NZME has created a new digital business unit, bringing together three key executives to organise its digital capabilities under one umbrella to accelerate its digital programmes to grow audiences and revenue.

NZ digital agency Yellow has taken out the Google Premier Partner Award in Australasia in the Growing Businesses Online category, being selected out of 13 shortlisted finalists in its category, including other major key industry players such as NZME.

The 10th annual Battle of the Ad Bands takes place tonight at the Kings Arms Auckland, with comedian Jim Batt running the show.

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.