My BCT Adventure

Written by; Amelia McGeorge - 15905498

With help from; Emir De Jerome - 0652881, Kevin Sun - 16945006

In the current age of the Anthropocene, human activities have significantly altered the natural trajectory of our planet’s ecological systems and geology. Healer-1 is a piece which features a set of visual and auditory components, juxtaposed to relay notions of duality and forbearance. It invites us to reassess how we denote the value of the resources made available to us, particularly as a society driven by reckless consumerism.

Users interact collaboratively with the piece, by holding down a combination of buttons which generate layered soundscapes, sampled from the constituents of various social and organic abstracts, in turn reflected in the surrealist projections of the planet alternating between extreme phases of climate discord and harmony.

Through those interactions, we are able to explore issues that deal with the environment, by capturing the ominous ambience of mass-production factories, complemented by dumpster trucks operating in landfill along with the sound of single-use plastic bags rustling in the wind, all set against an array of projected imagery that delve into both nature and humanity’s capacity for destruction and generosity.

By harnessing a dynamic of sound, imagery and collaboration, the work opens itself up to critical examination that can be carried out in a shared experience. Our project evolved out of the desire to bring about positive change through a community-focused initiative that uses art as a way to grab people’s attention and interactivity to get people curious and involved. Originally conceived as an event-based project, we recognised a gap in the advertising market for an evolved marketing scheme for charities, relevant to the new age of influencer marketing, that stemmed beyond that of sponsored posts and paid influencer promotions. Although current forms of advertising are working for the target demographic now, future generations have the biggest say over the future of the industry. How will charities best reach new audiences in a few years time when millennials begin to have secure, deposable income? Through the use of art and creativity, we wanted to create a new dialogue for charitable marketing. By encouraging the audience to post about the installation on social media, the message gains exposure to an actively engaged audience for free.

Current popular methods can be seen as shocking or confrontational, such as TV advertisements. They are in-your-face, but not particularly engaging. We surveyed 100 people over the span of 2 weeks from various demographics and social media sources. 63% of people surveyed reported they are indifferent when viewing the ads, and 9% even reported that they would take action to actively avoid them. 76% overall believed that these tactics were not beneficial to charities. We found these methods were too one-sided, and did not have the ability to gain feedback from audiences, so we introduced interactivity as a way to combat this.

Over the semester the project evolved through a range of developments which introduced new ideas and influences. The final piece; an installation communicating our message of environmental awareness and a call for unity - without the need for further investigation into the concept festival. Our installation engages the audience as anticipated, however lacks a distinct or ‘grabbing’ call to action that encourages the audience to engage with the broader concept festival.

Amelia McGeorge - 15905498

Healer -1 is a concept festival developed to show the potential behind our new Marketing Strategy for not-for-profits. In order for charities to maximise return and have the biggest impact towards their cause they need a marketing strategy that actively engages a wide audience, while being cost-effective.

Charities should be able to focus their profits on their mission in order to have a greater impact on their cause, rather than worrying about exposure.

Art has the power to connect with an audience on an emotional and informative level. Harnessing the power of art and creativity enables us to connect and evoke emotion from our audience. We can promote our concept charities mission by creating an interactive art installation that is both aesthetically pleasing as well as ‘instagram-worthy’, rather than pay for a costly ‘in your face’ advertising campaign, that can often have an adverse reaction;

“The research shows that trust and confidence in charities has fallen to the lowest recorded level since monitoring began in 2005 – from 67% to 57%” (Shawcross, 2016).

Complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority in the first half of 2017 show that TV continues to be the most complained about advertising medium ("Latest UK ad complaint figures released", 2017).

“I do not respond to these adverts for money. You never know what proportion of the money gifted is actually going to help these people” ("What are your views on TV Charity Begging Adverts?", 2015).

There is a need to readdress how charities advertise themselves to the public, and assess if the money paid into these advertisements are really getting the desired results. Although current forms of advertising are working for the target demographic now, future generations have the biggest say over the future of the industry. How will charities best reach new audiences in a few years time when millennials begin to have secure, deposable income?

