In a move that could cause a slight tinge of Orwellian panic in some, Telecom Digital Ventures (TDV) has confirmed that it is trialling a SmartHome prototype called DigiLife to determine if it has a place in the Kiwi market. Headed by Will Farrell-Green, the DigiLife team will over the next month monitor 20 to 30 Kiwi homes using the technology.
Since first launching 4G connectivity last year, Vodafone’s network has stretched to over 47 regions throughout the nation. And now, in an effort to take this a step further, the red telco is adding a little international flavour to its offering by extending this service to several international destinations. Speaking at a conference held this morning at the Air New Zealand Customer Innovation and Collaboration Centre, Vodafone’s chief executive Russell Stanners and consumer director Matt Williams announced that the telecommunications company was launching two new initiatives: daily roaming packages in 17 countries throughout the world; and 4G connectivity in five countries. PLUS: see the new TVC.
Colenso BBDO and Burger King are continuing their somewhat outrageous creative partnership with the introduction of Frank, a cockney geezer with a seeming inexhaustible resource of vernacular-laden phrases that even Guy Ritchie would battle to understand.
When Telecom unveiled ShowMeTV—a name that was ditched shortly afterwards—it was billed as the Netflix of online television in New Zealand. And now, in a seeming effort to create the Netflix of online gaming, the telco is launching a cloud-gaming streaming service called Aircade.
The Health Promotion Agency (HPA) has launched a new website under the ‘Choice not Chance’ banner that helps people to recognise the early signs of harmful gambling. And, in an effort to draw attention to the latest addition to its anti-gambling arsenal, the government organisation has also released a new TVC via GSL Promotus.
Creative talent placement agency The Pond recently redesigned its website to make it fully compatible and responsive on iPads and iPhones—meaning that iOS users can now access their accounts on the go. The new website, which was designed by Wellington-based digital agency Heyday and serves largely as a creative matchmaking service, enables company owners to browse through the profiles of creatives to find someone suitable for a certain job.
A new V Energy campaign launched via YouTube and Facebook by Colenso BBDO is offering consumers the opportunity to get their hands on a grand prize of a $20,000 experience. Hosted within the Vheadtohead Facebook app and promoted on billboards, can branding and through a YouTube pre-roll, the new campaign questions what type of ‘V Head’ consumers are and then encourages them to enter the competition by selecting one of four options: AdventureHead, PetrolHead, TechHead or MusicHead.
The Designers Institute has a fresh website, which puts the spotlight on organisation members. The simplified homepage, with ‘760 Designers’ in large type, links to a member directory, while a pared back menu has information about the institute, its events, sponsors, awards and business resources.
Social Media NZ co-founder John Lai has confirmed that he has sold his website to independent advertising and social media marketing agency Catalyst90. Established in 2009 by Lai and Leonardo Law, Social Media NZ serves as blog-styled platform that provides information and news stories related to the digital sphere in New Zealand. Updated with comments from Catalyst90 general manager Jess Bovey. (Image: Catalyst90’s founder Tom Reidy and general manager Jess Bovey)
The wait for mobile viewing is over for Sky subscribers who don’t own iPads, as the broadcaster has just announced the launch of a new version of the Sky Go app that’s compatible on certain versions of Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Since launching in December last year, the Sky Go app has only been available to subscribers via Apple’s products—and the popularity of this initial release has led Sky to increase the inclusivity of its offering. Updated with statistics from Nielsen and with comments from TVNZ’s general manager of on-demand Jason Foden.
Earlier this month, Telecom opted for a sadistic promotional approach by forcing comedian Guy Williams to endure a range of painful experiences as part of its ‘Extreme Unboxing’ campaign for the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S5. And while this certainly generated quite a few laughs and YouTube hits for Telecom, actor Cliff Curtis will no doubt feel relieved that FCB veered away from schadenfreude when developing a campaign dedicated to the technological device for Vodafone. Rather than harming anyone in the making of its campaign, Vodafone is instead offering to reward one lucky subscriber with $100,000 worth of gold. Updated with comments from a Vodafone spokesperson.
Rather than simply contributing to the extensive canon of big data worship, Shane Gibson, the owner of data intelligence agency OptimalBI, has launched a topical campaign that aims to give a visual representation of the type of information that can be extracted from big data. Hosted on a specially dedicated microsite, the campaign will give a data-driven comparative analysis of key poltical figures in the lead-up to this year’s election.
