Despite the ‘uncooperative’ economic conditions, entries for the Auckland round of the New Zealand Retailer’s Association Top Shop Awards were up 34 percent on the 2008 edition. And 123 of those entries  have been chosen as finalists across eight different categories.

Indie agency Central Station is focusing more heavily on the often overlooked, large and potentially very lucrative realm of B2B marketing in New Zealand. And it’s set up a specialist arm and partnered with B2B boffin Mike Frederickson to do it.

YouTube vids are soooo passe. Interactive ‘pick a path’ YouTube vids, like the recent one from Hell Pizza, are all the rage. But this one from Tippex is one of the best efforts we’ve seen. And, as it offers you the opportunity to write something to make a hunter do anything to a bear (well, almost anything: it couldn’t handle lambast, operate on or tackle), it’s way more interactive than most.

Andrew Holt, currently a group account director at Colenso BBDO, will be shifting south, moving up the executive chain and battling the breeze after being appointed as managing director of Clemenger BBDO in Wellington.

Pull up an ear as we attempt to make all your marketing dreams come true with news of account wins, new hires, newish agencies, old departures, big rebrands, Taika Waititi, Air New Zealand, wallpaper, beer and giant balls. 

It’s been a good couple of days for Colenso: it’s well and truly leading the pack with its EFFIE shortlistings and now BBDO has been named the YoungGuns Network of the Decade by YoungGuns International on account of the vast array of metal the network has won since the awards were founded ten years ago.

Despite anecdotal evidence that suggests all banks are sneaky, recent actual research from the June 2010 Roy Morgan New Zealand Banking Customer Satisfaction Survey has revealed positive shifts in the overall satisfaction levels for most of the major banks, with TSB retaining its position at the top of the satisfaction pile, but Kiwibank is on its tail.

Speaking at the Inbound Tour Operators’ Council (ITOC) annual conference in Blenheim recently, Doug Chapman, executive director of client services at specialist digital agency Amnesia Razorfish, told delegates marketing was in the midst of a revolution thanks to the internet. And, with a raft of new technologies and hundreds of new social sites to take New Zealand to a travel-hungry world, it is a revolution Tourism New Zealand is well-positioned to take advantage of to reach potential travellers in a cost-effective way.

Pacific Magazines’ slogan is “we create magazines people love”. But APN News & Media will soon be creating at least three of the core titles those people love, after New Zealand Magazines acquired the licence to publish the weeklies New Idea and That’s Life, and the monthly Girlfriend.

Some wine is good. Some art is also good. So why not combine forces for a new wine, thought a wine company and an artist. The result was the seemingly socialist booze that goes by the name of The People’s Wine. And we’ve got heaps of it, in two different colours, to give away.

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.

Since April, Positively Wellington Tourism has been on a mission to lure more of our Aussie friends across for a visit and smash a few misconceptions. And all indicators suggest the ‘There’s No Place Like Wellington’ campaign, which aims to showcase the region and its creative edge, has worked very well so far. But it’s taking things up a notch and getting experiential with WLG, a pop-up restaurant that will be operating in Sydney for two weeks next month in a bid to generate some buzz about the city.

The modus operandi of Eshe, a Kiwi streetwear clothing company that was started in 2008, is to take things back to the glory days of skating counter-culture; to slaughter a few metaphorical sacred cows. And it’s managed to inspire some fairly contrived controversy with a combination of sacrilege and old-school Garbage Pail kids imagery with a new poster campaign in Auckland.

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.