Time is very near for NZ agencies who want to beat the rush to enter Campaign Asia-Pacific’s 2017 Australia/NZ Agency of the Year Awards. The early (discounted) entry deadline is tomorrow (Friday 1 September).

The Australian ad industry is uniting to oppose ‘hateful’ ads ahead of Australia’s upcoming gay-marriage vote. Say No to No has been launched by Nick Cummins at The Royals agency (Melbourne & Sydney).

There are, apparently, still some tickets available for tomorrow night’s Battle of the Ad Bands at the venerable Kings Arms, in the Auckland CBD.

This opinion piece was written for M+AD by Nichola Quail, a founder and research director at Fresh Focus: We believe the traditional market research model is out of reach for many businesses and as a result there is a lot of intuition, guesswork and assumptions made about customers, their motivations and why they do what they do (or don’t).

The IABNZ’s refreshed internet ad report for the first half of 2017 shows desktop leading the way, while mobile remains slow but steady. Interactive ad revenue reached $431.1 million, and is heading towards $996m for the full year.

Privately owned Apex Insurance New Zealand has launched a brand-building/identity refresh, created by freelance Auckland creative social strategist/copywriter Kit Lawrence, a graphics nominee at this year’s Best Awards.

Aussie startup Blobfish International has announces its official launch in New Zealand, bringing one of Australia’s fastest growing media sampling and experiential companies to all major cities of New Zealand.