NZ Marketing January/February 2016

Just over six years ago, in the midst of The Great Recession, I was struggling to find a job after returning from my obligatory overseas jaunt. I’d spent all of my money on goat’s cheese, petrol, novelty hats and too much foreign fun, I was living in Christchurch with my future in-laws and all the CVs and cover letters I sent out were fairly safe, standard descriptions of my career and achievements that stuck to tried, true and fairly boring techniques. That strategy wasn’t working and I was starting to get pretty desperate, so, when I saw a job come up for the position of editor of NZ Marketing and StopPress, I decided to take a risk and submit a much more honest and far more interesting application. Rather than…

What media do you wake up to? 1 My Facebook page. It’s been heaving with so many fantastic photos of recipes from my latest book. It’s just amazing and humbling to see. People are so cool. 2 What TV shows are you watching at the moment? And how are you watching them? I must admit I’m not usually much of a TV watcher as I’m so busy. However, recently, I discovered Netflix and I’ve been giving Downton Abbey a good going over. That Matthew is a real dreamboat. 3 What music are you listening to at the moment? And how are you listening to it? I listen to music all day long, whether I’m in the office, car or kitchen. And I like to sing along loudly with reckless abandon.…

SMI’s recent data on New Zealand’s media agency ad spend between July and November reiterated how valuable hosting the Rugby World Cup was to the industry in 2011. While the November figures for 2015 were at a record high, the full-year figures for last year were still below the amount the industry spent in 2011. (Note: SMI data only includes media agency spend). Oh so quotable: “To systematically abuse and hassle an organisation because you personally don’t like something that breaks no law and does no harm to anyone either human or animal, is not a way for a civilised society to behave. It’s just bullying.” Paul Catmur positions himself as a champion of free speech as he weighs in on the decision by Toyota to pull its new Hilux…

What has your journey been like so far? For us, it’s been a nine-year journey through R&D and then six and half years with the product on the market. We grow every year, but we’re always in a position where we never have enough money. At the moment I’d like to do a really big PR piece in the US market, but I just can’t afford it. We’re literally going out with plans to do a crowdfunding round in January. We’re just putting that in place. We’ve never gone out for external funding, which is unusual for a start-up company. Why did you develop this technology? There are numerous ways in sports to track athlete motion and a lot of the earlier systems involved video technology, which was pretty crude.…

FREEBOOTING The nefarious act of downloading someone else’s video (often from YouTube) and then uploading it onto your own channel (usually Facebook) to benefit from those sweet clicks. And with content creators often making their living from the views they generate, they’re not happy about this audience theft. GIG ECONOMY Previously an activity restricted to struggling musicians looking for any available microphone, the hunt for gigs is becoming more common in the modern workforce, with companies like Uber making it possible for workers (AKA Instaserfs) to provide their services on a freelance basis only when they want to. WHTM (WEALTHY HAND TO MOUTHERS) Alongside countless articles warning of impending financial doom, the Auckland housing market has also spawned a new breed of young Kiwis who spend as much as 60…

If you tsk-tsked along with the Australian Federal Court and the New Zealand Commerce Commission about Nurofen’s dodgy marketing last year, then perhaps you need to man up. Just to jog your memory: back in December the manufacturer of Nurofen, Reckitt Benckiser, was found guilty of breaking Australian consumer law by charging a higher price for specialist forms of the painkiller—for period pain, migraines and so on—when the product formula was the essentially the same. Talk about outrage! As if you need more evidence of the evils of big pharma! But hang on there, Mr High and Mrs Mighty. Pulling the wool over consumers’ eyes has pretty much been the stock-intrade of marketers for years. Please don’t tell me you have a problem with that? Automobiles? What’s the difference between…