Findings from InMobi’s Mobile Insights Report Q3 show Apple remains the dominant force in the New Zealand market, with 42 percent of total impressions, a nine percent increase from last quarter. But there are also positive signs for Android, climbing five percent to take 34 percent of the total market share. PLUS: infographic action.
Recycling really should be second nature by now, but it doesn’t take much more than a look around to see there’s still plenty of work to be done in terms of education. So in an effort to fill up those 1000-odd recycling bins all around the country, Love NZ has just pushed play on a six-week campaign by McCann Melbourne and its direct and digital arm MRM called It’s A Karma Thing, which exhorts Kiwis to ‘do the right thing’ and earn points they can then redeem for prizes.
QR codes have slowly started to infiltrate the local scene, but it’d be a stretch at this stage to say they’ve rocked the marketing world. Enter Boxtcode, patent-pending smartphone technology that aims to resolve the limitations of QR codes, with location-based technology that connects consumers with brands via a four digit code rather than a barcode that requires scanning.
The Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards are hitting stage and screen next week, and, just as it did last year, Vodafone has employed the services of augmented reality (AR) as part of its sponsorship push. But it’s gone a bit further in its seventh year as naming rights sponsor with a few innovative mobile additions, like tapping into the second screening phenomenon with Pluk functionality and claiming a New Zealand first with an interactive broadcast set to be screened via its app.
A year ago we introduced you to Veronica Nobbs, the AUT graduate and entrepreneur behind mobile app Get a Room. She had a vision for shaking up the hotel booking industry—having noticed that customers were increasingly booking on the same day as their stay—and devised an app for reserving rooms at super short notice. That vision continued as the business rebranded as Stay Today a few months ago and added features like a unique price-drop engine that reduces room costs throughout the day from noon onwards.
The primary sector has played a massive role in propping up the New Zealand economy during this recessionary period and while farmers might not be tucking quite as much cash under their mattresses as they have been in recent years, they’re still very lucrative targets, as evidenced by the massive number of companies greasing up to them at Fieldays. And now Nielsen has released results of its inaugural Nielsen Rural Survey to show how they can best be reached.
54 percent of Kiwi online shoppers now own a smartphone, according to PwC. And thanks to the search engines in their pockets they are likely to know things about your market before you do. This should put the mobile customer experience near the top of the to-do list for many companies and the MA’s September Brainy Breakfast, which, for the first time in several years will also be held in Wellington, focuses on five key mobile experience trends that will help get you up with the play.
Subcard, the customer loyalty programme of Subway in New Zealand, is one of the most progressive loyalty schemes in the country. And, as it turns out, it’s also one of the most progressive loyalty schemes in the world, because it has been named as a winner of the third annual Colloquy Loyalty Awards, an event presented by LoyaltyOne and Visa in the United States to honour groundbreaking innovations in loyalty.
TVNZ is currently revelling in some massive numbers for New Zealand’s Got Talent, which went from an average 5+ audience of 935,000 in its first episode to 975,000 last night. It’s got another ratings tiger by the tail with My Kitchen Rules on TV2 and, in an effort to emphasise that it is less like a simple cooking programme and more like a character-driven, drama-filled reality show, it developed a campaign in conjunction with Contagion based around the idea that ‘Some things don’t mix’.
We had a chat with Telecom’s chief marketing officer Jason Paris yesterday for a profile that will feature in the next edition of NZ Marketing magazine and he said one of the best things about the new Tommy and Boris work is the fact that everyone thinks it’s a brand campaign. That’s understandable, given the set-up ad is the only one that has been released so far. But it’s actually a retail platform that’s being used to promote different aspects of the Telecom business. And the first examples of that strategy were launched last night, with one spot focusing on ‘New Zealand’s best pre-paid pack’ and another classy number showing some of the lesser known benefits of broadband.
