About Us

Our Story

SpeakData is the brainchild of Paul Hickey and Frane Karaman – both rather nice chaps.

Established in 2013, their data agency has remained independent and proudly NZ owned. Before that, Paul and Frane built a successful six year working relationship as the business and technical leaders of the internal data team at Ogilvy & Mather Auckland, one of NZ’s largest advertising agencies. Together, Paul and Frane set out to create a boutique data services firm dedicated to helping NZ companies ‘get into the game’ of data-driven marketing and communications.

In 2019, after outgrowing its modest offices in Newmarket and establishing a small operation in Wellington, the business moved into its latest address in the Axis Building, Parnell in Auckland. Today, SpeakData is a small, agile operation, with a core staff of eighteen, assisted by short and long-term contractors when required for specific clients.

Meet the Founders

Paul Hickey

Paul is Managing Director at SpeakData. Despite his youthful good looks*, he has accrued over 25 years’ experience in direct marketing, and is widely considered as one of NZ’s leading database marketing strategists. Over time, Paul has picked up more than his fair share of awards, including NZDM Awards for Best Data Strategy, Best Loyalty Programme, Nexus for Customer Insight and Australian ADMA awards for Data Driven Marketing. Paul is a regular Nexus Awards judge and an in-demand and entertaining conference speaker. Paul’s specialist fields include business intelligence, CRM, loyalty and marketing automation. He’s also pretty adept at interesting conversations over a beer.

* not before 9am and a strong coffee

Frane Karaman

Frane is Technical Director and co-founder of SpeakData. His name’s a bit tricky, but if you pronounce it ‘Fra-nay’, you’ll get by. With over 20 years’ experience in IT systems and marketing technologies, Frane is a sought-after solutions architect, with notable expertise in systems integration, database design and cloud data management. Frane is like Scotty from Star Trek, our master engineer behind SpeakData’s cloud-based tools and infrastructure. He was certified in AWS cloud computing back in 2013 and now leads SpeakData’s engineering team to ensure data flows beautifully in and out of our proprietary hub. Frane also keeps an eagle eye on the comms and business intelligence tools required to make your data-driven marketing program hum.

Multi Award-winning results

Success is a long game in data-driven marketing.

So it’s always nice to be recognised when it all comes together for our clients. SpeakData has picked up no less than 32 NZ Direct Marketing awards for our work on NZ Cricket in 2014 and 2016, the World Masters Games 2017 and most recently Education NZ in 2018, when our partnership completely dominated, taking out the Grand Prix Award, Nexus Supreme Award, 5 Golds and 3 Silvers. Take a peek at our case studies to see how SpeakData helped achieve this long list of gongs – and imagine what they could do for your brand.

2018 NZDM Awards - Education NZ

Grand Prix Award
Nexus Supreme Award
Nexus Gold - CRM & Data Management
Nexus Gold - Strategic Vision
Channel Gold - Customer Experience
Channel Gold - Campaign Website
Craft Gold - Excellence in Data Strategy
Industry Silver - Govt & Public Sector
Craft Silver - Excellence in Personalisation
Nexus Silver - Innovation

2017 NZDM Awards - World Masters Games

Nexus Supreme Award
Nexus Gold - CRM & Data Management
Industry Gold - Travel & Leisure
Channel Gold - CRM Multi Channel
Channel Gold - Email Marketing
Craft Gold - Excellence in Data Strategy
Craft Gold - Excellence in Strategy
Nexus Bronze - Strategic Vision
Channel Silver – Email Marketing
Channel Silver – Direct Response

2016 NZDM Awards - NZ Cricket

Industry Gold - Travel & Leisure
Channel Gold - Best Loyalty Programme
Channel Gold - Email Marketing
Craft Gold - Excellence in Data Strategy
Craft Gold - Excellence in Strategy
Nexus Bronze - CRM & Data Management
Nexus Bronze - Strategic Vision

2014 NZDM Awards - NZ Cricket

Industry Silver – Travel & Leisure.
Channel Silver – Email Marketing.
Nexus Bronze – CRM & Data Management.
Nexus Bronze – Media and/or Channel Utilisation.
Craft Bronze – Excellence in Data Strategy.