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How the PR industry is changing and adapting in 2020

Watch the video below where our Director Heather discusses changes afoot in the PR and communications industry, and how we are adapting and moving forward with our clients....

Sport Waikato signals transformational change to get 75% of Waikato active

Sport Waikato announced today it will make a transformational change within the organisation with the goal of increasing its impact in the Waikato community.  Research shows that only 54% of Waikato adults are regularly active in a way that positively impacts their health, but it also shows that 73% of them have a desire to do more.  With this in mind, Sport Waikato is aiming to fundamentally change how it operates to achieve an aspirational goal of getting 75% of the community active...

Create a culture of content for your business

Every business has a story to tell, knowledge to share and news about what is happening within the company or organisation. From a florist, to a lawyer, to a hotel, each has their own niche to discuss with their current and potential customers. Putting this knowledge and news down on ‘paper’, and publishing it on your owned channels (website, social media etc.), is a great way to inform and get potential customers over the line, especially if your goods or services require due diligence on t...

Experienced healthcare marketer joins Cannasouth to lead first products to market

NZX listed medicinal cannabis company, Cannasouth Limited has appointed experienced healthcare sales and marketing executive John Sanders as Chief Commercial Officer. Sanders will be responsible for developing and implementing marketing and sales strategies for the company’s first medicinal cannabis products. He brings to Cannasouth more than 20 years of commercial, sales and marketing experience, both globally and in New Zealand, with blue chip pharmaceutical and health supplement companies s...

Cannasouth joins forces with leading US cultivation company

Through its joint venture subsidiary, Cannasouth Cultivation Limited (CCL), Cannasouth Limited has entered into a service agreement with EAH Enterprises LLC, trading as Vera Cultivation in Colorado, USA. Vera Cultivation (Vera) is a US market leader in the production of high-quality cannabis product using world class and proprietary growing systems.  The agreement is for the supply of services to finalise the design of CCL’s cultivation facility, develop (licensed) operating systems and ...

Hill Laboratories expands viticulture testing capability with Vine Testing Laboratory assets

Hill Laboratories have expanded their viticulture testing capability with the acquisition of the assets of Vine Testing Laboratory (VTL), a specialised ELISA laboratory able to diagnose Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3). “We’re excited to expand our services available to the wine industry, adding virus testing to our existing Vine to Vintage testing service through this purchase,” says Hill Laboratories CEO, Dr Jonno Hill. An agreement to purchase the assets of VTL ...

What does the latest influencer marketing ruling mean for PR?

Over the past few years, influencer marketing has grown to become a key part of many brands’ social media and wider communications strategies, with terms like ‘micro’, ‘macro’ and even ‘nano’ influencers becoming commonplace. However, this rise has not been without some controversy on the part of both brands and the influencers themselves. Back in 2018, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) released guidelines to better control and manage transparency around both native adverti...

Hamilton real estate industry sees major shift in home buyer behaviour post lockdown

Lodge Real Estate’s managing director Jeremy O’Rourke, says buying and selling a home in New Zealand will never be the same again following the Covid-19 lockdown.  “We’ve had our first full month of home sales post-lockdown and the Hamilton market has seen a huge shift in buyer and seller behaviour.  And it boils down to one fundamental factor: Kiwis’ move to online living. “We all experienced how videoconferencing went from a novelty to a necessity.  Online shopping w...

Four New Zealand farmers lead the way in sustainable irrigation

Four New Zealand farmers have been selected as finalists of the inaugural Zimmatic™ Sustainable Irrigation Awards. The Awards aim to celebrate excellence in sustainable irrigation and encourage Australian and New Zealand farmers to share ideas for achieving sustainable freshwater management. The competition is run by agricultural irrigation systems leader,Zimmatic, with support from New Zealand Awards partners IrrigationNZ, Farmers Weekly, Vantage NZ and Irricon. It recognises farmers lea...

Tight credit market creates funding challenges for property developers and investors

With New Zealand property developers and investors struggling with a tight credit market and overly-cautious banks, non-bank lending institutions are being called upon more than ever before to get development projects off the ground post-lockdown. Alpha First Mortgage Investments is one such non-bank lender experiencing high demand for funds. While the lockdown affected non-bank lending during the first half of the year, Director of Alpha First Mortgage Investments Scott Massey says the company...

Planning a journey in thick fog

Heather Claycomb In the early 90s I lived in Davis, California and worked 25km away in Sacramento.  The winters are similar to Hamilton: rainy, cool but not freezing and infamously foggy.  It wasn’t uncommon to drive to and from work in the dark at very slow speed, gripping the steering wheel for dear life on those foggy days.  I then moved from Sacramento to the mountains west of Denver where fog was also a common occurrence. Spring often brought huge snowstorms, and once the s...

Experienced property financier joins Omega Capital

Highly experienced property finance banker Noni Martin has joined Hamilton firm Omega Capital, in the role of Loans Manager. Martin is a seasoned property investment and development financier, most recently working as a partner in Corporate Property Finance at BNZ Auckland. Hamilton mortgage broking house Omega Capital is one of the largest regionally-based companies in its industry, which focuses on non-bank commercial lending.  Omega Capital services a nationwide need for finance and...

