To kick off New Zealand Family history month, Bullet PR leveraged Ancestry.com.au’s partnership with the New Zealand Society of Genealogists to grow people’s awareness and understanding of their family origins.
This included organising and marketing an expert panel discussion on national identity entitled ‘what it means to be a Kiwi today’, in collaboration with the Auckland Library and Ancestry.com.au.

Multiple New Zealand media outlets took the opportunity to discover their individual roots during Family History Month with Ancestry.com.au’s Brad Argent appearing on a variety of media. The Edge Radio station’s Mike Puru and Dom Harvey had their family history uncovered with Mike finding out he had an Australian convict as an ancestor. TVNZ Good Morning presenter Jeanette Thomas discovered she was related to an Italian count, while her colleague Rod Cheeseman was surprised to find that he had Cheesemans on both sides of the family. There were multiple radio interviews with Brad Argent on topics ranging from national identity to researching family trees, including Radio New Zealand, Newstalk ZB, The Coast and Radio Rhema.

In addition, The NZ Herald interviewed Brad Argent while researching the historic Auckland inner city Symonds street cemetery and the stories that lay beneath the graves.

The Australian state government agency, Destination NSW, commissioned Bullet PR to launch its ‘Sydney in Winter’ campaign in New Zealand earlier this year.

The campaign goal was to use a mix of paid and earned media to inform Kiwis that Sydney is the same exciting, energetic and unique destination in winter as it is known to be in summer.

To inform media about the launch, Bullet PR sent personalised media kits to key targets, consisting of a media release, a backgrounder on the campaign, and information about places to visit in Sydney during winter.

Bullet PR then secured TVNZ’s Good Morning as well as Woman’s Day magazine to attend a media trip to Sydney during the campaign period.

To drive the campaign online, Bullet PR led a Facebook competition on the Destination NSW Facebook page. To enter the competition, New Zealanders were asked to submit a photo of themselves in front of a Sydney landmark to win a trip for two to visit the city during winter.

Bullet PR managed this entire process, which included: building a Facebook app to support the competition, managing the competition process, and leveraging the competition through media spend.

Overall, the campaign’s success was evident by the overwhelming number of entries for the competition, as well as the boosted number of likes on the Destination NSW Facebook page.

Iconic Kiwi drink MILO launched a new campaign today with the help of Bullet PR, achieving extensive coverage across all major media outlets: ONE News 6pm, TVNZ Breakfast, New Zealand Herald, Otago Daily Times, Radio New Zealand, RadioLive and Newstalk ZB.

The Play Movement follows a recent study – the first of its kind to investigate the play habits of New Zealand children aged 8 – 12 years old – revealing that nearly half (46%) of New Zealand children are not playing every day.

An IMR (Interactive Media Release) was used to launch this campaign, which featured:

• The State Of Play report
• Media release
• Info-graphic
• Play tips for parents
• Key facts from the research
• Images from the report

Kiwis were also encouraged to visit the MILO Facebook page to keep up-to-date with the movement and share play tips with other parents.

In keeping with its position as a challenger brand, Kiwibank is launching a cheeky new ‘bank switching’ initiative for consumers today, which is less like a traditional ad campaign and more like a film launch.

Unlike traditional approaches to bank advertising, Kiwibank’s new ‘Easyswitch’ campaign, encouraging consumers to switch to Kiwibank, is focusing primarily around a unique interactive online channel called ‘Green Ops’, with the look and feel of a ‘first-person POV’ styled online game.

Nicky Ashton, Head of Brand & Marketing Communications for Kiwibank, says that the ‘gamification’ approach of the web site aims to provide a richer and more engaging experience for consumers.

“Kiwibank needs to stand out from the competition, so it’s our job to continually find new ways to connect with new customers” says Ms Ashton.

Hosted on a bespoke YouTube channel, the site is built around a loose narrative of an elite team within Kiwibank whose mission it is to help rescue customers from bad banking experiences.

“It’s kind of like ‘Get Smart’ meets the ‘Bourne Identity’, as the Kiwibank ‘Green Ops’ team goes around making it easier for people to switch to Kiwibank. Just one signature and Green Ops will deal with the rest,” says Ms Ashton.

Visitors to the channel can hunt for screen ‘hotspots’ where they will encounter random moments of humour and discovery amidst the pitch for them to switch banks, including some tongue-in-cheek references to Kiwibank’s competitors.

The channel also features a number of interactive elements that will allow users to share their experience with friends via various social media platforms, such as Facebook.

One top secret campaign element will remain under wraps until the 9th of September when a lucky new Kiwibank customer stands to be significantly rewarded.

Ms Ashton says the Green Ops site will be supported by an above-the-line media campaign with all the elements of a blockbuster movie launch, including cinema trailers, movie posters with QR codes, outdoor and dramatic cinema styled voiceovers on radio, online advertising and TV spots, all produced by ad agency Ogilvy.

