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.

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.

DHL and it’s Official Rugby World Cup 2011 Ambassador visited some Christchurch schools yesterday to drop off aid packs and rugby balls and bring some light relief to the area.

In association with KidsCan, the Official Logistics Partner of RWC 2011 brought Umaga to Linwood Avenue, Bromley and Aranui schools. Coverage appeared on TVNZ 6pm News, in The Press in Christchurch and also the New Zealand Herald.

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 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 2degrees mobile today officially launched its 3G network.

The event was held at the Viaduct Harbour Marine Village and it created a great atmosphere for the assortment of journalists and stakeholders in attendance.

In addition to the 3G network, 2degrees also launched a range of data plans to offer New Zealanders more affordable mobile broadband rates.

Finally, there were some new handsets on display and a hint towards the Post-Pay service on the horizon.

Coverage has already appeared on the NZHerald.co.nz, Stuff.co.nz, TVNZ.co.nz and TV3.co.nz as well as on Radio NZ and Newstalk ZB.

Official website of the real estate industry and Bullet PR client, Realestate.co.nz, yesterday released research that debunks the theory that summer and spring are the best times to list your property. It reveals that sales are actually less susceptible to the seasons than some may think. TV3′s Campbell Live featured the research which illustrated that when selling a property, the best time may actually be in the middle of winter, a time traditionally considered to be the least advantageous for property sellers.

Bullet PR Senior Account Manager Paul Matthews spoke recently to conference delegates at the ^7th annual Media Relations conference in Wellington. Paul delivered a 90 minute workshop to delegates on building an integrated approach to internal, external, online and offline communications.

As well as providing local case studies to illustrate the effectiveness of integrated communications, Paul‘s presentation also discussed the importance of measurement, gave delegates tips on how to develop an effective media relations strategy, and highlighted how social media has become an important facet of a successful communications campaign.

Radio New Zealand’s award winning Nine To Noon programme recently profiled the newly appointed General Manager of The Arts Channel, Chris de Bazin. A Bullet PR client since 2007, The Arts Channel is New Zealand’s only television channel dedicated 24/7 to the arts and it is broadcast on Sky’s Channel 79. Read the full story