After a summer of rain, and economic doom and gloom, I thought it would be a good idea to think about the year ahead and some key things that business leaders and strategic marketers could be thinking about as we get into 2023. The first point I will make is that we should be used to living in tough times by now! We have had three tough years, and this one will have new challenges. Personally I will always take a recession over two years of significant lockdowns any day of the week. It’s actually reassuring that we are now moving into a period of normal business problems; for these we have a much clearer playbook. &nbsp;<blockquote>"A rising tide floats all boats….. only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked." - Warren Buffett</blockquote>&nbsp;Growth hides a lot of sins. So before we look at the playbook and what we should do, I think it’s important at the same time not to underestimate the downside of what might happen. While a shallow recession might sound OK, this will be felt differently throughout the economy. Just as some sectors did well and some got hammered when we were locked down, this year some sectors will do well and others won’t. Even within a sector that doesn’t do well, there will be some companies that do pretty well and others that get hammered. Recessions tend to kill off those marginal companies that don’t have the strength, resources, or strategy to be competitive. So there is a real competitive threat here if you are sitting back and being defensive. Right now is the time to be focused, rethinking everything and on the front foot playing with clarity and confidence.&nbsp;<h4>The 2023 Playbook – what we should be focused on.</h4>Think Strategically – now is the time to be very clear about your strategy. Key questions you need to consider are: what do you stand for/or against (purpose), who you want to serve (target market), who do you want to be (brand), what do you want to achieve (goals), how are you going to win (positioning). Having a clear strategy defining how you are going to win and getting strong alignment around this is critical to achieving momentum and action. Focused Execution – with a clear plan, really reduce your focus to those things that are critical to achieving your plan. Most people tend to overestimate what they can do in the short term and underestimate what they can do in the long term. So reduce the big projects you are working on to have no more than 2-3 big projects each quarter and get those done. The danger is having a big list and not finishing the most important projects first. Critical Perspective – have someone you know and trust give you some external perspective. This could be a board member, research agency, your advertising agency. But make sure you have externally pressure-tested your strategy. If you haven’t done any recent market or customer research, you might want to commission some external research to help you with your strategic process as well. Again this provides another external input into your strategy development. So many times I have seen clients question the cost of research and then be blown away by the value and clarity that external research can provide. Increase Innovation – Have a hard look at your product/service and your full customer experience. There will be opportunities for innovation to either your core product/service or to your sales or after-sales service processes that will help you stand apart. Consider over-delivering on something – look to emphasise an aspect of your product that aligns to your beliefs and helps you stand apart and challenge your competitors. Bold Emotional Ideas – You need to work hard to develop bold emotional ideas. Bold creative solutions to challenging problems is where you will make a significant difference. When you have a limited budget you need to make sure your communications stand out. We know highly creative and highly emotional ideas outperform safe expected ideas every time. Of course, these bold ideas need to align with your target market and brand, but they need to stand out, they need to feel fresh – they should make you a little nervous. And if they do, then they are probably going to work hard for you. Committed Investment – There is a marketing rule that says if your share of media spend is greater than your share of the market then you are more likely to grow. Conversely if your share of media spend is less than your share of the market you are likely to shrink. Basically in order to grow, you need to have greater relative awareness amongst your target customers than you have market share. Now, in a recession it can be very tempting to reduce your media spend, particularly in long-term brand building. This will lead to a drop in awareness and a reduction in sales, and share – over time. It might not happen immediately, but it will happen. Conversely, if you increase your spend or even hold it, while others drop their spend, then you are much more likely to grow. Additionally, there may be better opportunities to buy media at better rates as overall demand falls, making this strategy work even harder. Performance Focus – look to measure and test everything. Ensure each campaign has a realistic, measurable objective. For brand investment, make sure you have tracking in place and resist the urge to measure it with short-term impacts. Look at performance, but keep your brand and activation activity separate and resist the urge to increase price promotions (nothing will hurt your brand faster). Brand/Activation Split – There is a strong argument to reduce brand and increase activation/ promotion spend – this is the opposite of what you should do. With fewer buyers in the market you will get a stronger recovery by keeping your brand spend high to prime your future buyers. Additionally an increased activation budget won’t help much as there are fewer buyers in the market right now. On top of that your brand activity will stand out more and be more effective at activating short term sales. So, eight suggestions on things you can do right now to strengthen your competitive position in challenging times. Take the time to develop a plan and then get on the front foot. There are always opportunities in tough times. So make sure you are ready for them. No one wants to be caught out if the tide does go out! &nbsp;