With our concept, by encouraging an audience to interact and post images of our work to social media, advertising is done for free. In 2016, 2.3 billion people used social media ("Digital in 2016", 2016). The art portrays a more personal message and evokes a stronger curiosity when shared amongst friends and influencers. 92% of social media users trust recommendations from other people over brands (Burgess, 2016) and 89% of Millennials trust friend or family recommendations more than brand claims ("5 Ecommerce Techniques for Connecting with Millennial Shoppers", 2015). As a result, interest in influencer marketing jumped 90x between 2013 and 2016 ("10 Biggest Influencer Marketing Statistics 2016", 2016). This means that a post uploaded by a friend is much more likely to gain someone’s attention than a sponsored post from a brand. By providing an aesthetically pleasing and charitable piece of art, viewers will be more compelled to upload a photo to social media and share it with their friends than a beautifully styled billboard ad.

Our aim is to create an interaction between the audience and the charity to prove that there is new possibilities for charitable advertising. The Big Hoot is the most recent example of charitable advertising in NZ – rethought. With over 5000 related # posts on Instagram ("#thebighoot", 2018) and its English counterpart in Birmingham raising over £500k in 2015 ("Big Hoot owls sold for £500k", 2015) it seems art that evokes interaction and curiosity holds strong marketing potential. The Big Hoot was an art trail with large owl sculptures displaying bespoke works of art from a range of Kiwi Artists, with the intention of raising awareness and funds for the Child Cancer Foundation ("The Big Hoot Auckland", 2018). The installations encouraged family and community involvement, rather than presenting a sad reality to unsuspecting TV viewers, and achieved great success in their campaign.

References

#thebighoot. (2018). Instagram.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/thebighoot/

10 Biggest Influencer Marketing Statistics 2016. (2016). Mediakix. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://goo.gl/gYALV2

5 Ecommerce Techniques for Connecting with Millennial Shoppers. (2015). Kissmetrics. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://goo.gl/uk9KYC

Big Hoot owls sold for £500k. (2015). BBC News. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-34548107

Burgess, E. (2016). 11 Essential Stats for Influencer Marketing in 2016 - [ION]. ION. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://goo.gl/vug4Qo

Digital in 2016. (2016). Slideshare.net. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from

https://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/digital-in-2016

Latest UK ad complaint figures released. (2017). Asa.org.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://www.asa.org.uk/news/latest-uk-ad-complaint-figures-released.html

Shawcross, W. (2016). Trust in charities is at an all-time low. Time to change. The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://goo.gl/Ghb6ng

The Big Hoot Auckland. (2018). The Big Hoot. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from

https://www.thebighoot.co.nz/

Written by; Emir De Jerome - 0652881

With Help From; Amelia McGeorge - 15905498

Healer-1 makes use of modulation, channeling a holistic way of thinking about sustainability. During our process, we were conscious of the duality in the way humans reap the planet’s resources and tried to emulate that in the way we constructed the artefact. The prominent egg-like shape of the piece, manifests as a catalyst for an array of symbolism on it’s own. The egg represents a looming birth, a chance for new beginnings or ideas that either continue or disrupt the forces at play. (Artdependence, n.d.)

The use of compact-discs as the basic units that lay the foundations for the egg, was directly inspired by the format of the Geodesic Dome, an approach popularised by Buckminster Fuller for it’s modular yet sturdy design. (Fuller, 2008) The material itself harks to the distorted systems for consumption that prevail in our modern society. In our eternal quest for speed and convenience, humanity has taken something innately abstract such as music and other forms of entertainment media, which we all enjoy and place great value on, and subsequently stored them into unsustainable formats that require vast amounts of resources, all because of our salacity to monetise those art forms, especially in the last few decades. And although the schematics for acquiring various media have changed, the effects of the demand and supply chain that defined the previous generations have had lasting impact on the environment, something we now consider as the focal agent of the Anthropocene. (Carrington, 2016)

It can be argued that depending on the contents, each single compact disc on its own, is essentially an obsolete artefact in today’s exponentially accelerated technological race, but if they were collected and used en masse and repurposed, their capacity could be redefined to form various assortments that could lead us to unexpected and invigorating places in the future, all the while allowing for our shared environment and resources to flourish. The idea is that we could and should apply these to future manufacturing processes that involve mining for raw materials.

