Monthly Archives: February, 2010

News
Rugby mag sports multiple strip
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For north of Bombays

For subscribers

Winning team 2010

New Zealand Rugby World was one of the few magazines to defy the overall downward trend in circulation, growing 20 percent for the year ending December 2009.

News
Mixed bag for mags
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Big up

Slow down

It’s a mixed bag for mags in the latest audited circulation results, with most mags reporting year-on-year declines. But there are a few notable exceptions.

News
Ads@6: 4 February – 10 February
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To celebrate the weekly arrival of Ads@6, Vincent Heeringa, esteemed publisher and gadabout, has penned a song: “Ads@6/Ads@6/Oh how we love you Ads@6/Studies have shown/And experts agree/that a surprising number of viewers seem to like them more than the actual news/”. Nice isn’t it. Best use of fingers in an ad this week goes to Webjet. And Westpac features on the list of big ad spenders, which is a good enough excuse to link to this rather boganic financial promotion.

News
For men who want to smell like a man
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Old Spice, a scent most commonly associated with squash changing rooms, swarthy, salty old seadogs and dads/granddads, gets with the programme and delivers a series of very humorous machismo-soaked ads with a pitch that goes: “We’re not saying this body wash will make your man smell …

Opinion
TradeMe: now with Spam
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Hey, look, it’s the newish incarnation of eBuzz from Marketing Week, and it’s a weekly melange of digital marketing news that will be of interest and relevance to Kiwis. Facebook, Twitter, TradeMe and the Anti-Spam Law: what’s the dilly? Social media: called to account Google gets buzzed Where do Kiwis shop online?

News
iPad takes the iBiscuit
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The world – well, mainly the technorati – once again went temporarily gadget mad a few weeks back when Steve Jobs waltzed on stage, resplendent in a tucked in t-shirt and blue jeans, to show off his new iPad, Apple’s latest shiny weapon in the fight for convergence. And Nielsen has gathered a few numbers that show the product launch is about to break records when it comes to online discussion.

News
Kapiti embraces intelligent design
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Kapiti Ice Cream is jumping on the pop-up ‘brandwagon’ this week and opening three temporary exhibitions around Auckland to showcase the best of New Zealand design and dish out a few of their creamy ‘pop-upsicles’ to wandering freegans.

News
Universal Music signs up to Fly Buys
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Loyalty New Zealand, the operator of Fly Buys, has signed a contract with Universal Music New Zealand, upping the number of songs available to download on Fly Buys Music – and be paid for with Fly Buys points – to 280,000.

Loyalty New Zealand head of marketing and product development Chris …

News
Social media gurus go clubbing
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Around 50 social media practitioners, digital natives and sneezers gathered together in meatspace last night for the inaugural Auckland Social Media Club event at the 42Below Bar on Commerce St and, with online video set to be a key topic in media circles in the coming months, Jayson Bryant of Wine Vault TV took the floor to speak about how incorporating video blogging into his business has helped drive extra revenue.

Awards
Get in quick for a place at the NZ Post direct marketing workshops
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New Zealand Post Targeted Communications’ popular direct marketing workshops, which are designed to provide a comprehensive working knowledge of the intricacies of direct mail—from direct mail processes, to data and consumer insights and innovation—as well as a guide to working with New Zealand Post, are back again in 2010. 

News
First Rate finds search engine soul mate
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Search marketing agency First Rate, the first Google Analytics accredited company in New Zealand, has been appointed as the exclusive licensee in New Zealand and Australia of the search engine marketing (SEM) technology SearchIgnite.

News
Pen ridiculous chocolate review. Win Barista@home coffee
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Wine, like chocolate, is better when it comes equipped with a ridiculous summary, so add an über-descriptive, extremely specific review of the new Yellow chocolate to the comment wall below and the best entries will get to lay their tastebuds on a selection of the alkaloid of the Gods from Barista@Home. We might even send you some Yellow chocolate.

Opinion
Kiwi TV starts playing catch-up
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The first in a continuing series of erudite insights, market research and zeitgeisty marcomms dissection from Marketing Week. The whys and wherefores of Catch Up TV in New Zealand? How does it stack up? The year that was in TV land: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Facebook hits 400 mill. Happy sixth birthday. Statistics New Zealand’s suite of online tools small businesses quick and easy access to information. Marketing Rebooted: e-courses focusing on all things 2.0 to get you up with the play

News
Consumer Institute’s endorsement scheme still flying under the radar
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In May last year the Consumer’s Institute announced the release of its new endorsement scheme Consumer Recommends. But since then Sue Chetwin, chief executive of the Consumer’s Institute, says only “seven or eight” companies have signed up to use the brandmark in their advertising and promotional activities.

News
The Superbowl: from men with no pants to Google irony
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Ah, the Superbowl, where the advertising inbetween the numerous stoppages is usually more captivating than the game itself (just seven minutes of actual movement in the average three-ish hour game, apparently). It’s where big-time US advertisers still go to show-off and find millions of mainly male eyeballs. And, thankfully, the New York Times was nice enough to collect all of the rather expensive ads that were featured and pen some live blogommentary on such topics as men with no pants, controversial gay men who like Megan Fox, ironic Google searching, beer, abortion and male beauty products.

News
Modica wows Vodafone with Qatar solo
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New Zealand digital media solutions provider Modica Group has helped launch “the biggest marketing campaign ever seen in the Middle Eastern emirate of Qatar”, with a million TXTs sent to all customers who had made international calls on Vodafone Qatar’s network that prompted them to join a calling club and get special rates.

News
The day of the RFIDs
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What is Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID)? Why should retailers care? What do New Zealand consumers think about it? And is RFID technology ready to change the way some Kiwi businesses operate?

News
Kiwi production houses first to snap up 3D TVs
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With the success of Avatar, the start of the 3D broadcasting era for sporting events and a steady increase in the amount of 3D content being created, 3D is all the rage at the moment, leading some to conclude that the new goggle boxes are destined to be the next must-have for couch lovers this year. At present, however, it’s visual effects houses and production studios doing the buying in Australasia.

News
Indefinable taste of yellow defined by Yellow
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New Zealand’s “most anticipated chocolate bar”, Yellow Chocolate, hits supermarket shelves nationwide today, signifying the end of a long road for Josh Winger, who accepted the mission to create the world’s first yellow tasting chocolate bar using companies sourced only from Yellow – books, online, mobile and maps.

News
Rude, abusive but legal – how to handle toxic comments
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Rude, abusive and offensive; it all makes good reading but publishers of social media — who can range from bloggers and niche media to mega-corporations and governments — must deal with the difficult question of what to do when comments go bad. On the one hand, you want to let comments flow freely (this is a democracy still, I think). On the other hand, some comments are anonymous, abusive, stupid and occasionally defamatory.

What’s a poor boy to do?

News
Send in your doppelgängers and collect massive booty
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Apparently, it’s doppelgänger week, where Facebook users are encouraged to change their profile photo to someone they’ve been mistaken for. But it’s always doppelgänger week at StopPress. We are shameless in our pursuit of lookalikes (and men who look like old lesbians), so send in your best stunt doubles/doppelgängers/uncanny resemblers, either of yourself, famous people or unsuspecting friends and family, and the best of the bunch will be plied with amazing prizes.