The 2023 marketing challenges playbook

This is a challenge to all kiwi marketers to think about how we can use our limited resources to unsettle and win against the world's most sophisticated and successful competitors. Over the year, we’re creating a Challenger Marketing series for any marketers that are interested in elevating their understanding of what it takes to build successful world-class brands from New Zealand.We live in an amazing country, with so many natural assets, beautiful landscapes, a temperate climate – it really is God’s own. But there are some challenges too. We are a small, isolated country. As a result, we have smaller businesses with fewer resources. We have a pioneering spirit, our forefathers had to be resourceful, living off the land, make do with less; and like them, many of us can run our businesses on the smell of an oily rag, just to get by. On the plus side, because of the size of the market, there is less competition. So that attitude of doing just enough can work, especially in smaller businesses where the charm or personality of the owner-operator can be enough to keep customers happy.But this attitude can and does hold us back. If we want to grow and scale our businesses, then we need to move from a sacrificing attitude to an over-delivering attitude. Doing just enough is leaving the door open for the market leaders and increasingly international competitors to take your market from you.Those market leaders are big, well-resourced, battle-hardened from operating in much more competitive markets where they are learning, refining and enhancing their products, services and marketing approaches at a rapid pace – because they have to. For us to compete and win against them, it’s not enough to have a great product/service or marketing campaign – it has to be exceptional. That’s what challenger marketing is about, understanding this disadvantage and figuring out how you can organise and leverage your resources to unsettle and win against a much larger competitor.Against large competitors, you need both an exceptional strategy and to nail the execution. This hasn't traditionally been the approach of most kiwi marketers. We have to elevate our aspirations and standards if we want our local businesses and country to thrive. On the face of it this is easy to understand, but there are three factors that historically have held us back.&nbsp;<h3>Three key issues…</h3>Firstly, as discussed, we are a small country and so we have a very low level of competition domestically. This lack of competition results in slower innovation, lower standards, and fewer options available to customers. Standards, quality and execution often are good enough locally. But local brands often find they don’t stack up against their more sophisticated international competition.This has led to larger, globally funded multinationals setting up and dominating many of our industries. You just need to look at the banking, telcos, power companies, petrol stations and grocery industries to see that each one is dominated by two to four companies in cosy oligopolies. These are often multinational owned and controlled companies. Why are the majority of our big companies multinationals and why is this OK?Secondly, we are not only small, but a long way away from everyone else. This isolation from our major markets has protected us from that intense competition and has provided us with a more stable, less competitive domestic market. Today that is changing. While we’re not getting any bigger or closer to the rest of the world, the acceleration of online shopping and eCommerce means that our competition is no longer the shop down the road but any online shop that will deliver to New Zealand. And as we know, through the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, the level of online shopping dramatically increased and is only forecast to keep growing. In fact, as a nation our use of online shopping still lags significantly behind the rest of the world. Online in Australia now makes up 16% of all spending, compared to New Zealand’s 11%. In the UK and US, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nzpostbusinessiq.co.nz/sites/default/files/2022-06/NZPost_TheFullDownload2021.pdf">online penetration is well over 20%</a>. So while our isolation may have protected us in the past, now an increasingly online world will drive us to lift our game if we want to stay competitive.From an evolutionary point of view, our celebrated national bird is flightless for exactly this reason. In a country isolated from anyone else, with a lack of predators there was no need to evolve and develop the ability to fly. While okay here, our beloved kiwi wouldn’t survive if more predators were introduced here – and neither would many local Kiwi brands.The last issue is education and capital. Our brands are smaller, so the business case to invest in and build big brands is tougher. Combined with the reality that our potential market is smaller, any potential investors aren’t willing to risk as much capital. We also don’t have the same belief and understanding of the power of building strong, engaging, challenger brands – because we’ve lacked the competition to demand it. So it’s not just the size of our business and budgets, but also our understanding of the value that building brands can create – and together this has led to a real lack of real expertise in building strong brands.Looking forward, another reason challenger marketing is very relevant is we are in a period of high change and innovation. And that pace of change is only increasing, whether it’s AI, robotics, climate change, pandemics – we are living in a world where new needs and technology are creating new opportunities and as a result whole new categories are opening up. This is creating new brands that could naturally take a challenger approach to underline their relevance against the historical market leaders.So historically we’ve had lower competition that has made us a little lazy, we haven’t really understood how a strong brand can drive business growth and our isolation has meant we haven’t had much international competition to change our ways, but that is increasing quickly now. And finally, we see a rapidly accelerating rate of innovation, which is creating an increase in new entrants and the development of new categories. To me, all of this means understanding challenger marketing is more important than ever – how can we help the little brands not only survive but thrive in this challenging world.