MARKETING AND PR AGENCY ESTABLISHED TO FOCUS ON FOOD, DRINKS AND LIFESTYLE
For Release Wednesday 15 March 2017
Two of New Zealand’s specialist marketing and PR practitioners have joined forces establishing Marvellous Marketing an
agency to work with food, drinks and lifestyle brands.
Despite both having worked at Corbans Wines, Kathie Bartley and Nicola McConnell only meet when they worked on the
International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration in Blenheim in February 2016. It didn’t take long for them to realise their
skills were complementary and immediately they began a dialogue about collaborating on projects.
Being ambitious they launched their first significant project the Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards in association
with NZ Life & Leisure just before Christmas last year. The inaugural winners of the 2017 Awards will be announced on Thursday 27
April 2017.
Kathie says establishing Marvellous Marketing was the most effective way to leverage the pair’s combined 35 years
experience working with food, drink and lifestyle brands.“Between us, we’ve learned a thing or two. It’s this depth of
knowledge that we use to help propel our clients’ businesses.”
Nicola says, “as small business owners we experience the resource constraints and growing pains which all small
businesses face. That’s why Marvellous Marketing will work on a fixed fix basis, allowing clients to manage costs.”
Kathie adds we also guarantee people will deal with us. “We won’t run the charm offence to win business and then when
the contract dries, hand clients over to junior account executives. We value our clients’ business and will work on it
ourselves.”
Marvellous Marketing will focus on working with food, drinks and lifestyle business and will offer the full suite of
strategy and implementation including; brand planning, brand management, PR and media relations, social media
management, content creation, sponsorship, design and event management. When Marvellous Marketing does not have the
skills in-house – such as website development – they will work with clients and leverage their contacts and connections
throughout New Zealand to find the right provider for the task.
An accomplished marketer Kathie Bartley has more than 30 years marketing New Zealand food, wine and hospitality. Her
resume is a roll call of the country’s most loved brands including: Good Group Hospitality, Silver Fern Farms, Kapiti
Cheese, Yummy Fruit, Cuisine magazine, Ngatarawa Wines, Saint Clair Family Estate, Burn Cottage Vineyard, Tiki Wine & Vineyards, Villa Maria Estate Wines, Stoneleigh and Corbans. She also has experience working with businesses suppling
services to the wine industry including steel grape vine posts with ECO TRELLIS ® and has been a part of the Air New
Zealand Wine Awards team since 2004.
Nicola McConnell loves working with food and drinks clients while she lives the New Zealand dream. After 15 years
working in the fast-paced Australian market, she have brought her contacts and skills back to New Zealand’s lower South
Island where she’s using them to support Kiwi businesses here and across the Tasman. As a small business owner and
former country kid she can roll up her sleeves and get the job done, while her time as a senior executive in large FMCG
companies has given her a great understanding of business strategy and the importance of planning.
ENDS.