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“By itself a shorter Christmas period will have retailers sweating, but this year they also have to contend with the distraction of, and advertising for, the general election on 26 November, traditionally one of the busier shopping weekends of the year”, says ThinkTV chief executive Rick Friesen.

The general election broadcast monetary allocation of $3.28 million for official election advertising, plus fewer restrictions of third party advertisers, will also contribute to tight availability in November. Each party receives a weighted allocation of the fund for advertising across broadcast, print, outdoor and online and TV advertising historically rates highly within the marketing mix for major parties.

Friesen adds that having a home Rugby World Cup and general election within the two busiest retail months is an “unusual occurrence”.

Solid results in the second half of the year are common enough, with revenue typically increasing by 25-30 percent from the first half of the year. Meanwhile the fourth quarter traditionally puts in an even stronger performance but this time round,  both MediaWorks and TVNZ have noticed a particularly strong spike.

MediaWorks TV director of sales Linda Farrelly says television activity is higher than it has been for some time.

“We have had very positive feedback from the market around our Q4 ratecard, strong programming lineup and client’s television plans for the last quarter of 2011,” she says, adding that events like Bathurst and the Melbourne Cup provide further boosts.

As for TVNZ’s head of sales and marketing Paul Maher, he says forward demand has been “unprecedented” resulting in the broadcaster gaining “a lot of confidence in continued market recovery”.

The study, which was designed to help understand the differences but more importantly, the similarities and commonly held beliefs Baby Boomer males and Gen Y males hold, asks questions of 150 dads and 150 sons on a wide range of topics, including what kind of media they consume and how often, who they’d rather be stuck in a lift with, who their idols are and who’s hotter, Pippa from Breakfast or Samantha Hayes. But more topical and probably more useful right now is the question about what they want for Christmas. And, surprisingly, it doesn’t matter how old the man in your life is, they all want the same thing: cold, hard cash.

The top three gifts for dads and teenage boys alike, in order, are: cash, hobby/sport related stuff and cash for travelling with. Willis was surprised to see the differentiation made between cash, with non-specific cash presumably for someone to pick up what they want, take advantage of January sales, get clothes they actually want etc, while cash for travelling with is about designated monies and the long term plan of holidays.

“For the teens I think that may include summer holiday road trip stuff, whereas for adults is probably more about ‘my spends’ while we’re away. The thing that bonds both responses is independence; the power and freedom of choice,” he says.

The only real difference between our Kiwi men and their sons is that after they’ve counted the cash falling out of the Christmas cards and put away their new golf clubs/soccer boots, the dads want a lie in or more sleep, whereas the boys are wondering where their new iPhone or Blackberry is.

For the record, Pippa is hotter than Rachel Hunter for dads but, surprisingly, Rachel Hunter is at the top for the teenage boys, with Gin Wigmore second and Hayley Holt from The Crowd Goes Wild third.

The favourite TVC of Baby Boomer dads is the Lotto (Wilson) campaign, with ANZ second. For boys it’s the L&P campaign followed by Lotto.

45 percent of dads claim to be ‘always doing’ the grocery shopping and 17 percent of boys say the same. And they actually seem to enjoy being part of the weekly shop.

The three companies that sons and dads would be proud to say are ‘A real New Zealand’ brand are: Air New Zealand, L&P and TradeMe.

Some of the oldest generational divides still exist, with both parties disagreeing about how ‘kids today don’t respect their elders’, but they both agree that life is more complicated for today’s generation.

Overall, it’s surprising to see how much the generational divide is closing in some areas of beliefs and attitudes, while it is also refreshing to see some stereotypical behaviour remains. By the way, socks and undies still made the top ten wish list for dads.

New customer profiling and segmentation tools can help you to really understand your customers and allow retailers to build a relationship with the people who really matter to their business.

Most customers are time poor and Christmas can be a particularly stressful time. Every year shoppers leave their Christmas shopping until later and later. Traditionally, the busiest months were October and November. But now the majority of Christmas shopping takes place in late November and December.