<h3>The size of the challenge - #1’s have it easy</h3>With children, the oldest has it the hardest and the youngest has an easy run (I know – I’m the oldest!). The opposite is true in the market. The number one’s in the market have the easiest run. Because of their size, things work better, their media spend is more efficient, their investments relative to their turnover are smaller, meaning more of their budgets can be put into working versus non-working marketing spend. And their brand awareness has been developed over decades. Everything just works better.Because of all of this, they can spend proportionately less marketing spend and still generate effective results. They don’t have to spend to their eSOV (Excess Share of Voice) to maintain share – <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2009/budgeting-for-the-upturn-does-share-of-voice-matter/">they can spend less and still protect their share</a>. And because of this, they are more profitable.This is why we all want to be that market leader, life is easier, spending is more efficient, there’s more money to go around and therefore more investment in new products, innovation, etc. – which (if spent wisely) helps them maintain their position and grow. This is what makes it even tougher for challenger brands to grow.<h3>Challenger Life</h3>For us as challengers, it is the opposite. We need to spend for higher eSOV to grow, and even then everything has to be right. Spend alone doesn’t guarantee success. We need a great product, strong brand, a loyal community, bold/interesting/creative advertising, etc. A problem with any one of these means nothing will work. So working through a robust challenger development process in a complete and exhaustive way is critical. Challengers have to get everything 110% right.This is the critical difference we really need to understand when we are in the middle of the chasing pack. When you are reading the marketing textbooks or learning about marketing at university, everything is simplified and the assumption you make is that marketing is the same whether you are a startup, a challenger or the market leader. This is simply not the case. While the principles are the same, the stakes are much higher when you are a challenger. There is no margin for error.Before you get too depressed, while the stakes are higher for challengers, there are advantages too. You are on a mission to change the world. You have to be bold, innovative and creative to succeed. This is highly motivational for you, for your team and for your customers. This gives you focus, which helps you leverage everything.So where do you start? The first thing you need to think about is deciding what you are pushing against, what is your core challenge.There are four main directions you can take as a challenger:For the Customer - you’re driven to make their lives dramatically better, improve the experience, give them more value?To create a new Category - Are you an innovator looking to promote a whole new way of meeting customer needs?Against a Competitor - Here the focus is on what you can do better, is it a better product, better pricing, better environment, better service. This is similar to being for the Customer but in this case you are directly taking it to the market leader and directly making the case for you and against them. Can be very effective but you are playing with fire!For Good (Environment or Social change) - Are you wanting to make a change for good? There are lots more brands playing in the purpose space, that is brands trying to make a sustainable and ethical impact on the world. And this is often driven by expected corporate behaviour (ESG) at a board level. To make an impact this needs to be about more than compliance and reporting.Any one of these can be effective. It’s not hard to find local examples of these challengers in the market. Xero, AF, Flick and EcoStore are all examples of local challenger brands that slot into each of these four categories.Looking specifically at one of these, Flick, is a brand we know something about. It’s easy to see the benefits of a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://api.ys17.production.beingbui.lt/works/flick-electric-take-back-power/">challenger marketing focus</a>. In a sector that is essentially a commodity, a challenger approach gives them something to stand for, something to fight against. It drives everything they do, their branding is bold and direct, their tone of voice is straight from a freedom fighter manifesto and their positioning ‘Take Back Power’, takes the fight to their competitors and drives their key points of difference in the market. On top of all of this they have created a bold clear single minded campaign that can’t help but get noticed.To make a decision on which challenger focus is right for you is really an outcome of your strategic positioning work. Where is the best opportunity for you, considering the customers you want to serve, the competitors in the market, your strengths and weaknesses, your values and brand personality. Effectively positioning yourself in the market is about defining where you should be playing to win. How you then pick the right challenge is one of the key challenger levers that we will be exploring in later articles.For us as an agency, challenger marketing is at the heart of everything we do. We are constantly seeking out ways to help the brands we partner with grow. Over the year we are creating this Challenger Marketing series and sharing it with any marketers that are interested. Our objective in doing so is to challenge and elevate the understanding of what it takes to build successful world-class brands from New Zealand. Whether you are working with us or applying these principles yourself, the result we are after is a stronger, more innovative marketing community making us proud of the brands we can create from the bottom of the world.Sources <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nzpostbusinessiq.co.nz/sites/default/files/2022-06/NZPost_TheFullDownload2021.pdf">The Full Download 2021</a> - NZ Post <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2009/budgeting-for-the-upturn-does-share-of-voice-matter/">Budgeting for the Upturn – Does Share of Voice Matter</a> - Nikki Clarke via Nielsen InsightsArticle originally published by the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://marketing.org.nz/resource-hub/insights-strategy/rising-to-the-challenge">Marketing Association</a>

