In the digital age, there are more tools for measuring the results of your marketing spend than ever before. But which numbers should you be focusing on? Industry experts share top advice on how to measure return on investment (ROI) in marketing. “There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” This famous quote, attributed to Mark Twain, could easily be applied to the myriad of different measurements and metrics available for online and social media-based marketing campaigns. Depending on the platform you are using, your business could be racking up views, page impressions ..read more

If you’ve been anywhere near the marketing industry’s abundant awards scene this year, you will have heard about Spark NZ’s Made For You Review programme. We chat with Proximity, who played a vital role in pulling this piece of award-winning work together, and ultimately creating a win-win for client and customer. With a belief that technology will liberate individuality and fuel customer growth, it’s no surprise that Proximity has been behind some highly awarded pieces of marketing work this year.  The 2023 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards Supreme Winner, Spark’s Made For You Review was one ..read more

In just two years at one of New Zealand’s largest news publications, Stuff, 23-year-old journalist Karanama Ruru has covered some of the biggest events in recent times, from the 2023 general election, Cyclone Gabrielle, and important Te Ao Māori topics.  As a young Māori kid living in West Auckland, Karanama never thought working in media was “accessible”, saying his journey into the journalism profession was “an accident”. At university, Karanama studied history with the goal of becoming a teacher, but everything changed when he began working for 95bFM, the country’s oldest corporate-fre ..read more

I take a trip down a quiet suburban street to Sky’s Mount Wellington office to chat about the refreshed leadership team poised to take the company forward, and its vision into the future. Tucked down an unremarkable driveway in suburban Auckland, passers-by could be forgiven for not realising that a vital component of New Zealand’s entertainment landscape is based here, nestled between unassuming brick homes and grassy lawns. Inside I’m met with a cheery greeting from the receptionist and ushered through a labyrinth of corridors to a spacious conference room with an enormous table. Waiting for ..read more

A familiar face on our television screens, this time Jack Tame appears on a laptop screen, for a conversation that covers early mornings, the 2023 election, and being called ‘earnest’ on social media. “You’d think I would be getting better at this,” he laughs as he struggles to get the camera going on his computer at the start of our video call.  Interviewing a savvy television and radio journalist like Jack Tame would be a somewhat nerve-wracking job for any fellow reporter, but Jack’s trademark smile can dissolve any nerves, unless you’re a politician. When reading up on Jack’s long lis ..read more

With over two decades of industry insight, Lassoo Media and PR is reshaping the landscape, simplifying complexities, and prioritising what truly matters for clients, partners, and the team. This month independent agency Lassoo Media and PR launched its refreshingly simple brand promise – We Make It Easier. While the industry has seen people and trends come and go, Lassoo’s philosophy of getting close and staying close to their clients’ business still holds true, and coincidentally (or not) has been the foundation for the brand refresh they have recently undertaken.  So, with more than 20 ..read more

With the entry deadline for the 2024 YouTube-NZ Marketing Awards fast approaching on Friday April 26 (extension deadline May 3), we catch up with Julie Chappell, Marketing Manager at Brother New Zealand on their big wins from last year and why the awards are so important for the marketing industry. What did you win? At the 2023 NZ Marketing Awards, Brother won Best B2B Marketing Campaign and Excellence in B2B Marketing Strategy. What was it about your entry that stood out? For me, it was the way we demonstrated the impact of the campaign on our business. Sales and market data showed how we ach ..read more

Despite the impressive strides that AI has taken in recent years, there are still areas where its abilities pale in comparison to those of humans – a fact that could bring a sigh of relief to PR professionals. Our benchmark for determining whether a computer can meet general intelligence has shifted over the years. First it was whether the top chess master could be beaten. Once that happened, we hurriedly decided it must be something else.  We turned back to Alan Turing, who had argued in 1950 that to have reached general intelligence, an AI must convince a human, through conversation, th ..read more

The tension between PR professionals striving to benefit their clients and publishers needing to pay the bills with advertising spend is ongoing in the earned media versus paid media debate. As these two disciplines battle for budgets, NZ Marketing hears from both PR experts and publishers to unpack the art of finding the right tool for the job. The relationship between the publishing industry and Public Relations could be likened to a well-crafted tapestry. The PR industry provides threads of colourful information, while the publishing industry carefully stitches these together into stories a ..read more

Our insights gurus take a look at the problem of trying to fit humanity in all its colourful, erratic glory, into boxes that make sense. Marketers love market segments. The more we can wrap a bow around a group of consumers and stick a label on them, the easier our jobs seem to be. But every approach to segmentation raises the possibility of two fundamental errors.  The first is that we start to believe the segments have a life beyond our models. Here the mistake is to confuse our models of reality for reality itself. The Polish-American philosopher and engineer Alfred Korzybski put this ..read more