Monthly Archives: February, 2014

News
TVNZ stars shame/feed the trolls
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Social media has given normal humans the chance to bypass the gatekeepers and hear directly from sports stars, actors and others in the public eye. It’s also given them the chance to hurl some extremely harsh online abuse, which means having thick skin is nigh-on essential. And, in a similar style to Jimmy Kimmel’s Celebrities Read Mean Tweets (and Y&R’s love letter to DDB), a few TVNZ reporters and presenters have taken to film in an effort to draw attention to online bullying by reading out some of the bile that gets directed at them.

News
From blog to brand: Lynn Prentice (The Standard)
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In this series, we talk to Kiwi keyboard tappers that have managed to shift from the personal realm of blogging to create online media brands that are widely read (and in some cases profitable). In the latest segment, we chat to Lynn Prentice, the founder of The Standard.

News
The future of publishing
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Last Thursday, Jenene Crossan, the founder of nzgirl, flossie and BloggersClub, was invited to speak at the MPA Magazine Sales Conference for 2014. Of all the notable speakers on the list, Crossan’s speech was arguably the most divisive of the day. Her insights on the role of content in the digital age raised quite a few eyebrows around the room and became a major talking point at the end of the day. So, in order to take this debate a little further, we have decided to publish a transcript of Crossan’s speech.

News
Upload a photo and become part of a sensational ad
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London-based Wieden + Kennedy combined a trifecta of advertising superpowers in the form of an adorable girl, a viral-worthy cat and a fist-pumping rock anthem from the 1980s. And in doing so, they’ve created the type of ad that most would be keen to be a part of – which is convenient, because that’s exactly what they are inviting viewers to do.

News
Sparking a bargain
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Unsurprisingly, last week’s news that Telecom would be changing its name to Spark led to much opining, some of it based around the fact that the rebrand is estimated to cost $20 million. And MacGregor Media has taken the opportunity to point out its cost-effectiveness, just in case they decide to do it again in a few years.

News
Whybin\TBWA campaign draws a line between rugby pros and novices
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Yesterday, APN released a new campaign to promote the addition of OPTA, a rugby analytics tool, to its recently launched rugby portal, which serves as a discrete hub for anything related to the sport. In the campaign, titled ‘Talk like a rugby pro,’ the laconic observations of a rugby novice are juxtaposed to the in-depth analyses of a fan who has access to extra rugby intel (possibly thanks to the information available on the Herald). PLUS: read about which agency lost APN’s creative account.

News
Don’t read the comments: Y&R hearts DDB, offers mouth kisses and even some ‘under the shirt stuff’
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The creative oneupmanship is in full effect for the Axis ‘Share the Love’ campaign, with some very entertaining inter-agency love letters being sent. And the penultimate clip from Y&R, which takes a leaf out of Jimmy Kimmel’s Celebrities Read Mean Tweets by getting DDB staff to read mean blog posts about their work—followed by some nice ones at the end—has just been released.

News
Spark by logo, Spark by name: Telecom sheds its home phone heritage
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Ever since Telecom did the splits back in 2011, there have been rumours that the ‘New Telecom’ might not stick with its name, which carries with it a fair bit of equity but also a fair bit of monopolistic baggage. And where there’s smoke, there’s fire, because Telecom has announced that it will change its name to Spark later in the year.

News
Trans-formula your car to go trans-Tasman
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Crowd Goes Wild is inviting viewers of the show to pimp up their rides as part of a competition that offers an all-expenses-paid trip to Melbourne to watch the 2014 Formula 1 race to be held in the city between 13 and 16 March.

Opinion
Let me entertain you: why advertisers need to heed Vanilla Ice’s advice
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Is branded entertainment just a fad, a trend, a nice-to-have? Or is it a crucial change necessary for advertising’s relevancy in the future? Nic Winslade argues that advertisers need to get permission from consumers in order to engage with them. Plus: come up with a idea to integrate your brand into StopPress and we’ll choose the best and/or most entertaining effort and make it happen.

News
One desk for all
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There’s a bit of an arms race when it comes of offices at the moment, and particularly when it comes to tech companies, which appear to have a desire to out-cool each other with their massive HQs and quirky additions (check out this Vanity Fair story about what Apple, Facebook, Google and others are doing in Silicon Valley and San Fran at the moment). But New York-based digital creative shop The Barbarian Group has upped the stakes by showing off what is undoubtedly the coolest desk ever created.

News
Online audience arms race continues, stuff.co.nz reclaims Auckland title from nzherald.co.nz—UPDATED
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Back in October last year, stuff.co.nz knocked nzherald.co.nz off the top spot in Auckland for the first time. Fairfax saw it as a big win, but NZ Herald editor Tim Murphy tweeted that a response to our story saying it was merely a blip after it climbed back on top soon after. Now, Nielsen online ratings for January show volatility in APN’s numbers since then and a steady rise for Fairfax, which has once again claimed the top spot by the smallest of margins.

News
A sexy simile
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What is Big Data? Well, if you believe a quote that’s been doing the rounds for a few years now and seems to be popular on the conference circuit, it’s exactly like teenage sex.

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