Tag: New Zealand

Auckland, New Zealand – Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky has partnered with global advertising agency BBDO in launching a live stream billboard in New Zealand as part of Kaspersky’s campaign ‘Safer Tomorrow’, aimed at trying to answer humankind’s questions about the foreseeable future.

The billboard, placed temporarily in Castlepoint Station on the Wairarapa coast of New Zealand, utilized BBDO’s developed foretelling neural network to answer to the most significant questions about ‘tomorrow’ – from “when will flying cars become ordinary vehicles?” to “what will 3D printing be capable of by 2050?” In addition, audiences are able to view the billboard live from New Zealand via the ‘Safer Tomorrow’ website.

“Kaspersky is committed to building a more protected and safer world. To achieve this, the global cybersecurity company closely follows technological trends and predictions to generate a picture of what we can expect in the future and to understand how to secure it in advance. Kaspersky also believes that the more people who consider the future and the likely trajectories of society and technology, the more they will be able to foresee and contribute to this better and safer tomorrow,” the company said in a press statement.

The deployed neural network uses the latest machine learning architecture and techniques and is trained to analyze requests and provide predictions based on data collected from hundreds of thousands of related sources, including science fiction books and magazines, selected media, and blogs.

Asked about the use of science fiction materials as a base for the ‘Safer Tomorrow’ predictions, the company stated that “boldest predictions were usually considered not just incredible but even whimsical at the time they were made.”

“Over the last few decades, as SciFi authors have got access to the latest progress in science, their ideas and predictions are treated with much more respect and seriousness even by scientists,” the company stated.

The company, however, clarified that the neural network itself will admit as to whether no answer can be provided, and will try its best to reformulate the question or prod for another one to be asked. 

“Some predictions are still to be made, and even the neural network’s knowledge has its limits. But not knowing everything about the future makes it even more amazing and thrilling. Generating a specific prediction as an answer to a question would take a few seconds,” the company added.

Furthermore, insights used in the ‘Safer Tomorrow’ platform will be also using Kaspersky’s former interactive project ‘Earth 2050’, a platform project providing a futuristic image of what the world will look like in 30 years’ time.

The creation of the ‘Safer Tomorrow’ platform, according to Andrew Winton, vice president for global marketing at Kaspersky, was to raise people’s awareness about what the future might look like and feel more certain about upcoming opportunities.

“Looking into and understanding the future is something that has occupied the minds of humankind throughout time. It is this knowledge that allows us to be secure, prepared and confident. Kaspersky believes in a bright future where, [the] as-of-yet unseen potential for humanity will be opened up by technology, which is why we secure it,” Winton stated.

The live stream billboard construction will be accessible to the public until February 25 and will be dismantled thereafter. 

Sydney, Australia – Hong Kong-headquartered digital payment service provider and technology vendor AsiaPay has announced that it will further expand its payment platform in Australia and New Zealand thanks to a new partnership with Fat Zebra.

Similarly a payment platform, Fat Zebra is based in Australia and is said to be currently in partnership with over 25,000 merchants across the globe.

As part of the partnership, AsiaPay will leverage Fat Zebra’s processing infrastructure to access more Australian acquiring networks and domestic schemes, creating secure, seamless payments for its digital merchants across Australia and New Zealand.

Welcoming the announcement, AsiaPay Founder and CEO Joseph Chan said, “We are excited to partner with Fat Zebra and launch into Australia and New Zealand further. As part of international business expansion strategy, we identified the need for local experts to support in-market, definitely it will help AsiaPay accelerate our growth in Australia and New Zealand, while still allowing us full control and flexibility to create the digital payment values to merchants and best customer payment experience,” said Mr. Chan.

Meanwhile, Fat Zebra CEO Pred Dragila said Fat Zebra is proud to partner with AsiaPay.

“At Fat Zebra, we focus on modernising payments and giving our partners local market access through a single global platform,” said Dragila.

“Our aim is to remove the barriers to entry for our customers by giving them speed to market, the control that they need, and the optionality that they want. AsiaPay is a great trusted digital payment platform covering most of the Asian market and we’re excited to help them grow their international footprint. his partnership allows them to hit the ground running and offer its customers instant access to this region,” added Dragila.

