Back in the day, NZ Marketing magazine ran a salary survey and, given the rampant desire humans seem to have to find out what their peers are paid —and, by extension, whether they’re being paid enough—its inclusion always made it a very popular edition. But, due to a number of factors, it was put out to pasture a few years back. With all that’s happened in the marcomms industry in recent years and the effect that has had on recruitment, we decided it was high time to resurrect the survey and try to find out what you all do, how much you get paid for it, what motivates you, what annoys you, what your goals are and everything inbetween. Obviously we need your support to ensure this once again becomes the most comprehensive view of the New Zealand marcomms job market. So we hope you can spare 5-10 minutes to answer a few questions. All those who complete the survey, which is brought you in association with The Research Agency, will go into the draw to win a collection of booty, including a two-night stay for up to four people at Glen Aros Country Estate in the Hawke’s Bay valued at $2,350, a STORM London watch valued at close to $400 and one of six 1.5 litre Moa Methode magnums. The results of the survey, which closes on November 14, will run in the January/February issue of NZ Marketing. Click here to complete.

Special Group and Salt Interactive’s brilliant online banner for Orcon has already been acknowledged at the Axis awards, The Webbys, AWARD and elsewhere. And it’s also dominated proceedings at the Caxton Awards, which aim to showcase excellence in newspaper advertising across Australia and New Zealand, by taking home Best use of Newspaper Space, Best Rich Media, Best Rich Video and the Quinlivan Black award for Best in Show. 

Tourism New Zealand has appointed Whybin/TBWA and reappointed Mindshare to service its Australian creative, media, digital requirements and global brand strategy, beating out rumoured fellow pitchers Clemenger Group, Droga5 and Publicis Mojo. 

Yeah yeah, we know it’s a bit late, but we love a sexy pun, so in case you missed the two full page newspaper ads BCG2 that ran over the last two weeks for Pfizer’s new ‘little blue pill’ called Avigra, here they are. 

…as Telecom farewells a marketing doyenne, MediaWorks lures Richard Fenner away from the golf course, Terabyte Interactive opens a Sydney office and QGroup announces a couple of new digital hires.

Ads Worth Spreading is TED’s initiative to recognise and reward innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising – the ads that people want to see, and share with their friends.

The coolest little capital in the world will be turning on the marketing heat in Melbourne next month, with the second serve of the WLG pop up restaurant.

After five years touring the globe, the Giant Rugby Ball – New Zealand’s most successful experiential marketing installation – has finished its world trip on a high note at home on Auckland’s waterfront.

We’ve already seen the foundations of Labour’s election campaign, with a policy focus on no asset sales and the implementation of a capital gains tax. National decided to hold off its launch until the conclusion of the RWC and, while it has erected plenty of hoardings around the country, all of them featuring both the candidate and the man many deem to be the nation’s first celebrity prime minister, it soft-launched its campaign this week with a campaign featuring stop-go men wearing blue and red stating ‘This year the choice is clear’. 

Cameras flashed, glasses clinked and pink paperclip trophies were dished out as 250-plus gathered for the 2011 NZ Innovators Awards ceremony at the HP/Intel Winter Garden in Wynyard Quarter last week. And, among the marketing-oriented winners, DraftFCB’s The Journal added to its already healthy collection of accolades and cloud-based POS system Vend, which has recently expanded into the US, took out the supreme and ICT awards.  

As the nation shrugs off its collective hangover and tries to return to normality, many are struggling to remember life before the World Cup… What did we care about? What do I do? But at Air New Zealand it was straight back to business as usual, and first up was ensuring the airline’s continuing support for the All Blacks.

Given the unexpectedly small one-point gap on Sunday night—and the fact that the final was the biggest ever event in the TAB’s betting history with over $3 million wagered—the TAB will probably do quite well out of the RWC final. But, much more importantly, its ‘prediction chicken’ has been shown to have verifiable soothsaying skills. 

Despite the modern world’s waning interest in news via paper, print is still the best way to create contextual ads. And, as you’d expect, various brands—whether official sponsors of the tournament, teams or players or not—went riding on the coattails of the All Blacks and the success of event itself. There will undoubtedly be a range of different rugby-related commercial communications on their way, but the host of ads that ran in the New Zealand Herald on Monday show print’s main benefit: speed. Top marks go to Weet-bix, Mastercard and Steinlager, with a campaign that also formed the basis of the day’s cartoon. 

Billed as the Big Day Out for business types, ‘Thrive’ packed out the Aotea Centre on Thursday, showcasing Kiwi businesses that have achieved success locally and internationally.

An app to book a hotel room at super short notice. You’d think someone would have thought of that already. But you’d be wrong. As it turns out, 21-year-old AUT marketing graduate Veronica Nobbs is trying to cash in on this gap in the market with Get a Room, a mobile app that offers punters hotel rooms at the cheapest rates when they’re booking at the last minute from their mobile.

Last week he was talking about Lotto’s new digital signs. But, as of January, New Zealand Lotteries Commission chief executive Todd McLeay will be talking about publishing in the new role of chief operating officer of APN News and Media in New Zealand. 

Sir Richard Branson launched ‘The Virgin Business Challenge’ on sunny Takapuna beach this morning in typical style. After making a glamorous entrance, arriving on an amphibious Kiwi invention Sealegs, he then challenged Air New Zealand’s Rob Fyfe and BNZ’s Andrew Thorburn to race him past the buoys and back.