Perhaps the most commercially orientated creative business, advertising seems to be a well established industry in the Waikato. Advertising agencies traditionally have a distinctive business model where commissions on media placement costs are the bulk of their billings, rather than payments for creative executions.
King Street Advertising are a large company which operates in Hamilton and Tauranga and maintains strong links to Auckland through business connections. Although it is small by national standards (10 staff work at the Hamilton branch) the business handles a large number of clients and a range of differently sized portfolios.
Diamond Advertising Ltd are another agency who have a well established operation in the Waikato. A more marketing orientated agency in that solutions are planned with a focus on all aspects of selling a product. For example specifying to the client exactly where a print advertisement should be placed in order to create the most effect.
Bettle Advertising operate from Hamilton and have so far worked on a number of campaigns, for many types of organisations. Like all advertising agencies in the region, local clients form an in important part of business, though they also have accounts in Auckland and Australia.
The Waikato region is host to a number of different commercial ventures all of whom require different services and this means that advertising agencies within the region must be able to adapt their core product offerings to a number of different types of clients. There is little of the specialisation seen in larger centres. Some of the companies in the region are able to provide a broad range of services from advice on promotion and placement to website design and television work. Most of the clients are based in the region, although some clients are regional branches of national firms. The agricultural industry has become an area where branding, advertising and marketing have become essential in order to maintain competitive advantage in export markets. Thus most of the larger agencies in the region maintain strong links to this industry.
