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Her Inspiration

Peta Mathias
A respected and prolific NZ chef, author and broadcaster, she is now building on her culinary travel experience with her Cooking School in France.

Her Insight

Jane Andrews and Melanie Rakena
Their company, Jam TV, creates the Intrepid Journey TV series that takes NZ celebrities to the ends of the earth.

Her Inform

Celebrity Endorsement
Famous faces implore us to buy, to trust, to invest - but do they really work?

Her Inspiration

An Obsession with Food
Peta Mathias

Breakfasting in one of Hamilton’s best cafés on a brisk summer morning is never a difficult thing to do. But this morning, my breakfast tastes a whole lot better because I am sharing it with the food guru herself, Peta Mathias! This surely has to be the ultimate acid test for any establishment and I wonder whether the café owners should be nervous!

So where does one start when talking to a woman who has very much become everyone’s benchmark of living and loving what you do? “She’s so real”, “She has such a huge passion for her food”, “I love watching her programme”; these are some of the recent comments I’ve had about Peta from my colleagues and friends.

Is there anyone in New Zealand who doesn’t know who she is? Although in Peta’s opinion, this can be a little daunting. “Perhaps the public love me too much!” she says. Touches, autographs, idle chats and constant connections are definitely a result of her huge profile and trademark hair - although that is gone today, and a more subdued colouring has taken its place!

Peta completed her schooling at St. Mary’s College in Epsom. She went from the arms of the nuns to the arms of the ward sisters. Although nursing wasn’t a calling, Peta was determined to get her qualification. As the oldest of six, this was the one way she felt she could gain approval from her mother. (A moment of reflection for Peta, as she reminisces on how her mother has constantly featured in her life; how she’s maintained that hawk’s eye perspective, being the only one able to find the typo on that obscure page of the latest of Peta’s books that she was so proudly sent!)

With her Nursing Diploma finished, it was off to Canada in 1974 to pursue a missionary complex that Peta initially believed she had. Here she got involved in drug and alcohol counselling - a difficult role, full of repeat offenders and tragic endings.

In 1979 Peta went to London, where working in a café in Covent Gardens led to an encounter with a French girl who subsequently invited her to Paris for a three-day weekend. Peta’s acceptance saw the start of a 10-year stay on French soil.

Her ‘Parisian Plan’ saw her move quickly from ‘dishy’ at a chosen restaurant to cook, and within two years she was head chef. She then moved restaurants, another calculated move, and continued to cook. The natural progression from here was to open her first French restaurant, Rose Blues, which she ran with a business partner for three years.

With French food and French culture well and truly running through her veins, (she had also taught herself to speak fluent French), Peta returned home to New Zealand in 1990. Her aim was to pitch a foodie show to the extremely conservative TVNZ, then headed by Mike Latin.

Whilst making demo tapes, Peta began writing her first book, Fête Accomplie, about her life in Paris. She also bought into a café in Auckland, her role there being largely a cooking one. Finally, four years later, Irene Gardiner, a producer at TVNZ, saw her book and Peta got her first big break. Thus Taste NZ as we know it today was born; a programme that has survived for eleven years and truly has caught the public’s imagination.

Peta proudly points out the birth of several new shows in a similar format (e.g. Wild Food) that are also gaining a huge following. It appears that the New Zealand public truly does have an ongoing obsession with food. This conviction was reinforced when TVNZ decided to resume funding for Taste NZ after speculation that it would be included as one of the many local shows being axed in 2007.

So does Peta feel she has a ‘use by date’? Will other foodie shows slowly erode the profile that has been so powerfully built? No, ‘the more the merrier’ is Peta’s take on it! Her show is her show and, at 57 years of age, she’s ready for all the challenges life can throw at her! She’s always looking for new ventures and has started to dabble in product endorsement by using her name to front food and other products that provide an appropriate fit for her.

It is interesting to reflect on the move by many profiled or celebrity figureheads in New Zealand into product endorsement. Obviously it is a way to maintain a constant flow of income by lending their brand to another. Hopefully the endorsement of the product will be seen as credible by the consumer. Here the fit is extremely important. We are unlikely to see the same merit in a car endorsed by Peta Mathias as, say, Peter Brock; the converse being true of a great New Zealand olive oil. It does, however, pose the question as to just how much this arrangement is worth to both endorser and endorsee.

