Author Ben Fahy

It’s music to the collective ear of Kiwi marketers: according to the latest data from Statistics New Zealand, total retail sales in New Zealand were up 0.8 percent ($46 million) in November, following two months of flat retail results in September and October. Added to that, the latest Roy Morgan-ANZ poll showed New Zealand consumer confidence hit a three-year high in January, with a recovery in the housing market and a possible peak in the unemployment rate creating more optimism for both current and future conditions.

There are already plenty of daily deal websites operating in New Zealand, but popular Australian shopping site Catch of the Day thinks there’s still room in the market for another one and will start offering its cheap wares to insatiable online shopping Kiwis on 1 February.

DraftFCB has scooped round two of MSN’s trans-Tasman Butterfly Award, a competition designed to recognise Australasia’s online advertising creativity.

An extremely scientific Twitter survey has revealed New Zealand’s most memorable advertising jingles. And the ‘winner’? John Rowles, with his irresistible sexy stuttering on the ‘GGGGGGGG-Gerard’ number, of course.

Most brands are happy to get a celebrity endorsement (even when it’s fairly incongruous) as long as it raises awareness of the product. And, thanks to Prince Willy the Charming (and his dutiful media army), the profiles of such things as brand New Zealand, Kia Kaha clothing,  Monteith’s New Zealand lager, over-budget legal buildings, barbecue culture and little spotted kiwis are now most definitely on the rise overseas.

Mark Rushworth, Vodafone New Zealand’s chief marketing officer, has resigned after returning to work after the holidays with what Vodafone’s communications manager Paul Brislen called “a luxurious matt” on his face, confirming fears that Christmas beard growth (and also having to wear shoes again) is inextricably linked with laziness.

January is a time of pointless contemplation and soul-searching; a time when the ridiculous dreams and unrealistic goals thought up over the festive season are quickly crushed underneath the weight of depressing everyday life. Or is it?

Due to popular demand from the region’s agencies and production companies, ADFEST, the only Asia Pacific advertising festival originating from Asia, has agreed to extend the deadline for entries until 31 January.

As Bonnie Prince Willy jaunts around New Zealand on his regal tour with around 60 foreign journalists capturing his every forced smile and hoping he’ll spill tomato sauce on his suit at the upcoming governmental barbecue, much has been written about the value to ‘brand New Zealand’ in terms of the positive exposure his jet-lag infused trip will generate.

Shocking results from further in-depth studies conducted over the summer break by the diligent researchers at Dresden’s Bikini Institute prove that fictional studies from late 2009 were correct: StopPress readers are in fact far superior to their peers in almost every conceivable way and also haven’t put on any weight over Christmas.

Over the holidays, when you weren’t eating sausages, perfecting your extreme hammocking or tipping a car on its roof and setting it on fire while giving the cops the fingers to celebrate the new year, you may have laid your peepers on this cougar viral that was created by the team at Grabaseat.

‘I am Dunedin’ is to get the chop as Dunedin’s slogan and a nationwide search is underway to find a new tagline and promotional strategy.

Recent studies have shown and all experts agree: StopPress readers are much more intelligent and good looking than other people.

Behold! The last ads@6 of the whole decade. Please don’t cry, because we’ll be back next year with more ads than you can shake a very large stick at.

If you were to picture an archetypal media magnate, Harold Mitchell would be a pretty good fit.

Whatever the atheists can do, the ecclesiastics can do better. Auckland’s St Matthew in the City, a church that has made quite a name for itself as a result of its provocative billboards, has ruffled feathers again, this time with a rather risqué yuletide number that lampoons the literalism of the omnipotent lovin’ supposedly dished out to Mary by the cosmically virile Yaweh.

Humans love lists (especially at the end of the year). And humans also love videos (particularly of cats, funny dances and fellow humans injuring and/or embarrassing themselves). So there’s almost no better combination – aside, of course, from raspberry and coke – than the annual most-watched YouTube video list.

The Advertising Standards Authority has given Telecom a smack on the hand, partially upholding a complaint that was laid by its feisty new competitor 2degrees about misleading advertising in its XT brochures.

It’s not too often you see the words colon, poo and bowel-movements on a press package. And it’s particularly rare when that press package relates to a new breakfast cereal.