Two disparate markets will be temporarily combined from next week, with Gianpaolo Grazioli of Giapo and Jayson Bryant of The Wine Vault promising to bring Aucklanders a range of new frozen taste sensations by using some of New Zealand’s best sauvignon blancs in a series of sorbets.

Loyalty New Zealand (LNZ), the operator of Fly Buys, has opened a new Auckland office and made three new appointments to complete the team and strengthen its nationwide presence.

New design

A key component of Montana’s global marketing campaign will be released this month, as it places its new look Classics and Reserve ranges on international shelves, with new package designs that aim to reinforce the brand’s premium status.

Check out this interesting social media spat between a particularly passive aggressive Waiwera Water and poor old Bruce, a Facebook greenhorn who dared to question the quality of its bottled H2O.

Hey Ads@6, whaddya been up to? What’s that, you’ve recorded all the commercials during the first ad break of the 6pm news on both major TV channels so that everyone in the marketing and communications industry can see who’s paying for the expensive, primetime spots? Well, that’s very nice of you. Sorry, what’s that? Adstream, a one stop shop for all of your TV, print, radio and workflow solutions, is the new sponsor of Ads@6? Well, that’s very nice of them. Alright, have a good weekend. See you next week. Don’t go changin’.

On 26 February, the best response-driven marketing campaigns of 2009 and the talented marketers behind them will be honoured at the New Zealand Marketing Association’s RSVP and Nexus Awards. So, with less than a month to go, here’s a gentle reminder to make sure you book your table for a date with marketing’s newest ‘Grand Masters’.

Already sick of making new work? Then enter some old work for an award instead.

Nickelodeon NZ has released a new logo to replace the “historical splat”, with new livery launching on-air, on-line and in all off-air marketing collateral. And the Nick brand police are obviously on high alert, chasing down transgressors who don’t follow its very strict, specific, capitalised and unintentionally entertaining logo guidelines.

Venture capitalist and philanthropist Sam Morgan and marketer and bike lover Richard Leggat are the latest additions to the board of Tourism New Zealand. 

DDB NZ has been awarded a place in the top four of Advertising Age’s 2009 International Agency of the Year. Argentina’s Santo took the top prize, with Almap BBDO in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sid Lee in Montreal and DDB NZ making up the foursome.

With a mix of pomp, ceremony, well-managed PR and a fair bit of international media interest, Air New Zealand today unveiled the final prototype of its new cabin upgrades for the soon-to-arrive fleet of five Boeing 777-300s.

Creativity and originality abound in this year’s New Zealand Post Student Marketer of the Year awards, which aim to honour excellence in marketing strategy, creativity and innovative thinking in tertiary students.

Despite the widely held consensus that the economy is beginning to recover, the effects of recent redundancies and higher levels of unemployment continue to make the sales and marketing job market extremely competitive. And gaining access to leading recruitment resources is crucial for job seekers and employers to find the right position or candidate.

A group of New Zealand’s ‘ultra-premium’ wine producers have established a new marketing group called The Specialist Winegrowers of New Zealand (TSWNZ) and the five founding members hope their obsessive desire for quality (a passion they say could possibly be seen as a mild-form of insanity) might help New Zealand wine escape the commoditisation trap they feel it is currently in danger of falling into.  

Awards are seen as something of a badge of honour in agency land. And so, too, is having staff members chosen as jurors to decide who gets them.