Love these guys

"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.

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30 years of Kiwi Advertising

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:18:29 -0700

A very clever edit from Stoppress.co.nz:

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Interactive advertising only medium to grow in 2009

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:49:08 -0700

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.

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Don't waste a good recession

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:39:20 -0700

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

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#heroadfriday

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:20:45 -0700

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.

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Levi Stubbs' Tears

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:49:45 -0700

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?

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Old Man's Beard Must Go

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:54:10 -0700

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?

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Rich pickings at Poor Knights

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:31:03 -0700

As I lifted effortlessly towards the mercury-glazed mirror of trapped air above me, I felt like a character in a science fiction movie. I pushed a neoprene-gloved hand through the bubble, and slid a full head and shoulders into the dimly lit dome of air. I was in Bernies Cave, Middle Arch, Poor Knights Island, some 14 metres under the sea level, 24 kilometres from Tutukaka in Northland, New Zealand. Thanks to the organising of Trade Me colleague, Matt Duguid, I've just returned from three days of diving the Poor Knights Islands, aboard the good ship Mazurka. The PKs are rated as one of the top ten dive sites on Earth by none other than Jacques Cousteau. It was formed as New Zealand's second marine reserve (no fishing or disturbing marine life for 800m acround the islands) in 1981. The sight of XOS Snapper, crays and Moki proved difficult to resist for some of our team, more commonly used to diving for a feed of kai in the Marlborough Sounds. Instead, we kept busy taking video and photos. Here's some footage filmed by Matt of myself (with torch) and Daniel Feutz cruising through Northern Arch, surrounded by circling kingfish, huge snapper, trevelly, sandagers and demoiselles. This huge archway (43m from sea level to sea floor) provides food-bearing currents with fish lining up to dine and incredible water clarity as you can see in the video. This location was one of the most spectacular dives I have experienced. We're sitting at around 30 metres deep, Matt is filming from 35 metres. Here are a few assorted photos from the trip (click on them to enlarge).

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