligns with regional MSD roles for Stuff’s direct sales side of the business, but is centred around finding new ways to deliver more value to agencies and their clients.
Kum has been with Stuff for the past four years in various senior sales roles, following 10 years’ agency experience.
Reporting to Kum, Laurissa Hollis joins as group business director to lead two agency sales teams, which are currently servicing major agency portfolios such as OMG, DAN, and Group M. After almost 15 years in media, Hollis’ most recent role was as ad sales manager for Bravo NZ, a joint venture between NBCUniversal and MediaWorks.
“Laurissa is a great addition to the team,” said Kum. “Her background with both MediaWorks and Bravo brings vast experience in multimedia planning and she is well-credited in the industry. She will add immense value to Stuff and I know she’ll absolutely nail it.”.
Ellen Yan and John Farrell step up from other roles at Stuff to become the national business directors managing the retail category. Combined, the two have more than 25 years’ experience with local and multinational retail brands, and will be responsible for the growth, strategic insight and product development for all retail advertising customers nationwide utilising all of Stuff’s digital and print assets.
“We’re really looking forward to engaging in more focussed retail conversations with agencies and clients and delivering effective integrated solutions,’ Yan said. “The retail category is massive, representing 35 to 40 per cent of Stuff’s revenue, so having myself and John on board will enable us to maximise opportunities in the retail vertical.”
Farrell said: “There is huge potential for growth, especially with some fresh thinking and exciting new digital products being rolled out.”
Leading the travel category, Angela Earl-Donoghue is another internal appointment. With extensive experience, both in the direct and agency space, Earl-Donoghue has worked with a large number of travel-related brands over the years and is excited to take the category to new heights.
“Continuing to evolve in the digital space for our travel advertisers is key and, with 2.6 million print readers and a dedicated travel vertical, the world’s our oyster,” she says.
Anthony Rice continues as national business director for the automotive and finance categories, where he has successfully guided the direction of Stuff’s automotive offering for the past three and a half years. Building on his success, Rice has recently taken over the finance category and is driving ample opportunities in that vertical as well.
“Stuff’s quality content offering and enormous reach right across the country enables banks and other financial institutions to connect with households and business decision-makers at mass scale and on highly-respected platforms,” he says.
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