One NZ CEO Jason Paris is proud and humbled to join the YouTube NZ Marketing Awards Hall of Fame. He shares
his proudest moments, favourite people and best advice.
It’s a big day for Jason Paris when we talk: his daughter’s 11th birthday. He’s excited about the milestone, but it’s not unusual for him to talk about his family. His homelife has been a priority throughout his impressive career – starting in banking and sales, then a senior marketing job at McDonald’s followed by senior exec roles in tech, media and telecoms.
He oversaw the largest ever capital return to shareholders in the country’s history, but he’s also about giving back to the community. He was on the Make-A-Wish Foundation board for many years, is a current board member of Ngai Tahu Holdings and is passionate about helping disadvantaged young New Zealanders reach their potential.
Looking at your career so far, what are you most proud of?
Trying to do great things for New Zealand, working with incredible people and seeing them deliver impressive results.
Some of the things we’ve achieved were groundbreaking, and were really hard to execute, but have proven to be quite significant over the long term.
I think about TVNZ on Demand and how challenging it was way back in 2007 to convince the organisation that programming needed to be in the viewer’s control. And now I’d suggest TVNZ’s future is digital and the on demand platform we created is probably the centrepiece.
Moving from Telecom to Spark – such an iconic brand change. The partnership with Spotify, which helped make music more accessible for every age group.
And then, it’s yet to be demonstrated, but I’d say One NZ’s partnership with SpaceX. Bringing satellite to mobile technology to New Zealand will be a significant safety, infrastructure resilience and productivity gain for the country.
You’ve worked with some amazing people. Who’s been most influential?
Oh, so many. My wife Rach is definitely the most influential. She’s the smartest person I know. My mum, she always instilled in me that if you work hard, you can achieve anything.
And then, all of the CEOs and chairs I’ve had. Ian Sutcliffe, the Director of Marketing at McDonald’s who gave me my first real marketing gig, Rick Ellis at TVNZ was very empowering. Simon Moutter was a great leader and strategist. And then Marko Bogoievski, when I joined Vodafone, who is visionary.
Your family play a big part in your life…
I’ve been lucky to work for organisations that have always understood you can’t be good at work if you’re not good at home first. And for me, good at home means a happy family and I’m proud that I have never missed an important moment in my wife and children’s lives.
So I don’t feel guilty when I’m working until midnight when there’s a deadline. And I don’t feel guilty if I’m away from work at 10am on a Tuesday to watch my daughter get a certificate, or leaving early to coach the kids’ sports teams.
Which brands are doing great work right now?
Brands that are consistently consistent. Pak’n’Save – their proposition, colours and their brand icons, Stick Man and the voiceover, are pretty iconic now. Bunnings and Mitre 10 also show a lot of consistency.
The iconic Toyota and Telecom ads from years ago come to mind, and more recently, the international Uber Eats campaign is pretty clever.
And what about the One New Zealand Warriors? We captured the imagination of the nation last season with “Up the Wahs” at a time when New Zealand needed positivity.
What advice would you give to someone starting out now?
Work hard and be a good person and you will help make New Zealand the best country to live and work on the planet. We’re big enough to make an impact internationally, yet small enough to all come together to achieve a common goal.
Lots of people turn up wanting a role at One NZ with similar qualifications, but what stands you out from the crowd is your work ethic and your manners.
The advice that I repeat to my children every day is to be the best they can be. It’s my aim for them, and for myself.
This was first published in the 2024 September-October NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.
