LOTS OF HEAT, BUT STILL LITTLE light on the demise of Glenda Wynyard’s The Media Counsel. The deadline for the appointment of a liquidator came and went on Tuesday with no word from the company itself, and no posting on the Companies Office website, which must list the liquidator’s details immediately they are appointed.

And therein lies the problem: In a voluntary liquidation such as this, a specific liquidator can only be appointed by agreement between Wynyard and TMC creditors – and we've heard the parties are not even close to reaching agreement(we’ll update developments immediately via our email service).

These appointment issues also have the effect of keeping all staff and contractors – most of whom are owed wages – totally in the dark. Until a liquidator is named, there’s simply nobody for them to talk to.

MTC’s phones are still not being answered, Wynyard is still not taking her cellphone, and the website remains closed (almost certainly never to return).

Fastline’s received dozens of emails from TMC clients and friends – the clear consensus is that Wynyard is a formidable media expert but not the world’s greatest businesswoman. Despite the problems, she continues to be held in high regard. As Oggi’s Gordon Frykberg said: “The industry will ultimately be the poorer without the feisty Glenda.”

At www.companies.govt.nz, readers can search the TMC company structure – and check on the liquidator – by clicking the Our Services button, then scroll down to Manage A Voluntary Liquidation, then just follow the links.

Meanwhile, TMC strategic planner Michael Carney has sent us his new contact details. “As you know,” he writes, “The Media Counsel has done a Titanic with the loss of all hands.

SYDNEY-BASED DIGITAL advertising sales outfit Ad2One is to open an office in the Auckland CBD (actual location yet to be advised), managed by Lisa Ison (ex MSN NZ).

Ad2One has offices in London, Singapore, Dublin, Sydney and Melbourne, and already manages some clients who do business in NZ (Lonely Planet, LinkedIn, Expedia) out of the Sydney office. There are 11 fulltime staff in Australia.

“We are getting outstanding results for online publishers, and we are seeing healthy demand in NZ, which is why now is the time to make our move into Auckland,” says Asia Pacific md Phil Duffield.

Ad2One (www.ad2one.com.au) can be contacted through Louise Roberts (61 4 0557 9633 or louise@einsteinz.com.au).

JUST FIVE DAYS TILL THE DEADLINE for Axis Awards entries (on Tuesday 2 February). Details at www.caanz.co.nz. And just over two weeks till the Fairfax AdMedia Agency of the Year deadline (Monday 15 February). Enter at www.admedia.co.nz.

TIME INC, WHICH CLOSED ITS NZ & Australian sales offices last November, has now appointed NZ Magazines to represent Time magazine sales in NZ.

“Time is a natural fit with NZ Magazines’ portfolio – the synergy with the NZ Listener in particular is stunning,” says the magazine’s Singapore-based Asia Pacific publishing director Andrew Butcher.

“Together, Time and the Listener reach 73,000 or 29% of this country’s most affluent consumers weekly,” says NZ Magazines ceo Sarah Sandley (sarah.sandley@nzmagazines.co.nz).

WEBSTOCK, THE FIVE-DAY GEEKFEST of web design & development workshops, is back – at the Wellington Town Hall, February 15-19. The event culminates in the Onya Web Awards dinner on the Friday night. There’s 24 “kickass” international speakers. It costs $1095 per person but individual workshops cost between $350 and $750. Browse or sign up at www.webstock.org.nz. Tickets to the Onyas cost $150 (book at www.onyas.org.nz).

The Media Counsel has gone into liquidation, ending months of speculation about problems at the agency.

We have been unable to contact md Glenda Wynyard – the company phones in Freemans Bay are not answered, neither is Wynyard’s cellphone, and the website has been taken down.

Fastline has obtained a copy of a letter the agency sent on Monday to clients outlining its difficulties. “You are very aware of the financial difficulties and business turmoil we have experienced over the past year,” Wynyard wrote. “There are many reasons our business faces imminent closure – but the most recent is that the purchaser we had pinned our final hopes on offered to take over our client and staff base for free, leaving us with a financial hole we will not be able to pull ourselves out from.

The letter goes on to outline media agency options for her staff and clients, including G2, OMD, Media MAP, DraftFCB and Hunter Media.

“I am so very, very sorry for what is about to erupt. I really do wish you all a much better end to 2010 than what I have just caused for you all at the beginning. All of our clients have been incredibly supportive and I feel just dreadful about what is to happen.”

