Thanks to the unfortunately common Japanese Keyword Hack, our poor aging site crashed on Tuesday, and now our Google search results are a bit odd (fake Gucci handbag anyone?). Luckily, we have a brand-new website on the cusp of being finished, so we are fast-tracking its release. It may not be perfect from the get-go but we’re excited to launch a site that is much easier to use for those who list jobs, opportunities, or events on the site, and allows us to have a lot more flexibility in how we work, and what we can offer the community. It looks pretty slick too!  

Here’s everything you need to know about switching over from the old to the new.

On the new website, you will need to sign up for an account if you list with us

You only need to have an account on the new website if you intend to create listings for our Jobs, Opportunities or Events pages. If you currently have an account, you will need to sign up again on the website, it will take you less than a minute to sign up. 

There are almost 40,000 accounts registered on The Big Idea website, and not all of these are active. This is more than two decades of accumulated data that we just don’t need to hold onto. 

If you’re just coming to browse our listings and our news, or apply for jobs, you don’t need to sign up for an account. You can favourite listings and stories, and these will be saved in your cache when you re-visit us on the same device. 

These accounts are separate from our newsletter mailing list, which will remain unchanged, so if you receive it now, you will continue to receive it after the switch.

You’ll need to save anything in your account (like old listings or drafts), because they won’t be moved to the new website. 

We’re not migrating the old listings and drafts that sit within existing accounts, so if you are a regular lister and re-use the info from old listings then it’s a good idea to download anything that you would like to keep. For example, festivals who re-list similar contract roles every year often copy and paste from the listings for the previous year.  

We will migrate current listings 

Current paid listings on the site with a closing date after the changeover will be migrated by us – we'll email you with details on how to set up your account and we will connect the listing to your newly created account on the new site. 

Those with unpaid listings will need to re-create the listing on the new website – but we’re hoping it will be a smooth and enjoyable experience! You’ll hear from us by email if this is you. 

Jobs and opportunities will be split

You might be aware that jobs and opportunities listings are lumped together on the current Big Idea website. These will be split out and each will have its own listings page on the new site, because we know that there is quite a big difference between an artist residency and an arts marketing job. The pricing tiers will be different too – more on that below. 

Events 

We’re adding a small fee ($8) to our lowest tier of event listings. We understand that free event listings provide a great service for those with little-to-no marketing budget, so we’re trying to keep it really affordable, and we want to explain why we’re doing this.

All of the event listings from new listers must go into moderation to be checked before we can publish them to make sure we are not allowing spammy or dodgy listings to be published on the site. 

Every week, there can be up to 100 new listings that we have to check through before publishing, and there are many that we don’t publish. 

Adding the $8 fee will help us to make sure that every listing created on the website is a genuine and relevant listing, and will reduce our time spent manually checking this. It will be more efficient and will allow us to focus on serving the community in all the other great ways that we do. It also covers the little bit of admin time that we will still spend managing this area of the site.

New Pricing Tiers – with Community Discounts

Our pricing tiers are changing a little bit.

Jobs 

You will be able to tick a “Community Listing” box if you are an unfunded arts organisation, or a community  / artist-led collaborative. This will give you a $25 discount on any tier. 
 

Standard: $150+GST 

• Just a basic listing
   

Promoted: $250+GST 

• Appears at the top of the listings
• Included in our newsletter
   

Spotlight: $350+GST 

• Appears at the top of the listings
• Included in our newsletter
• Featured job on home page

Opportunities

You will be able to tick a “Community Listing” box if you are an unfunded arts organisation, or a community  / artist-led collaborative. This will give you a $25 discount on any tier. 
 

Standard: $75+GST 

• Just a basic listing
   

Promoted: $175+GST 

• Appears at the top of the listings
• Included in our newsletter
   

Spotlight: $225+GST 

• Appears at the top of the listings
• Included in our newsletter
• Featured job on home page

Events

You will be able to tick a “Community Listing” box if you are an unfunded arts organisation, or a community  / artist-led collaborative. This will give you a $25 discount on the Promoted or Spotlight tiers. 

If the event you are promoting is free for attendees, you will be able to receive an additional $25 discount on Promoted or Spotlight tiers.
 

Standard: $8+GST 

• Just a basic listing
   

Promoted: $58+GST 

• Appears at the top of the listings
• Included in our newsletter
   

Spotlight: $65+GST 

• Appears at the top of the listings
• Included in our newsletter
• Featured job on home page

We hope this all makes sense and that these changes will be welcomed by the community. Overall, our listings are becoming much more accessible, with opportunities listing prices reducing significantly, and the upper two tiers of event listings becoming much more affordable. The addition of discounts to recognise community mahi and free events is something we feel really great about, as we often field queries about discounts for unfunded artist collectives and community-led initiatives. 

If you have any queries about any of the above, you can get in touch at advertising@thebigidea.co.nz, and we’ll be happy to answer any pātai or guide you through any of the processes should you require that. 

Ngā mihi,

Kate Rylatt and The Big Idea team