Today’s consumers expect a very flexible buying experience. The retailers that are most successful this Christmas will be the businesses who make it easy for their customers. Recent research by the Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS) shows remarkable growth in cross-channel shopping; people are increasingly using two or more points of contact with a retailer to research and make their purchases. An NCR Corporation global poll of 8,500 consumers found that 80 percent of shoppers are more likely to do business with a company which offers flexibility to interaction via online, mobile and self-service channels.

According to the ACRS study an increasing number of retail sales are being influenced by the web. By 2012 the research predicts that nearly 40 percent of all retail sales will be influenced by online searches. The retail market is changing and we need to change with it.

Forrester research has revealed international online retailers now take more than 40 percent of our online retail market. That’s market share we cannot afford to lose.

• David Nation is the general manager of sales and marketing for Reachmedia, a multi-channel marketing and communications company which specialises in the retail market.

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With the pro-bono help of DraftFCB, Unicef New Zealand is leading the way with an engaging Christmas campaign calling on us to Say No to Naff gifts like socks, soap, satin boxer shorts, or smellies that scare away the talent. Instead, Unicef has a selection of alternative gifts you can give on someone’s behalf to people living a third world country.

A mozzie net to protect people from malaria, 100 Polio vaccinations for children, five story books, 500 colour pencils or 1000 water purification tablets can all be purchased for less than $30 each.

This is only the third year Unicef has run an alternative gift giving campaign for the Christmas season and Unicef New Zealand chief executive Dennis McKinlay says the ROI “was not good” in the first two years.

“We didn’t make huge progress,” he says. But this year the campaign has had an “very substantial increase of interest” compared to the previous years.

Click here to view the embedded video.

However, McKinlay admits that it’s too early to tell whether the campaign will, in the end, give a good ROI. But the knitted billboard constructed by DraftFCB that’s due to go up in Auckland’s CBD tomorrow should help.

“It’s hard to know the end result because just before Christmas there’s a big rush to make a last minute purchase. Give me a ring in January and I’ll tell you how it went,” he says.

There’s certainly no shortage of competition for New Zealand’s charity dollar over Christmas. ChildFund New Zealand communications manager Kiri Carter says ChildFund’s Gifts that Grow, which is now in its fifth year, are bought and “sell well” each year. New Zealanders have certainly embraced the trend of giving animals as gifts (perhaps due to a combination of comedy value and warm fuzzies) and, as of this time last year had given 40,000 hens, roosters and baby chicks, 3,500 goats, 569 cows and 41 turkeys to impoverished through the families.

“Many supporters are repeat purchasers of Gifts that Grow. They tell us how they love to give gifts with real meaning at Christmas and that during these tough economic times, ChildFund gifts have become an important part of their Christmas shopping and are no longer just a novelty. To keep it fresh, the gifts are updated every year depending on what’s needed in communities, and we also change our ‘hero’ gift each year. This year it is the humble sheep.”

To create awareness about the sheep theme, ChildFund sent balls of wool and knitting needles to long lead media so they can make their own Christmas stockings. It then sent handmade Christmas stockings to short lead media. The rest of campaign won’t be revealed until next week, but Carter hints it plays with the idea of “yarn”.

Probably the most prominent charity in most people’s minds for alternative gift giving is Oxfam, which popularised the idea with its Give a Goat campaign.

Karen Watson, Oxfam New Zealand’s marketing coordinator, says the Oxfam Unwrapped campaign has been “hugely sucessful” (check out a few of the previous ads here).

“Over the past five years, Oxfam Unwrapped has raised nearly $3.5 million to help people in the Pacific and East Asia. In terms of cost, it’s been a very effective way for Oxfam to generate the resources needed to fund our programme work in developing countries.”

Oxfam’s supporters, says Watson, have a variety of reason for buying alternative gifts, but the main reason, she says, is because they know it makes a real difference to people living in poverty.

“Many want to avoid buying ‘stuff’ that’s not needed, others like the cheekiness of giving a goat or a toilet, others want to teach their children about what’s happening in other communities around the world.

This year Oxfam Unwrapped has all sorts of “funusual” creatures for sale in its online shop window. As well as the now standard goats, piglets, honey bees, donkeys, ducks and lambs are all ready for departure. And ff that doesn’t pull your chain, for $50 you can buy a toilet (there’s also an unwrapped wedding gift service).

