Latest / Best of Business / Vaughn Davis: Creative Director at The Goat Farm on Auckland Council looking for a new sponsor for the Harbour Bridge

Transcript

Vaughn Davis: Creative Director at The Goat Farm on Auckland Council looking for a new sponsor for the Harbour Bridge · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Auckland City is looking for a new sponsor for the
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Harbor Bridge Lights show. It's for what it calls a
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: dynamic storytelling canvas through light. It's contract with Vector for
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: the lights is due to end next year. It has
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: been going for about nine years. Vaughan Davis as the
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: creative director at the Goat Farm and he's with us.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Hey, Vaorn, hi here, how are you good? Mate?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: I didn't even know that Vector had a contract that
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: wasn't well leveraged, was it?
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Well? That is absolutely at the heart of the discussion. Yeah,
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: so they picked up about ten years ago, it was
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: or nine years ago. It was on the front page
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: of the Herald. It was big news at the time,
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: including how much that's spent on it. But the big
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: dealer is, you know, have they got value? And you
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: know your reaction indicates that perhaps they haven't.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: No, So how would you if you were the next
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: guys up to take on this contract, how would you
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: make this work a lot better?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, firstly, we'd probably be looking at paying it
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: a little bit less than ten million dollars for the
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: ten years. You know, times have changed, the economic climate's different,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: and pretty well known that the council is pretty desperate
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: for money right now. So you're in a pretty good
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: negotiating position. But the main thing that I would do
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: for advising a client is to budget at least as
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: much again to promote the sponsorship as you spend on
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: the sponsorship. And that's pretty common practice in the advertising
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: and marketing world because otherwise, you know, all you've done
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: is put a bit of money into it. I mean
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: the downside of the Harbor Bridge lights is you can't
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: even put your jolly logo on it. So you know,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Spark Arena, Henry Arena, Forsyth Bar, all things like that.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: You can put up signage and people walk through the
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: gates say no, it's you with the lights. You've got
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: to work pretty hard to make that association.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Why can't they change that, I mean, why can't they
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: allow them to stick up a big sign and say
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: these lights provided by X Y Z.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Well, I suppose you know everything's up for grabs. I
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: mean I remember driving down drive here. There's there's a
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: little plaque somewhere that said, you know, Mercury Energy paid
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: for the lighting of these cliffs, So you know the
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: things like that, putting the brand on on the on
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: the side of a public asset is not unheard of,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: but it's it's all something that will need to be
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: negotiated and paid for. You know, do Auckland does really
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: want to have a great, big Watties logo on the
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: bridge every time they drive across it? Not necessarily? On
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: the other hand, well I'm not. I'm not bagging the
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: baked beans and spaghetti, not for a minute, and certainly
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: not the sliced peaches. But you know, it's it's a
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: public asset, it's it's part of our history. Do we
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: necessarily want it to be commercialized? That being said, the
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: lights are awesome. I mean they look great. You know,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: they've become part of the part of the city scape
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: and that you know storytelling thing you said with a
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: slightly pejorative turn in your voice. When it's done, well,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: it really works.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: That's why I did my call.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is a bit let me.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Pitch something to UK. So let's say we say we're
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: going to give it a spark. Spark hasn't got the money,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: so that's why they're the perfect example. So let's say
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: we're going to give it to Spark and Spark is
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: allowed to stick a big Spark sign up on the
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: side of the Harbor Bridge, and for that we ask
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: them to pay one hundred million dollars over ten years.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Would you be as a rate payer okay with that
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: seeing that Spark sign there for that amount of money,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: because it's going to bring your rates rises down?
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Ah? Yeah, Your principle's only a principle until the price
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: is a right. And for one hundred million dollars, absolutely,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: you know, getting something? Yeah, I bend over backwards taken.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: And also listen, can I just say something. The other
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: thing that you also need to do if you're this
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: company surely is turning like have some events throughout the year, right,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: get people out to look at what you're doing with
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the lights, right, I mean the beautiful what Victor has
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: been doing. But it's just the same, same every night.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Don't you have to do something special every now and again?
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: You absolutely do. And whether it's Anzac Daya, whether it's Martariki,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: whether it's Christmas, or whether it's you know, orking the
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: FC winning. You need to get the people on board
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: to do that that you know right up front you're
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: going to go, Okay, I'm going to spend five million
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: dollars on this, and I'm going to budget another five
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: million dollars just to make it come true.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Brilliant, Vaughn. Thank you for talking me through and appreciate it.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Vaughan Davis, creative director at the Goat Farm. I'll tell
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: you what I like. I say this all the time.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Sweet the asset, Sweet the ascid, Sweet the acid. Don't
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: if you've got to Harbor Bridge there and you can
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: make heaps and heaps of money off lighting it up,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: do it because that means that we're not paid, We're
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: not having to pay Wayne's Sally seven point rates increase
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: a I'm into that.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio