Thanks to a successful relationship with Canon New Zealand over the past six years, Auckland marketing agency BallantyneTaylor has added another big string to its B2B bow, beating out two Sydney agencies for the Canon Australia business in a joint pitch with Datalicious, which will be providing data collection, analytics and facilitation.
BallantyneTaylor’s success with Canon New Zealand’s B2B strategy came about as the result of an eye-catching campaign of red and white ads offering solutions to common industry “pain points”. The campaign steered away from selling printers and copiers, as traditionally associated with Canon, and instead offered new technology packages for small to medium-sized businesses.
“It’s an opportunity to use our skills in the Australian market, and we’re confident we can make a difference,” says Steve Ballantyne, managing director of BallantyneTaylor. “We’ve set up a small team in Sydney to handle the account, and are also working closely with the team at Datalicious.” 
From humble beginnings in Tauranga 20 years ago, BallantyneTaylor is now based in downtown Auckland, and heavily promotes its B2B and branding know-how.
Despite B2B’s reputation as the unglamorous side of the marcomms business, the New Zealand B2B sector is substantial and potentially lucrative: there are nearly 350,000 small and medium enterprises employing 19 employees or less and a further 1600 employing over 100 people according to Massey University, which means around one in 12 New Zealanders are business owners of some sort. So there’s plenty of cash—and so, serious advertising—in this space.