We’ll update this story as it develops, via email updates (contact ed@fastline.co.nz to receive this free service).

THE INTERNET BUREAU IS TO merge with digital acquisition outfit Catch!Media to create a full-service digital agency.

Both shops are part of the ASX-listed Mitchell Communication Group and until now have operated separately – both were founded and managed by md John Schofield (the IB in 2000, and Catch!Media 12 months ago), who now takes over the merged entity.

The new outfit will be known as Catch!Media, and the IB brand will be retired. The operation will be run (for the moment) out of Catch!Media’s offices at 347 Parnell Rd (phone 09 302 0240) – but Schofield says there are plans to move into the city. There will be no redundancies.

COLENSO/AIM ECD Nick Worthington has been appointed to the Titanium & Integrated jury at the Cannes Lions. The chairman is DDB Worldwide chairman/ceo Bob Scarpelli. The festival this year runs June 20-26.

And the New York Festivals Ad Awards (www.newyorkfestivals.com) has selected four NZ jurors for this year’s comp. They are JWT ECD Peter Ogden (TV/Cinema), JWT digital CD Mark Addy (Digital & Interactive), Clemenger CEO/ECD Duster Andrew (Print), and Ogilvy interactive CD Greg Whitham (Digital & Interactive). The awards will be announced in Shanghai in June.

**The Cannes Lions opens for entry today at www.canneslions.com. This year, Cannes has introduced Craft Lions across its major categories, including Film, Cyber, Press, Radio and Design Lions. There’s also two new awards – Independent Agency of the Year and a new Grand Prix for Good (charities etc). The deadlines are March 5 (for Film, Press, Outdoor, Film Craft), March 12 (for Direct, Media, Radio, Promo & Activation, Design, PR), and March 19 (Cyber, Titanium, Integrated).

**Entries close Monday 15 February for the 2010 Fairfax AdMedia Agency of the Year Awards. All details at www.admedia.co.nz.

**Tuesday 2 February at 4pm is the deadline for Axis Awards entries. Details at www.caanz.co.nz.

**Entries close March 8 for the CAANZ Media Awards. Judging is March 22-April 1; the show’s held in Auckland on Thursday 6 May (details ytba). Enter at www.caanz.co.nz.

**Entries for The One Show close February 12. Details at www.enteroneshow.org.

**Adfest entries close this Sunday (January 31). See www.adfest.com.

Ogilvy joint ECDs Basil Christensen & Damon O’Leary have announced three heavyweight creative hires to fill newly created group head positions: Copywriter Richard Loseby joins after stints at Lowe NZ (where he was CD) and at Lowe Hunt Sydney, while art director Martin Hermans joins from Clemenger Wellington. The move reunites Loseby & Hermans in a creative partnership that began when the pair worked at DDB.

The third arrival is Darran Wong Kam who, before going freelance, was a senior art director at DDB and Colenso.

“These appointments are a significant step as we rejig our department,” says O’Leary. “Greater integration with the agency’s interactive operation is part of the overall scheme. Significantly, all three appointments have sound credentials in the digital arena.”

Colenso has hired a top-flight young creative team direct from the UK. Will Bingham & Victoria Daltrey originally teamed up at Central St Martins Art College London. After graduating, they won a year-long scholarship (sponsored by Diageo) to work at AMV BBDO, JWT and BBH, where they spent the past five years and picked up a Campaign magazine No 1 Young Creative of the Year citation).

Four movements at Freemans Bay-based visual effects & animation studio Oktobor: Bruce Everett, who joined the facility as head of production in September has been promoted to gm, replacing Patrick McAteer who moved to Wanaka where he owns the Lone Star franchise.

McAteer departed in October. Since then, and up until his promotion, Everett had been running the business on a day-to-day basis. Previously, Everett was group director of post-production at Pinewood Shepperton UK, and md at Ascent Media’s St Anne’s Post London.

“The world of post has changed,” Everett (beverett@oktobor.com) says. “We now interpret client briefs and work closely with the agency creatives right from the outset. Oktobor is now much more than a facilities house.”

Meanwhile, Oktobor has expanded its account management team by appointing Cristina Caseres & Zoe Jones as account managers, reporting to account director Ganesh Raj (who himself joined Oktobor in September after a 15-year career in TV and advertising in Asia, Australia and NZ).