Teasers for the campaign are running now on radio and outdoor, and the site will go live on Monday 15th August.

To preview the Green Ops site, visit http://youtube.com/kiwibankgreenops

Sealegs, manufacturer of the world’s first fully amphibious boat, has launched its first international showroom. The showroom, in Boston, New England, represents a significant step for the company founded by two Kiwi entrepeneurs. Since starting the company in 2004, over 500 boats have been sold, to countries around the world.

Bullet PR secured coverage on Stuff.co.nz, where co-founder David McKee-Wright compared SeaLegs’ home market on Waiheke Island, with a population of approximately 7500, with New England’s population of 14.5 million.

“If the Waiheke Island client base in excess of 40 craft is indicative of the potential in New England, Sealegs has a significant opportunity to look forward to,” he said.

Sealegs is the Official Marine Partner of the All Blacks.

Yesterday, we held a press event for the announcement of 2degrees mobile’s customer number. The company has enjoyed a rapid rise to over half a million customers, which it has achieved in just over 18 months, and we wanted to organise an event that matched this success.

We held the event in the Concert Chamber at Auckland Town Hall and we came up with the idea of a digital scoreboard to act as the compelling visual for media to take away. As 2degrees mobile CEO Eric Hertz finished his run-through of major milestones for the company so far, the scoreboard started to flicker and rattle through until it reached 580,112. This created some great drama and excitement and the true value of the event was shown in the widespread media coverage.

The media coverage included the NZ Herald, The Dominion Post, Stuff.co.nz, TVNZ, Radio NZ, Radio Live, More FM and NBR.

Bullet PR has been working with nationwide retailer and finance company, dtr, for several months now. One of the key requirements in our brief was to increase the company’s profile amongst the New Zealand business community. To achieve this, we have undertaken several initiatives. First up was media relations, of course. The results so far include a retail trends story that featured on the NZ Herald Online as well as a profile piece on MD, Mark Spring that appeared in the Dominion Post and on Stuff.co.nz

Outside of core media relations, we also helped organise an event at one of the dtr stores where the owners of the company outlined their vision of the next three years for all the business partners to hear. At the event, we issued the company’s first-ever Annual Review, which looked at financial figures as well as giving an insight into the company.

Most recently, we have launched a blog where Mark Spring and other members of the senior management will give their insights into retail trends, change management, their community involvement and life on the frontline of a Kiwi business.

Ogilvy NZ and Bullet PR have today joined forces to create a new digital engagement and social media marketing practice, Ogilvy 360 Degrees Digital Influence.
Drawing on the proven technical expertise of Ogilvy Digital and Bullet PR’s extensive experience in online communications, Ogilvy 360 Degrees Digital Influence offers clients a powerful combination of digital communications, web development, search and social media marketing to deliver meaningful engagement with stakeholders.
In addition, Bullet PR joins Ogilvy NZ, merging Ogilvy PR’s business into the one brand, Bullet PR, offering full service consumer PR, experiential marketing and corporate communications.

BulletPR has launched an online consumer PR and social media engagement campaign with NZ Girl will promote the new IDEOS™ smartphone with Google™, exclusive to 2degrees Mobile.  Via Facebook, Twitter and email marketing, NZ Girl’s many aspiring fashion devotees are invited to channel the vibe of one of four ‘So Smart’ style icons: Emma Stone, Alexa Chung, Zooey Deschanel or Natalie Portman.

The would-be stylists must publish their fashion spread on fashion trend site Polyvore featuring the IDEOS Smartphone as part of their look.   To boost their entry further, they are invited to tweet their look with the hashtag #sosmart.

The winner will walk off with a prize worth over $2000 including an IDEOS Smartphone, a year’s free airtime and a ‘spoil me’ makeover day with one of NZ’S top stylists.

Bullet PR director Jennifer Duval-Smith said “The IDEOS is a smart looking phone, with a very smart android 2.2 operating system, at a smart price. It’s great to have the chance to explore those brand values of the technology in the fashion space.  NZ Girl readers are smart and creative and we’re really looking forward to seeing how far they’re going to take this concept.”

Homestar.org.nz was launched yesterday in Wellington by Hon Maurice Williamson MP and industry leaders.

Backed by the government and supported across the building industry, Homestar.org.nz is set to become the standard by which Kiwi’s measure and improve home performance.

The free online residential rating tool allows the consumer to get a better idea of the inefficiencies around their home. This could mean anything from poor insulation to having an unnecessary beer fridge in the basement that uses lots of extra power.

Coverage appeared on Radio NZ’s Nine to Noon, TVNZ 6pm News, TV3 6pm News, TVNZ Breakfast, Newstalk ZB, Easy Mix and in the NZ Herald and The Dominion Post.

Part of the launch event involved a demo video, written and directed by Bullet PR, which you can view here.