Since the recession hit in 2009, accountability has been paramount to clients with their advertising investment. This isn’t surprising and is justifiable as every dollar invested must attribute to the objectives which are set out before agencies. The days of old where spend was frivolous are well and truly dead, and in my mind, this is a very good thing.

Since Donald Trump took to the campaign trail, ‘fake news’ has seemingly become the norm. Fake news isn’t a new concept but it has come under the spotlight like never before with Trump and his unconventional brand of politics.

It’s no secret that in this digital day and age social media is present in the majority of all households, with around 2.3 million New Zealanders accessing Facebook every day. Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, last week announced a new milestone for the social media giant.

There are a couple of new Facebook formats that advertisers can now take advantage of.

The New Zealand consumer has changed. According to Roy Morgan*, 78% of New Zealanders now have a smartphone, and 40% of those smartphone owners say they ‘can’t live without’ their phones.

Online shopping is becoming a more common and trusted form of purchasing products. Gone are the days when consumers feared entering their credit card details. Now the biggest off-put is over-complicated e-commerce transactions. This growing customer frustration has fueled the creation of more instantaneous modes of online shopping. Adoption of these new features will allow retailers to keep their customers happy and consuming to their heart’s content.

New Zealand’s TV landscape is going through some impressive changes. MediaWorks is about to launch Bravo to replace Channel 4. Bravo will target all people aged 18-54 and is skewed to the household shopper.

A thought-leader is a person or brand that is an informed opinion-leader and the ‘go-to’ in their field of expertise. They are a trusted source that moves and inspires, turns ideas into reality, and shows how to replicate their success. Obviously, having a brand that is viewed as a thought-leader is a very positive thing.

Whilst this image is a bit of an amusing example of the issues that can be created by using stock imagery, I doubt that the two advertisers concerned or their agencies would have found it particularly funny.