In an effort to make the trend of second-screening a bit more interactive, a team of tech geniuses at MIT has developed a system that allows a smartphone user to interact with a laptop or tablet screen with a second device. And while the technology is still in its infancy, there are undoubtedly a few marketers around the world who are thinking up ways that it could be used in a campaign.
In a world where ad blockers—and ad fatigue—are on the rise, embracing digital design thinking can create benefits for brands and consumers, say Josh Barr and Ben Glazewski.
Mobile content aggregator Snakk Media plans to tap into social conversations to build a sense of how to sell at the right time, to the right people.
After a competitive pitch, Lion has decided to shift its digital business away from its agency of over seven years, Digital Arts Network, and hand it to Young & Shand, with its pitch partner Tailor taking care of .net web development.
British fashion and lifestyle magazine i-D has launched its online presence in New Zealand at i-D.co and it’s tapping into a few tricks of its parent company Vice to appeal to the beautiful people—and to get brands involved.
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”.
Following on from last week’s announcement that Yahoo had updated its website with features that allow for greater personalisation, MSN has now similarly given its homepage a facelift. And althought the website has not yet been officially released, Kiwis can catch a glimpse of the changes by visiting the preview site. StopPress takes a look at what the update will offer users and advertisers in the near future.
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.
In an effort to modernise the way dairies are used to deliver promotional messages, Hypermedia Group has announced a new initiative called The Dairy Network, which will see digital advertising screens installed at the point of sale in more than 200 dairies across the country.
There are a huge range of new—and very popular—social platforms, and where consumers go advertisers will follow, says Neville Doyle. But brands need to focus less on being first and more on creating high quality, relevant content.
Peugeot has appointed Contagion as its New Zealand communications partner after a competitive pitch, with the agency set to handle strategy, media, creative and sponsorships.
Spark Ventures’ subscription video on demand service Lightbox launched yesterday (here’s our take on the various streaming options) and while plenty of early adopters seemed pretty excited about that, it’s launched a campaign via Consortium to get the rest of the country to pay attention.
Kelly Addis has returned to the homeland after 14 years in Melbourne to open an Auckland branch of ad agency Zoo. And he’s confident its model—and its trans-Tasman knowledge—will make it an attractive proposition for New Zealand and Australian clients.
Programmatic buying is still just a sliver of the total online ad spend, here and around the world (in New Zealand, it accounted for nine percent or $3 million of the total $31.4 million spent on online display in the last quarter). But it’s getting plenty of column inches and that spend is trending upwards. Most of the big media players have invested in or have access to trading desks and demand side platforms, and many ads for local brands now feature on international sites as a result. But Acquire Online’s Anthony Ord is aiming to get those clients and agencies to support local publishers a bit more by creating a list of 156 different Kiwi sites that have offered inventory as part of a network buy.
It was officially announced yesterday that Bauer had made some major structural and staff changes. So we had a chat with chief executive Paul Dykzeul and commercial director Paul Gardiner about the thinking behind that strategy.
As the greasing up kicks into high gear for the upcoming election, there are a range of digital tools being put to use, either to tempt youngsters out to vote, give guidance or join parties. Here are a few of them.
All around the world, the advertising cash is flowing online. But, in some cases, it’s been proven to be flowing to the wrong places. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in the US has been doing all it can to deal with sophisticated scams involving non-human traffic that are thought to be stealing billions from advertisers, and the New Zealand outpost is attempting to ensure its house is in order too with the formation of a new standards and guidelines council.
Digital screens are coming to a space near you, and the operators are pretty excited about it. But Robett Hollis is sounding the alarm bell and says the industry needs to think hard about what to put on them.
Tango is moving away from being a full services agency creating brand campaigns to a marketing services company that will provide digital services to medium-sized businesses who want to grow. And managing director Boyd Wason says it’s more than just tinkering with a logo.
Touchcast will work with Tourism New Zealand to zjush up TNZ’s digital brand asset management platform that helps all New Zealand’s various tourism activities appear unceasingly epic to the world. TNZ has large image and footage libraries online that currently tourism industry businesses can apply to use, as long as it is used to promote New Zealand as a holiday destination, is mostly be distributed outside of New Zealand, and is not used in paid advertising. In the last year over 65,000 downloads were made from the system.
The correlation between digital marketing excellence and revenue is on the rise, says Adobe’s Tamara Gaffney. And New Zealand and Australia are doing well when it comes to engagement and conversion rates.
One fact that has stuck with me over the years—and flashes up in front of me occasionally when I’m deep in a time-sucking online/social media rabbit hole—is that the same part of the brain that responds so favourably to pokie machines is the same part of the brain that responds so favourably to the constant arrival of notifications on your phone, in your inbox or on social networks. So, like digital meerkats, many of us are constantly popping our heads up and looking for the next information fix. And, as a recent Victoria University study has shown, the online realm is having an impact on our reading behaviour.
While online shopping is certainly on the rise, digital technology does not have to disrupt and destroy physical retail, says Theresa Clifford. Rather, it can be used to optimise inefficiencies and increase service and personalisation.
Flossie chief executive Jenene Crossan was recently asked to present a talk at the Moxie Sessions about what the next 25 years of the internet will hold for our favourite perky nation at the edge of the world. Can we stand up against the mega-trends, or will we drown in a sea of animated cat gifs? And what difference will the internet actually make to our lives? Here’s her response.
As NZ On Air and Colmar Brunton’s recent media consumption study showed, Kiwis still seem to love TV. But while it might be on, the TNS Connected Life survey shows viewers might not be paying attention due to the increasing prevalence of ‘screen-stacking’. PLUS: an entertaining ode to single-tasking.
When it comes to reaching New Zealanders, ye olde traditional broadcast media is still on top, with the results of NZ On Air’s independent media consumption study showing the majority of Kiwis are still consuming lots of linear television and live radio every day. But music audiences, the young and the Asian community are leading the charge to digital platforms.
In April, StopPress reported that a team of Wellingtonians was planning to launch a technology start-up called Postr, an app-based service that would get brands into consumers’ pockets by serving ads on their smartphone homescreens. And now, only a few months later, the project has officially launched and is accessible to the Kiwi public.
It’s no secret that brands are increasingly moving away from traditional forms of paid media in favour of other options like branded content, native advertising and owned media, with a recent PWC report in Australia showing 67 percent of marketers were shifting their spend from bought to owned channels and a quarter of marketers spent between 20 percent and 30 percent of their budget building their own media channels. But Resene has been ahead of the curve in this regard, with its twice-yearly magazine Habitat launching back in 2004. And it is continuing that evolution with the launch of a new responsive, content-rich website www.habitatbyresene.co.nz.
Five interactive digital billboards will reign in Auckland’s CBD by the end of July, bringing a little bit more of Times Square to little old New Zealand. The existing single digital billboard in Queen St will soon link up with a network of four others that will be installed in Newmarket, Newton, Eden Terrace and Grafton, with full social media interaction capabilities.
Over the last week, Heart of the City has been promoting its ‘Where Next?’ app, which was first announced in May. Designed in collaboration between VMob and Colenso, Where Next? puts VMob’s platform to work with a free iPhone and Android app designed to personalise the information visitors get about events, attractions, retail and hospitality, venues, deals and places to find out what’s on.