CRV launches one-stop-shop for herd recording and farm management

Dairy farmers can now manage all their herd records and data from multiple farming operations using just one tool, thanks to CRV Ambreed’s myHERD launched today. myHERD is the result of CRV’s partnership with leading farm software provider, FarmIQ, to develop the new herd recording and farm management application, which replaces CRV Insight. CRV Ambreed Information and IT Manager Andrew Singers says myHERD has been developed in New Zealand for Kiwi farmers. “The development of myHERD ref...

Quantec eyes global expansion into health and wellness industry with new appointment

Waikato-based Quantec continues to grow its business with the appointment of a new General Manager of Marketing and Sales, John Dawson. Mr Dawson brings over 30 years’ experience to the company, having held significant sales and marketing roles in the packaging industry working with the food and dairy sectors. “Throughout my career, I’ve always had a close association with the dairy industry,” says Mr Dawson. “My most recent role was as Global Marketing Director (Dairy) for packaging s...

New Zealand companies partner up on new software to improve contaminated land data management and analysis

Two New Zealand-owned companies, Entuitive and Hill Laboratories, have partnered up on newly-launched innovative software Evalu8, with the intent to improve environmental data management within the contaminated land sector through faster, more accurate reporting. Hill Laboratories is both New Zealand’s largest independently-owned analytical testing laboratory and the largest soil and water testing laboratory in the country, providing soil testing services to a range of organisations. According...

Hill Laboratories starts COVID-19 testing as only non-DHB facility in the Waikato

Hill Laboratories, New Zealand's largest privately owned analytical testing laboratory, has partnered with the Waikato District Health Board (WDHB) to provide additional testing capacity in Hamilton for SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that causes COVID-19) from this week.See Sunday Star-Times coverage. Hill Laboratories is the only non-DHB facility in the Waikato providing the testing service, and one of only three non-DHB laboratories across New Zealand approved to test for COVID-19. Hill Laborator...

Perfecting Podcasting

In the PR world, we’re always looking at new channels to reach a client’s target audience in a way that isn’t invasive, cuts through the noise, has impact and builds fans.  A great channel that can do all this and more for many organisations is podcasting. HMC believes in the power of podcasting so much we recently bought a mobile podcasting studio and launched our first client podcast two months ago. Smart businesses are using podcasts now more than ever to engage with their customer...

Getting your website working for your business

Websites are not just the realm of your IT team or consultant – it’s important to have a comms eye over your website, to make sure your key messages are getting through. There’s no point having a super technical layout or amazing imagery, if the words around them aren’t making your reason for being or key selling points clear. So, download our infographic for ‘How to win at websites’ to read our tips on getting your website in tip top shape. If this sounds overwhelming, give us a cal...

New Zealand a key part of CRV’s global business – Angus Haslett takes the reins

New Zealand will continue to play a key role in CRV’s global artificial breeding business, according to outgoing CRV Ambreed managing director Angus Haslett.See international coverage. Haslett has this month officially taken over the reins as CEO of Dutch parent company CRV, but will continue to be based in New Zealand until a lift in COVID-19 travel restrictions allows him to relocate to Holland. “New Zealand is a significant country when it comes to dairying and the use of genetics,” he...

Hamilton celebrates win as new headquarters of the NZ Institute of Skills & Technology

Hamilton City Council and Waikato regional stakeholders are celebrating the announcement today that Hamilton will be the headquarters of the New Zealand Institute of Skills & Technology (NZIST).See Stuff coverage. The NZIST is merging the country’s 16 institutes of technology and polytechnics along with all industry training organisations into one national organisation. Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate says the announcement was hugely welcome and that Hamilton had put in an “absolutely compell...

Refresh Your Digital Communications Strategy

In the PR world, it’s incredibly important that you take control of your messaging to ensure your company’s digital footprint matches your offline footprint.  And while HMC continues to work with clients to get stories into the New Zealand media, with the changing and shrinking media landscape it’s more important than ever before that you take control of making your own news. The ‘paid content’ challenge The challenge, however, is that you can’t get your message out online by r...

Are you ready to refresh your comms strategy?

With so much changing in our world over the past few months, many of you will be refreshing your business strategies, budgets and action plans for the rest of the year.It's also time to have a good look at your communications strategy and tactics to make sure they align to where your business is heading for the remainder of 2020. If you're ready to refresh your comms strategy, or perhaps do one for the first time , we've developed a template to help you do just that. ...

Lodge Real Estate introduces VR open homes to provide peace of mind for buyers and sellers

Hamilton-based Lodge Real Estate is using virtual reality (VR) technology to take their open homes online, giving vendors and buyers peace of mind during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The news comes on the back of the Government’s announcement that private viewings, by appointment, of homes for sale or rental properties can now take place under Alert Level 3.  However, open homes are not allowed. VR is a technological leap for Lodge and for the sector and will help one of the country’s m...

Te Waka pushes for completion of key Waikato infrastructure projects

As the Government looks to kickstart the economy by fast-tracking ‘shovel ready’ projects, Te Waka is pushing for that investment to be focussed on seven key infrastructure projects across the Waikato region. Te Waka CEO Michael Bassett-Foss says new appetite from Government to invest in infrastructure, along with encouragement for bold thinking on productivity, connectivity and sustainability, presents the Waikato with a unique window of opportunity.  “There is no denying that the i...

Best Times To Post On Social Media

If you’re creating content for social media, you know that a key challenge is getting eyes on your posts in the crowded newsfeeds. Social media algorithms are moving towards relevance-based curation rather than chronological which makes things even more challenging.Knowing when to post to get the most engagement on the main social platforms can be very helpful to maximise your content’s exposure....