My favourite quote on the Wellington Waterfront.  Lauris Edmond inspires those who take the time to read his inscription.

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." Barack Obama

 It's time to head south for six months to shape the future.

 

A very clever edit from Stoppress.co.nz:

It's been well reported that the advertising industry had a shocker in 2009 with Interactive the only medium to report growth in advertising revenues.  In my role as Chair of the IAB, I published a media release predicting Interactive would pass Magazine and Radio spend in 2010 (the scorecard will be released by the ASA in March 2011).  There's been talk of the newspaper industry releasing only display figures as the classified structural shift  misrepresents or skews their national and retail display activity.  Interactive reports display, classified and search and also saw a decline in classified spend in 2009.  It's my personal (I stress personal) view that Total Adspend should continue to be reported, but a breakout of display and classified would be useful, both to measure the post-recession uplift in display across all media, and to mark the unstoppable progress of classified revenue from print to online. The interactive sector, along with the rest of the media industry saw tough trading conditions in the period from September 2008 to September 2009.  Display, Classified and Search are all expected to show solid post-recessionary growth as the structural shift to online continues.

The Marketing Association asked me to lunch today. I took the opportunity to deliver a commentary about the effect of the recession on the domestic advertising market with some insights from offshore. I've dropped some of the material online if you're interested in having a quick read.  Below was my favourite image from the presentation.  It shows the revenue lift in online from January to June 2009 for the display advertising component of online advertising in NZ, versus the drop reported by the NZTBC for television advertising revenues over the same period.  Ouch. The burning question for the big media outlets in New Zealand is whether the recessionary downturn will be cyclic and revenues within the media mix will bounces back to the good old days, or whether the shift of ad spend online is here to stay.  Clearly with some of the campaign results I've been seeing, online is converting well - for search, classified and display. At Trade Me, I've seen television work well alongside display campaigns.  We've seen a big uptick in traffic to clients' sites after Trade Me is added to a tellie schedule. Anyway, the address for the preso notes is www.dontwasteagoodrecession.com.  It's a work-in-progress that I'll try to tidy up over the weekend.  I hope you enjoy it.  Please leave me a comment! Thanks, MG

This television commercial appeared in the late 1970's and helped Kentucky Fried Chicken take the number one spot in this category from Homestead Chicken. I'm not sure the same messaging (or images) would be appropriate in 2009! Please no vegan-spam. Just sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy this nostalgic TVC from my childhood.

I pulled the guitar out at the bach last weekend and briefly rediscovered the fifth layer of skin under my fingertips.  I also found out how useful Apple's iStore is when digging out old tunes.  Unfortunately (and weirdly) Billy Bragg's rendition of Levi Stubbs' Tears is not for sale.  I've only got it on vinyl.  Anyone able to email me an mp3?

Many of you will remember the 1980's television commercial starring botanist, David Bellamy who implored us to rid the nation of the invasive plant pest, Old Man's Beard, Clematis vitalba. Well, a modern day repeat of this campaign is now overdue. Plus action. Background ... I've just spent Easter in the idyllic Marlborough Sounds. As I drove my guests around the windy Queen Charlotte Track, the flowering, fluffy seed heads of the rampant climber were everywhere to be seen. Almost every corner was turned to the sight of this weed enveloping native bush on both sides of the road. It was pretty frustrating but typical for this time of year in the Sounds, I recalled. The bach has been getting a bit overgrown so I got stuck into some gardening. This included ripping out some Old man's beard that had re-sprouted in the five years since I bought the place and spent days combing the hillside on the back of my property, chopping the leathery tenticles of the OMB as is the legal responsibility of every property owner. It was clear that I would have to do this every few years to knock it back and keep it under control. This got me to thinking. First, I wondered whether the property owners of the Sounds, DOC and the Marlborough District Council (depending on location) could be prosecuted for not removing the weed as per the bylaw. I guessed they would be exempt from legal action. Then I moved on to wondering why the PD gangs, community service folks, etc couldn't be press-ganged into action. This moved to a strema of consciousness discussion with those around me about utilising our newly unemployed. But the reality is that the answer lies with the residents and home owners who use and enjoy the Sounds. There's no point blaming the council, government or wishing for free labour. It's up to us. So I'm thinking about launching an 'Old Man's Beard Must Go' Day. One day each year when we will join forces to tackle this pest. We can use social media to promote and educate, garner support from those with access to tools, resources, people, passion and energy. We can clamber up the hills and slide down the gullies of the Marlborough Sounds and reclaim our native bush. For one day, every year, we can demonstrate not only that Old man's beard must go, it will go. Shall I do it? Are you in?