Given that an insurance claim is equally undesirable for both the insurer and the insured, State Insurance has launched a new campaign that it hopes will ensure that Kiwi drivers don’t get to the stage where they have to deal with the unceremonious clang of metal colliding on the tarmac. The ‘motor services pack’ campaign, launched via Colenso BBDO on Easter Monday, gives State clients exclusive access to a range of deals at VTNZ, Z and Bridgestone via a specially designed app that can be downloaded from the insurance company’s website.
Next week at the The Project: Digital Disruption conference being hosted by AUT on 30 April and 1 May, Cameron Gawley will appear as one of the international speakers at an event jam-packed with 30 of the sharpest minds in the industry. Gawley’s success has seen him ranked fifth on Business Insider’s list of the 25 most influential ad executives on Twitter, and he is also a founding member of the Social Media Club of Dallas and a Board Member for the American Advertising Federation of Dallas. On Tuesday, StopPress sat down with Gawley for a Skype conversation, which although distorted at times, gave us a glimpse at what to expect from the entrepreneur during his visit. PLUS: enter our competition and be in to win a ticket to The Project: Digital Disruption worth $599.
BKA Interactive kicked off when HTML was newfangled and Webmonkey was the only way to search the net for how to code. Now CEO Barbara Anderson, creative director Maak Bow and the team are mining their diverse base of work for nuggets to turn into products that could be used across industries, companies and the globe. We take a look behind the concrete curtain at this innovative company.
Auckland’s Media Design School (MDS) expects its students to be producing PlayStation games by the end of this year now it’s offering the PlayStation First Academic Development programme.
This industry generally isn’t backward in coming forward about its achievements and there are many opportunities for those achievements to be acknowledged. But we’re sick of writing about you, so, as we often do on the last day of our publishing year, we’re taking the opportunity to talk about what we’ve done this year and what we’ve got planned for the next.
Vodafone has launched a kit with activities for kids and tips for parents after research that showed a large proportion of children accessing the internet using mobile devices by the time they turned six. The Digital Facts of Life was made with Vodafone in the UK and games company Moshi Monsters.
Orcon has appealed an Advertising Standards Authority ruling that upheld a complaint about its TV ad which featured Kim Dotcom saying, “join today and start living with truly unlimited broadband”. The telco says it’s got rid of the Fair Use policy that was the bone of contention.
SkyTV, one of New Zealand’s biggest broadcasters, has followed in TVNZ’s footsteps by launching SkyGo, an iOS app that enables Sky subscribers to stream content on compatible laptops, mobiles or tablets. But rather than including an on-demand streaming feature, the new app limits viewers to pre-recorded content and live channels. While this is sure to be hit with sports fans, it will do little to appease those who want an on-demand mobile option.
This is the story of Lee Reid, a neuroscientist who overcame a debilitating pain disorder to write an app that makes it easier for people to compose music. Following on from the success of this original app, he has once again defied the odds by releasing a pro version that offers a range of new features.
Westpac has chosen three winning apps in a competition it launched to find ways of making banking processes faster. The Westpac App Challenge crowdsourcing contest pitted 120 entrants from around the country against each other, with seven finalists participating in a Dragon’s Den style showdown a few weeks ago at Westpac’s Auckland HQ.
Radio streaming service Pandora may be a music company, but it’s also a business built on data.
At the heart of that data is the Music Genome Project. Twelve years in the making, it’s a big part of how the company decides how it will serve up your next song.
The challenge and opportunity for business is that mobile significantly disrupts the traditional path to purchase model across most categories. Understanding how you can use the channel to attract, convert and retain customers will help marketers reinvent their sales model and deliver new business opportunities in this rapidly evolving landscape.
As the ‘100% Pure’ brand, meticulously built by Hobbit labour, begins to erode, I find myself asking the question – is it now time for the geeks to inherit Middle Earth? If we must align our country’s brand with an export industry, would not IT be a smarter choice?
Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook says there’s “great stuff” on the horizon. And we think we may have found it.
The government’s $1.5 billion Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) network is now in reach of 135,000 end users, but less than 4,000 New Zealanders have connected so far, according to ICT minister Amy Adams, and without Telecom and Vodafone to market the benefits, it’s unlikely to go mainstream in the near future.
Today we launch the latest addition to the StopPress media empire: Didge. Now let us tell you about why we think the digital world is important enough for its own coveted space on StopPress.
Clearly not done with just taking our doctors, engineers, aunties and nephs, Australia is now looking to poach New Zealand’s reality TV talent for Beauty and the Geek Australia. FOUR has announced that next season of the gameshow will feature a Kiwi beauty and geek, but applicants must play into some heavy and insulting stereotypes in order to be eligible.