As Ihumātao continues Findlay Buchanan talks to Victoria University of Wellington social media professor Dr. Michael Daubs, about protests in the social media age.
Philip Morris – the largest tobacco company in the world – has declared it will transform the tobacco industry in support of New Zealand’s Smokefree 2025 initiative. In time, it plans to stub out its cigarette range – which includes Marlboro, Parliament and Virginia S and move towards a future of fruity, trendy vapes and e-cigarettes. It’s a tactical maneuver from the giant cigarette corporate as alternative cigarettes slowly receive validation by scientists, governments, and consumers – but is the move really a ploy for Smokefree 2025, or more of a smoke screen by Philip Morris? And in the midst of all this, has its sudden departure from cigarettes led to a branding identity crisis? We speak to the managing director, James Williams, who explains the company’s foray into the smoke-free market.
Raph Roake represents one of many young talents in the design community who won accolades at the 2018 Best Awards. His work, ‘C.O.C.A Exposure Brand Identity and Website’ created alongside fellow students – Luke Hoban and Jeremy Hooper – was awarded two golden pins for student graphic and student interactive. And his solo project, ‘All design is a political act’, gained a silver in student graphic. Since these projects, Roake has stepped inside a few studios – Strategy Creative in Wellington and Inhouse in Auckland – and continues to craft his personal work during his spare time. Roake joins us over a measly cup of cold coffee to hear about the tensions and learnings from his transition into studio walls.
NZSki has unveiled three new campaign videos for each of its ski fields; The Remarkables, Mt Hutt, and Coronet Peak. It’s part of a wider strategy to give each mountain its own identity and is the first NZSki campaign since 2002. It aims to re-establish its position as a manager of each of the three mountains.
Gladeye has won big for its collaboration with Huff Post Highline to deliver FML; an interactive new age form of digital story-telling. The Kiwi digital agency has pipped finalists New York Times, National Geographic and ESPN to accept awards for Web Feature Design, Web Animation, and Innovative Practice at the 53rd Annual American Society of Publication Designers Awards gala in New York. It’s one of the many polarising stories Gladeye has collaborated on including America’s Most Admired Lawbreaker, Out Here, No One Can Hear You Scream and Four Quitters Walk Into a Bar, to name a few. We sit down with the brains of the business, founder and creative director Tarver Graham, to hear about how Gladeye is transforming news stories from across the globe.
Last night, a sell-out crowd of just under 1000 keen New Zealand media personalities came together for the 2018 Commercial Communications Council Beacon Awards, in association with NZME. In what was a celebration of the industry’s best work from the past year, the Viaduct Events Centre turned it on as the media industry leered up for the annual celebration.
MediaWorks has appointed Dave Hine as chief digital officer and Glen Kyne to chief customer officer. The moves reflects a redesign in the business ensuring its digital offerings, user environment and client experience is at the core.
Earlier this month Sky updated its Sky Go App, a move that connects customers with Sky Go on the go, with the addition of catch up TV, box sets and on-demand content on mobile and tablet. We talk to chief product and technology officer Julian Wheeler about how business is going, and what else Sky has to roll out in the next 12 months as it moves forward from a linear TV model and into an expansive network across multiple screens.
The modern media environment is characterised by new tools, new channels, new metrics, new audiences and new opportunities. But it’s also characterised by less time, less resource, less expenditure and, in many cases, less readership of the traditional print products. So how has the modern-day magazine editor had to adapt? How are they using their influence and harnessing opportunities? Findlay Buchanan talks to some of the country’s best.
The rise of digital advertising alongside traditional print forms feed off consumers keeping their eyes on the page or the screen, but what about those who extend their gaze to the sky? It too is an area for advertisers to make their mark and checking in with Fletcher McKenzie, a feigned Kiwi skywriter and a man fanatical about aviation, it’s clear the weather-dependent medium still has its place in the marketing mix.
Setting up a media business during the global financial crisis might sound like a recipe for disaster but Mindfood is this year marking its 10th anniversary. To learn how it’s evolved over the years, we sit down with editor-in-chief Michael McHugh who reflects on the past, the present and the future of the celebrity endowed local and global content-machine.
The six-month interim results are out for our two largest print news media owners Stuff and NZME. It is no secret that print has battled with years of declining advertising revenue and departing audiences and there is no doubt the tough financial results have taken its toll. The key lowlights being Stuff’s subsequent closure of 28 regional print mastheads, and an obstinate Commerce Commission which has repealed repeated merger attempts by NZME and Stuff. However, in some quarters, the recent financial findings show that the fall in print revenue has slowed, with suggestions that the worst is over. We ask media experts and publishers what they glean from the financial findings – bearing in mind the unpredictable and circulating beast that is the media industry.
Over the last week, the media agency commission model has been given the axe by the National Business Review. It’s a decision headed by publisher Todd Scott, who dished out plenty of heat to media agencies on social media, including declaring that the “gravy train reign is over”. StopPress asked fellow publishers and agencies if the model is in fact long in the tooth, or if Scott and the NBR have barked up the wrong tree.
Cord cutting pundits have predicted the death of ye olde television for years. And while few would argue with Merja Myllylahti’s 2017 AUT Journalism, Media and Democracy summary when she said commercial television broadcasting showed signs of distress, the six-month interim reports released by New Zealand television heavyweights TVNZ and Sky TV had some surprises. We check in with the media owners and the media agencies to break down the facts and the figures.
Colenso BBDO and BNZ have released the second phase of the Bank of You brand platform, which continues its empathetic branding ways.
Air New Zealand is currently experiencing turbulence after its controversial new the ‘world’s coolest safety video’ launched last week. However, despite the hiss and roar coming from some quarters, it’s social media tool, Zavy, shows that it’s been a positive outing for Air New Zealand’s Antarctica campaign.
Beef + Lamb NZ loosen the apron strings, step out of the meatworks, and cast the lens on iconic ‘iron maidens’ – Kiwi athletes Sarah Walker, Lisa Carrington, Eliza McCartney, and Sophie Pascoe – in its latest campaign.
Pinning down progression can be difficult and vague to measure; for some, it’s taking their first mouthful while for others, it’s an excursion to the moon. ASB and True have explored the idea in a new campaign that relaunches the ‘One Step Ahead’ platform.
Following the launch of Ecostore’s first brand campaign last year, we sit down with director of marketing Jemma Whiten to discuss its latest campaign strategies, how it’s tracking in local and offshore markets and how its unique proposition has it positioned in the face of new competition.
There’s been plenty of discussion from media pundits about Jeremy Wells and Hilary Barry getting the nod as new co-hosts of Seven Sharp. But what do the people who pay the bills think? Do new hosts have a big impact on ratings? Or is it more about engrained behaviour? StopPress checks in with some media industry players to see what impact the new team could – or could not – have.
In light of the chopping and changing of personnel in the media arena, what do the ratings say about the year that has been and the year ahead for TVNZ and Mediaworks?
Toyota’s latest campaign bandies its campaign slogan around of ‘New Zealand’s favourite car brand for 30 years’, so what does it mean, ‘favourite car brand’, and on what basis can it make the claim?
Run me a bath Alexa, put the lights on dim and tell me the news. We take a look at the virtual assistant space and how Kiwi media organisations will be using Amazon’s Alexa.
Shortland Street is back, and while viewers are dealing with Chris Warner’s woes, TVNZ and Blacksand are lapping up the success of a colourful summer campaign.
Movember is over and the bristly moustaches seen on upper lips nationwide have long disappeared down the sink. However, Barkers has now harnessed its Christmas shopping rush for good as it teams up with the Movember Foundation for a second crack at fundraising for men’s health.