Melbourne, Australia – Consumer brand Kogan.com has recently acquired Mighty Ape, a New Zealand-based online retailer, which signals a much larger retail business growth across ANZ via new customer offerings and renewed business structure.

The complementary acquisition provides Kogan.com an immediate access scale of the New Zealand market, to which Mighty Ape has built its own business presence in New Zealand. 

For David Shafer, Kogan.com’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, the recent acquisition speaks to the shared history and values they have with Mighty Ape, noting the business track of the New Zealand online retailer to many customers.

“Mighty Ape will give us significant scale in New Zealand and further strength across a variety of operational dimensions. We will be drawing on Mighty Ape’s deep experience in gaming, toys, other entertainment product categories, and the New Zealand market, and combining this experience with Kogan.com’s sourcing, technology, systems, infrastructure, and marketplace capabilities, to further enhance the group’s already market-leading offering across the Tasman,” Shafer stated, also noting that “they will look forward to serving and delighting customers throughout New Zealand and Australia”

On the other hand, Mighty Ape Founder and CEO Simon Barton said, “The Mighty Ape team is very happy to be joining forces with the Kogan.com Group, as we embark on the next stage of our growth. Combining with Kogan.com will assist Mighty Ape to expand our product range and improve our customer experience. I am excited about working with Ruslan and David, and the broader Kogan.com team — who have built an incredible business — while also aligning and creating more growth opportunities for the incredible team that helped build Mighty Ape to be New Zealand’s most trusted retailer brand.”

Los Angeles, California (USA) – The LIFE Picture, a photographic archive owned by media conglomerate Meredith Corporation will now be under the branding strategies of Evolution USA, which scopes all LIFE brands across North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Evolution USA will be responsible for monetizing these archives and help The LIFE Picture brand attain brand expansion opportunities through consumer experiences and products. Apparel, accessories, home furnishings, housewares, gifts and collectibles, food and beverage, stationery and paper goods, brand and artist collaborations, hospitality, location-based entertainment experiences, gaming, and promotions are just some of the outputs that can be produced from brand expansion.

“We’re excited to partner with Evolution to bring our iconic brand to new audiences. There’s enormous potential in these images and we can’t wait to share them with the public in creative and innovative ways,” Jill Golden, Director, The LIFE Picture Collection stated.

With collections spanning from themes like Americana, Hollywood, and history, Travis J. Rutherford, co-founder, and chief revenue officer of Evolution stated that this move is preservation of the iconic archives from LIFE and expanding it to a much more modern market.

“The LIFE Picture Collection contains so many stunning visuals, relevant themes and genres. We realized that nothing captures the zeitgeist of the 20th century like LIFE, and as such we see huge potential for consumer products at multiple levels of the market. The entire team at Evolution is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the very talented executives at Meredith to deliver upon their corporate brand expansion vision,” said Rutherford.

Singapore – Consumers within the Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) and Singapore markets have shown mixed consumer behaviors with the upcoming holiday seasons, a report from advertising analytics company Blis showed.

The study focused on three indicators that reported greater impact on consumer behavior during the global pandemic crisis. These include geographical location, modifications to mobility, and the psychological need for interaction.

ANZ showed contrasting consumer behavior in going out of their homes. Australia tallied 41% of the respondents that showed caution during June this year, albeit the rate has since then changed to 26% in September. On the other hand, New Zealand carried greater confidence at going outside, with a 54% rate in June, albeit slightly dropping to 49% in September due to resurgence of new cases in the country.

About 41% of the respondents in Singapore, on the other hand, wanted to leave their houses with 21%  stating that they are cautious.

In terms of mobility behavior, Singapore demonstrated greater confidence for public transport mobility, with 32% showing positive notes, while ANZ clocked 21% and 26% respectively in terms of mobility confidence. The study noted that effective lockdown measures are a prime cause of these consumer markets showing greater confidence in going outside.

When it comes to psychological behavior, New Zealanders reflected a higher percentage of taking the risk to visit food-related establishments, such as restaurants and bars, which tallied a 46% response rate. On the other hand, Australia and Singapore had less confidence to eat outside, with a 35% and 31% response rate respectively.

