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Increasing your marketing spend in a downturn, and other bullshit agencies try to tell you — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
Right now, people are doing it tough. Mortgages are expensive. Insurance is expensive. Petrol is expensive (and so, now, is running your EV). Most importantly, though, confidence is in short supply.
Business resilience? Napier invented it! — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
It's funny what you see when you look up. I was in Napier for a couple of nights recently, meeting with business owners and giving a breakfast talk. Between appointments I did a fair bit of walking, and as out-of-towners tend to do, a fair bit of gawking at the art deco architecture tha
Last drinks at a bar called Elon's — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
So there’s this bar near my office. Let’s call it Elon’s. It’s been around a while and at one point was the place to be seen . If you wanted to meet anyone in tech, politics or media, then Elon’s was the only show in town. As Elon’s got more popular, it started to attract a wider variety of patron
If you're going to use fossil fuels at all, do it for joy — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
OPINION: As I write this, feet on my desk, waiting for my office mates to arrive and start in on the proper work, I notice that there's a black smudge of oil on my leg. It's not unusual. Most days, despite my good-for-a-bloke personal hygiene habits, there'll be a bit of engine oil somewh
Why we shouldn't eliminate jargon when it comes to business — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
OPINION: A popular state-owned radio station, finding itself short of actual experts the other day, asked if I'd join an on-air discussion about the evils of business jargon. An Australian office supplies company had run a survey and come up with a list of people's m
I am a middle-aged white man and you should listen to me. — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
I am a middle-aged white man and you should listen to me. I am a middle-aged white man with money, so you should listen to me when I tell the government what to do with your taxes. I make a lot of money and don’t pay much tax, so I know about these things. I know the key to economic recov
Three waters by another name might be easier to swallow — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
OPINION: If there’s a change of government next year, Three Waters is toast . Which is to say, if the Water Services Entities Bill manages to become the Water Services Entities Act by then, it will be repealed, and if it hasn’t yet been passed, it won’t b
Help wanted: why employment branding is having a moment — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
OPINION: "Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success." British polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's recruitment ad for his 1914 Antarctic expedition i
TGF and AI “designer” in t-shirt collab — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
In a world where you can interact with virtual influencers and pets, there’s now a chance you might be wearing something designed with the help of artificial intelligence. TGF recently ‘collaborated’ with AI design platform Midjourney on the design of its TGF t-shirts and tote bags. TGF senior art
So long and thanks for all the krill: why big brands are giving up on whales. — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
I was excited to read yesterday that one of New Zealand's biggest brands (a bank) has announced it will be ending its relationship with the New Zealand branch of one of the world's biggest ad agencies. Now before you accuse me of schadenfreude (I own a small and awesome ad agency , I don't take an
A Private Word — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
I was at an event recently – I can’t really say what it was, and certainly won’t mention who was there – where the topic of confidentiality came up. It became clear in the course of the day that there was less than perfect agreement on the concept. While many of us here on the Internet pretty much h
Facts are junk — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
As luck would have it. I’ve found myself in a few discussions about the media recently. Some were about the media business, others about what makes good radio content and others about what people will pay to watch, read and listen to.   One thought kept bubbling to the top. Facts a
The company you keep: ads and your brand — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
Even though it only lasted two weeks, I learned a lot in my first job in advertising. It was a fill-in gig, writing ads at Auckland radio station More FM. In those days it was a stand-alone station, and it was everything the TV series WKRP had led me to expect. The first lesson was how many second
I have seen the future and it works for $150 a week — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
Note: this was originally published in 2009 but I was reminded of it when discussing the homogeneity of the advertising industry with The Spinoff yesterday... I blame the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. And the advertising schools. And me. And every other creative director in town. &
Goats turn ten and a bit — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
Karangahape Road turned orange last Thursday night as local independent ad and design agency The Goat Farm celebrated its tenth and a bit birthday. The bash was originally scheduled for February, but the bastard virus derailed that plan. 100 or so clients, staff and partners past and present join
Up close with the future of energy — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
It's not often in advertising you get to come eye to eye with the outcome of your work in the way we did today. Rongomai School in Otara hosted us, along with Energy Minister Simon Bridges and representatives from Vector, the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust and Tesla Energy to turn on New Zealand's f
After the virus: what next for business? — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
If truth is the first casualty of war, then the Covid-19 pandemic shows every sign of being one. Three months since the first reported case, reliable information is becoming as rare as toilet paper, face masks and a busy Chinese restaurant.  The other parallel is more sobering. As far as w
100 TED speakers: 3 simple tips — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
The other week marked the end of a year of speaker selection, content development and coaching for TEDxAuckland. (It also marked the beginning of another year of speaker selection, content development and coaching!). I've been lucky enough to work as content director for this event for five years no
5 things I love about Apple’s Watch. And 5 I hate. — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
Despite its $499AUD price tag, my reasons for buying Apple’s Watch (which, as far as I can tell, they don’t call the Apple Watch and certainly never the iWatch) don’t run particularly deep. I bought it because I could. Finally. I first saw a display case full of Watches early this year in the Sydn
What making radio ads taught me about business — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
One of the things I enjoy most in my role as creative director at The Goat Farm is directing radio ads. I guess I’ve done a few hundred over the years, ranging from “bang-em-out” station-produced retail spots to the more considered and carefully produced ads we’re lucky enough to be making these day
He swings! He misses! Lonergan v The Streamers — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
I didn't watch the Joseph Parker fight last night, and it doesn't look like a lot of my friends did either (yay, social media filter bubble!). Plenty of people did, though. Many via $50 a pop Sky TV pay per view, and a smaller but newsworthy number via various unpaid online streams. Promoter Dean L
Graham Norton and Invivo… and some goaty goodness — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
This is what we’ve been up to lately. Awesome New Zealand wine company Invivo (who we did these billboards for last year) are a bit of a dream client. It just so happens that megastar Graham Norton is a fan of their Sauvignon Blanc, and has served it on his show for a couple of years. Tim and
Facebook Fake News reporting tool live in New Zealand — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
"Fake news" has been the big issue on social media in the last six months, and it doesn't seem likely to go away. After years of claiming it's not a news organisation, Facebook has been paying more attention  recently to its role as a trusted news source for many of its 1.7 billi
Totes McGoats! (And T Shirts...) — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
TGF clients and friends will know that T Shirts have been a tradition since the early days... and now we've rolled out our first-ever tote! Who can resist a pun like that? The tote is the same charcoal grey as our 2015 T Shirt and features the same Dairy-Designed "Goat among the sheep" des
Making design invisible — The Goat Farm - Creative Advertising Agency
One of the things I do is serve on the council of Unitec Institute of Technology, and last night I as privileged to be asked to speak at Gradfest – our annual celebration of great work and achievement by design and creative arts students.  Normal 0 false