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Rising to the challenge

3 in 4 New Zealanders are impacted by the burden of “Mental Load” in their daily lives. Which got us thinking - can, or even should, brands help with that?The topic of mental load has been popping up all around me lately.&nbsp; Whether on my social feeds through well-meaning strangers explaining what it is and suggesting ways to deal with it; or shared memes in whatsapp groups that elicit laugh crying emoji responses, through to animated discussions over coffee with mates - it seems the issue of mental load is on everyone’s minds (ironically).For those who are new to the term - mental load refers to the invisible labour involved in managing a household.&nbsp; It’s not referring to the chores themselves, but rather the cognitive effort and energy it takes anticipating and overseeing those chores.&nbsp; It’s being the one to anticipate needs before they arise; the one to delegate tasks and the one to follow through to ensure they’ve been done.&nbsp;&nbsp;It seemed to be a hot topic for women around the globe so, to celebrate International Women’s Day, the strategy team at YoungShand (Kirsten Bray, Andrea Long and I); together with our good friends at Kantar, (special shout out to David Thomas and his team) decided to take a closer look at how this phenomenon is manifesting in New Zealand and whether brands can, or indeed should, help.&nbsp;&nbsp;The findings surprised me - so they might surprise you too.&nbsp;FIRSTLY, MENTAL LOAD IS FAR MORE PREVALENT THAN I IMAGINED.&nbsp;&nbsp;Astonishingly, 75% of all New Zealanders either strongly agree or somewhat agree that mental load impacts their day to day lives. This peaks for those aged 30 - 39 at 85%, with 18 - 29’s experiencing it less relative to their older counterparts… but still significant at 72%. &nbsp;<blockquote>Key take-out:&nbsp; It’s definitely a pain point for many people and deserves more attention.</blockquote> MORE SURPRISINGLY THOUGH, IT’S LESS OF A “WOMEN’S THING” THAN I EXPECTED.Perhaps my unconscious bias is showing here, but I genuinely believed this was a women’s thing. And it sort of is.&nbsp; But it’s also not.&nbsp; Let me explain.Women are still twice as likely as men to strongly agree with the statement.&nbsp; So perhaps women are either feeling it more intensely or more frequently.But overall, both men and women are being impacted by it at surprising levels (78% for women and 72% for men). &nbsp;<blockquote>Key take-out:&nbsp; Gender isn’t impacting prevalence but rather how it shows up for each gender.</blockquote> AND FINALLY, I WAS SURPRISED BY THE GAP BETWEEN EXPECTATIONS AND REALITY IN TERMS OF BRANDS HELPING TO ALLEVIATE MENTAL LOAD FOR THEIR CUSTOMERSJust under two thirds of respondents (64%) thought brands should be doing something to help alleviate mental load (whether through their products, services, systems or processes) - while only 38%&nbsp; felt that brands they interacted with on a day to day basis were delivering on that need. &nbsp;<blockquote>Key take-out:&nbsp; There is a huge opportunity for brands to deepen and improve relationships with their customers, and add differentiated value to their overall experience.</blockquote>&nbsp;SO WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?Simply put:It’s a pain point with scaleAnd people expect brands to be helpingBut most brands aren’tSo while there is no one size fits all solution for how brands can help alleviate rather than add to their customers' mental load, there is undeniable value to be gained for organisations with a desire to put customers at the heart of their business, regardless of the category they operate in.What’s even more exciting, is that this opportunity has scope across every facet of the marketing mix - from product innovation to communications and messaging, through to customer service; you name it.With the importance of balancing Brand and CX on the rise, this is one of those meaty insights that can bring both together - to add more value for the customer and in turn the business itself.For those with curiosity and interest in exploring this topic more, YoungShand, in partnership with Kantar, is hosting a forum with our clients and friends of the agency, where we’ll explore mental load in more detail; how to unlock the value in the opportunity; showcase brands that are winning in this space and facilitate questions on how and where brands can make an impact in the lives of their customers. If you’d like to join the discussion, please contact Duncan Shand for more information. (duncan.shand@youngshand.com)This thought leadership piece was written in collaboration with Kirsten Bray (Strategist), Andrea Long (Media Strategist), David Thomas (Kantar) and Sue Kipling (Executive Strategy Director).