When it comes to inspiring fear, public speaking is up there with spiders, heights and getting stuck in the lift with John Banks. But a Kiwi app development company called Sush Mobile hopes it can reduce the number of sweaty palms, dull thuds in the chest and embarrassing stutters with a new iPhone app called Speak Like a Pro. And it’s already proving popular, with the app reaching No. 1 in the iTunes entertainment app charts and, within 48 hours of its launch, No. 9 in the iTunes business app charts.
It’s tough out there in charity land at the moment. There are lots of organisations fighting for funding, consumers are still counting their pennies and in EFTPOS-loving New Zealand the cashless society is a very real thing, which means the traditional street appeal doesn’t work quite as well as it once did. So to get around this and drive donations in the lead up to Daffodil Day on 31 August, the Cancer Society and &some have called on the ubiquity of the mobile phone to help smooth the process.
ASB has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most innovative banks, as evidenced by its inclusion on the Financial Brand’s list of ten brands to watch, the Top 35 Banks on Facebook and Top 35 Banks on Twitter. It was the first to launch internet banking in New Zealand in 1997, its virtual ‘Facebranch’ was an award-winning world-first, and its latest development has followed that trajectory by letting users pay Facebook friends through its updated mobile app. So is it digital gimmickry? Or is ASB adhering to its slogan and creating the future? We chat with general manager, brand experience and digital channels Anna Curzon.
The way traditional telcos work, you’d imagine a mobile phone network with tens of thousands of customers would have a call centre to service the inevitable service issues and enquiries. Not Giffgaff, the UK-based mobile virtual network operator that broke the traditional Telco mould by creating an entirely online service that puts much of the power into the hands of its customers. And fronting the member experience arm of the company is Kiwi lass Claire Kavanagh, who was in town last week for the Marketing Association’s Direct Marketing event. We managed to steal a moment of her time between speakers to have a chat about the unique Giffgaff model and ask whether it could be done in New Zealand.
Independent mobile advertising network InMobi has released its latest New Zealand Mobile Insights Report, showing Apple’s iOS platform has overtaken Android for the first time and a 78 percent increase in tablet impressions on the InMobi network over the past three months.
Tapping into the rising popularity of QR codes, Waterfront Auckland has a new trick up its sleeve: a new attraction that uses your smartphone to take you on an interactive tour of the city’s best sights.
Not satisfied with simply being the beer sponsor for the All Blacks, Steinlager has gone all gadgety with its latest venture—an iPhone app that helps All Blacks supporters find their way around town whislt keeping them up to date with real-time stream of All Blacks news. And, because ending up passed out in a gutter somewhere isn’t ideal, the app also helps ensure you get home safely.
Loyalty NZ’s Fly Buys programme has captured the attention of another telco after Telecom pulled out of its partnership with the rewards programme close to three years ago. 2degrees has announced it has joined up with Fly Buys to rake in some loyalty points with its ever rising number of customers.
Smartphones just keep getting smarter and smarter. Even the NZ Hi-Tech Awards think so, hence awarding mobile voucher company VoucherMob the Ministry of Science & Innovation Best Hi-Tech Start-up category at the Hi-Tech Awards held in Wellington last week.
Hey, creative types, it’s the last week to enter the Axis awards. And, to ramp up the excitement (and patriotism), the Axis gang, with new convenor of judges Tony Bradbourne at the helm, has released the results of an extremely scientifically robust study that shows New Zealand is the most creative country in the world.
In July last year 2degrees launched its mobile network in New Zealand, utilising funny man Rhys Darby to front its campaign. And it is fair to say the campaign has been successful so far. We managed to sneak a quick moment with 2degrees head of sales and marketing Larrie Moore to ask him a few quick fire questions about the last seven months.
When it comes to being fashionable, iphones are high in the ranks. It’s set to get even more fashionable with the launch of a new iPhone application for NZFashion.com.
The iPhone ‘app’ replicates many of NZFashion.com’s functions by showcasing the latest NZ collections, listing stockists for …