Browsing: Rise of the machines

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Rise of the machines: Spark’s Kate Thomas on shifting spend, expanding social and developing ideas
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Ever since Spark unveiled its new brand, it has worked hard to redefine itself as an innovative and nimble organisation capable of appealing to Kiwis across all demographics. And given that many within its target market are shifting their media consumption to the digital space, this has seen Spark follow the audience by releasing some major digital plays over the last year. And Kate Thomas, a senior communications manager at the telco, says this is only the start of the journey.

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Rise of the machines: Sugar & Partners’ Dave Nash on running an integrated digital indy agency
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As the industry continues to fragment, agencies are forced into adapting their approaches to ensure that clients’ demands are still met. And while they don’t always have the massive holding-company budgets at their disposal, indy agencies have the nimbleness to react quickly to change and redefine their role. And Sugar & Partners creative and digital director Dave Nash sees this as a major advantage at a time when more and more clients are asking for integrated advertising executions.

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Rise of the machines: Acquire Online’s Zane Furtado delves into programmatic ad buying
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The buzz phrase ‘programmatic ad buying’ has been picking up momentum in recent months, and is now commonly heard in discussions on the state of modern media. And despite the frequency with which the word is used, it still carries enough uncertainty to motivate ad tech company Chango to recently run a sponsored web series on Adweek explaining key concepts to the US market. Similarly to the US, New Zealand is also coming to grips with programmatic ad buying. And to find out a bit more, StopPress recently chatted to Zane Furtado, the programmatic director at Acquire Online.

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Rise of the machines: Mitre 10’s Dave Elliott on DIY going digital
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Through its ongoing ‘Easy As’ campaign, Mitre 10 has shown that the Kiwi appetite for DIY extends beyond home renovation TV shows. In September 2013, the first phase of the intiative, which consisted of 27 clips, reached one million YouTube views. But general manager of marketing Dave Elliott says that this is only small part of what underpins the company’s digital strategy.

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Rise of the machines: Digital Store’s Louise Lawton on digital recruitment
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For the most part, recruiters serve as the link between the skills employers want and the capabilities employees have. At its simplest, this implies that a clearly defined role necessitates an employee with a very specific skill set. However, when it comes to digital roles, specificity is exactly what’s absent. These roles are constantly evolving, meaning that employers sometimes don’t even know exactly what they should be looking for. And to overcome this problem, the Digital Store founder and consultant Louise Lawton believes that agencies should turn to recruiters who specialise in digital recruitment.

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Rise of the machines: Touchcast’s Andrew Hawley on digital charlatans, heads of digital and the value of experiential
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Andrew Hawley, the managing director of Touchcast was recently elected to the CAANZ executive board, an appointment that served as commendation for the quality of the digital work his agency has delivered since its inception. Recently, Touchcast was ranked 6th fastest growing company in New Zealand, and 46th fastest growing tech company in Asia Pacific. Touchcast’s work has featured at the RSVP and NZDM Awards in New Zealand, the Caples Awards in New York, at Cannes, the Future Marketing Awards for Asia Pacific Region, and the Best Design Awards in New Zealand. He has been on the digital jury of the Clio awards in Miami, and has judged the Axis and Effie Awards in New Zealand several times. And given his interest in creating digital experiences, StopPress recently sent him a few questions on how the interactive channel is evolving and what challenges this is introducing.

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Rise of the machines: PHDIQ’s Jane Stanley on digital metrics, ad fraud and the role of social
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In an ongoing series, StopPress chats to a few cerebral types in the industry on the expanding influence of digital technology and how agency life is changing in response to this. Last week, in the first edition of ‘Rise of the Machines’, we featured the creative perspective, and we now shift attention to the media side of the industry as we ask Jane Stanley, the PHD group strategy director and managing director of PHDIQ, a few questions.

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Rise of the machines: Haydn Kerr on being a creative in a digital world
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Digital is no longer the siloed side project that’s only tapped into if there’s enough budget left over. It’s now an integral part of the comms strategy of most major brands, and its prominence is only becoming stronger as the online audience grows. To investigate the changing face of digital, StopPress has launched ‘Rise of the machines’, a new series in which we chat to few brains in the industry about how the channel is evolving. First up is DDB’s digital creative director Haydn Kerr.