Wises Maps Lose Owl In New Look Makeover

May 19, 2004

Wises Maps Lose Owl In New Look Makeover

Wises Maps, New Zealand’s best selling range of map books, has had a make-over. A new logo, more consistent mapping products and the departure of the well-known Wises Owl are features of the changes.

Wises Maps Divisional Manager, Paul Flatt, says the new look will revitalise the popular maps and give a consistent look and feel across all the maps in the product range.

“In the past there have been different styles between our map book range and our sheet maps,” said Flatt. “Now the look will be the same for all Wises maps. Consumers will find it much easier to recognise a Wises map on the shelf.”

Flatt says that as well as a new external image the maps feature a number of subtle changes that improve their quality and make them easier to use. A number of new point-of-interest symbols also provide users with more information than in the past.

“Maps change as fast as the landscape they represent. We are constantly receiving customer feed back on ways that we can improve our maps, and the type of things that people want to see represented,” said Flatt. “We listened to feedback and carried out extensive consumer research before we committed to any change.

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“For example, we discovered that customers prefer a light yellow map background to a grey background,” he continued. “We are also planning a number of new point-of-interest locations that we think users will find very useful, these include the more boat ramps and golf courses, wineries could be included which have not featured in the past.”

Wises will also be producing more specialist maps. A new map book for the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Coromandel will be launched soon and revamped map books for the Christchurch / Canterbury and Dunedin, Otago and Southland regions are in the pipeline.

Flatt says Wises have also upgraded their award winning website, www.wises.co.nz, making it even more user friendly.

“The website has become hugely popular, with over 130,000 unique users per month and almost 2.0 million page impressions*,” said Flatt. “It is important that we maintain the integrity of the site and continuously upgrade the services we offer customers. Improvements have been made to the website layout and the popular route-finder function, which provides users with either the shortest or quickest route directions at the touch of a button.”

Wises Maps are easy to use, highly detailed and comprehensive. They are available in several book and sheet folded formats. With over 350,000 sold annually, they are also very popular as branded and corporate items.

Wises Maps are preferred suppliers to a number of national book chains such as Whitcoulls, Dymocks and Paper Plus. Wises maps also have exclusive distribution rights through Mobil, Shell, Caltex and B.P. company owned and operated service stations.

Wises Maps are part of APN Infomedia of the APN Specialised Publications arm of APN News Group, Australasia’s fourth largest media group. APN Infomedia includes units UBD business listings, its online B2B website and data solutions business, APN BIG, and the award winning Wises Maps website.

ENDS

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