Fraser Gardyne of Bullet PR client, gardyneHOLT, appears on designdaily giving his opinions on the longevity of New Zealand’s design decisions.

Fraser argues that Auckland city is representative of a deeper lack of understanding among many Kiwis regarding where design fits into the overall reputation and perception of a brand. As he summarises:

“This all comes back to the importance of doing one thing and doing it well. As designers or architects, we may have many messages to get across or ideas to use. But we should always remember that sticking to one overarching theme is what works best for all communicators, and that includes us.”

For more of his opinion piece, click here.

Bullet PR client Realestate.co.nz put out the latest version of the property report recently. which achieved some great coverage.

The story for July was that average asking prices fell to their lowest level in a year.

3News.co.nz, NZ Herald (News and Business sections) and Radio NZ were some of the places the coverage appeared.

Bullet PR client Bookmyshow.co.nz appeared in the Sunday Star Times over the weekend in an article on 3D movies.

Some influential commentators in the US had been speculating on whether the 3D movie bubble may have burst in the wake of declining sales since Avatar.

Many fns have been choosing to watch movies like Toy Story and Shrek in 2D, which is said to be worrying some Hollywood distributors.

Using an old PR skill, we jumped on the back of this debate and secured comment from Bookmyshow General Manager Matthew Preen in the Sunday Star Times and on Stuff.co.nz.

Matthew commented that it’s more about content than format and that there is added value from watching Avatar in 3D, whereas Toy Story is good  entertainment regardless of format.

Bullet PR client Bookmyshow.co.nz featured in the Weekend NZ Herald as well as the NZ Herald online. Bookmyshow General Manager, Matthew Preen, commented on the phenomenal box-office success of Twilight: Eclipse, the latest installment in the multi-million dollar franchise. Preen commented that the Eclipse had:

“gone mad - gone gangbusters”, having sold out several screens well in advance of the release date.

Mr Preen attributed the general rise in movie ticket sales to a combination of factors, including several blockbusters, but also the bad weather over the school holidays:

“Families want to do something with their children and the terrible weather made movies the obvious choice.”

Bookmyshow.co.nz is the only place Kiwi’s can book movie tickets online for different cinema chains across New Zealand.

Bullet PR Managing Director Nicholas O’Flaherty and Senior Account Manager Kevin Ptak are quoted on social media in the current issue of NZ Management magazine.

The article relates to ‘harnessing the power of social media’ and discusses how NZ shapes up compared to the rest of the world in terms of digital know-how. Read the full story

Bullet PR Account Manager Alex Erasmus is quoted on social media in the current issue of AdMedia magazine.

Alex was asked how social media has changed the way he communicates in his personal and professional lives. Read the full story

Bullet PR Account Manager, Alex Erasmus, hosted the most recent Auckland Social Media Club event at the Saatchi building on May 11^th.

The event was on ‘Brand Voice: balancing personal and corporate tone in Social Media’ and featured Monteith’s, Rebecca Smith of Telecom, David Farrier from TV3 and Vaughn Davis of ad agency Y&R.

The night was a rousing success, with well over 100 attendees and plenty of good conversations about Digital and Social Media best practice.

For more on the night, click here.

And to keep updated on the future monthly events, click here.

Bullet PR Managing Director, Nicholas O’Flaherty was intervewed in the NZ Herald today on how businesses can get the most out of social media.

Described as a social media commentator, O’Flaherty said “No matter what business you are in, your customers will be online so, if you have any chance of growing your market share or even retaining the customers you already have, you need to be there and be seen.

“Smaller firms can be nimbler online and may even be able to provide more interesting content with their blogs than the big corporates.”

Bullet PR client 2degrees Mobile today announced that 206,000 people are now actively using its new services and are enjoying the best use of its great value mobile calling and texting rates. The announcement was made at Auckland’s Crowne Plaza hotel in front of a packed room of journalists.

2degrees CEO Eric Hertz said, “206,000 New Zealanders have chosen to join the 2degrees family to stay closer to friends and whanau. This is well ahead of our expectations and we’re delighted that we have struck such a chord with so many New Zealanders.

“Over the last six months we’ve exceeded initial expectations. We’ve successfully bought down prepaid prices for mobile services so that for the first time people in New Zealand are able to access a prepaid plan at prices below the OECD average.

“We’ve also made it even more attractive to bring your current mobile number over to 2degrees and we are seeing record numbers - 53,000 in fact - who have chosen to bring their existing mobile numbers with them,” he said.

“It’s going to be an exciting time ahead for mobile consumers,” said Eric. “We’ve only just begun.”

Jayson Bryant of Wine Vault TV was the speaker at the inaugural Social Media Club event at 42Below Bar on Commerce Street in downtown Auckland last night. Bullet PR is a founding member of the Social Media Club committee and Account Manager Alex Erasmus hosted this event.

With video set to be a key topic in media circle in the coming months, Jayson spoke about what he has learnt in 179 episodes of Wine Vault TV and how incorporating video blogging into his business has helped drive extra revenue.

By being one of the first businesses in New Zealand to start using Social Media, The Wine Vault has helped to increase online sales by 4000% (20% of overall sales); Jayson admitted this figure originated from relatively humble beginnings, but it is still a huge game-changer for how his company operates.

One key insight to take away from the evening was that video (and not just YouTube) are significantly underappreciated and underutilized in New Zealand. The chances of a video ‘going viral’ are incredibly slim (you would be better off with a Lotto ticket), but if you keep the content interesting and digestible, people will soon start to follow what you are doing and a fan base will build.

Another factor people must remember is that Social Media is time consuming. Jayson reminded us that although many of the tools are free or relatively cheap, time is the biggest cost to factor in. With video, it is really important to use intelligent tagging. This is particularly true with YouTube, where there is an incredible amount of white noise (approximately 20 hours uploaded every minute).

However, the most important point is that content is king. Social Media is not an essential part of your business model and the tools, especially video, should only be used if you have something interesting to say. As Jayson alluded to, if you have something interesting to say and the market is not crowded by other people trying to say the same thing, there’s a great chance you can build a trusting following, brand equity and extra revenue from home and abroad.