Radio streaming service Pandora has brought the functionality it introduced in its 5.0 app for iOS devices earlier this year to a new version for Android tablets. The interface of Pandora 5.0 for Android tablets has also been optimised for the larger screen size of these devices.
Recruitment company Hourigan International wants to get creativity a seat at Kiwi boardroom tables and embed it into senior leadership roles. It’s targeting the ‘creative leadership tribe’ of agile, commercially-literate people who can help firms become more consumer-centric.
According to Yahoo Finance, Americans spend about US$8 billion on Halloween every year, with the biggest chunk spent on costumes. And while Kiwis are yet to fully embrace the trick or treating culture, there’s definitely a buck to be made. PLUS: MOTAT’s Halloween event lures the ghoul lovers.
Kiwis are can’t switch off when they’re away getting R&R, with a TripAdvisor survey showing we use our mobiles to shamelessly brag about our holidays on social media, look for places to stay and things to do. But a significant number of our hospitality companies aren’t meeting traveller demand.
Nielsen’s readership and the ABC’s circulation results do not bode well for the print versions of New Zealand newspapers. Most of the major publications recorded significant drops on both reports, leading to suggestions from some that it might be time to adapt the way statistics are collected so that readership can be measured across all platforms.
The burgeoning games industry is making money for Kiwi exporters – and an increasingly diverse gamer audience with more devices than ever is force to be reckoned with. Two pieces of new research highlight strong growth in gaming, with a local survey showing mobile games made in New Zealand have been downloaded more than 130 million times in the last year.
As the rise of content marketing changes the way some clients are choosing to advertise, integration/media solutions/native advertising/branded content/advertorial/*insert another buzzword here*, is a big growth area for TV networks—and other media. And TVNZ has referenced that shift by appointing Lyndsey Francis as general manager of media solutions and customer insights and adding some more research firepower to the team.
Kiwi ads have used many visual metaphors to illustrate the power of fast telco networks. Telecom had coloured flares and exploding balloons in their 4G ad, Vodafone took us back to the future in a speedy Delorean. US provider AT&T’s new spot sympathises with parents everywhere whose kids have been on a candy-induced sugar high.
By being bold, innovative and inclusive, the Unitec marketing team, led until recently by Jeanette Paine, has played a major role in the institution’s marketing-led transformation over the past three years.
Chameleon Partners has released the first of several new TVCs, along with a new website, spreading the word about Chorus’ Gigatown contest that gives a Kiwi town the chance to win speedy internet.
Pinterest is a winning channel for brands to show off their products in splendid technicolour. Now a Kiwi shopping mall is marketing itself with has a very analogue take on the social media channel.
Ever been stuck in a boring board meeting? We can’t help imagining that’s where someone was when they dreamed up XBox’s new Invitation campaign.
Patent publication is often the first sign of new technology initiatives. Patents are usually published well before the technology is commercialised. Searching intellectual property databases is an effective way of learning where others in your industry are heading. AJ Park patent experts Anton Blijlevens and Jillian Lim touch on some of the interesting patents to look out for on the shelves.
DDB Sydney’s ‘Welcome to the family’ campaign to celebrate VW’s 60th year in Australia kicked off this weekend with a TVC that showcases the full range of models on offer—and, with an ad hoc cricket match, a helium-breathing grandfather, a nana meeting Bradley’s ‘special friend’, tree peeing and copious tea drinking, it also showcases the diversity of modern Australian family life.
Fresh Up’s all-too-powerful thirst quenching, perception shifting from The Warehouse, more moving personalisation from NZ Police and NZ Golf’s entertaining coattail riding.
Fresh Up, the 51-year-old juice brand, has had its first makeover in nearly 10 years with new spots from Colenso BBDO. The two TVCs show Kiwi blokes in situations where roaring your appreciation over the drink’s thirst quenching properties are seriously inconvenient.
After her October 19 show, Beyonce was treated to a haka performed by a local crew. Rather than cowering in fear like an international rugby opponent, Beyonce enthusiastically joined in and even gave a great Miley Cyrus impersonation at the end.
Four thousand initial entries from across New Zealand have been stripped down to 20 finalists for this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition.
Once again, Nielsen’s latest readership results and the ABC’s circulation numbers don’t make for particularly pleasant reading for the magazine sector, with all weeklies charting declines deemed significant on the same time last year, plenty of other significant declines and a rare few increases. And, perhaps not surprisingly, the MPA and the various publishers are hoping to change the conversation from a one-dimensional discussion about quantity, to a multi-dimensional discussion about the quality of engagement across a number of platforms.
It’s lemon, Kiwis, but not as we know it. Saatchi & Saatchi has given the drink brand made famous with a giant bottle in Paeroa a twist by showing a new side that’s more fierce than fruity.
No longer afraid of having their masculinity questioned, modern Kiwi men are following the likes Gordon Ramsay, Manu Feildel and Michael Van de Elzen into the kitchen, and this has created a gap in the market that Cerebos Gregg’s hopes to exploit by giving their F. Whitlock & Sons range a distinctly masculine appeal.
Affinity ID kicked off in 2008 when Geoff Cooper and Angela Day took the agency into private ownership from the Clemenger Group. It began life with 27 staff and has grown to almost 80 digital specialists across a range of disciplines. And it has added two more big names to its board and senior management team, with Nigel Tutt joining as group general manager and Roger Shepherd joining as an independent director.
In a career full of successes, leading the transformation project that brought together the National Bank and ANZ was one of the sweetest for Mike Cunnington.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Sometimes you just can’t escape lining up. The portaloo at the festival, the cashier at the supermarket, the coolest new bar. But no-one really likes doing it, so it is fairly hard to fathom why anyone would do it for a new phone. Plenty do, of course (even though they don’t actually know why). And the companies selling them go to great lengths to butter these strange tech fiends up and ensure they don’t get queue fatigue, as evidenced by Vodafone and Telecom’s launch festivities for the new iPhones.
New Zealand Rugby conducted something of an experiment last week when the Bledisloe Cup test between the All Blacks and Australia was streamed live and made available on-demand on www.youtube.com/allblacks to more than 45 countries where the digital rights hadn’t been allocated exclusively to a broadcaster. So how did it go? And should Sky be worried?
Following in the footsteps of some overseas entities like Wired and Volkswagen, ASB has opened the doors of its new North Wharf head office to the world by creating New Zealand’s largest commercial interior Google Street View tour.
Last night, in a big shed down on the docks of Auckland town, Jeremy Corbett and Hillary Barry helped launch MediaWorks new season line-up. And, with the return of most of its local shows, some big-rating new international numbers and a couple of new branded content initiatives, director of sales and marketing Liz Fraser is confident it can continue its solid run of form in 2013 next year.
Fairfax Media is celebrating a victory over its main rival APN after Nielsen numbers showed more Aucklanders are reading stuff.co.nz than any other site, with its unique audience for September in Auckland clocking in at 391,000 compared to the nzherald.co.nz’s 360,000.
