Five weeks ago, FCB launched its first campaign for Water Safety NZ in partnership with ACC. “The Swim Reaper has been hanging out at swimming spots around New Zealand this summer, and armed with a seriously dark sense of humour, he’s been saving lives by encouraging deaths,” says FCB PR executive Katie Smith.

Faith Brewitt, former ceo of Greater China for Publicis Group’s global PR arm MSLGroup, is suing Publicis, saying she was denied the time and basic tools to do her job.

London, 31 January – D&AD has created a campaign for its upcoming 2017 D&AD Professional Awards. “Winning a Pencil is often the highlight of a creative career, so D&AD wanted to take a look at the people behind the campaigns and find out what it really means to those who win,” comms manager Elisa Barnard said. “It was all done through the eyes of those that know them best – their mums [including Kiwi expat Sally Campbell’s mum in Aotearoa].

The NZDMA reckons there’s only nine tables left for its big awards nite in Auckland in three weeks – according to the latest DMA plug urging us all to buy tickets.

DDB Worldwide has launched The Phyllis Project, an initiative to further the agency’s commitment to gender equity in the workplace. A selection of 12 women from the entire network (more than 200 offices) have been selected “and,” says DDB/Mango NZ’s Eleisha Balmer, “I’m thrilled to say our very own creative director, Christie Cooper, is one of them.”

Avalon Group NZ ceo/content director Ryf Quail writes exclusively for M+AD: Will we see the explosion in mobile investment by marketers in 2017? Not if we continue to view it as a standalone channel or an afterthought. Many marketers today make the mistake of treating mobile as a communications channel for customers.

Auckland-based specialist shopper marketing agency Energi has partnered with NZ crafted goods brand Pedro’s Bluff to produce 30 mini money pouches to gift to their clients, and celebrate the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar (Saturday just gone – 28 January). 

London-based ad/media site Warc is today launching a new global competition, the Warc Awards, to honour the effective use of emerging marketing disciplines.