As the holiday season is fastly approaching, the ANZ market reported greater interest in spending their festive shopping at a physical store (AU, 33%; NZ 36%) yet have mixed views on spending limit (NZ: same amount as last year, AU: less spending). On the other hand, Singapore showed uncertainty whether they will shop in-store or online, yet showed behavior of shopping earlier for the festivities.

Singapore-Digital analytics company Contentsquare has recently announced its organizational expansion within the Asia Pacific (APAC) region by establishing several regional offices and appointing two new executives to aid in the company’s operations.

The company upholds its provision of services, including customer behavior, behavior analysis through billions of anonymous web, mobile and app interactions, transforming this knowledge into advisories that increase revenue, engagement and growth.

Its new regional offices are located in the cities of Singapore, Tokyo, Melbourne, and Sydney. 

Following this endeavor, Contentsquare has also employed two key executives for the overall operations of the group. David Bochsler, a former senior head at Microsoft, has been hired as the regional managing director for APAC operations, while Frazer Adnam, former head of CRM Marketing for Deliveroo and later on Afterpay, joined as ANZ Country Manager. The company said the expansion endeavor is part of its goal for the year to specifically expand within the APAC region, which it hopes to stay in the longer run. 

“When I first saw the Contentsquare platform, I was just so excited about the technology. I was the decision maker on the brand side that Contentsquare would have traditionally sold to. I thought, ‘this solves problems that I literally would have needed five people to solve.’ From someone who had been working in customer experience roles for a long period of time, I was completely fascinated by what I saw was going to be the new wave of customer experience technology,” Frazer Adnam, country manager for ANZ Contentsquare stated.

Meanwhile, David Bochsler, Contentsquare’s APAC managing director commented, “Contentsquare is perfectly positioned for substantial growth in Asia. It caters exceptionally well to those very large mature, highly data driven organizations but also caters to those people that are just getting their feet in the water as far as understanding what their online visitors are doing. It’s the first time I’ve seen any technology that’s shown me what’s inside that black box of customer behavior online. It allows brands to finally understand why their digital visitors behave the way they do”.

Sydney, Australia – About 91% of marketers in Australia and New Zealand are prioritizing the use of marketing data to improve ROI and marketing efficiency, said a joint study by marketing intelligence platform Salesforce Datorama and marketing research agency The Leading Edge.

The study examined 285 marketers across ANZ on how they integrate marketing data to measure impact and business growth, and almost all of the respondents – 93% – have shifted their priorities to focus on marketing-led growth.

“Marketers are seeing their role evolve as they are responsible for propelling business-wide outcomes. As they become increasingly accountable for operationalizing growth mandates across the entire organization, they need to embrace a data-driven culture and modernize their approach to marketing measurement,” said Jay Wilder, senior director of product marketing at Salesforce Datorama.

The study also showed the biggest barriers that marketers face in driving growth around data, where data mismanagement, lack of a unified view of performance, and lack of real-time insights came out as the top three.

Although 86% of ANZ marketers see the importance of a complete view of cross-channel marketing, they face a number of roadblocks when it comes to integrating their data for that holistic view. According to the study, 69% of marketers still integrate data manually to an extent with the same percentage of marketers revealing that they spend a week or more on harmonizing data from disparate channels.

Aside from such challenges, the study revealed that there is room for improvement when it comes to data analysis and optimization, as 73% of marketers do not have access to real-time insights. 

Furthermore, nearly half, or 47% of marketers, experience misalignment across teams on measurement, with reporting sharing and collaborating on data analysis remaining a challenge for 36%. 

Marketers are making progress as they move forward in their data journey and shift priorities to focus on business growth. The study showed that there 61% of marketers receive growing support from senior leaders for a stronger uptake of data-driven marketing. Meanwhile, 62% are in firms that have been making investments in marketing analytics technology, while the same percentage have been achieving alignment on the KPIs that matter the most.

“A successful growth marketing strategy requires the strategic alignment of people, processes, and technologies. Bringing together an understanding of key growth priorities and challenges, leadership support, investment, and an aligned measurement strategy will drive ANZ,” said Wilder.

