Yesterday, it was widely reported that 2degrees had acquired internet service provider Snap for an amount speculated to be between $26 million and $30 million, making it possible for the telco to offer a service that had long been absent from its offering. StopPress chatted to chief marketing officer Malcolm Phillipps about what this means for the company.
Rather than developing capabilities from the ground up, acquisitions provide an effective means by which companies can incorporate new skills into their offerings. This has been seen internationally in purchases by the likes of Google and Facebook. But this trend is by no means exclusive to the residents of Silicon Valley. On this side of the world, Bauer Media, Designworks and Accenture have all recently acquired businesses to consolidate their offerings.
Sometimes unfortunate or unforseen circumstances arise, which means that brands, for better or for worse, need to change their names. We thought we’d look at a few examples closer to home and further afield.
To make it a little easier for brands to navigate the treacherous social media terrain and tell their stories more effectively, Jonathan Hendriksen* launched Shuttlerock, a platform that lets businesses aggregate socially sourced content, photos and videos on their websites. And Lady Gaga’s even using it.
Microsoft New Zealand is throwing down the gauntlet and challenging Google via a new campaign that will offer Kiwi small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) using Google apps a $25-per-user rebate if they purchase Office 365 before 30 April 2015 and switch before 31 May.
Founded 25 years ago and based in Melbourne, retail design specialist Greater Group recently crossed the Tasman to open an office here at the Steelworks Building in Mount Eden in Auckland. This is the fourth arm of the business to open and follows on from the opening of the branches in Hong Kong and Shanghai. And to lead this latest addition to its operation, Greater Group has sent across its general manager of global brand and strategy, Danielle Barclay, someone who is quite familiar with working in New Zealand, having worked her for several years earlier in her career. So StopPress asked her a few questions about what she hopes to acheive now that she’s back on this side of the ditch.
Tourism Australia has announced that it wishes to procure the services of suitably qualified companies to provide public relations services to support Tourism Australia’s marketing activities in a range of countries.
Earlier this year, Bruce ‘Pic’ Picot’s one-millionth jar of peanut butter came off the production line in Nelson, serving as statistical proof of the love the Kiwis have for his product. And since good news travels, it comes as little surprise that the Aussie supermarkets have signed a deal with Picot to stock his product on their shelves. We chat to the purveyor of nutty goodness about expanding his empire, combining poems with peanut butter and being a Kiwi success story.
Sinead Boucher, the group executive editor of Fairfax, has confirmed that the last digital edition of Unlimited magazine will be released in December this year.
New Zealand’s fastest growing companies were announced yesterday at the NZ Deloitte Fast 50 event. It’s a chance for some of our most successful businesses to show off their revenue (and, in some rare cases, maybe even their profit), with a number of these companies making it on to the top 50 index with eye-popping growth. We count down a list of companies associated/loosely associated to the marcomms sector.
Since starting out in Wellington in 2004, Resn has risen to being a world-leading digital agency with one office in the capital, one in Amsterdam, and the majority of its clients in the United States. The agency has been recognised time and time again by the Favorite Website Awards, and last week completely cracked it by becoming the distinguished 23rd member of the FWA Hall of Fame. So what does managing director Rik Campbell think of all the hype?
Increasingly, big businesses need to start acting like start-ups, writes Simon Wedde. And that means being brutally honest about how customers experience your products or services—and then improving it.
Several weeks ago, Spark released the latest iteration of its ‘Never Stop Starting’ positioning via a 30-second spot that depicted a protagonist using Spark’s mobile payment technology across a varied range of jobs in different locations. And the telecommunications giant isn’t the only one dabbling in this space. We take a look at some of the recent moves made the major players.
The changes are coming thick and fast at APN NZ under new chief executive Jane Hastings, with a new exec team announced this week, a more integrated sales approach across its media portfolio and some clever new products like ShopViva. And now the Business Herald is getting in on the action, with more tools, more content and more interactivity added to the website in an effort to deliver “more relevant digital news to New Zealanders”.
Since its launch only two years ago, Wellington-based tech start-up Showcase Workshop has grown quickly, picking up major Kiwi clients such as Spark, NZTE, Z Energy and The Warehouse, and now the company is expanding into Europe after winning a new client in Vodafone UK.
