King St Advertising copywriter Konrad Smith died suddenly at his home in Hamilton on Saturday. “He leaves behind his wife Nicole and two beautiful children – daughter Charlie (4) and son Karter (5 months).

Hard on the heels of the Kiwi FM announcement (below), MediaWorks has today unveiled a new nationwide radio brand, Magic, which will launch on Monday 20 April.

Another network of FM stereo frequencies – in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch – seems destined to come on the market after MediaWorks announced that Kiwi FM will close on Tuesday 31 March.

Clemenger BBDO NZ picked up three Gold Pencils at Australia’s AWARD Awards held overnight in the Sydney Town Hall. Clemenger’s Mistakes won Chairman’s Choice; and Colenso BBDO’s Matt Lawson was named Creative of the Year. DDB Auckland was named NZ agency of the year.

The Image Centre Group has swallowed The Collective, the small indie agency established by celebrated former Saatchi ECD Mike O’Sullivan when Droga5 NZ shut its doors in 2012.

NZ agencies appear to have stayed away from Adfest 2015 in droves. Either that, or the work from NZ doesn’t count for much in Asia.

Wellington agency GSL Promotus – named as the incumbent on yesterday’s MTA/Y&R release about the account changing hands – has challenged parts of the release document.

The Future Sound System Festival rolled in to Auckland for its debut at Mount Smart Stadium late last month and sponsor Panasonic was there to support them with a range of experiential activations across the event.

Global advertising intelligence outfit Exponential, which set up in NZ in 2011 under the management of former ZenithOptimedia planner Sophie Radford, is citing its eerily accurate prediction that outsider Birdman would win this year’s Best Film Oscar proof of the company’s intel power.