This is the advent of an approach that we need to inherit now, in all our design methodologies, to put an end to the cycle of squandering, or at least curb the pending hazards we impose on the environment, by changing the way we think about materials and where they end up after their original purpose have been fulfilled.

If we are already aware that there is now nine billion tonnes of plastic waste materials, floating around our oceans, drifting through our rivers and streams, or ending up as landfill, it seems abominable not to be repurposing or transitioning them into more innovative and less harmful schemes. (Geyer, Jambeck, & Law, 2017) It should be a priority for us to reprocess those materials to create homes for the homeless for example, rather than destroying the habitats of the creatures that play a vital role in our ecosystems. The icons of egg and nest ubiquitously represent a sanctuary and abode for many creatures, and in our piece we tried to capture that fragility and evanescence of these motifs.

We’ve attempted to mimic the naturally ecological methods already possessed by animals, in terms of using found objects that are readily available in their environment, in this case, instead of disposing the cut-offs we used for building the egg structure, we’ve recycled them to create a mesh-base for the nest. Mixing the two contrasting materials of wood and plastic relays back to the idea of how our collective actions on waste have the potential of affecting the process or instinctive behaviour displayed by the other species that share the planet with us, a great example would be the living patterns of oceanic birds which have been negatively disrupted by The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the result of our short-sightedness and neglect. (Miller, Son, Strickling, & Wu, 2016)

We took advantage of the reflectiveness of the materials against a spectrum of light, to produce the ethereal effect of the overall piece- it evokes the emotions one would feel when witnessing the Aurora Borealis, a phenomenon which overlooks a melting landscape in the arctic that is gradually being dismantled by the growing amount of carbon in the atmosphere. (“New Stories,” 2013)

The soundscapes that we feature in the piece were created by taking ambient samples of the various social and ecological issues we are faced with. They amplify the cries of elephants being poached and whales deafened by seismic blasting, as well as the grinding sounds of an industrial factory and the hum of a nuclear reactor. (Ketten, Lien, & Todd, 1993)

The floating disc above the egg, symbolises a kind of divinatory mirror to the way we operate as a society, and how that in turn affects the mechanics of the environment resulting in extreme shifts in the climate, it allows us to reflect on them by providing a magnified visual insight into how our ecology could potentially culminate, be it as a purgatorial wasteland of black-tar, singed in hellfire, or frozen in ice, these images become intertwined in the course of our speculated relationship with nature, and they are brought to our focus with every push of a button.

Healer-1 was intended as an antecedent to similar artefacts in the future. They would ideally be exhibited at a festival event, that challenges people to materialise such concepts to raise awareness about social issues in their communities. We want to be able to continue a productive dialogue on sustainability, that sees people converging art, music and technology in bold and unconventional ways.

References

Artdependence. (n.d.). ArtDependence | Symbolism in Art: The Egg. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from https://www.artdependence.com/articles/symbolism-in-art-the-egg/

Carrington, D. (2016, August 29). The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age. Retrieved April 19, 2018, from https://goo.gl/DSZFLo

Fuller, R. B. (2008). Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller.

Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017). Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Science Advances, 3(7), e1700782. https://goo.gl/qjp9i4

Ketten, D. R., Lien, J., & Todd, S. (1993). Blast injury in humpback whale ears: Evidence and implications. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 94(3), 1849– 1850. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.407688

Miller, K., Son, J., Strickling, M., & Wu, S. (2016). Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Introduction to Public Health Posters. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/X6JwCX

It’s amazing to be finally done with no crazy dramas at the end to deal with. It was interesting seeing people interact with our installation during the final few days before hand in. There was an overwhelming positive response to how it looked - however some people didn’t understand how to interact with it and traffic to the website was low. It seemed our buttons were not obvious enough, and looked like switches. When people couldn’t figure out how to press them, they would be embarrassed and walk away. It seems that there were two types of people - those who understood it, and liked it, and those who didn’t understand but liked it as soon as they did. Also there have been no posts of the art on social media so far. Our call to action obviously was not calling ‘loud’ enough. Our interactive element was too hidden and the QR code not visible/integrated enough. Next time I will ensure the interactive element is the entire essence of the project, where the design wouldn’t make sense without it, so people understand how to interact with it as soon as they see it. Also, next time I will include a # (to track response online and help further show people they should post about it online) and something that indicates that images should be posted online as well as including a design feature that means people need to go online and visit the website (or whatever the call to action is) in order to complete the interaction with the art.

