Browsing: Tom Bates

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NZ@SXSW: Tessa Gould
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Contagion’s Tom Bates went to hang with the geeks and soak up the knowledge at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, recently. And while he was there he caught up with a few expat Kiwis doing big things, like Tessa Gould.

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NZ@SXSW 2014: Sarah Robb O’Hagan
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For the past week, Contagion’s Tom Bates has been hangin’ with the geeks and soaking up the knowledge at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas. And while he was there he caught up with a few expat Kiwis doing big things. First up, Sarah Robb O’Hagan.

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StopPress@SXSW 2014: the new digital age
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The opening keynote at SXSW in Austin, Texas, features some heavy hitters. Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, joins Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas and Steven Levy, senior writer at Wired, for a debate on the next few years in the digital world. Contagion’s Tom Bates is there to find out what’s next and whether privacy is gone forever.

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StopPress@SXSW: The digital revolution with Sean Parker and friends
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Sean Parker, founder of Napster and an early investor in Facebook and Spotify, is a figurehead in the digital revolution of the past 15 years. In the wake of his new documentary Downloaded, which tells the story of the controversial music sharing service, Contagion’s Tom Bates pulls up a chair to hear his view on how we got to where we are now, how the world has changed and how to move forward.

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StopPress@SXSW: Trend spotting
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What’s been happening at SXSW so far? Here’s a little recap courtesy of the people soaking up the vast array of topics—from humanity innovation to brand engagement in new media.

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StopPress@SXSW: Mashable Variety Show
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Tom Bates fought his way through the throngs of hipsters taking photos of their food to attend Mashable’s Variety Show at SXSW. And from transparent screens to native advertising to Nyan Cat, he got a taste of the future.

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StopPress at SXSW – Al Gore on the future
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Our intrepid honorary reporter Tom Bates of Contagion is at SXSW in Austin, Texas – looking into what trends from the world of marketing, media and advertising might affect us in New Zealand this year. Former US vice president and climate change activist Al Gore is up first, talking about the forces shaping the world today. Join us at 10:30am for the liveblog.

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Contagion’s Stories beat Stuff gets the young’uns clicking
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15-29 year olds make up 25 percent of New Zealand’s total visitors. And while they may not spend as much as the older folk, they stay here for a longer and are an important chunk of revenue for the industry. Due to a combination of new, exciting and probably cheaper destinations coming into fashion and a lack of activity directed at the youth market over the years, New Zealand has fallen off the radar slightly for this demographic, but Stories Beat Stuff, a digital campaign launched by Contagion last year that asks potential travellers to give something up in exchange for a trip to New Zealand, is helping to change that.

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Swap meet: Contagion and Tourism NZ aim for the young’uns with global trade-in scheme
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Most of Tourism New Zealand’s sizable marketing and comms budget now gets directed towards digital channels in an effort to get ‘active considerers’ on the plane. And its latest work via Contagion is trying to tempt the Gen Ys back for some backpacking with Storiesbeatstuff.com, something the agency believes is “possibly the largest social media campaign a New Zealand agency has produced”. 

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Air New Zealand’s new fare offering gives Kiwi jetsetters a choice, bro
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Air New Zealand recently launched its new ‘Seats to Suit’ option for flights between New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands, giving customers the opportunity to choose between four different ways of flying — Seat, Seat + Bag, The Works and Works Deluxe. And, in now fairly traditional Air New Zealand/.99 style, it’s created a quirky piece of promotional content to highlight the different options.