TRA broke the champagne on its fancy new office in Britomart this year (and developer Peter Cooper called “the best fit out in the precinct”). And it’s about to do it again, this time in Wellington.
Shouting out random things in a public space isn’t the best conversation starter in real life. And TRA’s Colleen Ryan argues the same applies in social media.
The difference between consumers’ claimed behaviour and actual behaviour is often vast. And while marketers like to have concrete data to make plans, Andrew Lewis thinks they need to become better at observing customer behaviour.
Industry happenings at TRA, Dot Loves Data, Adshel, Comvita, Intelligent Ink, Better by Design and Asia Pacific Digital.
TRA has always positioned itself as one of the cool kids of its sector and its previous High St office looked more like a trendy agency than a dowdy research company. It’s taken that even further with its new office in Britomart, which developer Peter Cooper has pronounced “as the best fit out in the precinct”. And it’s bringing a few new clients along with it after winning the Spark, Toyota and Te Wananga o Aotearoa research accounts.
Whether it’s a set of knives, tiny groceries, a free coffee, a toaster, fuel discounts or Airpoints, reward schemes and collectables campaigns are so hot right now in marketing land. In conjunction with TRA, we’ve asked normal humans what they think about the various schemes on offer and now we want to hear from you in the industry, so help us out, fill in this survey and you’ll go into the draw to win your own reward in the form of a Timex Ironman Move x20 Activity Tracker Band valued at $180.
You might not think there are too many similarities between treating syphilis and differentiating brands, but you’d be wrong, says Andrew Lewis, because it illustrates the importance of combining theory with practice.
For most of the year, research agencies are the unsung heroes of the industry, with their insights outshone by the creativity that usually takes centre stage. However, last Friday, the limelight shifted and drew attention to examples of the most effective research conducted over the course of the last year. Hosted at Auckland’s Hilton hotel and attended by a full house of well-dressed researchers, this year’s edition of the biennial Research Effectiveness Awards was hosted by comedian and sausage ambassador Leigh Hart. PLUS: a brief look at the merger between the Market Research Society of New Zealand and the Association of Market Research Organisations (AMRO).
It’s fair to say the last major campaign launched by ASB didn’t go as well as planned, with the shouty, bearded frontman Brian Blessed being sent back to Blighty a bit earlier than expected. The bank’s Succeed On tagline remained, however, and, after being in a bit of a holding pattern as far as its comms were concerned, ASB has now returned with a new campaign via Saatchi & Saatchi that aims to show how New Zealanders really talk about money—and the ASB products and services that might be able to help them deal with it.
During the global financial crisis, the amount spent on research in New Zealand declined significantly, and the industry has struggled to gain back that ground after the recovery. But The Research Agency has grown at around 120 percent per year since it launched in 2007 and it has big ambitions to maintain that. Managing director Andrew Lewis discusses the reasons behind the company’s recent rebrand to TRA, the importance of embracing different disciplines, and why consumers need to be brought into the heart of the business.