Leading seafood brand John West New Zealand has joined as a sponsor of the ASB Auckland Marathon. John West will be the naming rights sponsor of the John West 12k Traverse – part of a group of races being held in Auckland this October.

Spark is opposing plans to merge Sky TV and Vodafone. Confirmation this morning it’s lodged a formal submission with the Commerce Commission concerned mainly about our access to sport.

Auckland’s Mango Communications is helping push a new initiative to tart up the modem for client Orcon and to raise money for Forest & Bird. Orcon hopes to banish the boring modem (at least for a limited time) by commissioning five New Zealand artists to turn it into a work of art.

Tickets for the 9th annual Battle of the Ad Bands are on sale now. CAANZ and Fish will be bringing it all back to you, Thursday September 15, at the Kings Arms in Auckland where 6 agency bands will be competing under the theme Boy vs. Girl Bands.

Two massive beverage brands are in a bitter legal battle in Australia over a special shade of green. Frucor Beverages is attempting to trademark the green it uses on its products – especially the V energy drink – which sparked a legal fight-back from the Coca-Cola Company.

Westpac media and the BMW creative business are both up for pitch. The contenders for Westpac are said to include OMD, FCB Media and MEC (the incumbent is Starcom).

The 54th annual Kinsale Shark Awards, held in the picturesque town of Kinsale, just outside of Cork, Ireland, has appointed Kiwi creative Maggie Mouat as a member of its Press jury. Mouat is ceo of Wellington indie agency Luvly.

After the success of the inaugural MSiX Awards in 2015, they are back in 2016 to celebrate those who are closing the gap between the marketing sciences and real world applications.