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.

At a press conference today, Rebel Sport’s Managing Director Rod Duke announced the company will reduce the cost of the overpriced All Blacks replica jersey from $189.99 to just $149.50.

Here is a statement by Mr Duke:

“The Rugby World Cup is the biggest sporting event this country has ever hosted.
It’s my view that this is an event that every New Zealander has the right to share in.
These are exciting times for us all.

At Rebel Sport we know only too well that times are tough for many Kiwis.
We’ve always set out to make sporting goods readily available at prices that work for the average Kiwi household.

Imagine our dismay when we discovered that All Black rugby jerseys were available for a lower price online than in retail stores in this country. We happen to believe that this jersey belongs to the New Zealand rugby public. The NZRU are custodians on behalf of all of us and Adidas for the time being are the sponsors of this jersey. They don’t own it. We all do. We cannot have a situation where New Zealanders would pay more for All Black jerseys than almost any other country in the world. Quite frankly, this is an intolerable circumstance and we will not accept it.

Yesterday afternoon I met with Adidas in an attempt to convince them to reduce the price down to a level below the online price. They point blank refused to reduce the price by even one cent. I just don’t understand this position and have decided to make a stand for the benefit of the New Zealand sporting public.

I am here today to announce that Rebel Sport will, with immediate effect, reduce the price of the All Black replica players jersey from $189.99 to $149.50. (That is $130 pre GST.)Further, we have opted to reduce the price of the Rugby World Cup replica All Black jersey from $220 down to $170 (or $147.80 pre GST).

Adidas are in the process of delivering more stock to our stores. We’re inviting customers to purchase now, and if there’s no stock, to accept a rain check because stock will be in our stores by Saturday.

And for those customers who have purchased an All Black jersey from Rebel Sport before this price reduction, we will issue a Rebel Sport gift voucher for the price difference as compensation upon presentation of a receipt. We want no one be disadvantaged.

I am confident that this price reduction, which is entirely funded by Rebel Sport, will enable thousands of kiwis to enjoy, what we all know, will be a wonderful rugby tournament.”

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.

Panasonic NZ, like most other companies these days, wanted to be involved in social media. But, they didn’t want to just jump in without any business strategy behind the actions. Bullet PR has launched a variety of products for Panasonic, such as the Blu-ray recorder and 3DTV, and we were asked to do the brand’s social media marketing as well.

Before starting work on the social media marketing itself, we wanted to sell what we were doing and why we were doing it, to people outside the marketing department. We organised a half-day strategy session with all product managers and senior management as well as the PR and marketing teams. This made everyone feel involved and it also gave us access to more ideas, which can never be a bad thing.

The social media programme is now fully up-and-running and we have helped start a blog, writing posts across a range of topics. We have also just put up our first blog post with an accompanying video. There are more on the way so keep an eye out!

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.

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.

Today, in conjunction with House of Travel, we launched the Contiki mixandmatcher Facebook application.

The application sits on both the House of Travel and Contiki Travel Lounge Facebook pages and offers entrants the chance to win holidays and lots of other prizes.

Entering the competition involves spinning a virtual slot machine. One column brings up random friends from your own Facebook profile, the others bring up various prize combinations. The prizes range from Kiwi classics like a pair of jandals or an All Blacks shirt all the way through to Contiki trips to the United States.

Once you have found a combination you like, you can enter for a chance to win. You can enter up three times a day and each entry appears in your Facebook news feed.

The main aim is to promote Contiki NZ’s various tour options in what is the key booking season over the next few months.

Bullet PR held an experiential marketing event to launch Contiki’s new European tours for Summer 2011.

The iconic New Zealand brand is approaching its busiest time of year for bookings as Kiwis arrange trips for when the southern hemisphere cools down again next year. To help drive promotion, Bullet PR hired No.1 Queen St cafe, the busiest foot traffic spot in the country, and gave away free cups of coffee and pastries to passers by. To help attract awareness, promotional staff were dressed in the attires of various European countries.

So that everyone went away with Contiki on their minds, Bullet PR ensured every cup of coffee had a ‘Contiki.com’ sticker on top.

The event was very successful, with over 500 branded cups of coffee and 500 pastries given to consumers. Next up is the trade shows to make sure all the travel agents get the same message!

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