What’s your story?

Nō Te Whanganui-a-Tara ahau – Wellington born and bred. I’ve been in the media and advertising industry my whole career. My first job was working in the mail room at Radio New Zealand during the school holidays, which included pushing the mail cart down The Terrace to Broadcasting House (The site is now home to the sculpture park behind Parliament). I then managed a team conducting radio audience phone surveys while I was at Victoria University, which progressed to a job with The Radio Bureau. After working in radio, I moved to a rural press publisher, then a TV network, before starting my first agency role as a TV Buyer at Saatchi & Saatchi. Saatchi split into separate media and creative agencies, and I became a Media Planner/Buyer at Starcom before joining Hemisphere.

What do you do at Hemisphere?

This is like that meme that talks about what my family think I do versus what I actually do, right?

I lead Hemisphere Media and Hemisphere Insight, analysing audience habits and other datasets to develop effective strategies that reach and engage with the right audiences. That means I’m a data geek. It also means I can name Excel as one of my close ‘friends’. And I have a lifetime’s worth of acronyms and jargon stored up, that are ready to wheel out at a moment’s notice. But I can also translate those into actual words everyone can understand!

What’s your superpower?

Connecting the dots – between audience and creative, creative and channel, channel and tactics. I see the commonalities and trends that are woven through diverse sets of data and put them together to develop insights that inform effective communication strategies.

Problem-solving – I love finding new and innovative ways to connect with people. I enjoy brokering new relationships to create new channels, or using existing ones in different, creative ways.

Leveraging value – I’m known for making ‘a silk purse out of a sow’s ear’! I extract every ounce of value from our client’s budgets through smart thinking and strong negotiation skills.

What are you passionate about in your work?

What is a campaign you’ve worked on recently that you’re really proud of?

Like my mum says, I don’t have a favourite child – I’m proud of them all! Every programme or campaign that we develop for our clients delivers results and true value – whether that’s more vehicles sold, more downloads of an app, more awareness of social issues or more people coming home safe and healthy – and that’s something to be very proud of.

What do you do outside of Hemisphere life?

I’m a media nerd. I’m always reading international and local industry stories and case studies to keep learning. Slightly less cerebral pastimes include watching motorsport (yes, I am a bogan…), going on road trips and listening to rock music.