Caseres is an animator/director/producer who’s ex Pixel Factory USA and Chilefilms Chile/Argentina. She’s also coordinated projects with Dreamworks, ILM and Weta. Jones, a former producer at Oktobor, returns after a short break. She’s ex VTR London.

And taking the new role of senior producer is Amanda Kabel, who’s ex Y&R (TV production department manager), and who formerly ran Kabel TV (clients included DDB, TBWA, Grey and Lowe; she’s worked on Vodafone, NZ Lotteries Commission, Tegel, ASB, Nissan, Air NZ, The Warehouse, Caltex, Farmers and Oxfam).

ADSHEL’S XMAS PROMOTION SAW 958 ad panels donated to 25 charities across Australia & NZ. Running parallel to the promotion was a dedicated mini-site, titled The Importance of Giving Back, which showcased the charities, facilitating cash donations.

A DRAFTFCB CREATIVE TEAM has scooped round two of MSN’s transtasman Butterfly Award for online advertising creativity, continuing the Kiwi dominance (so far) set by Saatchi DGS in round 1 – with just two rounds to go. The grand prize is a trip for two to the Cannes Lions in June.

The DraftFCB team is senior interactive designer Jared Isle, and intermediate creatives Antony Wilson & Iain MacMillan. They won with an online game for Whitcoulls; their prize is a $1500 long lunch.

Creatives have until Feb 22 to submit entries for the third round. The fourth and final round closes on May 17 with the overall grand prizewinner announced later that month. Entry details are at msn.co.nz/advertising.

TVNZ 7 IS TO LAUNCH THE AD SHOW, a studio-based half-hour chat show about the ad industry, hosted by NBR’s Hazel Phillips, on Wednesday 17 February.

“This,” says producer Raewyn Rasch of Top Shelf, “will be the only non-commercial programme on the channel that will feature ads.”

The Ad Show goes to air around 9.45pm (straight after Media 7). Rasch (who can be contacted at 027 295 9832 or Raewyn@top-shelf.co.nz) says it will feature interviews and panel discussions, along with studio audience and viewer feedback.

AD INDUSTRY VETERAN Glenn Wiggs has become the first adman this century to be honoured by the Queen.

Wiggs was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours, recognising his work in establishing NZ’s self-regulatory advertising regime (as executive director for 14 years of the Advertising Standards Authority), and since 2004 as director of the Foundation for Advertising Research.

Wiggs also sits on the three-person selection panel for the AdMedia NZ Post Advertising Hall of Fame. He can be reached at 021 519 996 or gwiggs@affar.org.

CHILDWARE RETAILER JK KIDS has appointed new Ellerslie-based indie agency Tenfold Creative to manage advertising across NZ & Australia.

Tenfold won the business after a three-way pitch against unidentified agencies. The incumbent was OgilvyMetro.

AXIS ADSCHOOL HAS A NEW NAME – it’s now called The AdSchool, a move aimed at streamlining the brand and to position it more clearly under the Media Design School umbrella. The move also removes potential confusion with the Axis Awards. Enquiries to Suzi Harvey (09 303 0402).

PROMINENT AUCKLAND ADMAN Mike Watkins, for the past two years the face of NZ-based global producer Film Construction, has been headhunted by Designworks.

CAANZ HAS ISSUED ITS ENTRY CALL for the 2010 Media Awards. Entries close March 8, the judging takes place March 22-April 1, and the show will be held in Auckland on Thursday 6 May (details ytba). Enter at www.caanz.co.nz.

And on Tuesday 9 February, CAANZ holds its annual How To Write A Winning Media Award Entry workshop, facilitated my CAANZ Media Committee member Nigel Keats (md at OMD Wellington). This runs 9am-11am at AUT.

Entry is free but places are limited. RSVP to desiree@caanz.co.nz.

A NEW ONE-STOP MUSIC & AUDIO post shop has emerged from the merger of Auckland-based production studio Soundtrax and licensing outfit Mana Music.

The new facility will be known as Franklin Road, echoing the site of the company’s new purpose-built offices and studios at 84-86 Franklin Rd, Freemans Bay. The new company’s offering includes composition, music supervision & licensing, and audio post.

Franklin Road will be run by joint managing directors Stacey Wah, a director and producer at Soundtrax for 15 years, and Jonathan Hughes, who was a partner in Mana Music. Soundtrax composer Jim Hall and Mana Music’s Chris Gough become shareholders in the new venture, alongside Wah & Hughes.

