AUCKLAND, Today: Not surprisingly, the troops at indie creative upstart Stanley St are talking up their big win at the APAC Effies, where the Parnell agency was named the Most Effective Independent in Asia Pacific in 2020.

LONDON, Today: Dentsu Group is rebranding globally, and the result is not one any truly creative agency worth its salt could possibly admire. It’s dropped the cap ‘D’ and substituted it with a lower-case ‘d’ – the creative equivalent of a name in CAPS.

AUCKLAND, Today: Brisbane-based award-winning Aussie PR agency Aruga Comms has established a New Zealand arm in downtown Anzac Ave – in association with NZ shop Energi.

AUCKLAND, Today: Kiwi adman Vaughn Davis’s second book, Covid Schmovid – 19 Ways to Make your Small Business Boom hands out useable advice without the usual cant or cliché.

SINGAPORE, Friday: New Zealand emerged as the overall winner at the APAC Effies with a total of 20 Effies, followed by Australia with 13, India with 12, Japan with nine, and China with eight.

AUCKLAND, Today: long-established architecture title, Home magazine, will be relaunched to the market in December after a brief hiatus following the Bauer exit from NZ.

AUCKLAND, Today: The coronavirus dealt a savage blow to this year’s Effie Awards – forcing the no-show of two of the prime players on the finals shortlist – Colenso BBDO and FCB.

AUCKLAND, Today: Finalists in the Wallace Art Awards – one of NZ’s most prestigious competitions – will have their works showcased around the country as part of an oOh!media campaign with the Urban Art Foundation.

AUCKLAND, Today: “Pretty much everyone can write,” reckons adman Michael Goldthorpe – a former TBWA NZ creative, who now runs indie agency Hunch. “It’s a technical skill that requires an understanding of clarity, accuracy and grammatical convention. If you can read, you can write.