The burden of “Mental Load”

We’ve always been searching.Search isn’t a new phenomenon. People have been searching for solutions since Adam was a boy. The difference in recent decades has been the speed, scale and effortlessness of Search. The telephone was only invented just over 150 years ago in 1877. This allowed us to expand our reach of who we could talk to dramatically. Before this people had to find solutions from the local villages in one-to-one conversations.Over time things accelerated, the shift from telex and fax machines to computers and smartphones enabled the development of the internet and search engines. This created the idea of search engine marketing. The practice used to maximise exposure to people searching for relevant answers, problems and solutions to whatever you’re&nbsp;selling. &nbsp;<h3>First Search</h3>The first developments in Search were around optimising websites. It’s crazy to think that the first websites were only created in the early 1990s and the first attempts at Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) happened when the manager of the rock band Jefferson Starship wanted to move the band from page four to the first&nbsp;page.Initially SEO was dominated by directories and on-page optimisation. It was all about stuffing pages with keywords to improve&nbsp;results.Thankfully things have moved on and today search revolves more around content. Thought leadership, articles, reviews – content that is unique and helpful, generally gets rewarded. As people engage and link to useful content, search engine rankings tend to follow. This move to rewarding user experience signals has definitely helped make search engine results more ‘human’ rather than the old days of copycat content that was ‘algorithm-friendly’.However, there are two big shifts that are happening today that are threatening Google’s domination of&nbsp;search. &nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Social Search</h3>Google has never cracked social - but they have created (or acquired) several platforms that have set the standard as far as tools go – think Chrome, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail. All of these have ads and content within them. However, big platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter (opps ‘X’) have dominated&nbsp;Social.Today a lot of content is consumed on the ‘doom scroll’ with people keeping up to date with what is happening with their friends, the news, and the influencers that they follow. For example, Instagram is my new source of recipe inspiration! Today, people are saving and searching for inspiration around everything – new kitchen, next Netflic show, holiday in Portugal, golf driving tips... These searches are increasingly happening in social platforms (TikTok, Pinterest and Tumblr) which then generate more algorithmic visibility designed to keep users on the platform as long as&nbsp;possible.What is Social search? Social search is where people are using a social platform as a way to find things on the platform (e.g. ideas, products or recommendations). Think ‘best foundation’, ‘best place to eat’, ‘best travel luggage’. These searches return posts and reels that answer these&nbsp;questions.Just to underline the importance of Social Search Neil Patel, states “One in three people use social media platforms to find answers to their questions.” And if you take the time to optimise your posts like you optimise website pages you will start to see the boost in performance metrics. Key things that will help you are: recency – quality content, speed of engagement, fresh new posts, keywords in the post (and in the audio in the post too) and location&nbsp;tagging. &nbsp;<h3>AI Search</h3>The other massive trend is the uptake of AI. Recently ChatGPT became the fastest app to 100m users (if you ignore Threads because Meta kinda cheated there ;-). AI is clearly becoming part of how we work, what we do, how we search for solutions and&nbsp;suggestions.The value that AI delivers is that not only is it searching for and finding information, it is also helping us to plan and do tasks on our behalf. So instead of searching through pages and pages of search results, you get presented back, “the answer” in either a text or conversational format. Recent updates to Gemini and ChatGPT 4 have also addressed another problem with AI search when it first came out. Now you can ask the platform for its sources, assisting with accuracy and transparency and avoiding any awkward&nbsp;mistakes.For some searches this is absolutely fine if you are looking for definitive or factual information, but where you are exploring an area where there is more grey, AI results really should also be treated with a grain of salt and part of the overall search journey. AI searches will not replace the billions of traditional web searches anytime&nbsp;soon.So how can you get your website content to rank better on AI platforms? There are three things you can try according to an article in Search Engine Journal that covers research done by Princeton University, Georgia Tech, Allen Institute for AI and IIT Delhi who tested nine different possible ways to influence AI search. Of those nine different methods three had a significant impact on AI search results, achieving relative improvements of 30-40% compared to the baselines. Those&nbsp;were; &nbsp;<ul><li>Source citations: quoting reliable&nbsp;sources</li><li>Authoritative quotes: adding quotes from high quality sources such as experts in your&nbsp;niche&nbsp;</li><li>Unique statistics: adding numbers worked well for opinion&nbsp;searches &nbsp;</li></ul><h3>Google’s response: Search Generative Experience</h3>Typically shortened to “SGE”, Google recently presented new search functionalities capable of understanding complex multi-step questions and search using audio, video and imagery. This is still in the early stages of its development. Currently, it has been rolled out to US residents only, with plans to expand to the rest of the world later in the year. We’ll wait and see the impact on SGE on wider search trends and&nbsp;behaviour. &nbsp;<h3>Paid Search</h3>While we’ve been focusing on natural search you shouldn’t ignore paid search. The obvious benefit of this channel compared to SEO is the immediacy of results. While organic performance can often take two months’ plus to show momentum, you can create a campaign tomorrow and get instant results from paid&nbsp;search.Paid search should be integrated into your plan right from the get go. From your initial keyword research and content discovery you should be developing a keyword plan that identifies those that are valuable enough to achieve a return on your investment. As demonstrated in the Craigs’ case study below, having a strategy that aligns both paid and organic search creates a further advantage that is often overlooked. Over time as your organic search performance improves you can swap out paid keywords to maximise efficiency without compromising on&nbsp;results. &nbsp;<h3>Case Study - taking a truly strategic search approach</h3>As a case study in terms of what is possible with a strategic approach to search it’s worth having a look at the Craigs Investment Partners case study. By tightly integrating their brand strategy with their website and search marketing strategy we were able to drive significant results. The executed strategy increased the amount of local advisor leads by 45%, while reducing the paid cost per click by 15%. You can read the full <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://youngshand.com/work/craigs-investment-partners-search-win/">Search Marketing case study here</a>. &nbsp;<blockquote>“The integrated end-to-end approach and embodiment of our brand positioning at every level of our web/SEM and SEO strategy delivered a measurable and ongoing step change in all our digital channels and footprint across our entire network. Results have been so visible that it has also generated huge pride and belief within&nbsp;Craigs.” Tania Bui –&nbsp;GM Marketing, Craigs Investment&nbsp;Partners</blockquote><h3> Summary</h3>Too many marketers still think search is limited to Google. But to do so means missing out on a wealth of opportunities to educate, engage and convert into customers. Thinking about Search in isolation no longer makes sense. To be successful you need to take a holistic approach. Make sure you think strategically and have a tight integrated team with your creative, content, search, and developers all working tightly together. Because a holistic approach that focuses on the future will be less vulnerable to future platform and algorithmic changes. Holistic search done well will outperform ‘siloed search’ (e.g. just Google) because it takes into account changing behaviours, real business impact and ROI, rather than just keywords and vanity&nbsp;metrics.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The New Search Frontier

