NZ Marketing

NZ Marketing is the magazine for Kiwi marketing professionals, covering marketing, advertising, and ad media.

NZ Marketing1 min read
NZ Marketing
COMMERCIAL MANAGER Vernene Medcalf vernene.medcalf@scg.net.nz DESIGNER Alisha Kumar EDITORIAL TEAM Bernadette Basagre and Niko Kloeten COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Finn Cochran CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Graham Medcalf and Caitlin Salter RETAIL & SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGE
NZ Marketing2 min read
Changing With The Times
As we go to print, the industry’s still reeling from the dramatic developments of Warner Bros Discovery’s proposed Newshub closure and TVNZ’s axing of beloved and profitable shows like Fair Go and Sunday. It’s a tough time for the media industry in N
NZ Marketing1 min read
Our Contributors
Head of Marketing at Live Nation Entertainment on the power of brand activations at a favourite festival. Lead Business Partner at DDB on helping McDonald’s take a bite out of summer. Chief Experience & Delivery Officer at Merkle on crucial CX impera
NZ Marketing2 min read
Celebrating Exceptional Marketing
The NZ Marketing Awards are set to change, with YouTube becoming the primary naming sponsor. This year, our exciting celebration of industry excellence will be rebranded as the YouTube-NZ Marketing Awards. The YouTube-NZ Marketing Awards will laud th
NZ Marketing5 min read
2024: The Year For Transformation At Speed
In 2024, Federation is an agency that’s leading transformation and defying downturn trends. One of New Zealand’s most wellestablished independent advertising agencies, it’s a company that’s built a reputation for continually zigging in a zagging indu
NZ Marketing6 min read
Industry Insights
Content Director at Digitas New Zealand, Chris Brunner, addresses the power of content-first thinking in the era of information technology. Content has long been the engine powering businesses to succeed in the information age. As we enter the ‘intel
NZ Marketing7 min readPopular Culture & Media Studies
What’s Trending In The Creator Economy?
Having grown up with the internet, Gen Zers are considered digital natives, unfamiliar with a world before the world wide web. Since they were born into this environment, they know social media typically involves the sharing of the highest highs but
NZ Marketing9 min read
Keeping It Local
There’s an indisputable trend towards New Zealand-owned creative agencies thriving, despite the dominance of global networks. Local agencies tend to be more agile and adaptable, allowing them to quickly respond to client needs and changing market tre
NZ Marketing5 min read
Behind The Rise Of Motion Sickness
Like many successful businesses, it all started with a gap in the market. Friends Sam Stuchbury (pictured opposite), Alex McManus and Hilary Ngan Kee saw a creative industry niche they wanted to fill. The upshot of that, Motion Sickness, took root in
NZ Marketing5 min read
Reinventing For A New World
Like many businesses, the catalyst for reinvention at Bastion Shine came in 2020, when Covid shut down the country. Realising the post-pandemic world would look quite different to the one before it, successful indie ad agency Shine made some bets. To
NZ Marketing4 min read
Onfire Design Cracks One Of The World’s Toughest Markets
The journey began in 2021, when Onfire Design received an email from a client, advising them of the rebranding plans for a “very traditional business” moving fast with innovation and needing to rebrand to match its current aspirations. “We are mandat
NZ Marketing1 min read
Map Of adland 2024
Presented by mediaworks. This fourth-edition tear-out map is designed to give an overview of Adland across the motu, mapping out who owns who and who does what. The aim is to help marketers better navigate the local market, especially those new to th
NZ Marketing5 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
Engagement To Empowerment
In today’s hyperconnected world, consumers are hyper-discerning. For marketers, that means a key aim is to provide a holistic brand experience. To do this well, it’s crucial that brands and marketers understand and tap into consumer preferences when
NZ Marketing3 min read
Love & obsession
To truly obsess about your customers, you need to design your business around them. Businesses are beginning to understand the benefits of a customer-centric model and realising how this differs from being customer-focused (designing products, servic
NZ Marketing2 min read
Lockdown Baby: The Birth Of A Rascal
It was March 2020, in the midst of the first lockdown. Like a lot of agency folk, I was feeling the grind of being too stretched, under-resourced and racked with guilt that I wasn’t doing my best work. Then Covid hit and shit hit the fan, creating ex
NZ Marketing6 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
The Power Of AI In Advertising
