Long before Online Republic was the Kiwi success story sold to Australia-based Webjet for $85 million, former StopPress writer Sim Ahmed wrote a piece in 2013 telling the story of how the company’s founder Mike Ballantyne discovered success by moving away from ego-stroking digital campaigns and focusing on the unsexy—but increasingly important—realm of search engine marketing. Today, we revisit this tale.
Author Sim Ahmed
The shift to digital has disrupted many industries, but news media has been one of the most badly affected. So what are the options? And are any local publishers making money online? Sim Ahmed investigates.
The great Kiwi campervan adventure is a right of passage as old as time itself. New Zealand-based camper rental Jucy is giving New Zealanders (and our Australian and American cousins) the chance to haggle down the price by tweeting.
Elliot O’Donnell (aka Askew One) is a Kiwi street artist who’s transitioning between “just tags on a wall” to legitimate art. And with paintings of Ralph Hotere in Kingsland, work on Queens Wharf and his impressive creations in the Wynyard Quarter, he’s trying hard to turn his passion into a viable business.
TVNZ is scrapping TVNZ U, just over two years after first launching the youth-centric channel.
While others are looking apprehensively towards the world of print publishing, the company behind New Zealand Geographic magazine is taking the opportunity to expand its stable. From 5 August, Kohwai Media will publish a bi-monthly photography magazine called Pro Photographer, publisher James Frankham says it’s catered towards those in the photography business.
The New Zealand Herald’s weekly lifestyle and fashion lift out Viva is getting a makeover, along with it a brand new website and a Newsstand app.
It’s no hyperbole to say IFTTT has saved the world on multiple occasions from assured destruction … well perhaps it’s a slight hyperbole, but this deceptively simple productivity service has become integral to my digital universe – and without it much of it will fall into a black pit of forgetfulness.
Taken aback by the costly quotes he received for a bespoke iPhone app, Under the Radar’s founder Daryl Fincham went and bought some how-to books and developed one on his own.
Two independent Wellington ad agencies are merging to scale up and take it to the big boys.
Without much fanfare Google has launched its terribly-named streaming music service Play Music All Access in New Zealand Australia, the first markets to receive it following the launch in the US in May.
InfoPages provides brands with profile pages which aggregates the content they release on Scoop. The profiles can include a logo, media and business contacts, and a description of the company.
Yukfoo is now in its teens and all the pimply awkwardness it implies. To celebrate, the studio has released a showreel of its earliest works – including this infamous bunny-laden piece for Vodafone New Zealand.
Radio New Zealand isn’t known for being the hippest network on the airwaves, but the public broadcaster is launching a new brand aimed at bringing in the youth.
Looking to attach another language to my resume, I found the language teaching service Duolingo. The website takes English-language-users through the basics of other tongues.
Burrito connoisseur Ben Polkinghorne is tackling the appalling gaps in New Zealand’s education system by teaching untaught (but ever important) skills, such as opening beer bottles with seat belts and how to get free parking (note: this one might be illegal).
Packed full of bullet-time goodness, Telecom’s latest ad campaign for its Ultra Broadband products brings the anticipation of high speed antics, without having to show any of it.
Lawyers are scary, especially for young startups looking to make it big in the world. Buddle Findlay’s simple lead generation tool helps it get infront of the next wave of Kiwi world-beaters.
Turning the humble desktop wallpaper into an advertising channel in its own right has landed Nelson Rayner, founder of Kiwi startup Donate Your Desktop (DYD), the Advertising Club of New York’s Google Young Innovator Award.
Like everything else, the internet is changing the face of journalism and the future of newsrooms – for better and worse, according to the Oriella Digital Journalism Study.
Most good ideas need a bit of money to get them going and ANZ Bank is positioning itself as the money lender to go to when inspiration strikes.
Last night’s season premiere of The Almighty Johnsons started with a whiz and a bang, but the Johnson lads were unable to bring in the crowds to watch their godly antics.
Telecom has announced it’s an official telecommunications and technology partner for PremierLeaguePass.com, meaning it’s able to give discounts and special deals to football fans on its network.
We speak to Resn’s business development director Matt Walsh about servicing the world from Wellington, the importance of self-drive in today’s digital creatives and where the digital agency’s future is.
Tourism New Zealand’s newest app aims at putting a travel guide in the pocket of every visitor to New Zealand (at least those with iPhones and iPads, for now).
Just four months since launching its first ecommerce site, Shane Bradley’s ShopHQ has sold half of the company to The Warehouse.
Fairfax Media New Zealand has kicked off its restructuring in earnest, starting with a shake up to its senior hierarchy and how different regions are handled.
It’s game over for Instant Kiwi’s table top advertising of its Space Invader scratchies. The Advertising Standards Authority’s Complaints Board has ruled it in breach of its Codes of Practice for promoting a gambling product appealing to minors.
What would happen if energy drink companies were in charge of the rule books for golf? The sport would probably look a lot like V’s latest campaign, which sees people hunting down a robotic golf hole while battling each other from inside of “virtually indestructible” golf carts.