Hall (a winner at Clio, Axis and Cannes) also takes a role as one of two in-house composers (with Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper, a classically trained composer and multi-instrumentalist who’s ex Liquid).

All fulltime Soundtrax & Mana staff are moving to Franklin Road (except Mana’s Savina Kim, who will focus on Mana’s NZ-based Native Tongue Music Publishing).

Franklin Road’s phone is 09 370 0414; Wah is at 021 498 322 or stacey@franklinrd.co.nz; Hughes is at 021 952, 937 or jonathan@franklinrd.co.nz. The website is www.franklinrd.co.nz.

THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION'S new draft global alcohol strategy is broadly in line with NZ’s alcohol advertising and self-regulation structure, according to the latest Media Counsel newsletter.

There may be some issues that arise in NZ – in particular the regulation of social media, the report says.

THE PRINT MEDIA INDUSTRY Research Review Group has shortlisted four research shops to pitch for NZ’s readership services – Nielsen (the incumbent), Research International, Roy Morgan, and Synovate.

The four have now been issued with the full RFP document, including a submission deadline of March 31. Details from group chairman Derek Lindsay (021 657 492 or derek.lindsay@draftfcb.co.nz).

He's Dylan Harrison of DDB London. Here's the Saatchi release (in this morning)...

Internationally lauded, multiple award-winning advertising creative Dylan Harrison has been appointed Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand.

His appointment completes the new leadership team for Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand following last month’s announcement of New Zealand-born Nicola Bell’s selection as the new CEO.

Dylan joins the New Zealand team from a highly decorated 10-year stint with DDB London, where he picked up numerous awards for clients as diverse as Volkswagen, Marmite, Budweiser and the Guardian newspaper.

In addition to three nominations and a coveted Silver pencil at D&AD, he has won at every major awards show, including gold at Cannes, One Show, Clio, ANDY, Creative Circle, Campaign Press and Eurobest.

His print ad ‘Cops’ for Volkswagen won both the Grand Prix in Cannes and Eurobest, making it the most awarded print ad in history. He repeated the double Grand Prix honours again last year, scooping both the Eurobest and Epica top award for the TV ad, “Singing Dog”, for Volkswagen.

Melbourne-born Dylan, who succeeds outgoing ECD Mike O’Sullivan, is raring to go. “I can’t wait to get started. Opportunities like this are so rare, I didn’t hesitate.

“After 13 years in London, I couldn’t resist returning to the region. It’s not often you get the opportunity to work for an agency as creative as Saatchi’s and in a market as dynamic as New Zealand’s.

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be in advertising – the liberation of media through technology, the global financial crisis, and creativity earning its rightful place in the boardroom solving fundamental business issues.”

Ian Rowden, Chairman and CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Asia Pacific, said Dylan’s appointment follows a worldwide search for a new ECD to partner with Nicola Bell.

“Dylan is a world class creative talent, whose awards were garnered for work that essentially solved big client problems. His restless obsession with the power of creativity to solve business issues, and a belief in driving consumer engagement and participation, will serve our clients well.”

“Together, Nicky and Dylan make a dream team that will maintain our long standing tradition of game-changing creativity and lead the New Zealand business to new heights.”

Both start on February 22. Dylan and his family will relocate from London to Auckland in February.

Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand clients include Telecom New Zealand, Toyota, Westpac, New Zealand Post, DB, New Zealand Defence Force, Contact Energy, Sanyo, and House of Travel.

RUPERT MURDOCH WILL ESTABLISH a new world order of payment for internet news content, says Mitchell Communications Group executive chairman Harold Mitchell.

“Will he succeed? Absolutely,” the Aussie agency tycoon, who has been in NZ promoting his autobiography, said on TV3’s ASB Business. “Our forecast is that if the information is what people want, they will pay.”

Mitchell said he spent an hour recently with Murdoch – “and I get the feeling he’s on top of it”.

What Mitchell didn’t tell the TV audience about his old mate was that he also had a nosey through the papers on Rupert’s desk when he left the room for a minute – he saved that anecdote for the book!

Of which AdMedia has three copies – each signed by Harold Mitchell – to give away to readers. To go in the draw for one of these, check out the qualifying question on P5 of AdMedia December/January.

TBWA\ has promoted Corey Chalmers to the new role of Deputy CD.

DDB has promoted Mango creative planner Steve Kane (the man behind Air NZ’s award-winning Cranial Billboards campaign) to the new role of Creative Director Experiential, reporting to group ECD Toby Talbot.

