Choice Hotels Asia-Pac has announced a new direction and positioning of the Choice Hotels brand in the market – including a name change from the previous brand Choice Hotels Australasia. The new name better reflects the company’s activities on both sides of the Tasman.

iHeartRadio New Zealand has partnered with the National Business Review to add NBR Radio to its platform, aiming to continue to grow the depth of its content offering across all genres.

National Geographic adventurer Brian Skerry has spent over 10,000 hours under water, using his camera to tell the story of some of the ocean’s most elusive inhabitants. The US-based extreme photographer is coming to New Zealand in October as part of the National Geographic Live series, to share his adventures and offer a unique portrait of creatures from the deep.

The ASB, with a little help from their friends at Saatchi & Saatchi, has set out to give New Zealand businesses a chance to learn from the team behind the All Blacks.

A total of 44 winners (from 119 finalists) were named across sales, editorial, photography, design, branding and innovation categories at last night’s Magazine Media Awards at Shed 10 on Queens Wharf. New Zealand Weddings, Metro, Dish, NZ Marketing and Women’s Day came out on top in their respective Best Magazine categories, while NZ Life & Leisure took out the overall Magazine of the Year award.

Six agency bands have signed up for the Flying Fish/CAANZ 2015 Battle of the Ad Bands, now just a fortnight away. Barnes Catmur & Friends’ Friends Electric are back again, so is OMD’s The Chased. New entrants are Colenso BBDO’s Pegasus and the Job Numbers, Clemenger BBDO/Proximity’s Fatal Death, Fish’s Goth Darnitt & The Self Flagilation Foundation, and last year’s winner Whybin\TBWA’s The Dooyahs.

Plunket is on the look-out for a new partnership with a creative agency to help re-engage New Zealanders in its cause.