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News

Integrated indie agency YoungShand has appointed highly-awarded strategy leader Sue Kipling as its new Executive Strategy Director.&nbsp; This follows an impressive career working in some of New Zealand’s largest agencies including FCB and Colenso BBDO, working at the top level in New York as Managing Director - Strategy at Sullivan, and most recently spending the last year client side as Brand Strategy Manager at One New Zealand.Sue is curious, relishes solving complex problems, is passionate about innovation, and is driven to create transformative strategies to grow big brands. Sue is a seriously experienced heavyweight addition to the growing agency and the last piece in the leadership puzzle.Says Duncan Shand, Managing Director: “We’ve been looking for the right Strategy lead for a long time, and in fact had discussions with Sue before but the timing just wasn’t right. Now we’re both ready to go. What excites me about working with Sue is not only her breadth of experience but recent real experience client side. Her success in a tough market like New York gives an immense amount of confidence that she will help guide our clients towards transformative strategic solutions. We’re excited to get going!”The Executive Strategy Director role will oversee marketing, brand and communications strategy for YoungShand’s clients. Says Sue: “I’m just thrilled to be on board. I’ve watched YoungShand develop over the last 4-5 years and love their integrated approach and focus. There’s a real drive to create strategic value through smart thinking and creating bold engaging work. The team they have slowly built is impressive and I’m really excited to see what we can do together”. This role is an essential part of YoungShand's move to position itself as the leading independent integrated agency in New Zealand, focused on growing New Zealand businesses into world class brands.&nbsp;

