Browsing: Bridget Lamont

News
The foreign connection: does it matter that over a quarter of Stuff and Herald online readers are located abroad?—UPDATED
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Research from Nielsen shows that approximately 25 percent of unique online visitors to the Stuff website and 29 percent to the NZ Herald in the month of October came from readers located outside New Zealand. So are advertisers aware of the high proportion of international visitors and are they taking it into account when purchasing ads on these news sites? And also, how are publishers monetising their international audiences?

News
Countdown goes back to the collectables well once again, this time with Disney Pixar
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The human urge to collect is a powerful one (and makes for excellent television). And our local supermarkets have been tapping into this urge in recent years, whether through tiny groceries or animal cards. In pretty much every case, the nation seems to have gone completely mad for them, with swap meets being organised, black markets being established and kids regularly tugging on parents’ pants demanding the full set and the associated plastic tat. Now Countdown has struck up a deal with Disney Pixar for its latest collectables campaign, Domino Stars.

Opinion
Horse’s Mouth: Bridget Lamont, Countdown
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Over the past 11 years, Bridget Lamont has moved her way up the ranks at the green juggernaut of Kiwi retail to eventually become the general manager of marketing. She recently chatted to us about price wars, shouty retail advertising and the perception that Countdown isn’t a Kiwi company.

News
Snow leopards, monkey-eating eagles and cuckoo bees star in Countdown’s latest collectibles effort
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Last year, Countdown jumped onto the collectibles bandwagon by distributing DreamWorks Heroes 3D cards to customers who spent $20 or more in stores. And despite this previous campaign being criticised for relying on pester power and for not being environmentally friendly, Countdown is going for another collectibles ride—and this time it’s all about the inhabitants of the wild.

News
New World launches loyalty programme, but Countdown has 20-year headstart
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Foodstuffs has collaborated with one-to-one agency JustOne to launch a new loyalty programme exclusive to New World. In the past, the company has relied on the Fly Buys reward scheme to give its customers added incentive to shop at the store, but Foodstuffs group general marketing manager Steve Bayliss says that it was time to develop something discrete. And while this is a novel move for New World, it comes well after Countdown first launched its loyalty programme in 1994.

News
Countdown’s Dreamworks Heroes campaign brings some welcome good news
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In a change of tack from giving out free cutlery, knives and glassware, the embattled Countdown followed New World’s Little Shop suit recently and hawked DreamWorks Heroes 3D collectible character cards and albums. And kids and adults alike have loved it, with general manager of marketing Bridget Lamont saying the campaign saw millions of cards in the hands of Kiwi parents and kids, and more than 100,000 albums sold out across the country.

News
Countdown kills off The Colemans, focuses on impromptu filming
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For the past few years, a major pillar of Countdown’s advertising strategy has consisted of lathering up the nation with the soap that was The Colemans. It may not have been lauded by the industry, but it seemed to do the job on the public, and the many executions by Chris Dudman of Robber’s Dog earned regular spots in Colmar Brunton’s top ten ads list. But now the Progressive chain has said goodbye to the fictional family and embraced reality TV.

News
Give free stuff and they will come: Countdown seeks to lure shoppers with glassy offering
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While New World is busy trying to win shoppers’ hearts with nostalgia, and Pak ‘n Save with stickmen, Countdown is once again tugging at the most powerful of consumer heartstrings, free stuff. Off the back of its popular knives promotion, which saw more than 700,000 free Thomas Knives snapped up by customers, the supermarket has launched its Royal Worcester glasses promotion, and it’s confident this one will be just as successful as its predecessor.

News
Countdown lets your fingers do the shopping with new mobile app
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Smartphone penetration is now thought to be around 30 percent in New Zealand, and that number is increasing rapidly. So Countdown has jumped on the mobile bandwagon and upped the ante in terms of customer experience by launching what it’s calling a New Zealand-first iPhone app that features a digital shopping list and barcode scanning technology, as well as the ability to check prices, find recipe ingredients, collect loyalty points and shop online.