Peta has written eight books and is still writing. To date, all of them have been about food and travel. However, there’s another book in the pipeline as I write, but it is still too early to reveal any details - other than that fact that it is not about food!

Peta also enjoys a public speaking role, presenting to large groups on her life and loves. She often takes this opportunity to air her vocal cords, another love of hers; the goal being someday to record a CD.

The next Taste NZ series for 2007, A Taste of Home, is based around New Zealand immigrant food, and Peta is excited about the type of cooking experiences this will bring. While she’s still writing for the Herald on Sunday’s food section and guest appearing in the food section of many magazines, she has also set up another entrepreneurial venture.

This latest project involves taking groups of ten people to her cooking school in Uzès in the south of France to experience the food and culture of the French people. Peta guides her guests through a journey featuring some of the most evocative recipes, reflecting tradition, respect for the land and honest, seasonal produce. Peta took two groups last year alone; all trips being a huge success.

Peta is very much backing a slow food movement that is gathering momentum. It’s all about growing and cooking although, by her own admission, the effects of GE should perhaps feature more strongly in her knowledge bank. She does, however, buy organic where she can, but isn’t obsessive about it. She also prefers meat that has been humanely killed.

So to round up, let’s look at the preferences of one of our best loved foodies. Restaurants: The Engine Room in Birkenhead, Delicious in Grey Lynn, Maria Pia's Trattoria in Wellington. Peta has a huge respect for the food style of Julie le Clerc and Natalia Schamroth, and sees David Burton as New Zealand’s best food writer. For wines, she favours the substantial Aussie reds.

While keen to support all charities where she can, her nominated charitable organisations include Women’s Refugee, Hospice (because we’ll all need them someday), Barnardo’s and Greenpeace. She loves to sing, and her music preferences are varied, from opera and jazz to hard rock, featuring names such as Bic Runga, Brooke Fraser and Tom Waits. She does, however, hate disco. Her favourite designers include Dries Van Noten, Marni, Prada and Jean Paul Gaultier, (she’s forgiven the girls offshore a lot), and locally, Trelise Cooper and Pearl. Peta is not an animal lover and believes that maybe this is reflected in her lack of commitment to long-term relationships. (Peta was widowed in 1993.)

Our second coffee finished, and our conversation winding down, 2007 is full of new challenges for Peta, but they are ones she’s relishing. From her new book to Taste NZ, her French cooking school, the product endorsements and public speaking engagements, Peta’s world just keeps on expanding! She truly is an endorsement to filling up your life with the things you love – do this and the balance automatically finds its equilibrium.

By Annah Stretton

Her Insight

Jam TV’s Intrepid Journey
Jane Andrews & Melanie Rakena

Realising the GST is due while on the top of a mountain in Borneo is perhaps not the norm in most businesses, but for Jane Andrews and Melanie Rakena, of Jam TV, it’s all in day’s work.

Jane and Melanie’s company, Jam TV, creates the Intrepid Journey series that takes New Zealand celebrities to places that many have barely dared to tread. They show a new and fresh way to discover our world and are also branching out into other travel-related documentaries, including a series about people on their OE.

Setting up a company was a lot easier than they expected. “We were surprised at how easy it was. You think a company is something complex, but it isn’t,” says Jane. It was the compliance issues of owning a company that were a little less straightforward.

As a small company these two creative women had to do everything at first - from making the tea, to photocopying and filming New Zealand celebrities in far flung places around the globe. Jane quickly took over the majority of the IRD and financial side. “The hardest thing as a creative is to sit down and do it. All that sort of stuff doesn’t take a long time, but you just want to do the fun stuff. It takes discipline to get it finished.” Using online services for banking and paying tax has helped simplify this aspect.

Perhaps one of the most liberating business moves was the decision to switch banks when their original one was too inflexible. “We literally asked for all of our money and marched over the road to a new bank. It was very empowering - we suddenly realised we had the power to do this.” Their new bank has been very supportive, and they feel that the development of a personal relationship has helped add confidence to their business. “If something crops up, our bank contacts us, and we feel their support behind us.”

