Author Damien Venuto

News
In your space: .99 turns an old warehouse into an office clients want to visit
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Much like Clemenger Shop today, .99 originally shared office space with Colenso BBDO. However, while Clemenger’s new shopper marketer offering is still in its infancy, .99 has since moved out of its first home on College Hill and now employs over 120 people at a formidable space on Richmond Road. And given that the impressive office was refurbished back in 2008, StopPress decided it was time to have a look behind the scenes.

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TVNZ plays up rivalry with Aussies for The Amazing Race and enjoys ratings success with Resurrection
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Over the course of the last few weeks, TVNZ has been riling up support of the Kiwi masses via a serious of humorous TVCs in anticipation of the cross-Tasman battle that will soon see team from New Zealand take on Australia in the latest rendering of The Amazing Race. The campaign has now been shifted into its next stage, which features a cross-Tasman tug of war and a mini Amazing Race featuring local celebs. PLUS: see which records were broken by the premiere of Resurrection.

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TVNZ wins with Germany as over 400,000 Kiwis tune in to watch the World Cup final
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Many of those who drove to work at the right time on 14 July claim to have found the Kiwi roads free of the traffic jams that usually typify the morning commute. This fortunate state of the road was largely attributable due to the nation’s universities and schools being closed for the winter break, but the fact that 419,000 people (according to Nielsen TAM) tuned in to TV One to watch Germany take on Argentina in the final of the World Cup definitely also played a part.

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How Kiwi political parties measure up on Facebook
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Facebook has revealed a series of insights on how the Kiwi political parties are doing in the lead up to the 2014 general election. And given that 1.8 million Kiwis log in to Facebook on a daily basis and that ‘election’ was the second-most commonly used phrase on the site in 2013 (only bettered by Pope Francis), the social media channel is becoming an increasingly important space for politicians to share their policies—or general vitriol—with potential voters.

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The ad blocker threat: what media owners are doing to stop ad avoidance
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In the traditional media channels, advertising couldn’t be avoided. When viewers listened to a radio broadcast or watched a television show, ads were an inevitable part of the experience and often provided a momentary break to run to the bathroom or make a cup tea. But with the growing tendency of online viewing, this coerced ad-watching is no longer a given. Simple software downloads, such as AdBlock, now give viewers direct access to the content that they want to watch. So what are media owners doing to protect their advertising?

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Part two of ANZ campaign reverses a series of unfortunate events
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Following on from the series of unfortunate events that provided the narrative for the first part of ‘Time really is money’ campaign, ANZ has now released a sequel that gives a markedly more positive re-imagining of the day in the protagonist’s life. The second spot, released over the weekend, gives a scene-by-scene reversed reworking that eventually presents ANZ’s mobile banking as the catalyst that allowed the evening’s proceedings to run more smoothly.

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Slingshot walks the legal tightrope by giving Kiwis access to Netflix
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This morning, yet another bombshell hit the SVOD space with the announcement that Slingshot had introduced its global mode, which will give Kiwi subscribers access to services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer. This announcement comes only a week after Telecom launched its SVOD service called Lightbox and two weeks after Sky sent out a release saying that it was planning to launch a similar service in the near future.

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Smiling through the chills: actress braves winter swim in new Kia spot
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In the new Kia Sportage spot by Work Communications, New Zealand’s green landscape and pristine waters serve as a foil to office-based captivity and the screen-staring that often comes with it. And while driving to a desolate swimming beach and diving in seems like a liberating idea, it probably isn’t quite as pleasurable as what it seems. What the footage shot by TVNZ’s Blacksand fails to tell the viewer is that the spot was shot at the onset of winter and that lead talent Sophie Baragwanath had to endure frigid swims during one day of shooting.

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Quickflix snaps up two local shows, responds to Lightbox and Sky
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Last week, shortly after the release of Telecom’s Lightbox offering, Quickflix announced an agreement with South Pacific Pictures that gave the veteran in New Zealand’s SVOD market rights to over 120 hours of local content via Go Girls and Outrageous Fortune. And given that Lightbox’s head of programming and local content Maria Mahony admitted to StopPress that she was currently in talks with local film distributors to secure a deal to screen several local shows, this announcement by Quickflix will no doubt be competitive blow to the newcomer.

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DDB launches innovation lab; but are ad agencies any good at developing new products?
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Following on from its Australian branch, DDB New Zealand has now also launched an in-house innovation lab called Shaper. Established with the bold goal to “solve real human problems and create new revenue streams”, the new addition to the DDB offering will aim to “own and monetise ideas developed in the lab”. In a release, DDB’s chief operating officer Chris Riley says that the creative skills available at the agency provide the potential of delivering more than just advertising. PLUS: find out why author Leif Abraham thinks ad agencies struggle to innovate.

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MediaWorks unveils The Edge TV
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The creative team behind The Edge TV were in the MediaWorks offices until the wee hours of Friday morning, putting together the final pieces for the Edge TV, a project that was first announced in April. PLUS: the network stoush continues.

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APN and Fairfax near printing agreement – are there job cuts on the horizon?
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Earlier today, Fairfax Media Limited and APN News & Media Limited announced a proposed printing agreement that will see a consolidation of the pair’s printing processes in the upper North Island. Under the arrangement, APN will provide printing services to Fairfax in New Zealand for several newspapers at its Ellerslie facility, including the Waikato Times, Sunday Star-Times, Sunday News and other community titles. “The deal has not yet been finalised although the high-level terms have been approved,” says an APN spokesperson.

