Dominic George: Spierings, meet Public Relations ...

Theo Spierings

There's no doubt two of New Zealand's biggest brands are poles apart when it comes to charm offensive.

Fonterra and the All Blacks have been receiving their share of headlines recently; the All Blacks are attempting to retain their Rugby World Cup crown and Fonterra have just released their annual result.

The All Blacks have emerged from the media doldrums in engaging fashion. Gone are the days of the gruff, gormless All Black automaton. Now we have smiling, affable automatons, led by Richie McCaw and Steve Hansen.

Four years ago, 'Shag' was considered the dullest of dullards. There was deep scepticism he would be able to engage with the public when he succeeded Henry and it was feared he was simply too bland to assume the reigns of our leading sports brand.

But from the moment I met Hansen, in the aftermath of that 2011 triumph, it was clear the charm offensive had begun. I interviewed him one-on-one and was immediately impressed. We had a great chat. What's more, he remembered the interview when we next met at an official function. There were about 300 or so invited guests to a breakfast hosted by an All Blacks sponsor and I was due to talk to Steve and try and glean something from him that would help the guests 'move forward'.

I showed Hansen the questions, comprised of lengthy, corporate jargon bollocks. To my t delight, he told me to throw them away.

During that talk Hansen revealed things about his personal life I never thought I'd hear from an All Black coach. And he's continued in that manner culminating in the wonderful gesture to South African counterpart Heyneke Meyer, whom he consoled via text after the Springboks shock loss to Japan at the current World Cup.

But while I talk about the term 'charm offensive', you get the feeling with Hansen it's genuine. Contrast that with the performance of another big New Zealand brand, Fonterra. The pressure on the dairy giant to produce more products sourced from pasture-based milk has led to the issuing of a communique asking farmers to reduce their use of the feed supplement palm kernel.

Fonterra issued this statement a few days before announcing its annual result; a profit of over $500 million.

I interviewed Chairman John Wilson last Thursday and suggested it was poor timing when last season's cash pay-out and next season's forecast both start with a 4, below the accepted break-even average of around $5. Wilson claimed it's never a good time to make announcements of this sort, but I'd argue you could have left it until dust had settled on the low pay-out, high profit and axing of 750 jobs.

It also came to light that ceo Theo Spierings received a $770,000 pay rise; that's over a grand for each of the employees he's gassing! PR 101 anyone!?

Labour's Primary Industries spokesman Damien O'Connor summed up the sentiment: "Most farmers and most New Zealanders will think its bloody insulting - at a time when people are losing their jobs at Fonterra and farmers have had their incomes halved, the chief executive walks away with a big fat salary increase".

Hopefully Steve Hansen's All Blacks can provide a bit of joie de vivre where Theo and Fonterra can't.