YoungShand welcomes Sue Kipling as Executive Strategy Director

After much deliberation the industry celebrated Aotearoa’s most effective advertising campaigns last week at the Effies Awards Aotearoa. The YoungShand team had a fantastic night, picking up two Bronze awards for Flick’s ‘Take back power’ and Oceania’s ‘The Duet’. We are immensely proud to see both of these challenger brands being rewarded for shaking up their industries with bold, authentic work.For Flick Electric Co, ‘Take back power’ was a loud and distinctive integrated campaign that transformed the challenger brand into the fastest growing retailer in Aotearoa. YoungShand’s media strategy was to behave like a protest movement, using broadcast media to agitate and energise customers about the truths of the market, and digital media focussed on recruiting people on Flick’s mission to Take back power from greedy gentailers. The campaign smashed KPIs, growing the brand and attracting 42% more customers to Flick.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://youngshand.com/work/flick-take-back-power">https://youngshand.com/work/flick-take-back-power</a>Meanwhile for Oceania, ‘The Duet’ was a nuanced campaign that cleverly broke the Aged Care taboo, presenting a message of respect and hope to couples needing specialist healthcare support. At a time when property prices were tanking and aged care villages were closing, ‘The Duet’ grew Oceania’s enquiries by 63%, delivering an 8% increase in premium care revenue and shifting the brand from 5th to 4th position.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://youngshand.com/work/oceania-the-duet">https://youngshand.com/work/oceania-the-duet</a>&nbsp;

Effies success for Flick Electric Co, Oceania and YoungShand.

The Global Effie 'Best of the Best' contenders just came out. For these awards every Effie gold medal winner in the world can go into the global judging. Out of all the gold winners there were only 54 finalists from 125 countries that compete in the Effies around the globe.There were two finalists from NZ - statistically we should only have one maybe. So NZ is punching above our weight with two finalists.And one of those two was for the Unseen Emergencies campaign we did for New Zealand Blood Service.Very proud of this campaign, it is a challenging piece of work and wow did it make an impact. You can check out the campaign <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://youngshand.com/work/nzblood-unseen-emergencies/">here</a>.Congratulations also to Turners Auto Retail Division for their fantastic work with Tina from Turners, that picked up the other NZ finalist. Please remember to drive carefully though, unseen emergencies happen everyday.

YoungShand up for global 'Best of the Best' Effie

Following a competitive trans-tasman pitch, Bendon has appointed YoungShand as agency for brand, strategy, retail and media, overseeing the full portfolio of brands Bendon, me. by Bendon, Fayreform, Pleasure State, and Lovable.&nbsp;&nbsp;Says Tracey Hennah, GM Marketing &amp; Digital, Bendon: “Australia is a vital part of our future, and we need an agency with the strategic and media insights to create work that will thrive in both markets. The team at YoungShand impressed us right from the start with their strategic smarts, market insights, and storytelling. This is an ignition point, and we believe we’ve found the right partner. The Bendon team is hugely excited about the future with YS.”&nbsp;Says Sue Kipling, Executive Strategy Director, YoungShand: “The lingerie category feels ripe for reinvigoration, so we are thrilled to be partnering with Anna, Tracey and the Bendon team to develop a powerful long-term portfolio strategy for their suite of iconic lingerie brands.”&nbsp;Says Corey Chalmers, Executive Creative Director, YoungShand: “While Bendon has a strong and beloved heritage in New Zealand, we’re determined to reinvigorate, evolve and grow the brand here and across the ditch. Tracey and the team have challenged us to take their brands into exciting new territories. Challenge accepted.”&nbsp;The appointment is effective August 1.&nbsp;

