Monthly Archives: March, 2014

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Press Council eyes tiered membership for bloggers
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The Press Council is weighing different fee levels for bloggers and digital media organisations starting in the hundreds of dollars for non-commercial organisations. Bloggers could also be considered as representative members if they become significant funders, the council’s executive committee chair says.

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BuzzDial: inside a local start-up’s mission to become ‘the Google analytics of TV’
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You can tell by the particularly un-Kiwi job title on Ross Howard’s business card (Senior Vice President of Product & Design) that BuzzDial, the fledgling tech start-up he co-founded with similarly accomplished digital media bods Tom Cotter and Geoff Devereux, is looking much further afield than the small local market. And with M-Com’s Adam Clark coming on board as chairman, Stephen Tindall’s K1W1 fund investing in the business and positive responses to the product from a number of global broadcasters, it seems to be off to a pretty good start.

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HRV to give century-old villa a ‘purer invironment’
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Two years after first launching its ‘purer invironment’ spot, HRV has once again collaborated with Y&R NZ to launch an extension of the campaign, which will see the home improvement company take on an old, damp and mouldy home. The HRV Pure Invironment Project, which aims to show that it’s possible for any home—irrespective of its age—to have an invironment as comfortable as the one depicted in the original TVC, will result in the renovation of a 110-year-old villa over the next month.

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A glamourous itch
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There’s a lot of talk about the role the media plays in creating unrealistic expectations around body image (check out this disturbing video to see the lengths some will go to). But, surprisingly, there’s been very little talk about the recent spate of itchy heads among women starring on the covers of magazines and whether they might be creating unrealistic expectations of scalp health.

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From blog to brand: Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone)
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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 this segment, we chat to Mauricio Freitas, the founder of Geekzone.

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Darby comedy to stream on Netflix
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New Zealand on Air says a Netflix deal to stream Rhys Darby comedy Short Poppies, which it funded, is great for the Kiwi content. The eight part series will be offered to offshore Netflix subscribers and is also on the schedule for TVNZ’s 2014 season.

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McDonald’s answers your questions, brings in Martin Devlin to help
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In November last year, McDonald’s launched New Zealand’s version of the ‘Our food, Your Questions’ campaign that proved so successful in Canada. As the questions have poured in over the last few months, McDonald’s has proceeded to answer them and the resultant correspondence has been collated on a website specially dedicated to the campaign.

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Print might be dead, but it’s still interactive
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For quite some time the doomsday prophets have been predicting the demise of print, but this hasn’t stopped advertisers from having a bit of fun with the medium. Here are two print ads that illustrate that there are still fun and creative ways that print can be employed to relay a brand message.

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You can dance if you want to
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After its Willy Wonka-esque Joyville campaign, Cadbury is now on a mission to show how chocolate can improve the lot of those who are being crushed under the weight of day-to-day drudgery, and this passport control officer is powerless to resist the urge to cut some shapes in his workplace.

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Inside: TVNZ Blacksand
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Around the world, broadcasters are using their talents to make more than just promos for their own shows or idents for their own channels. And TVNZ’s Blacksand is no exception. So should agencies be concerned by the multi-skilled employees, the quick turnaround, the increasing interaction with clients and the improving output of this inhouse creative department? Or can everyone get along?

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What’s this Twitter thing?
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It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years since the first tweet, but Twitter is marking the milestone with a new online tool that lets you find out the short message you first broadcast to the world — and see the cautious early efforts of other users.

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BrandWorld sets its sights on rural dollars with new masthead
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Content marketing specialist BrandWorld has just launched Field Trials, a new masthead that aims to showcase products targeted at farmers. This move marks a change in direction for BrandWorld, in the sense that this is the company’s first foray into the rural market. Although the previous four mastheads – Discover, The Extra Mile, Eating Well and Family Health Diary ­– do sometimes feature products that appeal to both the rural and urban markets, the new offering will focus exclusively on targeting farmers. And if the statistics from the Ministry of Primary Industries are anything to go by, this could prove to be a lucrative move.

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NZ@SXSW: Tessa Gould
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Contagion’s Tom Bates went to hang with the geeks and soak up the knowledge at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, recently. And while he was there he caught up with a few expat Kiwis doing big things, like Tessa Gould.

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MediaWeb receivership fast-forwards Intermedia move into New Zealand—UPDATED
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The Intermedia Group, which owns over 70 media titles in Australia, has announced that it will release two business-to-business titles in the New Zealand market within the next few months. This move comes only a few weeks after it was confirmed that MediaWeb, which was previously active in both the FMCG and hospitality markets, went into receivership. And although the Intermedia NZ general manager didn’t say that there was a correlation between the MediaWeb receivership and Intermedia’s decision to enter the market, he did admit that situation at MediaWeb influenced the timing of the move. Update: the receivers are accepting tenders from interested parties for all MediaWeb’s assets.

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