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The Press, August 2015 Busy from blowing cash on fancy signs and hair straighteners, the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) was being blasted again last week for spending $560,000 on a new website. $312,261 of the budget was for external costs, the remainder internal resources, for the project that combined the online activities of the various entities that…
The Press, July 2015 According to media reports, the government of Tonga recently paid $US130,000 for an ‘advertorial’ in a magazine produced by US publisher Forbes. An opposition MP was quoted as saying it was like “throwing public money out the window.” Investing a quarter of the country’s tourism marketing budget in this manner might seem foolhardy, but what Tonga’s…
The Press, June 2015 The race is on for a new James Bond. As Daniel Craig prepares for the November release of his final 007 film “Spectre”, the bookies are taking money on who will be next to front the famous spy franchise. British stars Damien Lewis and Idris Elba are the front runners, but do we really care? Surely…
Last Thursday night, Concentrate and Deloitte held the event “Scaling tech businesses” in Christchurch. This event provided advice on how best to generate leads online- an important task for export marketers’. There was a focus on creating sales efficiency and gaining more leads by moving from a “lone wolf” mindset to a “wolfpack” or team mindset. The presentation also included ways…
This blog post is dedicated to all the times a client has looked at me worriedly after receiving a social media schedule and questioning, “Won’t it put people off if we’re posting more than once a week?” No. No, it won’t. In fact, the likelihood that your little post will even be seen in the sea of ‘top 5 things…
The Press, June 2015 Three months’ salary. That is supposedly the rule of thumb governing investment in engagement rings, according to a colleague (who was using this as an excuse for not yet having bought one for his beloved). My initial reaction was relief that such a crazy notion wasn’t popular in my circles when I was investing in my…
The Press, May 2015 Buying wine changes something in your brain, according to a German University research report published in the media last week. While I’ve known this since being introduced to sparkling wine as a young lad, this study had a different insight. The research had determined, by doing brain scans on different groups of people, that the higher…
The Press, April 2015 I admit it. At the risk of being unpatriotic, I am thoroughly sick of The Hobbit. I didn’t read the book (I’m not sure it even made the Balclutha District Library’s small collection when I was a child), haven’t seen any of the movies and think air rage might be a possibility if I have to…
The Press, March 2015. It’s that time of year again. When your accountant starts warnings about those big tax bills coming up, and nagging about why your budget for the next financial year is not yet in place. Readers may think that as a marketer my recommendation would be to budget as much as you possibly can for sales and…
The Press, March 2015 Technology stocks have gone from heroes to villains in recent weeks, with several companies listed on the NZX warning about weaker than predicted earnings. Is there some fundamental problem with these tech companies? Are the tech stocks a flaky bunch or are there some specific challenges they face? Listed technology companies helped fuel the growth of…