NZ Marketing Issue 86 - March 2026

The cover story for this issue has been brewing for a while. It started as so many articles do: several separate conversations follow the same arc and it’s apparent an idea’s time has come. In no particular order, I was hearing: so much marketing these days is about pumping out content, not building love for the brand. Many marketers don’t even know they’re meant to be shifting units – they think it’s about trying to go viral. A load of shit-hot marketers don’t want to be known by that title because they’re about more than pretty execution. And then of course is the ever-present – though of course misguided – perception that marketing is done by “the girls in the colouring-in department”. (I wish it wasn’t true, but I’ve heard…

Mat Bogust Design director, Think Packaging “If you’re going to make a package for a product, that’s its home – make it a bloody good one.” Courtney Henderson Director, Think Folk “It might be fun to ask ChatGPT to generate an action figure… but is it reaching your customer?” Kat Tadaki Senior creative, McCann NZ “Handwritten graffiti, a half-drunk pint on the urinal. You’d never guess it wasn’t real.” James Chen Associate partner, WPR “Assign ownership. Relationships that belong to ‘everyone’ typically belong to no one.” Erin Jamieson Partner, Convergence “You still have to get your hoarding sites and you still need to door knock.” William Terite Host, Pacific Media Network “I try to approach my interviews in a conversational way – firm but respectful.” Rufus Chuter Managing partner, Together…

The YouTube New Zealand Marketing Awards, hosted by NZ Marketing magazine and the NZ Marketing Association, have opened for entries. Celebrating their 35th year in 2026, the Awards recognise New Zealand’s best marketing examples. They cover more than 30 categories across three main areas: Marketing Excellence Awards, Marketing Campaign Awards and Individual Awards. This year, we’ve added a new category covering AI. Go to nzmarketingmag.co.nz/nz-marketing-awards to find out more and find links to enter. After two brilliant years, YouTube is again on board as premier sponsor, having signed a new three-year commitment to the Awards. As NZ Marketing goes to press, we have signed up gold sponsors oOh!Media and MediaWorks, silver sponsor NZME, plus category sponsors TRA, Vistar Media, dish magazine, StopPress, SCG and newly launched platform Agency Directory. The…

New Zealand is well known for producing blue chip (or should that be ghost chips?) social marketing. Creative, bold and globally recognised. But this reputation doesn’t make us immune from constantly defending its purpose. Social marketing empowers people to gain better outcomes. Warmer homes. Better health. Safer roads. Stronger communities. It’s long-term, often messy and famously difficult to confirm return on investment. And maybe, no doubt unconsciously, this has been used as a shield against hard questions about value. It’s not the same day, David There’s also the context we’re operating in. Publicly funded marketing is facing shrinking budgets, media fragmentation, scrutiny and an increase in institutional distrust. If social marketing wants to survive, let alone scale, it has to get much better at answering one blunt question: why is…

media intelligence brought to you by Marketing is entering a phase where technology decisions are no longer operational, they are strategic. As AI, automation and privacy-driven data constraints reshape how marketing works, the systems that connect data, activation and measurement increasingly determine outcomes. At the same time, the world’s largest holding groups, commerce platforms and technology giants spanning ad tech, retail media, social and search are consolidating power by embedding AI directly into their ecosystems. Decisions around targeting, bidding, creative optimisation and measurement are increasingly automated, governed by proprietary or LLM models and trained on data brands don’t fully see or control. For marketers, this shifts competitive advantage away from individual channels or tactics and toward the quality, transparency and control of the marketing infrastructure that sits across those platforms.…

Parasocial relationships – the psychological bonds people form with creators they’ve never met – are reshaping how consumers interpret authenticity, evaluate credibility and make decisions in digital spaces. Marketers often describe relationships as if they rely on reciprocity. But online, it’s a different game. Parasocial relationships form when a viewer feels they “know” a creator – their personality, humour, values, routines and quirks. This effect is intensified in today’s increasingly digital social environment. Online creators invite audiences into personal spaces: living rooms, kitchens or their local neighbourhoods. Even while recognising the creator doesn’t know them personally, viewers experience the bond as authentic. They respond to recommendations, value opinions and process content through a lens of trust that mirrors real friendship. It’s a paradox: people understand the relationship is one-sided yet…