Overall though I am proud as the final result looks like we had planned and I have learnt a lot for this first attempt. It has provided a lot of insights that I can apply to future iterations of my concept.

For the development of the website it was great to compile everything we have created and display it in one, concise place. It gave a sense of achievement and made us realise we could be proud of all the hours we have put into this.

It was difficult to choose a theme that best represented our concept and festival. I switched between focusing on the dystopian earth idea shown in our projections, the clean, green, eco friendly focus of the concept festival, and the futuristic space-like appearance of our installation. It all needed to concisely represent each aspect of our project (of which there were a few). Eventually I decided to focus on the space theme, as Emir had created a fantastic logo and animation that really grabbed the futuristic idea of the festival and global image. It also captured the vibe of the installation as well as giving the festival a visual representation of the theme.

Final Homepage Design;

Scan to view website (https://ameliastar9.wixsite.com/healer);

On the 3rd of March 2018, 47 owls flew into Auckland City overnight and will nest until the 6th of May. This is the Haier Big Hoot Auckland 2018 art trail ("The Big Hoot Auckland", 2018). Each owl sculpture stands at 1.65m tall displaying bespoke works of art from a range of Kiwi Artists, with the intention of raising awareness and funds for the Child Cancer Foundation. Each owl fundraises through Partnered Sponsorship, online donations, and manned collection buckets. Also, at the end of the installation each owl will be auctioned off with all proceeds going directly to the Child Cancer Foundation ("Artists - The Big Hoot Auckland", 2018). The installations encouraged family and community involvement and the owls are presented as art pieces to be celebrated for a good cause, rather than a shock reminder about a harsh reality.  

The Big Hoot is the most recent example of charitable advertising in NZ – rethought. With over 5000 related # posts on Instagram ("#thebighoot", 2018) and its English counterpart in Birmingham raising over £500k in 2015 ("Big Hoot owls sold for £500k", 2015) it seems art that evokes the positive ‘wow factor’ holds strong marketing potential.

In comparison, complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority in the first half of 2017 show that TV continues to be the most complained about advertising medium ("Latest UK ad complaint figures released", 2017). An online forum discussing how people feel about charities’ begging tactics on TV demonstrates an overwhelmingly negative response.

“I do not respond to these adverts for money. You never know what proportion of the money gifted is actually going to help these people” ("What are your views on TV Charity Begging Adverts?", 2015).

Many commented on how they don’t trust the charities, or that there’s a lack of transparency about where the money is going. The Guardian even reported that trust in charities is at an all-time low.

“The research shows that trust and confidence in charities has fallen to the lowest recorded level since monitoring began in 2005 – from 67% to 57%” (Shawcross, 2016).

There is an opportunity to evolve different forms of advertising in order to reach wider audiences and instil trust in charities again. The challenge is to take existing statistics on traditional forms of advertising and apply it to projections about possible future techniques.

References

#thebighoot. (2018). Instagram.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/thebighoot/

10 Biggest Influencer Marketing Statistics 2016. (2016). Mediakix. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://goo.gl/gYALV2

5 Ecommerce Techniques for Connecting with Millennial Shoppers. (2015). Kissmetrics. Retrieved

9 April 2018, from https://blog.kissmetrics.com/connecting-with-millennial-shoppers/

Artists - The Big Hoot Auckland. (2018). The Big Hoot Auckland. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://www.thebighoot.co.nz/artists/

Big Hoot owls sold for £500k. (2015). BBC News. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-34548107

Burgess, E. (2016). 11 Essential Stats for Influencer Marketing in 2016 - [ION]. ION. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://www.ion.co/11-essential-stats-for-influencer-marketing-in-2016

Digital in 2016. (2016). Slideshare.net. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/digital-in-2016

