Stephan Loerke, the managing director of World Federation of Advertisers, was brought to Auckland recently by the Association of New Zealand Advertisers to speak to Kiwi marketers about what they will have to do in this rapidly changing world if they hope to connect with consumers in a relevant and welcomed manner. Here’s a summary of his presentation ‘How to Future-Proof Advertising’.

As if Air New Zealand’s controversial spokesbeast Rico hasn’t had enough criticism directed at him, now he’s been accused of being a rip-off.

As the world becomes increasingly digital, marketers everywhere continue to grapple with the thorny issues around digital marketing. Thankfully, the knowledgeable folk from Ubiquity are here to help you navigate the treacherous e-waters. So, every two months we’ll be running a Q+A to answer all your burning questions about digital marketing (send topic suggestions to [email protected]). To get the ball rolling, some sage advice on how to ensure the security of your customer information, a topic that’s been getting a bit of press recently thanks to Telecom, AA and others.

One of the primary jobs of a marketing team should be to govern the brand; to take care of it, make it thrive and stop it from getting ripped to shreds in the media.

I love Double Rainbow and any mention of the epic YouTube clip makes me super happy and walk around all day saying ‘all the waaaay’ and ‘what does it meaaaan?’ So it was with mixed and curious feelings that I sat back and watched the reaction to the new Vodafone ‘Double’ TVCs from some of my über YouTube community friends.

Naked Communications is a force to be reckoned with overseas, but it’s only been on the local scene since late 2009. In that short time, it’s certainly had a big impact, taking a fair swag of strategy and channel planning work off some of its larger competitors and winning a couple of media award golds for its work with Diet Coke. Matt O’Sullivan, who left his posting at Carat to set up the Auckland office with Simon Bird, is one man who’s never short of opinions. So here are a few on 2010.

This is the last official StopPress day of the year. Thank God, we—and probably you—say. We’re off to gorge ourselves to within an inch our lives over Christmas, tip over a few cars and throw bottles at the police as we celebrate a traditional Kiwi New Years and try valiantly to avoid getting sunburnt tops of the feet. Hearty thanks to all our readers, advertisers, sponsors, contributors, commentors and team members. It’s been a great first year for us and, as per usual, an interesting year for what really is a pretty damn exciting industry to work in (imagine being an accountant? Borrrring). It was a helluva lot of fun writing about it all and we look forward to more frivolity, tomfoolery and cheesy puntastic headlines next year, starting 17 January (well, as much as you can look forward to getting back to work just before you go on holiday). Have a good’un, StopPressers. And make sure you fill in our survey, which will be up over the break.

DraftFCB has followed up a rip snorter in 2009 with another rip snorter this year. It’s picked up a swag of new business, it’s at the top of its social messaging game, it’s the consummate all-rounder, it won the big one at the CAANZ Media Awards, it was unlucky to lose out to cat food for Best in Show at the Effies and, perhaps most importantly, it’s still unbeaten in the Balls of Steel table tennis tournament after taking down Colenso in the second round last night. James Mok, executive creative director, gets his opinion on.

With the release of a very popular iPad app, some impressive print readership numbers, an excellent performance at the Qantas Media Awards and a good battle with Stuff for New Zealand’s online eyeball honours, APN shouldn’t be complaining too much over the Christmas break. Here’s what floated the boat of Donna O’Keeffe, advertising director at nzherald.co.nz

It was all about ‘reverse integration’ for bcg2 this year, after it merged with Grey Global Group. And with some solid work for Lion and Audi, as well as the recent acquisition of the Esquires account, the new relationship seems to be going fairly swimmingly so far. Director of strategy and planning Abe Dew (who’s written a great piece on agency/client relationships in the latest NZ Marketing magazine, by the way) pipes up on 2010.

New Zealand Post sponsors and runs a huge number of industry events, awards and competitions. And, with Localist moving into the directories space recently, a range of new tech-related developments like Send-a-Card and some flash new data toys on offer, it’s been busily going about its future-proofing business this year. So, pull up a chair and see what Fiona Woolley, manager, market engagement at Targeted Communications, had to say about 2010.