TVNZ creative work beat out fierce Transtasman competition to win two major categories at this year’s PromaxBDA ANZ Awards. The grunt behind the win came from TVNZ Blacksand, Shortland Street producer South Pacific Pictures, Mercury Energy and its agency FCB Media.

Despite widespread support for diversity and inclusiveness in the advertising & comms industry, there is a gap when it comes to formal policies and programmes, according to groundbreaking research undertaken by the NZ Commercial Communications Council.

Keep an eye on this space – because the Axis Awards 2018 entry call goes live next week. And the Comms Council’s Katie Ward suggests you “might want to get a head-start on those entries this side of Christmas, before the busy summer season starts”.

NZ programmatic trader Acquire Online has been awarded the Best Use of Performance medal at the Drum Digital Trading Awards APAC 2017 for their work with a client in the finance sector.

Fairfax Media has acquired 100% per cent ownership of New Zealand-based website business Neighbourly.co.nz. Fairfax has progressively increased its share after first investing in the startup in December 2014. Since then, the site has grown eight-fold from 62,000 members to more than 500,000 members, and is now one of the most visited websites in New Zealand.

LONDON, Today: D&AD has launched its call for entries to the 56th annual awards – and unveiled its 2018 global jury presidents.

The New Zealand contingent at the 2017 London International Awards – ably led by Colenso BBDO – won 10 statues: Three Gold, one Silver, six Bronze, and three finalist spots. The show this year was held in Las Vegas.

“Dear Ed,” writes the Aussie PR person who sent us the Jacob’s Creek details – published in M+AD earlier in the week. “Thanks so much for my mention in your piece – and for running it so kindly,” she told us last night.

Yahoo Platforms has today announced three major additions to its native advertising format offering, introducing Animated GIFs, Carousel ads, and Slideshow video ads. The new formats join the brand’s leading native advertising suite and will enhance viewability for advertisers and provide a superior user experience.