Jam TV has been up and running for six years and is now at the stage where Jane and Melanie can employ others to do some of the work. Part of their success has been in selecting great contractors. “You do have to recognise that New Zealand is a small market and sometimes you will have a great person and then, suddenly, they go off to work at a new place that can offer a different sort of experience. But we have also got a great core of people who have been able to develop their skills as we have grown,” Jane explains.

The very nature of the series means that there is a core group of people in simple surrounds. “We have learnt what type of personality works best for us - being calm under pressure, and being able to cope with no showers and unexpected events are essential.” Successful selection is a little bit “amateur psychology and being able to spot any potential weak spots. The last thing you want is an emotional meltdown thousands of miles from home.”

There is a sense that the pair are moving out of the stage all businesses go through, when everything is difficult and hard, and are now operating with a new level of confidence. Jane has recently written the company’s very first business plan. Originally planning to stick to a simple four page plan, she has ended up with a “54 page epic! It was an incredibly painful process. Creative people don’t like planning like this - but it is incredibly liberating. I am glad I did it. It has crystallised our plans and helped us realise our focus.”

Jane has taken more of a back step in the filming of the last series after having her son, Sam. “He loves travelling though, so who knows how things will work in the future.” She was able to do much of the postproduction work so went back to work as soon as she could. “It definitely feels different - everything requires a bit more thought. But I am lucky that I can just adjust the type of work I do, and keep at it.”

As Jane remarks, the danger for creative business is trading into bankruptcy. “It can creep up on you.” While the pair are not looking at having investors join them, writing the plan has shown them how investors could benefit, and has given them a sense of power and worth in what they have created. Jane did not follow all the rules, however. “I refused to put an exit strategy in - why try to escape something you absolutely adore doing?”

By Rachel Goodchild

Jane Andrews and Melanie Rakena from Jam TV were winners of the Best Micro Business category of the Her Business Businesswoman of the Year 2006 Awards, that were held in June last year.

For more information and to enter the 2007 Her Business Businesswoman of the Year Awards click here

Her Inform

Celebrity Endorsement

Louise Sneddon looks at the pros and cons of celebrity endorsement and finds that celebrity attachment is no guarantee of instant stardom for your product or service.

To do or not to do? One thing guaranteed is that there is ‘much ado’ about celebrity endorsement of products, brands and services. Famous faces implore us to buy, to trust, to invest - but do they really work? For organisations seeking to sprinkle a little stardust over their product or service it is worthwhile taking the time to evaluate the pros and cons of celebrity alignment.

For most organisations, the issue of celebrity endorsement will inevitably make its way onto the marketing agenda at some point in time - and will more often than not pose more questions than answers: Why do we want it? What can it do for us? How do we get it? Will it work? How do we quantify the return on what is often a significant investment? How can we leverage a celebrity relationship in our below line activities such as promotions and publicity?

Firstly ask yourself: Why? What is a celebrity going to do for your brand, product or service that you cannot do through an integrated advertising and media relations programme where you will have greater control and can ‘tweak’ it along the way.

Funding the Relationship
Not only does your product or service require funds to go to market, but so too does your celebrity association. Consider the costs associated with a photo shoot the minute you put a celebrity in front of the camera – remember, celebrities are brands too.
There will also be strict protocols around the type of environment in which your celebrity can be portrayed. Many of these protocols will incur additional costs to those of standard product promotion.

The Talent Pool
There is no doubt that celebrity alignment is a global phenomenon that we should be in on. If you have a global budget, great, but few New Zealand organisations have such luxuries. Many global brands, especially in the beauty sector, rely exclusively on the power of celebrity to promote their products. They are able to use international celebrities for universal appeal in the global marketplace. Unfortunately, in New Zealand, our local talent pool does not have quite the same pull.

Whilst New Zealand has produced a handful of international celebrities, the availability of these people to the home crowd is often confined to their annual trip home, which may not necessarily be in line with your own marketing plan, product launch or ‘schmoozing’ requirements. This leaves us with a talent pool largely made up of sports people and tele-types whose star appeal is either confined to a particular product sector or dependent on their personal performance – both on and off the field!

