M+AD has become a partner in the Australia/NZ division of the Campaign Asia-Pacific Agency of the Year Awards series – just in time to announce the 2018 call for entries.

AUCKLAND, Today: Botab 2018 tickets have finally gone on sale – and the Comms Council would love everyone to know about it. “I know everyone has been waiting for the chance to get theirs,” says comms exec Katie Ward.

Colenso BBDO has created a Bank of New Zealand campaign aimed at Kiwi travellers with the launch of a new app called BNZ Convert It.

FCB NZ creative group head Leisa Wall has been appointed as a member of two juries at next month’s Spikes Asia – the Brand Experience & Activation jury, and Direct.

AUCKLAND, Today: A pig’s backside, chocolate squid ice cream, an AI bot that fights email scammers, mini Lord of the Rings action figures, dice to decide your downtime activities and an app to help victims of domestic violence.

AUCKLAND, Today: A long-established, well-regarded Queen Street digital agency, Aamplify Partners, yesterday closed its doors, making as many as 25 people redundant.

With 69 entries across 15 categories, 37 finalists have been named for the 2018 IABNZ Awards, with winners set to be recognised across Digital Media Sales Excellence, Ad-Operations Excellence, Digital Product of the Year and Creative Facing categories.

Stuff senior comms exec Alex Maplesden writes: “We’ve just received the July Unique Audience results from Nielsen and thought you may be interested in some of the findings, particularly the YOY growth in Unique Audience from Stuff vs the decline from the New Zealand Herald.

The Comms Council has appointed London-based “recovering account planner” Mark Earls as the international judge at October’s NZ Effie Awards.