FCB NZ ceo Brian van den Hurk has today announced that he will be retiring in early 2017, after 40 years in the agency business, including 28 years at FCB locally and offshore.
Shifts in global adspend revealed
London, 15 December – Warc, the marketing intelligence service, has today released its latest Global Ad Trends report, a unique and illuminating analysis of the data recorded in Warc’s survey of global advertising expenditure, to reveal the underlying global advertising and media investment trends and provide an outlook for the future.
Instagram: 600 million and counting

Instagram has announced it now has more than 600 million monthly actives. The company says it added the last 100 million Instagrammers in just six months.
Quality journalism drives Stuff to record numbers
Latest Nielsen Online Ratings figures show Stuff has broken a new record, reaching a unique audience of 2.175 million in November, a month dominated by big news events including the US election and the devastating Kaikoura earthquake.
Happīkurisumasu!
Barnes, Catmur & Friends Dentsu, New Zealand’s leading Japanese advertising agency, have created a stylish seasonal gift for clients and friends (M+AD even got one!).
Special, Robbers Dog create a pearler
Special Group and Paspaley Pearls have teamed with film director Daniel Borgman, fashion photographer Sylve Colless and French actress Nora Arnezeder to create Life Needs Adventure, a film, print and digital campaign designed to continue the strategy of showcasing pearls to a younger, fashion-conscious audience.
True & Exposure shoot Air NZ safety video
Auckland agency True has created Summer of Safety, a new Air New Zealand safety video set against the tourist hotspots in Northland, and starring Shortland Street’s Jayden Daniels, actor Joe Naufahu, stuntwoman Zoë Bell (see also Arrivals & Departures), Kiwi motorace ace Scott Dixon, Olympic bronze-medallist Eliza McCartney, and Rachel Hunter.
Arrivals & Departures: Bauer taps ex Canvas ed, Curious signs Tarantino’s Kiwi muse
Bauer Media has appointed Michele Crawshaw as editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly NZ magazine. The previous – temporary – editor was Wendyl Nissan, who ran the title in 2016 while then-editor Cath Bennett was on maternity leave. Bennett had since chosen not to return.
AI impact greater than social media?

European ad/marketing news site Warc is predicting that in 2017, Artificial Intelligence (defined as the ability of computers to take on tasks that have previously required human intelligence to complete, such as speech recognition or interpreting data) will have a greater impact on marketing & advertising than the impact of social media.
Will EC digital action fuel newsprint revival?