The rise of AI and machine learning (ML) presents a massive opportunity for advertising agencies to leapfrog ahead. One of the ways in which they can embrace it includes investing in expertise by building in-house AI/ML teams, and hiring data scienti
NZ Marketing3 min read
Deep In The Data
In an age in which the validity of information is contested and scepticism runs high, the significance of factual accuracy has never been greater. Collaborating with global health leaders CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), Ne
NZ Marketing2 min read
CHARM BY NAME, charming By Nature
I feel positive about the opportunities that’ll be presented to agencies like Charm in the coming months. Charm continues to remain steadfast in its dedication to excellence for our clients, and each other. We’re not unique in the challenges we face
NZ Marketing2 min read
Chronically ONLINE
With the world at our fingertips, agencies across the motu are tasked with competing for people’s attention on not only a local level, but also a global scale. Today’s creatives must come up with innovations that are several steps ahead of the intern
NZ Marketing5 min read
TE&M IS A meeting Of Minds
So how did TE&M come about? Martin Yeoman: Having long-standing careers in the local advertising industry, we’ve bumped into and worked with each other in different capacities over the years. We’ve partnered on numerous client projects and realised t
NZ Marketing3 min read
Turning The Agency Model Inside Out
WHAT IS INSIDERS? Insiders was founded by myself and Craig Whitehead, two of New Zealand’s most experienced advertising leaders, with an unparalleled specialism in the world of retail communications. Over our – ahem – 25-plus years in the industry, w
NZ Marketing8 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
Rethinking Integration PR Agencies Roll With The Changing Tide.
Providing an integrated strategy for clients differs from agency to agency. Digital and creative agencies are increasingly partnering up to unlock the full potential of both, with clients seeing streamlined processes and improved bottom lines. Direct
NZ Marketing4 min read
The Secret To Becoming New Zealand’s Favourite Ad
TRA is now in its fourth year of tracking New Zealand’s favourite ads. In that time, we’ve seen some campaigns come and go in the rankings, while others have consistently made it into the top 10. Recently, we announced the favourite ads of summer 202
NZ Marketing1 min read
NZ’s 10 Favourite Ads In December 2023
1. ASB ‘Ben and Amy’ (pictured left) Unchanged 2. ANZ ‘We Do How’ (pictured opposite) Unchanged 3. Turners ‘Tina from Turners’ +1 4. PAK’nSAVE ‘Stickman’ +1 5. McDonald’s ‘It’s Good to be the Driver’ New to list 6. The Warehouse ‘A Christmas Spent To
NZ Marketing4 min read
Behind The Scenes Driving Hotter Sales Over Summer
When Kiwis are out on road trips, swimming in the sea and taking well-deserved naps, getting our attention is tough, but some brands (ice-cream, anyone?) that encapsulate the essence of the Kiwi summer are successful in capturing the interest of thos
NZ Marketing4 min read
A Beautiful Collision
These days, creativity alone just isn’t enough. Clients need to see ideas lined up alongside a commercial strategy, but not in the way some agencies are thinking. “Yeah, yeah,” they say, “the effectiveness guys are all over the ECD.” That sounds like
NZ Marketing3 min read
Out With The Old, In With The Gold(ie)
How many people can say they own a real gold bar? Not many. Co-founder and Director of investment platform Goldie, Cam Maclachlan, is big on breaking stigmas in the complicated realm that is finance, by giving Kiwis the opportunity to do investment d
NZ Marketing3 min read
Tune In To The Super Bowl’s Ad Ideas
Between the action-packed gridiron and the halftime show, this year’s Super Bowl proved it’s the equivalent of the Oscars for brands and marketers. As fans cheered the Chiefs’ overtime victory and swooned over Taylor Swift’s fairytale moment with its
NZ Marketing4 min read
Selling Innovation In Tight Times
Headquartered in Hamilton, with more than 1,300 employees in 15 countries and selling to nearly 160, Gallagher Group is one of Aotearoa’s largest privately held companies. Ask the average New Zealander about it and they might mention the electric fen
NZ Marketing2 min read
Mapping Out Now And Next For Your Brand
Technology has democratised the creative toolbox, and with so many of us growing up digitally native, the creative world has been massively disrupted. On top of that, the fragmented media landscape and maturing of social media has changed how we expe
NZ Marketing4 min read
RHYTHM, VINES & BRAND ACTIVATIONS
For many a young New Zealander, Rhythm & Vines is the highlight of the Kiwi summer. The three-day musical extravaganza held in a Gisborne vineyard attracts around 88,000 attendees each year. Unlike its contemporaries, Rhythm & Vines is seen as someth
NZ Marketing5 min read
Does Aotearoa Have Adequate Venues For Major Events?