Australia – In the middle of months-long country lockdowns and travel restrictions, Australian and Kiwi locals are showing eagerness to travel with South Pacific island Mo’orea in French Polynesia and the Great Southern Region in Western Australia topping their destination wishlist for 2021, said a study by Australian-owned travel platform Vacaay.

The findings were based on users’ planned itineraries on Vacaay’s platform. Among their eyed destinations is also Whitsundays Islands in Queensland landing on the third spot. Canterbury region in New Zealand and North Australia’s Arnhem Land were also on travelers’ radar, entering the list as the fourth and fifth most favored destination respectively.

The study has also identified travel practices which are expected to be key trends by next year such as slow travel, with travelers’ itinerary having fewer destinations but with longer stay. Travelers are also forecast to indulge in luxurious travel experiences, with travelers having reserved a disposable income amid the lockdown.

Vacaay CEO Pete McKeon said, “In 2020 the world became a lot smaller. For some of us, the dream of travel stopped five kilometers from the front door, while others had an entire state as their playground. But no matter the restrictions, Australians have proven to be tenacious travelers. We’re greedily exploring our own backyard, sometimes literally, and we’re keeping the dream of travel well and truly alive for 2021,”

Australia – Australian-based digital-out-of-home (DOOH) solutions Val Morgan Outdoor (VMO) has now extended its programmatic outdoor services to include New Zealand in its office buildings-targeted ad placement offering, VMO Work.

VMO’s VMO Work is a full-on digital office building network consisting of 135 screens across 75 locations reaching working professionals as they enter and exit work. 

The network integrates full-motion digital advertising with localized content such as news and sport, financial information, and weather and building directory information with an aim to engage workers. 

To ensure the complete VMO Work network, VMO has partnered with leading out-of-home exchanges: Hivestack, Vistar Media, and Broadsign Reach.

“The ability to deliver these audiences via programmatic exchanges offers clear benefits to advertisers seeking access to premium inventory. Advertisers [will] have the flexibility to up-weight, down-weight, pause or stop campaign activity in real-time with the option to adjust campaign targeting or update their creative,” said the company in a press statement.

VMO Managing Director Paul Butler said, “VMO has made programmatic a business priority and we are excited to bring this capability to New Zealand where there has been so much interest shown by the market.”

Singapore – Leading tech company Microsoft fortifies its diversity & inclusion advocacy through its latest initiative across APAC, the Microsoft Enabler Program.

Said to be the first of its kind, the program partners non-profit organizations (NPOs) who will provide training to organizations to become inclusive employers, who in turn will provide job shadowing, internships, mentoring, and opportunities in tech jobs for PWDs identified by the NPOs.

The program will be piloted in five markets: Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, before expanding to the rest of the region by the end of 2020.

Within the program, Microsoft will also see the direct training to PWDs themselves, where sessions will circle engineering and programming and cloud computing on Microsoft Azure as well as application development in GitHub. 

For the employer partners, alongside offering inputs on workplace modifications, workshops by NPOs will teach inclusive design and assistive technologies enabled through artificial intelligence on Microsoft Azure.

Chief partner officer of Microsoft for APAC Vivek Puthucode said that as 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, tech roles and digital skills will be the backbone of the economic recovery in every country.

“In today’s workplace, it is imperative that we include everyone, and accessibility is the vehicle to inclusion. It is a responsibility and an opportunity. There are no limits to what people can achieve when technology reflects the diversity of everyone who uses it,” said Puthucode.

He says of the program, “At the heart of the Microsoft Enabler Program is a comprehensive accessibility model that will not only improve inclusion of people with disabilities across Asia Pacific for years to come but [also] connects local talent from underrepresented communities and improves our society.”

Microsoft said that in addition, it will be providing a platform for all three parties to better collaborate on the program.

There are a total of Six NPOs, all dedicated to promoting inclusion in the workplace, and 14 tech organizations that are part of the program.

To expand the talent pipeline for employer partners and connect job-seeking PWDs to tech roles, the program will also feature a virtual job fair, which will be held at the end of the second quarter of 2021.