Although mobile research is sometimes considered the new kid on the research block, it has actually been available to researchers for a decade. In fact, the first SMS mobile survey was conducted by Ipsos twelve years ago. Despite this, development of the methodology has been very slow across the industry and even today mobile surveys account for less than 1.5 percent of global industry revenue. However, mobile research is ready to become a key tool in researchers’ (and thus marketers’) toolkits, with the industry predicting mobile surveys via SMS, mobile internet and mobile applications will be the biggest areas for potential growth this decade. So understanding the opportunities and developing the right techniques is the recipe for success.

“And the winner is… no one.” That was the result for the top prize at this year’s Nexus Awards after the judges scratched their data-weary heads and decided New Zealand’s best data work wasn’t good enough to justify the big prize. There was lots of talk about standards to maintain and excellence required and all the rest of it. But the bottom line is: we went backwards. We all got together to celebrate the best data thinking of 2011 and our standout result was “please try harder”.

One of our dear readers had an embarrassing experience yesterday. And, by sharing his painful story, he hopes others can avoid a similarly embarrassing fate. He was using his iPhone to show some female colleagues a story on StopPress. They looked on in wonderment at the digital dexterity on display as he started typing the name of the esteemed vessel into the browser. But their eyebrows were soon raised when the list of search terms appeared, leading to an uncomfortable explanation about the fact that ‘stop premature ejaculation’ came up as a result of auto-complete, not because of his recent search history. Forewarned is forearmed. 

Poor old Dick. A big load of stores appear to be on the chopping block here and in Australia. And, as this photo by Ana Samways shows, its Valentine’s Day promotion may have gone a bit hard on the innuendo. It’s almost as good as its ‘floating phone’ promotion.

Apparently retail is dead. Online shopping is destroying it and, if you believe the hype,all the malls will soon be full of tumble-weeds. Due to constantly improving and sophisticated e-commerce, e-tailers like Amazon, or little online ‘stores’ set up and run through TradeMe it would seem that consumers have very little incentive to shop at brick and mortar stores any more. The social aspects of shopping are now being attacked by start-ups like Svpply. And group buying and the tipping point theory are still there as well. So why are the malls are not empty yet?

Last year the token Kiwi at Special Group did the campaign for our Axis Awards, revealing to us that we’d won “the most Cannes Lions per capita of any country in the world in 2010 – one Lion per 155,989 people. Sweden was second with one Lion per 202,173 residents. The ‘we invented advertising’ UK? A sorry 4th with one Lion per 849,886 people. The creative powerhouse of the USA? 8th buddy, 8th! with just one Lion per 2,287,003 people. Yesiree.” So, as another of the tiny handful of New Zealanders working in New Zealand advertising, I felt a sense of duty to follow in Tony Bradbourne’s footsteps when Patrick Collister, editor of Directory magazine and The Big Won Creative Rankings, sent me his 2011 data.

Frucor, with the help of its long-time agency Colenso BBDO, maintained its consistency in 2011, with V continuing its run as one of the country’s most innovative brands and Mountain Dew Skate Pinball taking experiential marketing to a whole new level of massiveness. Marketing director Scott Wright spills the beans.

Mediacom won a few big awards last year, including B&T’s overall agency of the year title and the Media Agency Network of the Year award for the third consecutive year at the M&M International Awards. In New Zealand it was behind KFC’s Double Down launch as well as the placement of media for the Z launch, and to top it all off, it also took the Revlon account off DraftFCB. Managing director Nigel Douglas pours his heart out. 

2011 was a fairly challenging year for MediaWorks, with management restructures, debt problems and tax bills. But there were plenty of positives too, with the new dual-channel approach that saw TV3 trying to snatch away some of TVNZ’s wrinklier viewers and FOUR becoming a mainstream entertainment channel seemingly starting to pay dividends. Amanda Wilson, head of marketing at TV3 and FOUR, lets her opinions on 2011 be known.

It was something of an annus mirabilis for the outdoor sector last year, with a revenue increase of 36 percent in Q3 over the same period in 2010 that was largely attributable to the additional activity around the RWC. There was also some intense jockeying for position in the market with APN and iSite each adding to their arsenal and purchasing Oggi and OTW respectively. APNO’s general manager and chair of OMANZ Phil Clemas shares the love.