AUCKLAND, Thursday: Lumo, Fuse OMD, NZME, Whittaker’s, McDonald’s, Mitre 10, Toyota, Vodafone, 2degrees, DB Breweries and ASB are among the finalists chosen from the first round of judging in the 2021 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards.

AUCKLAND, Thursday: After a pitch, Southern Cross Health Insurance has opted for a global lead creative agency, appointing TBWA\NZ to replace the incumbent – Grey Lynn indie True.

AUCKLAND, Today: Off the back of a $5m Series A funding round, K Rd software business Mooven (which specialises in traffic management technology) has appointed integrated brand agency Culture&Theory to help drive growth as they aim to expand globally.

AUCKLAND, Today: Innovate Access NZ has appointed Freemans Bay indie Republik to manage its Mr Rental business. Republik will be leading brand strategy, creative and all media planning & placement, effective 1 July.

AUCKLAND, Today: A comms glitch threw a spanner into the works in yesterday’s story about Villa Maria’s label redesign, leading M+AD to wrongfully conclude VM’s agency Contagion was “sidelined” in the creative process.