2023 is now well and truly underway. The customary New Year predictions have already been confounded by almighty floods that no one had on their bingo cards. Our thoughts are with all those impacted.
Despite the interruptions, it’s been a very busy January at the Comms Council. I’d like to share what we’ve been focused on since our return to the office.
Firstly, I’m delighted to announce two new appointments to the Comms Council team. Axl Arthur joined us in mid-January as Communications Manager. This role will drive better comms across all our activities, manage our CRM, and ensure that the initiatives we need to deliver this year get to the right audiences in their preferred channels.
As I write, we have just confirmed the appointment of a Sustainability Manager to the Comms Council. I will share the details in the coming days, but this role is critical to driving our industry-wide efforts to address climate change. We aim to launch Ad Net Zero in the coming months, to progress efforts to measure and reduce carbon emissions across the advertising supply chain. If you are keen to get updates as we progress this initiative, please sign up here for future communications specific to Ad Net Zero.
This time last year when we asked members what we could deliver on behalf of the industry, we got a lot of requests to bring back the Young Lions competition. I’m pleased to announce that we are now the official representatives of Cannes Lions in Aotearoa and the Young Lions competition will run once again in March. We’re incredibly grateful to Stuff for coming on board as official sponsors of the competition and we look forward to providing this unique opportunity for young talent to compete. The winners of our local competition will go to Cannes to represent New Zealand in the global competition in June.
We’re also reviving the AXIS Speaks Festival of Creativity. This will run on the morning before the AXIS Awards on Thursday 30 March. We’ve got an amazing lineup of speakers to inspire, provoke, and stimulate debate on the challenges of creativity in today’s world. It promises to be a great event, not just for creatives, but anyone working in agencies, media companies and client organisations. Something to put in your diaries as soon as possible.
You’ll find more information on all of these initiatives in our newsletter, but if you want to get in touch to find out more about any of them, just drop me a line at simon@commscouncil.nz. I’d love to chat.