Once again, online advertising continued its steady rise in New Zealand in 2012, hitting its high water mark in the last quarter. And as the head of Yahoo! New Zealand (which recently launched its year-in-the-making new homepage and mobile site) and the new chair of the local Internet Advertising Bureau, Laura Maxwell-Hansen is well placed to see where it’s heading next. Here’s her take on 2012.
In the quickly evolving digital sphere, it’s pretty tough to keep up. And while Yahoo! New Zealand has been tweaking its homepage regularly over the years in order to do just that, it hasn’t made any major changes since 2008. But now, after a year-long project, it’s launched its new, simplified, longer and de-cluttered version.
Yahoo! New Zealand has announced a three-year sponsorship of Netball New Zealand and the Silver Ferns. And the good news doesn’t stop there for the sport, because Kia has switched its sponsorship focus from tennis and signed up as the naming rights sponsor for the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic.
PHDiQ’s Brendan Hewitt was one of two winners in Yahoo! New Zealand’s inaugural Digital Stars programme. And this opinion piece on the future of the digital realm earned him a trip to Ad:Tech in Sydney next year.
Yahoo! New Zealand’s inaugural Digital Stars Awards have been on the hunt for the country’s best emerging digital media talent and, after scrutinising 18 savvy entries, the list has been narrowed down and the five finalists revealed, representing a decent cross-section of Kiwi agencies.