In the aftermath of Taylor Swift’s absence from New Zealand leaving fans disappointed, questions have arisen about whether the country possesses a collection of venues that are fit to host major events and concerts. Although Aotearoa boasts a rich sp
NZ Marketing3 min read
Adaptive Retail The Next Evolution In Retail
The quest for growth is not easy. Markets are mature, customers are fickle, competition is fierce and new entrants can be more innovative and have a lower cost to entry. Retail is essentially everywhere. To win in it is to create a memorable customer
NZ Marketing9 min read
Savvy Spending, savvier Marketing
It’s been a rough start to the year for New Zealand’s retail sector. Vacuum retailer Godfreys recently went into voluntary administration, while The Warehouse sold struggling outdoor brand Torpedo7 to an investment group for $1. Earnings season has b
NZ Marketing4 min read
Gravy On The Side
Caring too much about my clients’ businesses was the bane of my bigagency life. I’d been on the end of too many internal conversations about ‘over-servicing’ clients, but I’m sorry, I think that’s simply BS. I don’t believe you can get the best for y
NZ Marketing4 min read
Lucky You!
John Wanamaker (1838-1922) is regarded as a marketing pioneer. A hugely successful Philadelphia-based retail merchant, he’s lauded by marketers both for developing the modern concept of the department store and for his prodigious use of advertising t
NZ Marketing9 min read
Making The Most Of It
Warner Bros Discovery rocked the media industry in late February, when it announced that its news service Newshub is set to close as part of a proposed restructure of its free-to-air business in Aotearoa. The 6pm Newshub bulletin has been a nightly s
NZ Marketing10 min read
The Last Of The Mass Media
There’s an element of ‘back to the future’ in the growth of New Zealand’s Out of Home (OOH) market in 2024. In a world of pop-up ads, AIgenerated content and a vast array of social media platforms, the old-fashioned stick-an-ad-where-people-willsee-i
NZ Marketing4 min read
People, Assets & Innovation Key For MediaWorks
What are your primary areas of focus for the upcoming year? MediaWorks’ main areas of focus centre on our people, culture and tangible assets. We strongly believe our people and culture are the cornerstone of our success. We understand this isn’t som
NZ Marketing2 min read
It’s Not Easy Being Green
Ad Net Zero launched in New Zealand in August last year with a five-point action plan designed to support the decarbonisation of developing, producing and running advertising in Aotearoa: 1. Reduce operational carbon emissions.2. Reduce emissions fro
NZ Marketing3 min read
Marketing Association Celebrates 50 Years Of Helping Marketers Be Brilliant
It was 1974 – the year ABBA released Waterloo, President Nixon resigned and Muhammad Ali won the Rumble in the Jungle. In New Zealand, 18-yearolds won the right to vote, a Committee for Women was established and we were all singing along to Cheryl Mo
NZ Marketing7 min read
Bridge Over Troubled Water
The breaking news on an otherwise uneventful Wednesday morning was that Three’s parent company Warner Bros Discovery was breaking the news. Staff had been drafted to an 11am meeting, where they were given the unholy word that Newshub’s newsroom would
NZ Marketing1 min read
Why Marketing Is The Best Job In The World
“It’s an honour for me to be leading the Marketing Association in its 50th year. From where it started to what we are today, it’s changed the lives of many marketers. Marketing has evolved so much over the years. It’s the best job in the world – who
NZ Marketing3 min read
The Long And The Short (-form) Of It
Instagram is dead! Zucks has killed Meta. These were the comments coming in everywhere in late 2021, after Mark announced Facebook would be renamed Meta. Its stock price plummeted and confidence in its ability to turn things around was waning. At the
NZ Marketing2 min read
From Scribbles And Lines To CREATIVE TIMES
How would you describe your creative process when coming up with fresh ideas for clients? Nothing beats the excitement of a new brief, because you’re about to embark on a mini act of discovery, but you need to be clear on the problem, level of ambiti
NZ Marketing1 min read
5 Quick fire
1. Favourite album of all time? It’s a dead heat between about three Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums. 2. Summer or winter? Summer. Can’t ski, can’t wear polo-neck jumpers. 3. Three things you’d take to a deserted island? My wife and two adult childr

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