Author Skye Wishart

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The best of both worlds? Why House of Travel is flipping its marketing script and embracing Facebook
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Interactive is an expanding piece of the ad spend pie here and around the world, and Magna Global has predicted it will overtake TV in the US by 2017. Facebook is a big part of that ecosystem and it reckons it can offer both scale and granularity. So we caught up with Facebook head of New Zealand Stephen Scheeler to find out what’s happening here and how House of Travel has harnessed the social network and is moving away from traditional media.

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Georgie Pie and MediaWorks search for new comedy talent for 7 Days
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Georgie Pie is working to claim back its place in the hearts of Kiwis of all ages, and one way to do this is partnering up with 7 Days, in Georgie Pie’s first sponsorship since it relaunched. MediaWorks Integration has been working with OMD and Georgie Pie on a campaign to get a budding comedian to join the 7 Days panel, as the ‘Georgie Pie Comedy Apprentice’.

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Stoptober NZ kicks off with nationwide tour and Satellite Media TVC
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Stoptober’s lead up nationwide tour kicked off yesterday with a heartfelt recruitment event in Kaitaia. It’s part of a campaign targeting New Zealand’s 463,000 smokers to quit the habit with a smokefree October, by signing up to the Stoptober website. Satellite Media’s Piri Weepu TVC is also leading the charge.

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Māori TV cuts through to smoking target market with in-house agency
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According to Quitline, Māori and those in high deprivation populations care less about the cost of cigarettes, or their health, compared to how much they care about their children. Māori Television’s advertising head of department, Toni Urlich developed the creative for the ‘Crayons’ campaign, which uses children, mimicking their parents’ smoking behaviour. The campaign was created inhouse at Māori Television and in a first, will also be rolled out across other channels.

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From watching to making: how viewers’ social interactions with shows are influencing entertainment
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Around the world, advertisers are trying to involve their audiences in the marketing, whether it’s Wendy’s love songs, Airbnb’s Hollywood & Vines, Newcastle’s crappy crowdsourcing or, locally, Give it a V and Feel Tip Top. TV shows have long talked about doing the same, and many of them have taken fandom into the realm of social media. But increasingly it seems broadcasters are not content with audiences passively absorbing content and are trying to convince them to get involved. So how’s that working out for them?

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Warriors players discuss the intricacies of pronouncing foreign words
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Information released by Statistics New Zealand recently revealed that the extent of the nation’s multiculturalism. And given that we could very well be in the proximity of one of the 4,593 people who identify as French in the nation, it pays to ensure we’re pronouncing words borrowed from their language correctly. So, with the launch of its latest French-inspired burger, Wendy’s has assembled a troop (or is it troupe?) of Vodafone Warriors players to discuss exactly how the word ‘brioche’ is pronounced.

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Neighbourly on hunt for councils to create community engagement
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In moves parallel to Nextdoor in the US, Kiwi private neighbourhood website Neighbourly is shacking up with councils. Last month it signed an agreement with Rotorua District Council to be an official communications platform to complement existing channels, and Neighbourly says it’s in discussion with a further 26 around New Zealand.

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The birds on the rhino’s back: how business directories are battling—and benefitting from—Google
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Back in the day, the Yellow Pages ruled. Business names were sometimes based on where they would end up in the book (that’s why there are so many accommodation options starting with A and the Krasilovky Brothers of New York took that to extremes with their long-running listing battle). But for many consumers the online realm is a much more efficient way of finding businesses and Google has taken its toll on the print-based directories and forced them to find new revenue streams. So why are there still so many online business directories in operation?

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Brewing up value: Dilmah’s boutique push
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Sales of traditional ‘gumboot’ tea are on the wane in New Zealand. But there’s growth in the area of specialty teas and Dilmah is trying to tap into that by promoting the nascent arts of tea mixology and tea gastronomy. So can they convince young Kiwis to sip on a tea with their chargrilled steak?

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Inside: Ubiquity
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We speak to Ubiquity’s Nathalie Morris about her team’s philosophies around developing for a changing world, about being number two, and about what exactly you do when you’re the “technical muscle” for a marketing campaign.

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Contiki gets vloggers onboard again for the Roadtrip 2014, and this time it’s got a Kiwi flavour
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Contiki is back with its YouTube vlogger roadtrip for the third year running, once again piggybacking on the millions of pairs of eyeballs already following every single step those vloggers take. This year New Zealand might be captive too, with Kiwi star Shannon Harris onboard as the only person from outside North America. Sales director Tony Laskey believes The Roadtrip is potentially one of the most powerful marketing strategies Contiki has ever used.

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APN joins the hunt for rural readers, launches The Land across the land
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The rural sector has helped keep New Zealand afloat over the past few fairly difficult years and, as the amount of spending done at Fieldays shows, it’s a sector with a fair bit of confidence (and cash) at the moment. And, in an effort to better reach that sector, APN NZ has launched The Land, a new weekly rural publication sandwiched between the pages of APN’s six regional newspapers that are read across the North Island by town and country dwellers alike.

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