Latest UK ad complaint figures released. (2017). Asa.org.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://www.asa.org.uk/news/latest-uk-ad-complaint-figures-released.html

Shawcross, W. (2016). Trust in charities is at an all-time low. Time to change. The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://goo.gl/Ghb6ng

The Big Hoot Auckland. (2018). The Big Hoot. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://www.thebighoot.co.nz/

With the rise of digital media and the ageing population it is important that charities are able to evolve their advertisements to stay relevant and effective. While older demographics tend to be wealthier than their younger counterparts, younger generations have the bigger influence over the future. This gives cause to think that without adaptation, current advertising tactics targeting older generations may begin to become less effective with time.

Over the duration of 2 weeks 100 responses were collected in response to a Google Survey, asking which emotions people responded best to in charitable advertising.

The survey was posted on 5 different social media platforms and forums in attempt to reach a wider range of demographics in gender, ethnicity, employment status and education, while specifically targeting people aged 30 years and under.

I created the survey to justify my belief that Gen Y and Millennials respond better to beautiful, and positive advertising that encourages them to post about it on social media so that advertising is done for free to an actively engaged audience (friend and social circles) - rather than paying for sponsored posts that may be skimmed past due to the promotional nature of it.

1. How do you feel about charitable advertisements that show shocking imagery on TV? (Linear scale)

I think it's wrong / we shouldn't be forced to see it

I think it's beneficial / it needs to be seen

The majority of people don’t think they should be forced to see shocking imagery during charity advertising. This may be a reflection on how the world is appearing to become more politically correct.

2. When shocking images are shown during charity TV ads, how do you respond? (Linear scale)

I look away / change the channel

I feel empowered to donate

Interestingly in contrast with the previous question, the vast majority of people felt indifferent towards these types of images. Perhaps people are beginning to become numb to these images due to overexposure.

3. Which emotions are most likely to get you to donate to charity? (Multi-choice)

Guilt/Sadness

Inspiration/Happiness/(That warm fuzzy feeling inside)

The majority of people believed that they respond best to charitable advertising when it made them feel a positive emotion.

4. Which statement better summarises how you feel when viewing an ad for a charity that is making a big difference and shows the positive impact they're making? (Multi-choice)

They're doing well already, they don't need my help"

My money will obviously be used well. This is a good charity to donate to"

It appears that people like positivity but still want to feel like they’re making a big impact. Making the charity look well supported might not be an effective strategy. These results are inconclusive though as responders were divided almost evenly in half.

5. Which statement better summarises how you react when viewing a charity ad that uses shocking imagery to get you to donate? (Multi-choice)

This is inappropriate to force people to view these images"

This is terrible. I have to donate to help this"

Overwhelmingly, people showed a dislike to charities’ ‘in your face’, ‘shocking’ advertising. This indicates there is great potential to evolve a new ‘positive’ form of advertising that directly interacts with it’s audience.

Initial insights into the results of the survey point towards the favour of advertisements that evoke positive emotions.

76% percent of people surveyed believe that shocking imagery is not beneficial in charitable advertisements. 63% of people indicated that they’re indifferent when viewing the ads, with

9% of people even saying that they would take action to actively avoid it. However with an averaged 29% of people indicating that they are likely to donate with these tactics, there is no indication charities need to pull all current ‘shocking’ advertisements just yet.

Even though on average 71% of those surveyed indicate that they prefer positive emotions in charitable advertising, it remains unclear how to best engage these emotions. Participants were divided on how they would respond to a charity that appears to be doing ‘well’, with 45% reporting they would likely not donate because the charity doesn’t appear to need help. This indicates that people like to feel their money is making a considerable impact towards the cause. With this in mind, pride, inspiration, or satisfaction may be emotions to target in order to make people feel happy about the cause and the help that they’re doing.

Because the main demographic reached by this survey were 30 years old and under, these statistics would be most effective when applied to Influencer Marketing. If a charity wanted to reach the 92% of 2.3 billion people on social media ("Digital in 2016", 2016) who trust recommendations from other people over brands (Burgess, 2016), this survey indicates they would have the best chance of doing so if their ad made people feel ‘positive’, and were introduced to it through friends or influencers.

