Auckland Council has awarded its business to DDB and Spark PHD following a lengthy pitch which saw .99 and incumbent Ogilvy & Mather left on the sidelines. DDB’s role will be lead creative; Spark will handle media. The council has yet to appoint a digital agency.

Ogilvy Australia has bolstered its digital capability, acquiring STW-owned Bullseye, one of the region’s leading integrated digital marketing and technology services agency. The deal sees Ogilvy acquire 100% of Bullseye, which has more than 100 staff in offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Indonesia including an offshore production facility.

Following the successful partnership at this year’s Fish Battle of the Ad Bands with The New Zealand Music Foundation, CAANZ has announced in a release that the charity auction proceeds from the annual agency rock shootout will support two music-based projects in Wellington and Auckland that will “change the lives of at-risk youth and people with neurological conditions”.

Australasian mobile specialist Big Mobile has launched a range of creative new high-impact display advertising formats specifically designed for smartphone and tablet. Developed by Big Mobile’s UX team, the new suite of next-gen advertising products provide a creative canvas for advertisers to create rich story-telling brand building experiences and have been designed to leverage the unique interactive characteristics of mobile. 

TVNZ GM Marketing Lynley Kirk-Smith will join International Effie Awards judge Paul Feldwick on the podium at the CAANZ Effectiveness Function in Auckland this Wednesday (October 1).

Auckland digital agency Method Studios has won two Golds at the W3 Awards in New York for their work on the Harrison Grierson website and the Blue Wing Honda Take The Long Way campaign (in collaboration with Chemistry Interaction).

From today the businesses formerly known as APN NZ, TRN and GrabOne are unifying their print, radio, digital and e-commerce brands under one new, overarching brand, NZME. 

From this Monday (29 September), the NZ Herald aims to arm real estate agents with the ammunition they need to grow and secure vendor advertising. 

Thirty-nine NZ entries have made it through to the Spikes Asia shortlists overnight – seven in PR, one in Design, 11 in Digital, one in Mobile, six in Print, five in Outdoor, and nine in Media.