WorldVision, The Leprosy Mission and Trade Aid also run similar schemes and Greenpeace has also got in on the act of alternative gift giving this year, suggesting homemade preserves and artwork or “re-gifting” as ways to minimise our impact on the planet.

“Alternative gift-giving is not a new concept,” says World Vision’s director of engagement Paul Newnham (the new ‘Smiles‘ campaign has just been launched with the help of ssignment, Exposure and MBM). “Category growth is largely driven by increasing product awareness and there are many charities that offer alternative gifts. It’s better for all of us to grow the pool than compete for share within it. At the end of the day, we all share the common goal of eradicating poverty.”

The same studies and experts also confirmed that this particular Christmas greeting being sent out by the team at StopPress, NZ Marketing and HB Media is likely to be up to three times more sincere than those sent out by other companies.

We think our cherished readers deserve a longer holiday than everyone else, so, as a gift to you, this will be the last post until the next decade. But fear not, for all the marcomms news, gossip and slander you so desperately crave will be back on air on 11 January.

Extremely hearty thanks to our gold sponsors TVNZ, The Media Counsel, TBWA\, Perceptive, Flying Fish, Ubiquity, Orange Box and Adshel and our silver sponsors Omnigraphics, nzherald.co.nz and IDC photographers. We hope you receive many scorched almonds for your good deeds.

And similarly hearty thanks to all the readers, writers, lovers, haters, commentors, non-commentors, emailers, press releasers, supporters and anyone else in the industry who’s helped to make StopPress such a rip-roaring success. May this be the start of a beautiful friendship, may your yaks be fertile and may you survive almost entirely on sausages over the silly sausage season.

Our undying love,
Team StopPress

“Christmas isn’t called the silly season for nothing,” says Tony Boyte, research director for Nielsen’s online division. “Shopping centres and malls are extremely hectic and crowded at this time of year and for many consumers online retail channels offer an increasingly appealing opportunity to shop from the comfort of their own homes rather than battle the crowds.”

According to Nielsen, there are now nearly 1.5 million New Zealanders shopping online and the company believes record numbers will opt for online sales this Christmas. It also says books, clothing, toys, beauty products, gift vouchers and music will be amongst the best online sellers.

A recent US report from Nielsen shows shoppers actively rely on social media sites to learn about where to find the best deals, product recommendations, gift ideas and money-saving tips. The report highlights an opportunity for retailers to go beyond traditional TV and printed circulars and use social media outlets to get shoppers excited about their holiday deals. Shoppers enjoy being the first to find out about a deal and share it with their network.

Jolly silly, that is. Stoppress heard the story of an Auckland banker who this week staggered back to work after a night on the tiles, without his wallet and his phone and soaked through by the rain. Intending to doss down at the office he stripped to his undies and socks, hung up the damp suit, and made one quick dash to the loo which was in the lobby, behind the security door. But his swipe card was left in the suit. The streak through the lobby alerted the security patrol who threatened to toss him out on his naked arse, but his protests seemed genuine and he was allowed to stay till morning and could beg the early arriving staff to let him in. All of which was fine except that he then had to explain to his boss, visiting from the US, why he missed that first flight to Wellington.

Like my whisks?

Our Christmas party was hardly as adventurous but we had a fine night at the gorgeous Quadrant hotel.

How were your Christmas celebrations? Do you have embarrassing stories, photos and other shaming memorabilia to share?

The best submission wins an all expenses trip to Hollywood with your host Tiger Woods.

Christmas is a time of family, binge-eating and falling asleep in the ambrosia at 3pm. But for some of our fellow beasts, as you can see in the Save the Children fund’s top-notch stop motion Animal Love dating video, Christmas often just enhances their crushing loneliness.

Created by Corpse Bride and Coraline animator Antony Elworthy, the entertaining, slightly pitiable anthropomorphs are intended to bring attention to Save the Children’s Wish List, where benevolent souls can buy friends and family practical gifts for Christmas, such as yaks, goats and chickens, and then send them overseas to those less fortunate.

So, if you’re interested in some festive giving, head over to the Animal Love website (not that one) and help the animals find true love. Or check out some of the other philanthropic ventures on offer this Christmas.