The Comms Council has teamed up with NZME to give prospective Beacon Awards winners a leg up for this year’s big media awards show later this year (entries close on Friday 23 February – scroll down for the link).

Hello again, dear reader. Welcome to the first edition of M+AD Daily for 2018. We’ve no big changes planned – just a continuation of our daily, personalised newsletter.

Plaza helmsman Paul Middleditch has reunited legendary Downunder actors Bryan Brown and Sam Neill on-screen as the distinctive voices behind the latest instalment of Air New Zealand’s Better Way to Fly campaign, developed by True NZ to convince more Australians to fly the Kiwi airline across the Tasman and beyond.

Aussie media & advertising news site Mumbrella, a similar business to M+AD (but far bigger), has just been sold. The sales price was not revealed – but M+AD estimates it at around A$7 million.

Just days before Xmas, the High Court announced its decision on the Fairfax Media and NZME merger appeal with a big thumbs down.

Ogilvy NZ and its client the Energy Efficiency & Conservative Authority (EECA) have started working with Yahoo Platforms to enhance their campaigns, and reach their target audience, through digital avenues, including native advertising.