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Colenso and Barnes, Catmur and Friends lead Kiwi charge in the Global Effie Effectiveness Index
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Earlier this week, the 2014 Global Effie Effectiveness Index results were released and, for the third time in a row, Colenso BBDO has been listed as one of the top 10 most effective agencies in the world. The results also came with good news for Barnes, Catmur and Friends, which finished fourth in the world among independent agencies and first in the Asia Pacific region.

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Lifting the Lightbox lid: a look inside Telecom’s new digital venture
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Ever since Telecom was legally precluded from using the ShowmeTV name, the industry has been curious as to what moniker would be introduced as a replacement. Since that debacle three months ago, Telecom’s digital ventures (TDV) unit has been very cagey about releasing any further information about its online TV offering. But now that all has been revealed, we sat down with head of programming and local content Maria Mahony to find out more about what Lightbox offers.

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TRN launches Auckland radio station, extends ZM brand onto TV
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TRN has announced the launch of a new Auckland-based radio station and the extension of the ZM radio brand onto TV in the same week that MediaWorks is set to unveil the Edge TV. We chatted to chief content officer Dean Buchanan about these moves. PLUS: Radio Sport relegated to AM and TRN crashes The Edge TV launch party.

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HPA gives smoking a creepy face
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In an effort to dissuade potential smokers from picking up that first cigarette, the Health Promotion Agency has launched a new campaign via GSL Promotus that gives a tongue-in-cheek depiction of exactly how ugly a relationship with cancer sticks can be.

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The duality of Snakk Media: snakes and ladders at the mobile start-up
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Snakk Media’s preliminary financial results released last week showed a 92 percent year-on-year increase, shifting up from $3.6 million recorded between March 2012 and March 2013 to $7 million in the most recent results. Add to this the fact that the company has just announced plans to open a Singapore office in addition to those in Australia and New Zealand, and it seems that Snakk Media’s new chief executive Mark Ryan has a lot to smile about less than a year into his job. But a recent drop in the company’s share price and the fact that it continues to operate at a loss means the company’s evolution has had its fair share of ups and downs.

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London cabbies are striking because of Uber; will the same happen here?—UPDATED
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London traffic became even more congested recently as 12,000 taxi drivers staged a protest by blockading various streets throughout the English capital. Their dissatisfaction finds its genesis in the expansion of Uber, an app that allows potential passengers to connect with nearby taxi drivers. We chatted to Roger Heale, the executive director of the the New Zealand Taxi Federation, about the potential of the same happening here. Updated with comments from Uber.

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ANZ dips toe into digital publishing with BlueNotes
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To some degree banks have always been publishers, producing voluminous pamphlets and documents relating to their accounts, interest rates and credit card deals. And while this has served the utilitarian purpose of providing information to both current and potential clients, it has always been a bit vapid in the story-telling department. So, in an effort to fill the narrative-shaped hole in its offering, ANZ has launched BlueNotes, a digital publishing site updated daily with news stories directly relevant to the bank and the financial industry.

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Rainger & Rolfe turns the furry tenants at Auckland Zoo into online brand ambassadors
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Over the last few months, Auckland Zoo has been putting its colourful and varied range of tenants to work by having them feature in a series of YouTube videos designed to draw attention to the attraction in the Super City. Rainger & Rolfe, the agency behind the on-going digital campaign, has held the Auckland Zoo account since 2011 (the account was originally held by Rolfe Limited and then moved across after the merger with Rainger Connect).

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TVNZ throws ad-hoc carnival, aims to spread World Cup fever
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In an effort to share the festivities with the Kiwis and expats who aren’t fortunate enough to be in Brazil for the World Cup, TVNZ’s Blacksand has set up an ad-hoc carnival in Auckland. Placing the seemingly innocuous duo of a mini-goal and a football alongside a ‘kick me’ sign, the Blacksand team waited out of sight, with their cameras ready, for any passersby to take the bait. Those who did kick the ball into the net were then caught off gaurd by an impromptu carnival made up of football players, samba dancers, capoeira performers and fans from all over the world.

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Agent Anna punks unsuspecting home viewers in hidden camera stunt via TVNZ Blacksand
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Following on from last year’s elaborate faux real estate campaign for Agent Anna’s first season, TVNZ’s in-house agency Blacksand has again tapped into the fake reality theme for the promotion of the dramedy’s second season. Shot in an actual rental home, the stunt features Robyn Malcolm in character as klutzy Anna Kingston showing real visitors—and potential tenants—around a home, which has been set up with a variety of booby traps that result in some awkward interactions.

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Radio New Zealand’s Paul Thompson on the decline of radio
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On 12 May, Radio New Zealand’s chief executive Paul Thompson delivered a speech at the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Conference held in Glasgow—and his thoughts on the industry stood in stark contrast to the optimism that has been voiced by the respective PR teams of the commercial stations. From the first line of the speech, which is currently available on the Radio New Zealand website, it’s clear that Thompson is bracing himself for a significant challenge in the role that he only stepped into nine months ago.

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Herald hosts 10 three-minute docos, aims to keep mobile eyes fixed
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In the age of vines and five-second films, the 15 minutes of a YouTube-hosted documentary seems like a veritable viewing mountain. So, in an effort to keep the decreasing attention spans of its growing digital audience interested, APN’s online publishing team has penned a one-off partnership with filmmakers Loading Docs to host a series of ten three-minute documentaries on the NZ Herald website.

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