Poorly pleased

Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.

Poorly pleased

Yes, this newsletter is late. Yes, we have an excuse: we are feeling poorly. And pretty pleased with ourselves.

That’s because last night the Ideologues attended the annual MPA magazine awards—so please allow us this humble report from the floor. Our news is all good: not only did Idealog once again win the award for Best Business Magazine, but we also won Best Business Website, Business Cover of the Year, the overall Best Use of Photography Award for a story on the Art Venture programme, and two of the four Supreme awards: Supreme Cover of the Year for our July-August 2008 cover featuring Kevin ‘Bloody’ Roberts, and Supreme Designer of the Year for our in-house demon art director, Adrian Clapperton. We have no idea how such a nice guy can also be so talented, but we’re very pleased that he is.

Forty-four magazines from 22 publishers entered this year’s awards—which the MPA says is a record. There were 37 categories in total, and Idealog and our sister titles, Good and Inspire, won 13 of them. Today’s self-inflicted headache feels remarkably sweet.

The message parlour

Speaking of award-winning magazines … you may notice something new in your letterbox tomorrow, nestling among the bills and the direct mail. The item in question is rectangular, nattily designed and contains riveting stories.

That’s if you’re a subscriber to Idealog magazine. The rest of you must sneak down to your nearest newsagent on Monday to snag a copy of the July-August 2009 issue that’s a real conversation piece featuring Lance Wiggs, Gimblett Gravels, Red Witch, two chaps on a mission to democratise art on a beer budget and much more.

The story connecting Fisher & Paykel’s DishDrawer to a windmill design is probably my favourite, and I like the idea of collecting obsolete electronic gizmos to build wah-wah fuzzboxes.

Check out the contents page on our website. And if you wish that you too had a brand-new Idealog before it hits the streets, subscribe to Idealog online—and save up to 37 percent of the cover price.

<3 David MacGregor

Our friend David MacGregor, Idealog co-founder and columnist, recently suffered a heart attack. As you’d expect from David, he’s remarkably chipper about it, and although he’s currently in North Shore Hospital awaiting an operation he’s productively spending his time thinking, writing and reading. Here’s David’s blog on what happened and also his … off-beat idea. Get well soon, David.

Enough with the Hammster

Hammonded-out yet? Us too. Surely there’s a more entertaining way to sell faster broadband with Telecom’s marketing millions? Step forward, Comcast.

Our advice to Telecom: ditch the Hammster andget the rabbit-panther thingy. (Via Andy Eakin)

400% pure

Ever felt ripped off overseas? Spare a thought, then, for the Chinese visitors on package tours to New Zealand who take dream holiday to Godzone only to be left ‘enforced shopping’ for up to four hours a day—and charged as much as four times the price that locals would pay. That’s the conclusion of a Tourism New Zealand unit that’s been recording the impressions of Chinese visitors as they leave our shores. Amanda Cropp has the news on the Idealog blog—and a suggestion for a suitable punishment for those who so cynically damage our tourist industry and betray Brand Enzed.

Don’t give me no Lippman

I enjoyed reading Jason Kemp’s summary and thoughts on media activism and collaboration, and how these things are changing the way we receive news. Jason talks about everyone now having the tools to “manufacture dissent” through Internet forums and that’s certainly an interesting way to look at it.

At the same time though, it’s worth remembering that the consent manufacturers have the same, if not better, access to the very same tools the dissenters do, and are able to use them to undermine democracy through subtle propaganda. Worse, the forces of darkness can use those tools to collect the names and locations of dissenters to imprison or kill them, and to disrupt and subvert their efforts. Social media does indeed remove disintermediation but that feature cuts both ways.

Job of the Week

Interactive Senior Creative (P0509)

Digital Arm of Advertising Agency • Wide Variety of Clients • Superb Role

Our client is part of an international agency network and has a vast array of clients.

They are looking for a hot senior creative, who along with having great concepting ability is also a hands on designer.

This role will work very closely with the Creative Director, nutting out creative concepts and delivering outstanding work.

For this role you will have experience in a similar senior interactive role, be ready to step up to the mark and really show what you are made of. If you have won awards for your creativity, then that will be seen as a bonus although not a requirement - as your work will speak for itself.

This is a leadership role, you will have a number of direct reports and be able to share you knowledge and assist in their growth and development.

If you are ready to really give it your all and would like to be leading a highly talented interactive team, then do contact Louise Lawton at Portfolio Recruitment on 09 379-9303, or apply on our website.

Onyas coming up

There’s no industry quite like the web. Any site is only as good as its design, content, technology, usability and marketability—and all those things need to be right. In New Zealand, we have the talent and the skills to build great sites, so it’s the perfect time for a dedicated web awards—and the Webstock team are the perfect people to do it. At Idealog, we’re right behind the >Onyas and delighted to sponsor the Most Innovative category. Show us your best!

Onyas open for entries soon (get a move on, Mike!) and there’s an awards ceremony on August 20. The list of judges for the Onyas is impressive, headed by Alex Wright, director of user experience at The New York Times (there’s a short interview with Wright in the new Idealog). Check out all the judges’ bios at the Onyas website.

Ice Ice housey

Business growth centre and incubator the Icehouse is flinging open the doors to all and sundry on July 29 between 1 and 6pm, so if you’re a business owner and entrepreneur looking for expert tips, to make contacts and to rejuvenate your ideas and goals, well, you know where to be that day.

The entire Icehouse team, from chief executive Andy Hamilton to chairman Greg Cross and Start-Ups director Ken Erskine, will be at hand for your brain-picking pleasure.

Also that day, hear stories from business owners who have experienced the award-winning ICE Bridge Owner Manager programmes, and what they do for you.

Icehouse big-co partners such as Boston Consulting Group, BNZ, Ernst & Young, HP, Telecom and Gen-i, Microsoft, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts and Telecom will be around that day to explain how they help small businesses.

Plus, there are seminars on a wide variety of topics, like social media, how to avoid intellectual property disaster, how to unlock growth potential in your business and subjecting your idea to the market validation test.

Get your “60 second elevator pitch” for ready for Speed Networking at 4.30pm that day, followed by drinks. Andy Hamilton’s 60 second pitch about the Icehouse should give you an idea how to go about it

Full programme and online registration for the open day are at the Icehouse website.

Quote of the week

“Cuba’s opened up a lot now … dealing with communists is really neat. But when we started working with them, our money would go missing—we’d send the money to Cuba, through the bank, and it would disappear. And Cuba would ask, ‘Where’s the money?’ and we’d say, ‘We’ve sent it.’ The American bank had frozen our money and tagged us as working with terrorists.”

—Tim Rose of Havana Coffee Works on the efficiency of US banks

More at Idealog online

Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, creative directory, Idealog TV, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. See you at idealog.co.nz.

  Juha Saarinen
  Ideologue, Weekly