AUCKLAND, Today: The Nielsen Magazine & Newspaper Toplines for Quarter 4 2018 were released this morning – right on M+AD’s deadline, and too early to analyse in detail. Instead, today we publish the figures in full, and invite readers to help themselves.

AUCKLAND, Today: Recent research out of Red Onion, which analysed the way thousands of Aucklanders interacted with our street posters, found clearly that larger format posters deliver outsized results.

AUCKLAND, Today: TVNZ’s focus on local and live content coupled with increased investment in its digital future has resonated with New Zealand viewers and advertisers, says TVNZ ceo Kevin Kenrick, advising that at the half way point in the fiscal year, the company has gained TV audience and advertising market share, and doubled its online streaming numbers.

SYDNEY, Today: Paul Sigaloff, ANZ MD of Verizon Media (formerly Yahoo7) will be in Auckland next week and has scheduled an interview with M+AD alongside NZ sales director Arnaud Calonne “to share some exciting news around the brand”.

AUCKLAND, Today: McDonald’s, ably assisted by DDB, has spent the summer gifting Kiwis Big Mac Jandals in celebration of the Big Mac’s 50th birthday, kicking off the New Year by offering New Zealand beachgoers one-of-a-kind jandals designed to look just like their namesake.

AUCKLAND, Today: PHD Group New Zealand has rebranded its Spark PR & Activate agency following an expansion of its service offering, unveiling the agency’s new identity, Drum, at a launch party in Auckland last night.

AUCKLAND, Today: Audacity PR has rebranded to Authority PR to better reflect the company’s positioning and future in the market.

NEW YORK, Tuesday: OMD has been announced as Adweek’s Global Media Agency of the Year for 2019. The news continues a great start to 2019 after OMD New Zealand also took out Campaign Asia’s Agency of the Year in December, reigning in the title five out of the last six years.

AUCKLAND Today: As already widely reported, The FireFlies Antipodes charity ride from Christchurch to Queenstown has finished. The ride covered approximately 1000km over six gruelling days.