Creating a Credible Connection
The one sector that is spared more than others from such angst is the not-for-profit sector. Celebrity endorsement has become a critical success factor for many charities. The difference here is that the relationships are often non-commercial, and commonality of values and vision already exists. The associated celebrity possesses a passion for the cause and more often than not has a personal story that connects them to it. From a PR perspective, the latter provides invaluable below line leveraging and is an important link in the communications process between the organisation and their public.

Can the same connection and passion be assumed for a product or brand? Believability is credibility and this will ultimately determine the outcome for your product or service. Creating a credible connection between celebrity and product is key to being believed by your market. As the Star’s star inevitably wanes, it is important that your product does not follow suit.

The importance of this is supported by advice from above the line. Jennifer Watt, Director of Auckland-based company The Media Agency, says that the concept of celebrity endorsement often comes up with clients. “The most important consideration is the relevance of the celebrity to the product,” says Jennifer, who notes that consumers today are sufficiently savvy to see through product messages that assume credibility just because a recognisable face is delivering the message. Who and what the celebrity is and the perception of how a product could fit within their lifestyle is important and, ultimately, is what the potential consumer is assessing.

“If the fit is inappropriate or is an obvious attempt at product promotion, most consumers will realise this and their [the celeb’s] potential connection to the product will be compromised,” concludes Jennifer.

The Risk Factor
Likewise, a risk assessment must be undertaken where your product or service carries a high degree of brand integrity. This may be in terms of reputation, safety, welfare or health. Whereas your product or service delivery may be guaranteed through a series of quality assurance protocols, can the same be applied to your celebrity? Despite some stars achieving icon-like status, the reality is that celebrities are after all human and we can all recount the tabloid tales of ‘celebrities behaving badly’. For many, the negative publicity generated by a ‘fallen star’ can undo the positive publicity and promotional investment made prior.
Whilst it is in our nature to enjoy a little sprinkling of stardust in our own lives, even if it is only by the remote association of purchasing a product or service endorsed by a celebrity, the organisation that embraces this strategy is wise to undertake thorough analysis of the particular type of stardust that they plan on sprinkling over their product because ‘all that glitters may not be gold’.

SIX-STEP CELEBRITY CHECKLIST

1. What is your motivation for wanting to align your product or service with a celebrity? If it is to increase sales, then how will you quantify this return on celebrity investment – will the projected incremental sales derived from your celebrity endorsement equal or better your outlay?

2. Who will you get? Consider the credibility connection between your product or service and the celebrity. Would your customers believe this person? Is your celebrity accessible? What is the agent relationship, and how close will you really be able to get to this person? Canvas key stakeholders to determine the ‘pulling power’ of your celebrity.

3. Fielding the celebrity enquiry. Many organisations will find themselves in the situation where a celebrity agent approaches them on behalf of the celebrity. Whilst this may be very flattering for your organisation, it is important to still go through the process of rationalising the pros and cons of engaging in such a relationship. Don’t be afraid to say: “Thanks, but on this occasion no thanks.”

4. The Contra Celebrity. Holders of desirable products and services such as exotic holidays and luxury cars will most likely field numerous approaches from a celebrity, agent or publication for ‘publicity in exchange for….’ Whilst this may appear to be the gift horse the brand has been seeking, in that it presents minimal or no cash outlay, still take a good look at what you are getting involved with. Magazine or television exposure for a product can come with strings. Is this a ‘dollar for dollar’ arrangement in terms of the exposure you will receive? What controls will you have over the editorial or pictorial portrayal of your product? Does such an offer provide the same or better promotional exposure than taking out an advertisement in a publication or on a show of your choice? Is the proposed publication or show one that has been identified and assessed as being desirable to your brand? Remember that ‘nothing comes free’.

5. Celebrity Commitment. What sort of commitment is your chosen celebrity willing to make to your organisation? Will they simply turn up for a commercial shoot and lend their face to your promotional material or will they become a walking, talking endorsement for your product and service. Check for conflicts of interest both in a commercial sense and on the issue of personal integrity - past, present and future.

6. Leveraging - below line benefits. A celebrity association may add significant ‘schmooze’ value to your organisation. An A-list association may provide a hot ticket item for client and guest entertaining. This may extend to conferences, seminars and client functions where attendance and acceptance may be increased by a celebrity presence.

By Louise Sneddon

Louise Sneddon is a director of North Shore based public relations agency 4PR. For more information visit: www.4pr.co.nz