Since 2008, Gianpaolo Grazioli, the owner of Auckland’s haute ice cream store Giapo, has combined experimental flair with culinary mastery to establish one of the most well-known ice cream stores in New Zealand. So what does it take to get Kiwis queuing for a frozen dessert all the way through winter?
On Monday, APN Media launched TrueCommercial, a digital hub dedicated to commercial property and ‘businesses for sale’ listings. For the most part, the initiative serves as an online extension of the Herald’s Commercial Property section, which has until now been published twice a week. The section, which according to Nielsen has a readership of approximately 138,000 Kiwis, will now also be rebranded TrueCommercial from 6 August to give the offering uniformity across the print and digital channels. But how does it differ from the services already offered by Trade Me and RealEstate.co.nz. Updated with additional comments from TrueCommercial brand manager Maria Zolezzi.
This week Ian Thorpe revealed he was gay in an interview with Michael Parkinson. A few months back, Michael Sam and Jason Collins became the first openly gay men to be drafted into the NFL and NBA respectively. And New Zealand and many other nations have legalised gay marriage. So progress is certainly being made in the area of gay rights, at least in the developed world. But there’s still a long way to go. And as John Browne’s book The Glass Closet, ASB’s response to Thorpe’s news and OUTLine’s 100% OK campaign show, the business community can lead the way.
Last year, Clemenger Group headhunted ApolloNation’s Troy Fuller and invited him into Colenso’s offices on College Hill to develop the group’s shopper marketing expertise. His expertise resulted in quick momentum and now, only a year later, it has officially unveiled Clemenger Shop as the latest addition to the group.
Jordan Belfort is, as The Independent wrote, “among the most infamous crooked businessmen in recent history”. And, as Martin Scorcese’s movie The Wolf of Wall St showed, he was also one of the most debauched. But after serving time following his 2004 conviction for defrauding clients out of more than $200 million, he claims to have seen the error of his ways and has reinvented himself as a motivational speaker specialising in sales techniques. Jenene Crossan dances with the Wolf.
At 15, an age when most teens are experimenting with pimple-popping techniques, Brendan Jarvis had already entered the digital agency world. And this early foray set the foundation that would eventually lead him to the position of running The Space In Between, an agency with eight staff and a growing market in the education sector and the US.
Derek Handley, co-founder of the Hyperfactory, Snakk Media chair, Sky board member, executive professor at AUT and author of Heart to Start, made the decision to dedicate one year of his life to working alongisde Richard Branson on The B Team, a global leadership force that’s on a mission to catalyse better ways of doing business for the wellbeing of people and our planet. Two years later, here’s what he’s learned.
Only five months after NBR reported that Mediaweb was unable to pay its staff, it has now been announced that the publisher has gone into receivership. Updated with comments from Tony Maginness, the receiver who has been appointed to the case.
Media Titles Group has sold its holding in Rugby News to Mark Calverley of Auckland in a move that sees the six directors, which comprised the largely Australian-based group, relinquishing their control of the publication.
In a new series, we talk to Kiwi keyboard tappers that have managed to shift from the personal realm of blogging to create online media brands that are widely read (and in some cases profitable). In the first segment, we chat to Jamie Frater, the founder of Listverse.
Rainger Connect and Rolfe Limited have merged to form a new agency called Rainger & Rolfe. Managing partners Ant Rainger and Jen Rolfe have each left their respective offices in favour of a new digs in Parnell, which now brings 10 staff members and about a dozen key clients under the same roof.
There’s been a fair bit of carnage in the local business and trade press in recent years, with The Independent closing, Fairfax flicking on a few of its titles and moving Unlimited online, and Mediaweb seemingly hanging on for dear life at present. But Vincent Heeringa, publisher of Idealog and NZ Marketing, is hoping to fill what he thinks is fairly large information void with The Briefing, a membership-style media offering aimed at leaders from the C-Suite “who share the determination to transform their business in a world of radical change”.
Earthwise, a maker of environmentally friendly cleaning products, climbed to the top of this year’s Deloitte Fast 50 list of companies with 1004 percent growth, while mobile media specialists Snakk Media and digital agency Young & Shand, which was a Rising Star last year, made the top ten with growth of 486 percent and a 467 percent repsectively.
Kiwibank has added business functionality to its consumer mobile banking app in an offering that lets users switch between accounts when they’re using mobile banking.
EY, which until recently was Ernst & Young, has announced the finalists of this year’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards.