Heineken, a worldwide partner of Rugby World Cup 2011, and its alcoholic overlord Dominion Breweries, claims the iSITE billboard, at nearly 150 metres long, is the largest in Australasia, although APN might have something to say about that: it put up a massive behemoth of its own for Virgin airline V Australia in Sydney in July last year that came in at over 200m.

Heineken New Zealand’s managing director, Brian Blake, says the billboard, located in what is reputedly the most expensive piece of outdoor advertising real estate in the country, is an example of the atmosphere Heineken intends to bring to the RWC in 2011. Presumably, this atmosphere will be oversized, and will show the diplomatic power of Heineken to turn bitter rivals into great chums (maybe there needs to be more Heineken on offer during the construction of the Dunedin stadium to lessen the acrimony).

“Rugby World Cup 2011 will be the biggest sporting occasion – and arguably the biggest event – that New Zealand has ever hosted. The tournament provides a fantastic opportunity for Heineken to engage with premium New Zealand beer drinkers and share our experience of international sporting events. Heineken’s involvement in Rugby World Cup stretches over many years and we’ve improved our Heineken experience each time we’ve been involved.”

Fans (of both Heineken and rugby) can look forward to retail and in-bar promotions to further enhance the tournament experience as the start date edges ever closer.

“Rugby World Cup 2011 is our brand’s opportunity to showcase Heineken New Zealand to the world and present the local Heineken experience to visitors,” Blake says. “As far as we’re concerned, this is it, and we will be putting considerable time and effort into making sure it is a success on every level.”

Despite the fact PR is now a $7 billion worldwide industry, it has been hindered for years by its inability to quantify the value the discipline brings to clients/businesses. One of the ways that value has been assigned to PR campaigns is by AVE, which is calculated by multiplying the advertising rate card value of the media coverage achieved by a number (usually between three and seven) that is chosen to reflect the view that editorial coverage has more resonance with consumers than paid for advertising space. This formula has been used globally for more than 40 years.

Chair of the CAANZ Marcomms committee, Claudia Macdonald, says there are two reasons for the survey: “Unlike other countries around the world, New Zealand currently has no agreed number by which AVE figures are arrived at. We think it’s important to get agreement on that multiplier so that PR-generated media coverage can be judged on a level playing field.”

The two associations are also hoping to stimulate debate on the use of AVEs and the best way to measure PR and demonstrate its value.

“Worldwide the move is away from AVE but while it still exists as a measure, we want to agree a national standard for CAANZ members and provide everyone, from clients to awards judges, with a uniform assessment tool . . . In addition to CAANZ members, we’re pleased to be canvassing industry views through our valued relationship with the Marketing Association.”

The survey can be filled out on the NZMA’s website and the results are expected to be released in April.

PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Chris Perree says: “The growth in spend is consistent with organisations focusing and recognising online advertising as a medium of choice. It also supports expectations of continued strong growth as businesses have generally been more cautiously optimistic about the future. This market trend is not only limited to New Zealand, but also to more mature markets, such as the United States and United Kingdom, where online advertising continues to command a greater portion of the advertising market.”

Search and Directories led the way with year on year growth of 31.64 percent in 2009. Display advertising grew 7.67 percent to $64.30m from $58.12m and accounted for 30 percent of all interactive spend in 2009. Classifieds decreased from $75.32m to $71.43m.

Alisa Higgins, IABNZ marketing manager, says the classifieds category really feels the effects of the economy, especially around employment and jobs advertised online.

“It’s great to see online job sites like Seek reporting an increase in the number of jobs being posted in 2010,” she says.

Internationally, ZenithOptimedia reports that the internet will continue to outgrow other ad media, increasing “its share of expenditure from 12.4 percent in 2009 to 16.2 percent in 2012.” A reassuring thought when elsewhere they have called the 10.2 percent global drop in 2009 “the worst decline in ad expenditures in modern times.”

However, they have added that the world’s ad market has now stabilised and will grow 0.9 percent in 2010, improving steadily to reach five percent growth in 2012.

Skellern, who takes over from Mike Pretty, now vice president Global Ketchup, Health & Wellness and marketing development for parent company, HJ Heinz, has a strong background in consumer marketing in the UK and New Zealand.

As Business Manager – Meal Solutions with Wattie’s, he played a leading role in the creation of two major marketing campaigns, the award-winning FMCG television commercial ‘Wattie’s – What Else!’ and Beanman, perhaps the world’s only legume superhero (moderately interesting bean fact: most commercial baked beans are stewed, not baked).

He left this role to establish his own brand consultancy business, Black Sheep Brands, in 2007 and worked on brand and marketing programmes with Sacred Hill Wines, Tegel Foods and other consumer goods companies. He is also an industry representative on the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation Council.

In the UK, he worked with Unilever, including periods as regional brand manager and global project manager for the Lynx (Axe) male grooming range, and also for Bausch and Lomb, as European marketing manager, responsible for sunglass brands including Ray-Ban.

“Wattie’s is an amazing brand, and remains consistently the number one grocery brand in New Zealand. In addition, there are a number of other leading brands within the Heinz Wattie’s portfolio that all have enormous consumer potential,” Skellern says. “Making sure that the Wattie’s brand stable is in good health, meeting consumers’ needs and fulfilling their potential is critical. Growth will come from our collective understanding of consumers better than anyone else and continuing to deliver real, relevant and appreciable value.”

Heinz Wattie’s managing director Nigel Comer says Skellern, who takes up the new role on March 15, already has a strong understanding of the Wattie’s brand and and its consumer base and thinks his style will complement the strong leaders in the existing senior marketing team.

“With the rapid evolution of media technology, people are used to seeking information in a different way,” says Orly’s managing director Ross Beck. “iPRES puts you in control of the way your information is presented, and enables you to communicate with any audience in an interactive and highly engaging way.”

Designed using a combination of in-house creative and consulting developers (the innovation was also partially funded through the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, which selects and manages the government’s investment in R&D for projects that demonstrate investment returns, technology ‘stretch’ and capability building), iPRES is aimed at the sales, marketing, PR, education and training sectors and is, Beck says, like a combination of the best features of PowerPoint and interactive DVDs – on steroids.

Orly’s core focus during the design process was to provide clients with the ability to create dynamic, tailored presentations using video, text, motion graphics and even real-time 3D animation (iPRES can demonstrate internal moving parts, display products from any angle and change speeds and move in for close-up views) with considerably less work and expertise than it requires to build a standard business slideshow.

“We wanted a business presentation platform that really lets our clients showcase everything they do, using the best possible technology. And iPRES gives them an easy to use, cost effective way to do that . . . Because it’s so easy to use, it saves businesses a significant amount of time.”

He says staff often spend far too much time creating presentations from scratch with other systems. But ease of use is at the heart of what iPRES offers, which means presentations can be created in minutes. Plus, because iPRES is provided on USB, it’s incredibly portable (content can also be updated automatically to USB via the internet and it even has built-in security – up to fingerprint encryption – to protect IP). Users can also produce DVD copies of each presentation to leave behind for clients.

Beck says iPRES also “ensures a company can maintain strict control over how their brand is presented”, because designs, logos and branded elements can be locked down, meaning everything presented is consistent and on message. But there is also room to create text and visual elements on the fly.

“I’m often creating and tailoring presentations in the taxi on my way to a meeting,” he says.

iPRES is available under licence from Orly Productions as part of a tailored presentation package. Check out the DVD on the front cover of NZ Marketing magazine for more information or visit the website www.ipres.biz.

Who it’s for: The New Zealand Transport Agency, by Clemenger BBDO Wellington and PRODIGY director Matt Palmer

Why we like it: It’s like real life, only backwards. Strangely, messing with accepted chronology and going for the good old film it in reverse approach always seems to be remarkably captivating (maybe it’s that scary, ominous sound of noise in reverse that accompanies the visuals). There’s also just one line of dialogue: ‘If you drink then drive, you’re a bloody criminal’. Simple, visual and effective.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And while the new NZ Pure spot by Barnes Catmur and Friends isn’t in reverse, it makes up for it by featuring Bulgarian backpackers and the beautiful Karekare falls.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This little number for Montana sauvignon blanc marks the first time a Kiwi wine brand has featured on Aussie telly. The global campaign will include broadcasts in the UK in April and it will also appear online.

The online survey of 166 New Zealand businesses and marketing professionals by the DLG and Nielsen showed their attitudes towards and involvement in social media marketing. And the results confirmed the need for a greater focus on social media. See the results for yourself and download the DLG Social Media Survey Report.

In response to the demand for more knowledge in this realm, the DLG have organised a forum featuring local and international speakers who will share their insights on harnessing the commercial power of social media. The first event on Thursday is sold out, and while no other events have been scheduled yet, the DLG hopes to arrange another speaker event later this year with Dell’s Andy Lark, who was unable to attend the event on Thursday.

If you work in a business in New Zealand and would like to take part in the next social media survey in this series please email dean@caanz.co.nz We will hold your email address and use it to send you a link to that survey.

McCarroll has over a decade of experience in newspapers and magazines and was most recently deputy editor of Next magazine. Fairfax Magazines’ general manager Lynley Belton says her good editorial judgement, strong leadership qualities and genuine love of all things gardening made her the obvious choice.

“All those qualities give me confidence she’ll build on the innovative development of the title. Jo describes herself as ‘a genuinely passionate gardener’ and has an intuitive understanding of what matters to gardeners; simply by dint of being one. She’ll identify strongly with a typical NZ Gardener reader.”

Belton says the magazine has flourished under Lynda Hallinan’s leadership and she is delighted that Hallinan will remain as part of the team at NZ Gardener in a new role as editorial director.

McCarroll is relishing the opportunity to work with Hallinan and to work on a specialist title that reflects her own love of gardening.

“I admire what Lynda has done with the magazine and, by extension, the brand. My goal is to continue this approach and introduce more readers to the NZ Gardener brand,” she says. “NZ Gardener has given me so many great ideas for my own garden, as it has for so many others. With creative and original ideas like her self sufficiency project and the Get Growing e-newsletter, Lynda has built circulation and readership for NZ Gardener at a time when other magazines have found it tough.”

NZ Gardener magazine, which took top honours by the Magazine Publishers Association last year as MPA Magazine of the Year, continues to grow in both circulation and readership with an increase of 18.3 percent in circulation year on year and 15 percent growth in 10+ readership (January- December).

Over the past five years the St. George bank brand has experienced significant development and in 2009 was named Australia’s 9th most valuable brand. And key to this success has been the leadership of Martin Wise, the general manager of brand and marketing.

Wise is an international thought leader in marketing and will speak at the New Zealand Marketing Association’s (NZMA) first Alumni event of 2010 in March. The Alumni series regularly brings together New Zealand’s most senior, successful and influential marketers with the best of the up-and-coming marketing talent.

Highly regarded for his marketing expertise, Wise, who is accountable for the development and delivery of the St. George brand strategy and the formulation and implementation of marketing strategies to drive customer, segment, product and distribution objectives and joined the bank in August 2005, will share the key strategies and building blocks it has employed to become a highly successful brand.

Prior to joining St.George, Wise was the consumer marketing director at Optus and during his time there he transformed the marketing department and built a strong marketing capability which was recognised with industry marketing effectiveness awards five years in a row and Wise himself being elected the Australian direct marketer of the year in 2002.

The NZMA Alumni is proudly sponsored by Synovate and the NZMA acknowledges SAS for presenting Wise as the first speaker for the 2010 series. The Marketing Association also acknowledges the support of TVNZ and New Zealand Post as Principal Business Partners.

For more information on this exclusive group and how you can become a part of the Alumni, contact Graham Medcalf, Corporate Services Manager at the NZMA.

Click here to view the embedded video.

V Rocket Pack for Frucor Beverages is a finalist in three categories (‘Best ideas’, ‘Best insights/strategic thinking’ and ‘Most effective use of branded content’) while Primo Extremo for Fonterra Brands is a finalist in the ‘Most effective use of product design and packaging’ category.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nick Garrett, Colenso’s new freshly squeezed managing director, says recognition for these campaigns validates the agency’s belief that great creative work delivers great business results.

“We are lucky to have clients like Frucor and Fonterra Brands who understand that the most creative work is also the most effective. In the current climate being able to deliver business-transforming ideas has never been more important, and these clients continue to back big ideas as they know these are the ones that are going to get cut through and deliver the results they are looking for.”

The Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards, which will be held in Shanghai on 25 March, recognise marketing campaigns based on the impact they have on business performance. And the V Rocket Pack campaign, which is also up for four awards at this year’s Axis awards, preceded a significant sales and share increase for the V range.

Winning entries are those that articulate a single business issue, a very clear communications strategy to address that issue and specific and clear results that prove the case.

Colenso BBDO won the Grand Prix at last year’s Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards for Yellow Treehouse and also currently holds the title of New Zealand’s most effective agency of the year, awarded at last year’s New Zealand EFFIES.