However; these results are unable to be used as a generalisation. It is unlikely that the survey reached outside of New Zealand or evenly covered all representations of regions and socioeconomic status due to the limited outreach of personal social media presences. The main demographics reached are likely to be based in the major cities of New Zealand.

Initial insights indicate people aged 30 and under in New Zealand think that being forced to view shock images is inappropriate and that they are unlikely to respond to charitable ads that implement them. 71% preferred positive methods but may not necessarily donate to a charity that appears to be doing well without them. It would seem that people still need to feel like their money is making a large impact. Further research would need to be implemented across wider location and employment demographics, to gather insights on which specific emotions should be targeted, and how they best be implemented in a call to action.

References

Burgess, E. (2016). 11 Essential Stats for Influencer Marketing in 2016 - [ION]. ION. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://goo.gl/ukTtv4

In 2016, 2.3 billion people used social media ("Digital in 2016", 2016). Of these 2.3 billion people, 92% trust recommendations from other people over brands (Burgess, 2016) and 89% of Millennials trust friend or family recommendations more than brand claims ("5 Ecommerce Techniques for Connecting with Millennial Shoppers", 2015). As a result, interest in influencer marketing jumped 90x between 2013 and 2016 ("10 Biggest Influencer Marketing Statistics 2016", 2016). This means that a post uploaded by a friend is much more likely to gain someone’s attention than a sponsored post from a brand. By providing an aesthetically pleasing and charitable piece of art, viewers will be more compelled to upload a photo to social media and share it with their friends than a beautifully styled billboard ad.

Current charitable advertisements are targeted at Baby Boomers and Generation X, as they have the highest percent of disposable income. However, it is Generation Y and Millennials that have the biggest say over the future of advertising as they slowly enter and move up through the workforce and begin earning disposable income.  This gives cause to think that without change, current advertising tactics targeting older generations will begin to become less effective with time. It is important that charities are able to evolve their advertisements to stay relevant and effective.

Most current advertisements targeting these generations are through sponsored social media posts and influencer marketing and are very successful for products and ‘selfish’ purchases (purchases that benefit only the buyer). These purchases are often lead by trends and fads. I want to look at how Charities and not-for-profits can target generations with these buying habits and become the latest ‘trend’ to support, by getting influencers and friends to post about the causes on their personal pages. Also; how can good causes create a relationship with certain generations early - before they gain their disposable income - so that they are the first charity people think of when they start thinking about donations?

I have partnered with Emir Emir De Jerome, Kevin Sun and Tim Bielby. They want to create a ‘socially aware’ festival that combines digital arts, electronic music and entertainment to create a community and address global issues. My desire to look into discover more about marketing and develop a creative solution will pair well with their project. I will be the ‘behind the scenes’ developer - looking into research, proof of concept, prototype design, graphic design, website development and statement writing, as well as providing input into major decision making.

References

10 Biggest Influencer Marketing Statistics 2016. (2016). Mediakix. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://goo.gl/gYALV2

5 Ecommerce Techniques for Connecting with Millennial Shoppers. (2015). Kissmetrics. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://blog.kissmetrics.com/connecting-with-millennial-shoppers/

Burgess, E. (2016). 11 Essential Stats for Influencer Marketing in 2016 - [ION]. ION. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from https://www.ion.co/11-essential-stats-for-influencer-marketing-in-2016

AI and Watson.

As the software learns, is it possible for humans to develop a negative relationship with Watson? Can it pick up our negative traits?

IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States, with operations in over 170 countries. The company originated in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924.

IBM has a large and diverse portfolio of products and services. As of 2016, these offerings fall into the categories of cloud computing, cognitive computing, commerce, data and analytics, Internet of Things, IT infrastructure, mobile, and security.

Fairfax Media Limited is one of the largest media companies in Australia and New Zealand, with investment in newspaper, magazines, radio and the internet.

Fairfax New Zealand's websites form the Stuff.co.nz portal. Sites include News, Employment, Property, Personals and Shopping. Fairfax also owns the Cuisine website as part of its ownership of the magazine of the same name. In December 2014, Fairfax entered a partnership with local social media platform Neighbourly.