Author StopPress Team

Alan Dale, left, and Kelly Addis

When he was growing up, Kelly Addis dreamed of being a rock star. His first job as a butcher’s apprentice at Onehunga Foodtown was pretty much diametrically opposed to rockstardom. But now, almost three decades on, he’s living the dream, heading up award-winning Melbourne ad agency BoilerRoom. And last weekend he was honoured by his alma mater as one of three inductees into the Onehunga High Business School Hall of Fame.

The numbers have been crunched, the Kiwis have been canvassed and the companies that consumers believe are the best—and worst—have been announced, with New Zealand Post coming out on top and Telecom bringing up the rear.

The first, rather large musical instalment of APN Outdoor’s ‘Friends in High Places’ series was a fairly  successful and well-attended venture (particularly given the distinct lack of B2B activity from APNO during the previous year). And the next event in the series is tapping into the Next Top Model phenomenon in an effort to discover adland’s dreamy hunks and smokin’ babes.

StopPress always feels a little bit sorry for Radio NZ journalists, partially because they’re poorly paid bureaucrats, but primarily because they’re not actually allowed to accept free stuff. We sold our journalistic integrity many years ago (on Trade Me) and are firm believers that getting free stuff is easily the best part of the journalist’s job. Still, sometimes we have to wonder why so much of this free stuff is sent to us by PR companies, as a large proportion of it is of little editorial interest. But occasionally something fairly interesting gets delivered, like The People’s Wine, which looks as good on the outside as it tastes on the inside. 

It’s a mysterious realm for most, but in this digital world, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is also an extremely—and increasingly—important one. And New Zealand-based SEO specialists now have a chance to showcase their talents in the inaugural SEO Challenge.

This week on Ads@6, a bravura performance from the smarmy kid in Tower’s ‘Poochi’ spot; Michael Schumacher goes upside down for Mercedes;  MYOB hits the target; Al Brown gets dirty in Persil’s ‘Have a Go’ campaign; Tena has a bit of a laugh at the hilarious realm of female incontinence; the All Blacks get slurpy with Up&Go; and the much-loved Spray and Walk away guy returns.

It opened with a bright young thing and closed with a grumpy old curmudgeon, and inbetween Semi-Permanent once again delivered a host of designy inspiration. Thankfully, for those unfortunate enough not to have been exposed to all this inspiration in the flesh, our friends at Design Daily picked the brains of the stars of the show, a couple of whom had some very wise words for Kiwi marcommers. 

Air New Zealand and Fly Buys have snuggled up together with a new mutually beneficial partnership that creates a range of benefits for members of both the Air New Zealand Airpoints programme and Fly Buys loyalty programme, which together adds up well over half of the country’s population.

Our obviously extremely wealthy, remarkably tech savvy and very trendy stablemate DesignDaily is giving away a fancy new Apple Jabscreen (slightly more commonly known as an iPad) to one of its lucky readers. So simply sign up (with your real name and email address) here to receive the weekly email newsletter from New Zealand’s new design and architecture blog and you’ll go into the draw. And if you’re already a subscriber, tell your friends and family to sign up and, if they win, demand custody of the marvellous device in the weekends.

Sue Worthington announced her departure from the helm of creative talent representation company The Pond a few weeks back. Now she’s made another announcement, and this time it’s about the structure of new “collaborative boutique agency” Indiego, which she will run alongside strategist/project manager Rose Cron and design/brand developer Mikkel Johannessen.

Twelve days, three countries, several stomach bugs, one sand-burned foot, sweaty pits and an encounter with Indian riot police aren’t events you’d usually associate with a TVC about New Zealand’s dairy industry. But the new spot for Dairy NZ, which chronicles the epic journey of an agrarian Kiwi warrior riding his trusty steed around the world, included all these things. And plenty more by the sounds of it.

It’s all about the people. Hey, look, here are a few who have just got fancy new jobs.

Of course, the main reason for holidays is to inspire jealousy, so family, friends and, if you’re feeling so inclined, your arch enemies, can now be sent a personalised greeting card at the push of a few buttons thanks to the launch of Send a Card for iPhone by New Zealand Post.