Barnes Catmur & Friends has lured creative Carlos Savage from DDB (where then-ECD Paul Catmur hired him straight from Axis Adschool four years ago).

“We’re really busy at the moment, so he’ll be straight in at the deep end,” said Catmur. “Luckily, his hair should keep him afloat.”

CLEMENGER GROUP HAS MERGED its own Alphabet Soup with former indie Raydar, retaining the Raydar name and the services of Raydar md Darryl McClay, who will take a minority shareholding in the new shop.

Both agencies are prominent in the small to mid-sized below-the-line retail space. “Bringing them together will create a much stronger offer,” said Clemenger Group ceo Jim Moser.

Joining McClay (027 224 1866) on the management team will be CD Martin Sawbridge (from Raydar) and operations director Aynsley Scott (from Alphabet Soup).

Saatchi & Saatchi has announced the appointment of Andrew Stone's replacement as CEO. She's NZ-born international advertising executive Nicola Bell, who joins the Auckland-based agency after 18 years at Ogilvy New York & Sydney.

Bell and her husband and three-year-old twins will relocate from New York to Auckland in February. Her first official day in the office will be Monday 22 February.

ADMEDIA HAS APPOINTED ONE new judge for the 2010 Fairfax AdMedia Agency of the Year – he’s former Colenso BBDO chairman Roger MacDonnell, who’ll sit alongside consultant Cindy Mitchener and a third judge (yet to be announced).

Entry is now open at www.admedia.co.nz (closes on February 15), and the awards evening will be held in Auckland on Thursday 18 March.

CHANGES FOR NEXT YEAR’S AXIS Awards: “More than ever, we need to reinvent to remain relevant,” says CAANZ events manager Desiree Doyle. “Which is why Axis has expanded its digital & interactive categories. Viral is more defined. ‘Social’ just had to be included. All justifiably recognised with a new Interactive Axis Award.

“Design now also has a home, and we’ve introduced a PR/Experiential/Word of Mouth/Word of Mouse category because of the lightspeed nature of modern communication.

“Finally, in line with Cannes, we’ve tweaked Axis of Innovation to be a Titanium Axis, reserved for the kind of work that reinvents our business.”

For a full list of entry criteria, categories and to download entry forms, go to www.caanz.co.nz. There’s also a document detailing the changes, which you can obtain from desiree@caanz.co.nz. Axis entries opened on December 1; they close at 4pm on Monday 1 February, and the 30th annual Axis Awards show will be held in Auckland on Thursday 25 March.

RAPP AND JUSTONE, WITH FIVE nominations apiece, lead the finalist list for next year’s RSVP division of the Marketing Association’s RSVP & Nexus Awards. Next come Aim Proximity and DraftFCB (four), Saatchi DGS (three), then Ogilvy, G2, TBWA\Tequila, and Federation, Affinity iD/Ogilvy (two each), and Total Direct, followed by .99, Y&R, Colenso, Tango, and Aim Proximity/Colenso (one each).

The RSVPs recognise outstanding marketing campaigns that generate measurable results.

Leading the RSVP Craft division are Aim Proximity (four), DraftFCB, and Ogilvy (three), then come Affinity iD/Ogilvy, Aim/Colenso, Rapp, Saatchi DGS, TBWA\Tequila (two), followed by justONE, .99, Aim Proximity, Y&R, Shine, SureFire Search (one each).

The RSVP Craft Awards recognise skill, talent and creativity.

And leading the Nexus finalist list are Rapp and Rapport (with two each), followed by – with one apiece – Marketing Impact, Touchpoint, Federation, Reachmedia, Kinetic, Telecom, Affinity iD, Shine, and Aim.

The Nexus Awards recognise excellence in DM infrastructure.

The winners will be revealed at the awards dinner (venue ytba) on Friday 26 February. The awards’ premier sponsors are TVNZ & NZ Post. More info from sarahh@marketing.org.nz.

As widely predicted, Clemenger Group has appointed Nick Garrett as managing director of Colenso BBDO, effective March 1. Garrett comes to Auckland direct from Australia’s largest indie agency (and winner of the Campaign Brief Australian Agency of the Decade), BMF Sydney, where he was group account director (on Lion Nathan and PlayStation, among others).

He replaces another Aussie, Brent Smart, who’s moving to San Francisco to run BBDO West.