Bendon appoints YoungShand for NZ and Australian markets

Auckland, 12 May 2025 – Independent agency YoungShand has appointed Todd Wright as its new Head of Digital Production, following an extensive search for the right fit to lead the agency’s growing digital team.With over a decade of experience producing world-class digital work, Todd brings both creative and technical firepower to the role. His career began in design, before moving into production leadership across agencies such as Colenso BBDO, Daylight, and Brave. His portfolio spans everything from award-winning campaign sites to large-scale, enterprise-level digital platforms.“Todd stood out not just for his experience, but for the way people talk about him,” said Scott Maddox, YoungShand ECD. “He’s earned a reputation for calm, strategic leadership and the ability to deliver even the most complex projects at a high standard.”That reputation is already following him. “We’ve had clients reach out to say how much they’ve valued working with Todd”.His appointment is another step forward in the agency’s investment in continuing to build a high-performing, future-ready digital offering. Todd will lead the digital production team, working closely with creative, UX, and media to deliver standout digital experiences for clients.“I'm excited to be part of an agency that’s eager to learn, grow, and push beyond its comfort zone. I've been searching for a team committed to doing things better, and I’m looking forward to helping make that happen for both us and our partners.” says Todd.“We’re thrilled to have Todd join the team,” said Duncan Shand, CEO. “He’ll add real depth to an already formidable group”.

Todd Wright joins YS Digital Team as New Head of Digital Production

Auckland, 21 May 2025 – Independent agency YoungShand has appointed respected digital media leader Mahmood Shibliq as its new Performance Director, to further enhance YS’s already growing media department.Mahmood brings more than a decade of experience in the digital and performance media space. Previously Head of Digital Media at Bastion Shine, Mahmood is known for his strength in programmatic, social, analytics and attribution. With deep retail experience across the New Zealand and Australian markets, he is recognised for his commercial thinking, technical expertise, and strong partner relationships.Mahmood joins the YS Senior Leadership Team and will work alongside newly promoted Media Business Director Jaimee Croot, forming a strong combination to lead the agency’s media, brand &nbsp;and performance offering.“We’re excited to welcome someone of Mahmood’s calibre to YoungShand,” says Chief Strategy Officer Sue Kipling. “He brings a rare combination of strategic insight and performance rigour, and will be a huge asset to both our clients and team. It’s testament to what we’re building here at YS that people of Mahmood’s quality are coming on board.”“I’m stoked to be joining YoungShand at such an exciting time. There’s a real energy here around integrated thinking and delivering great results for our clients. I can’t wait to get stuck in with the team and help drive performance across the board.” says Mahmood.“These appointments mark another step in our commitment to building an integrated, future-focused agency offering – combining creativity with performance to drive challenger brand growth.” says Duncan Shand, CEO. &nbsp;

Mahmood Shiblaq joins as New Performance Director to Strengthen Media Team

TSB, the proudly 100% New Zealand owned bank, has appointed independent challenger agency YoungShand (YS) - also proudly 100% New Zealand owned - as its new creative partner following an extensive competitive pitch.&nbsp;Nick Herbert, TSB General Manager of Product and Marketing, says: "TSB is a brand with a remarkable 175-year heritage, and our goal is to transform that into an equally strong future. We're a bank with strong community values that proudly puts profits back into Aotearoa - but we're not resting on 175-year-old laurels. We're committed to an evolution that will make banking simpler, faster, and more intuitive for New Zealanders. In our search for a partner to bring that to life, YS stood out because of their integrated strategic and creative firepower, combined with strong digital capabilities."&nbsp;TSB’s Head of Brand and Marketing, Vesna Nixon, says "we were looking for an agency partner who would not only bring our future direction to life, but who also truly understood us and our challenges," she adds. "In YS we found a passionate, energetic team that’s creative, digitally driven, and a pleasure to collaborate with. They bring the experience of a big global agency but with the agility and cultural understanding that only a local independent can truly offer."&nbsp;Duncan Shand, CEO and Founder of YS, emphasised the opportunity to work with New Zealand's original challenger bank. "We make no secret of the fact that we live to create great work for challenger brands," says Shand. "Our ambition for TSB matches their own. We look forward to leveraging our expertise to amplify their unique story and support TSB’s exciting growth plans."&nbsp;"TSB is arguably the bank best positioned to deliver a truly human, customer-centric offering, something the research shows New Zealand wants now, more than ever,” says Corey Chalmers, Chief Creative Officer at YS. “The passion, the great service and the ambition of the team at TSB is very clear, and we've already begun working on several major new initiatives, which we're pumped to launch in 2026."

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