The Fold

To cap off The Fold, Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive one last time. The pair pick the seven biggest media stories of the seven years The Fold was around, and rank them according to impact. Then, that's all folks – listen to At Large with Toby Manhire, where Duncan and Glen will show up when major media stories break. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Murray was a longtime staffer at FQ under different owners, before making a bold move to buy the publication outright in 2023. She joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to talk about the publication’s history and its transformation under her stewardship, including its insider club, its awards night and the rise of its ‘sleepover’ activations, which builds a bridge to the creator economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason Monteiro is head of streaming for WBD across APAC, and joins Glen Kyne and Duncan Greive on The Fold to discuss the late arrival of one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world to a small and seemingly saturated market. Monteiro makes the case that this is not just some of Sky’s Neon in new clothes, but in fact a powerful and singular platform in its own right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Duncan Greive is joined by James Davidson, Chief Strategy & Planning Officer, PHD Aotearoa; Lisa Leicester – Head of Social & Innovation, Omnicom Media; and Mike Delaney – Group Product Director, Omnicom Media, all in partnership with PHD Aotearoa.In the age of influencer marketing, the strict planning and measurement tools long honed by the media industry and expected by brands were effectively thrown to the wind in favour of likes, shares, and attractive people spruiking brands. Omnicom's development and recent launch of CREO to the NZ market aims to correct that by offering a single solution for planning, deploying and measuring creators as a media channel – not an add-on tactic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sharp-eyed and longtime Spinoff readers might have noticed that The Fold host Duncan Greive has been staggeringly unproductive as a writer lately. For once, there is a good explanation for that: a new and quite ambitious new music app and platform named Lume. To manage the colossal conflict of interest that entails, The Spinoff’s editor-at-large Toby Manhire guest hosts The Fold to ask Duncan all about Lume. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Philippa Rennie has had a near unique view of real life TV storytelling in New Zealand. She worked as the in-house lawyer for Warner Brother Productions for a decade, before moving across to make television as head of scripted there. She joins the Fold to speak with admirable candour about what went wrong on shows like Married at First Sight, why Julie Christie probably isn’t the right person to make a show about the Marokopa-Phillips case, and how you satisfy ethical considerations while still making compelling television. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Harvey is CEO of Dentsu across Australia and New Zealand – it’s one of the biggest ad agencies in the world, and Rob is notable for the length of time he’s spent leading it locally. In an industry notable for executives burning bright then shifting up, down and sideways, Harvey has been a deeply committed constant. He’s led the Aotearoa business since 2013 – before Netflix landed here – and last year took over the Australian operation too, meaning he now oversees more than 1000 staff across its various brands. Dentsu is notable for a number of reasons. It’s one of what used to be known as the “big six” ad agencies, now the “big five” after the merger of Omnicom and IPG. They’re known as the “holdcos” within advertising, and the term can be used derisively by some, as a synonym for mercilessly squeezing and flattening in a way which doesn’t necessarily deliver the best for its people or clients. However Rob offers a persuasive defence of the model, saying the name no longer well-describes his business at least. Dentsu is also the only one of the “big five” from Japan, which has a legendarily specific and singular business culture, so we talk about how that flows through its offices. Dentsu has endured a tough few years in this part of the world, with Australia recording a massive $500m paper loss in 2023, in part due to a bet on competing with the consultancies on broader business strategy work. None of that happened on Harvey’s watch however, and the business is considered to be well into a turnaround. Finally, because this episode is recorded in partnership with the Communications Council – of which Harvey is president – we discuss their excellent event Media Spotlight, happening in late May. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glen Kyne returns to The Fold to catch up on all the biggest stories in recent times. We look at the existential challenge the BSA opened up, and try and figure out what’s really going on with Troy Bowker and Stuff. Then we look at the recent NZME workplace review, and contrast it with a much more substantial effort from Mediaworks a few years ago. We assess the early returns from Tova O’Brien’s arrival at TVNZ and John Campbell at RNZ, before finally weighing in on the Tom Phillips documentary controversy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices