A couple of special mentions before we get to the winner...KP - only he can get away channelling Jay-Z's "The Black Album" by wearing all black (although his dazzling white grin redeemed him).

And then our first appearance from the Vivaki Search Hub crew...DJ (Dushyant Joshi), kitted out in black skinnies, white shirt and white sneaks.

It was a tough choice for the top three.  I've gone with Jonanthan Adams - those snakeskin shoes deserve a mention on their own.  Beena Dhanji- very good outfit with accompanying good hair.  Love the dress and belt combo. 

But as they say, there can be only one winner - and that honour goes to Tonga Snook.  All round goodness - even the pose works it hard.

There is some ground to be made up before it gets too tough for me to judge and choose a daily winner.

That said, Yit put in another strong showing with a great green and black patterned dress.  I like this dress on Char - good colour contrast with her dark hair and the booties stop it being super girly.

The winner for Day 2 is Noor...a bit of an edgier outfit from her (especially compared to the batik of the first day).  Skinny jeans and good accessories - a great combo for me!

I'm just looking at the outfits from day three (our first theme day) - it's going to be a tough decision - the team have really picked up their game.

It's time to move on from the summer casuals (no more jandals at work please!) and to that end, the ZO team is embarking on a three week style challenge. 

The rules are simple - no outfit to be repeated across the course of the three weeks.  We're switching it up with three theme days as well (one per week). 

There is a daily prize for the best style (thanks to Nestle Scorched Almonds) and then an overall winner's prize (thanks to our friends at Lion for the Duval Leroy Champagne).  We need to search the prize cupboard to rustle up a "people's choice" award as well.

The first day was yesterday - Tue 7th Feb - and the outfits a little bit safe to be honest.  Was everyone hedging their bets and/or holding off their "better" outfits for later in the week?

A few themes were evident though - white kicks (KP and Tonga); batik (Noor and Marcella) and black & white (Sophie, Beena and Sunita).

The first daily winner has been awarded to Yit Wong...the judge (ie me) enjoyed her coordination of her dress's embellishment with her shoes.

Honourable mentions to Mana (block colour and skinny tie) and Emily (wearing the simple combo of turquoise and black).

As I write this on Wed morning...I do think the outfits have picked up a notch.  Watch for tomorrow's post to announnce today's daily winner.

The top 5 most time shifted programmes in the first week (w/c 15/1) against AP 25-54 years were:

• Wild Boys - Prime
• Chuck - TV2
• Movie 2 Fast 2 Furious - TV3
• I Shouldn't be Alive - TVOne
• Person of Interest - TVOne

And against HHS w/kids 0-14 years:

• Kitchen Nightmares - TV2
• Movie 2 Fast 2 Furious - TV3
• Shortland Street - TV2
• Pysch - Prime
• Rush - TVOne

By genre, as the test data (and oversees research) indicated, Movies/Mini Series was the most time shifted programming, followed by Drama and Soaps.

A newsletter with more details will be posted on the blog in the next day or so.

On Monday January 16^th agencies will receive the Sunday Overnights data file.  This overnights file will include:

• Viewing of television broadcast content that is live, as well as time-shifted viewing of content which was broadcast within that same research day (2am-2am).
• Overnight data will be available 9:30am the next day; this has not changed from when we currently deliver daily ratings.

On Monday January 23^rd at approximately 12:30pm agencies will receive the first consolidated data file for Sunday January 15.  This consolidated file includes:

• All Live viewing for Sunday January 15.  Plus any playback viewing of content, broadcast on Sunday 15 January, which occurred within 7 days of its broadcast
• Consolidated data will be available at 12:30pm on Day 8 following the day of broadcast e.g. Sundays data will be available Monday 12:30pm one week later

For those of you who saw Dr. Jeffrey Cole speak at the MSN digital marketing summit late last year, you will remember the quote,

"For every newspaper reader that dies, they are not being replaced."

That does not mean folks aged 15 to 30 are not politically and socially aware, in fact the opposite, they are more than ever before. They just choose to access their news from other sources. One only has to look at the shrinking size of their daily paper over the last 2 years to see a change is coming.

If you want to see what is ahead for newspapers, check out the movie, Page One which chronicles the transformation in the news and media industry in the USA. Evolution is essential and what shape newspapers will take in the coming years to remain commercially strong and viable in New Zealand's overserviced newspaper market is not yet known - I think in 2012 we will start to get a pretty clear indication.

9. Magazines' business model at a fork in the road

2011 has been a tough year and aggressive evolution is beginning. ACP have launched a series of blogs using their editorial talent and assets, Mindfood has developed a pretty impressive web envelope and the move to iPad app's has been swift but will it be enough. Magazines in NZ benefit a lot from existing in a market where TV is so cheap. Many traditional advertisers spill to magazines once the they believe the TV investment is significant enough to do the job. Don't get me wrong, magazine provide beautiful environments but how long the format will change. Could ACP become a digital organisation and turn its back on print - not in 2012 but the sign says it maybe sooner than with with think with the appetite the public has for 'Tablets'.

10. Who has my iPad?

So aware of the avalanche of the tablet, Dell has ceased manufacturing the flagship product - the Netbook! This was seen as the laptop of our generation and now it is no longer. Allegedly, Telstra, in Australia will actually be giving away iPads for free on mobile plans in 2012. Serious momentum. Who knows what Vodafone and Telecom will do here but if they follow suit, our telco friends could be the catalyst for the single biggest change in the media landscape New Zealand ever seen, making tablets available for a lot more than those who can afford to fork out $500 plus for a media device.

If this is the case, expect the print advertising model to fundementally begin to crumble and leave publishers scrambling to find ways to commercialise content as effectively as magazines have done so in the past.

A few things to keep in mind though:

• We had strong advertising revenue in 2011 with many brands re-entering the market with global money due to the Rugby World Cup and;
• then Election advertising straight afterwards. 

Therefore apart from event advertising, the overall activity should be stronger in 2012. It is also an Olympic year however broadcast times are not friendly to the average Kiwi being in London so it will not impact as much as RWC.

In terms of media share, the big winners will be online growing by at least 15% to around $380 million and TV growing 3% to $656 million. The biggest loser will be newspapers where the bulk of the share will come from but we will wait and see.

2.  TV Ratings will change the way we consider TV advertising

The big change this year is time shifted viewing ratings (as well as a panel refresh).The new ratings will have 24 hour or daily ratings and weekly ratings. 24 hour ratings will record viewership to 2am in the morning and report the next day. Therefore, if a panelist watches a show live or records it and watches it say half an hour later, the ratings will be counted in that day. Weekly ratings means that if the show is recorded and watched later that week, it will get a ratings for the week as well. To get get total viewership for a show we would have to combine both sets of ratings. 

The first thing to watch out for is a lift in Mediaworks ratings. This is most likely because their shows are likely to be taped and watch later (we believe).

The second thing we will see is an uplift in SKY ratings because their viewers have been under represented on the panel for some time now so expect a lift in their ratings.

The third thing to watch out for is which shows will be watched live and which will be recorded to be watched later in the week as this will impact the timeliness of the messages placed in the shows. Obviously retail advertiser need to watch out here!

To summarise: Mediaworks to gain on TVNZ, SKY to see a lift and timeliness of message to be recognised as time shift viewing brings a new dimension to ratings.

3.  Audience On Demand

2012 will really see the arrival of the Ad Exchange in New Zealand. If your agency has not got one, you need to seriously ask yourself if you are with the right team! What are Ad Exchanges I hear you ask?  

Ad exchanges are technology platforms that facilitate the bidded buying and selling of online media (similar to search) advertising inventory from multiple ad networks. The approach is technology-driven as opposed to the historical approach of negotiating price on media inventory. For more info check out the Wiki.

This is the new horizon in advertising and it is here today so get your head around it quickly to be beat your competitors.

4.  Online video

Kiwis have an appetite for speed, fast internet that is, now they have tasted it! With that increased speed of broadband in the home we will see richer and richer content being viewed online. That means more video. Local media organisations such as Fairfax are aggressively gearing up their content teams to deliver more and more video across their media platforms. If you are advertising on TV and you are not running your ads online as well where you have even more control, are you missing a trick?

5.  Search, search, search

Think about your consumer, think about your product and get it together.

6. Mobile

Every year has been promised to be the year of the mobile for as long as I can remember. We hang onto your hats people because that was last year for consumers. 40% plus of Kiwis will have a smart phone by the end of this year so be ready. Providers are ling up to enter the New Zealand market such as:

• Big Mobile - Premium mobile network out of Australia
• Admob - Google's solution
• InMobi - a bunch of ex Google guys out of India who are pushing hard here (offering free production)

You need to at least have addressed your approach to mobile whether it is a trial or a full blown commitment to the space - the game is on in 2012.

7. Facebook will evolve

Q1 this year should see the biggest public listing ever for Facebook tipped at $US90 billion! With the pressue of shareholders expect Facebook to push their barrow really hard this year to drive revenue growth. New product will arrive, some of it good, some of it experimental. Facebook can do great things for brands but can also create a noose that tightens slowly for some businesses. Consideration to what the commercial impact your participation on Facebook will have as it can be great but also can be hardwork!

That's enough for today - more to come this week!

“We are excited to increase our relationship with sanofi, the parent company, by getting the opportunity to work with Merial,” says Ryf Quail, GM of ZenithOptimedia New Zealand. “The scope of work includes both companion animals (pets) and production animals (farm) which provide ZO a great chance to innovate to provide commercial advantage in the NZ market.”

Andrew Dinniss, marketing manager for Merial Ancare is looking forward to utilising the specialist expertise and analysis tools ZO brings to the table and the opportunity to explore digital media in the future.

The appointment is immediate and ZO has already commenced work with Merial Ancare.

Click here to view newsletter

Reviewing the numbers provided by Nielsen, the top twelve is as follows:

1. RWC 2011 Final (NZ v France) 23/10/2011 – 2,036,900
2. RWC 2011 Semi-final (NZ v Australia) 16/10/2011 – 2,024,000
3. RWC 2011 Opening Game (NZ v Tonga) 09/09/2011 – 1,930,000
4. Boxing – Tua v Lewis 12/11/2000 – 1,841,230
5. ONE News Special – Diana’s death 31/08/1997 -1,703,310
6. 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony 15/09/2000 – 1,654,310
7. ONE News Special – Diana’s Funeral 06/09/1997 – 1,649,710
8. RWC 2011 Qtr Final (NZ v Argentina) 09/10/2011 – 1,624,400
9. RWC 2003 Final (England v Australia) 22/11/2003 – 1,604,800
10. Diana Exclusive 21/11/1995 – 1,516,780
11. RWC 2011 Opening Ceremony 09/09/2011 – 1,499,160
12. RWC 2007 (NZ v France) 07/10/2007 – 1,410,410

In this sports mad country, Rugby is king however 3 of the top ten places are filled by content relating to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, a reflection of how much she was loved by Kiwis and how relevant the monarchy still is to the everyday New Zealander.