The crew at Barnes, Catmur & Friends this week moved into the Dentsu Aegis office space this week and they’re obviously a little concerned that clients and visitors will struggle to find their way to the new spot at 109 Cook Street. In a bid to guide people to the location, they have launched a digital contraption dubbed the ‘Commute-ulator’, which gives travellers an indication of how long it will take them to arrive at the office.
Browsing: Barnes Catmur & Friends
Subaru might hail from Japan, but the car brand has done a pretty solid job of integrating itself into the local landscape over the last few decades. Whether it’s on the rally track, in suburban Auckland or on some desolate beach up north, you don’t need to look far to see the blue and silver insignia pasted onto a vehicle. It’s this connection to the local market that Barnes, Catmur & Friends was looking to tap into in a new 60-second spot for the brand.
Until the driverless car finally arrives to take over from us, we’re stuck with humans behind the wheel. But the robots are already here to a degree, with computers reacting to keep us safe on the road and data being collected from connected cars and smartphones that can tell us how we’re driving. Some (mostly liars) see that data collection as slightly concerning, others see it as potentially useful, and insurance is one sector that has started to embrace it by giving discounts to less risky clients. Tower Insurance launched its SmartDriver app last year and offered up to 20 percent off premiums for safer drivers. Now, via its new agency Barnes Catmur & Friends, it’s drawing attention to the app and its benefits by asking people to take part in a SmartDriver Battle.
A protracted applause for Tower Insurance, Air New Zealand and Westpac this week.
Back in 1996, Daniel Barnes started up his own agency. In 2008, he was joined by Paul Catmur, who moved down the road from his role as ECD at DDB to fight the independent fight. And seven years on, Barnes Catmur & Friends has established a solid reputation for pumping out effective work, its in-house media model is catching a bit of attention and some big clients have come knocking recently.
Southern Cross Health Society has appointed Zoo Auckland to its agency roster, meaning that the agency will work with the insurer on special projects specifically in the digital space.
For this year’s edition of Heart Week, Barnes, Catmur & Friends has given heart disease the shadowy face of serial killer being interviewed by a faux reporter.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Paul Catmur, the creative managing partner of Barnes, Catmur & Friends, thought about 2014.
With the enactment of the Financial Markets Conduct Act earlier this year, Government opened the door to peer-to-peer lending, meaning that micro lenders—whether banks or payday loan companies—would be next in line to take on the challenge posed by the peer-to-peer threat. StopPress takes a look at what HarMoney brings to the table.
No doubt the bed makers were happy to see Arianna Huffington extolling the virtues of sleep, lambasting the burn-out culture of the corporate world and promoting the idea of nap rooms at work during her recent visit to New Zealand. And here are a few recent efforts to get Kiwis buying a new rest station from a vampirical Sleepyhead, a rugby-loving Slumberzone and a design-savvy Sealy.
After a competitive pitch, Meridian Energy is thought to have given its business to Barnes, Catmur & Friends, bringing an end to a four-ish year relationship with Assignment.
The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation, Auckland Council, Icebreaker and Hell Pizza stand out in adland this week.
Jetstar has been doing its darndest to shift perceptions among some Kiwis travellers that the low-cost airline is cheap for a reason, with its last campaign offering $24,000 worth of flight vouchers and drawing attention to the fact that, despite a reputation for unreliability, it was named New Zealand’s most punctual domestic airline in 2013. And it’s backing itself once again, offering a $25 voucher to all passengers if a domestic flight during the next eight days arrives more than ten minutes later than scheduled.
The hair is being groomed and the guitars are being tuned for tonight’s Beatles-themed Battle of the Ad Bands at the Kings Arms, and while the winner of the last two year’s events, Barnes, Catmur & Friends’ Friends Electric, is out of the running this year (all the members are thought to be pursuing solo projects after a huge falling out, with Daniel Barnes going through his Sting phase and focusing on the lute), it’s an opportune moment to show off the saucy full-length music video the band made as part of its prize from its win in 2012.
The ‘Beer Census’ ad created by Barnes, Catmur & Friends for Boundary Road Brewery has picked up the Newspaper Ad of the Month for August as part of News Works’ Agency League competition.
When Hell launched its rabbit pizza a few months back, Barnes, Catmur & Friends created the world’s first rabbit skin billboard to promote it. That caught plenty of attention and helped generate some impressive sales stats and now Hell is back with its next wild pizza, the kangaroo-laced Boomer. And this time its marketing campaign consists of holding Australia to ransom.
Paul Catmur, the managing partner of Barnes, Catmur & Friends, shares his views on life, advertising and other annoyances, like flying to Amsterdam in the hope of getting a movie made.
As Jetstar’s last campaign cleverly showed, ‘no-one likes delays, but everyone loves free flights’. And it’s continued down that road to celebrate five years of flying in New Zealand by creating a game of international Pass the Parcel.
Whether it’s free drinks, new mobile devices, early finishes on Fridays in summer or maybe even a share in the company, there are a number of strategies employed by agencies hoping to get a bit more out of their staff. But Barnes, Catmur & Friends has taken an old-school approach with a tongue-in-cheek employee of the month scheme. And the first winner is creative Brad Stratton, in recognition of “excellence in haircut”.
Hell’s hugely successful Pizza Roulette campaign showed that punters were willing to try something new, even if it burned the crap out of their (or, preferably, their friends’) mouths. And its gourmet (and slightly experimental) Rabbit Pizza proved it again after it sold out in less than three weeks and delivered the business its best week of sales in its 18 year history.
We’ve seen see-through billboards, exploding billboards and bleeding billboards. And now we’ve got an animal-skin billboard, with Hell and Barnes, Catmur & Friends celebrating today’s launch of the new smoked rabbit pizza with an outdoor execution (perhaps quite literally) made entirely out of leftover rabbit skins.
Technically, sex and alcohol aren’t meant to mix when it comes to advertising alcohol. That hasn’t stopped it from happening quite regularly over the years, with the Tui girls and an erection pun from Independent Liquor’s Woodstock brand treading a fine line. But Barnes, Catmur & Friends has continued the ‘Crack a Woody’ joke with a big new campaign featuring former Baywatch star and PETA crusader Pamela Anderson.
In the early days of America, it’s thought the colonisers gave blankets to the native Americans as gifts, but added in a surprise in the form of smallpox. And Special Group, as part of the Axis Share the Love campaign, has done something similar (without the murderous intent) by creating a “nine-panel, hand-crafted tribute” to Barnes, Catmur & Friends and lacing it with a dose of good-natured cheekiness.
At the 20th instalment of the annual Campaign Asia Pacific Awards, Barnes, Catmur & Friends stole the show by becoming the first Kiwi agency to win the Australia/New Zealand Independent Agency of the Year category. PLUS: media agencies also get acknowledged for their contribution to the industry.
As part of last year’s Battle of the Ad Bands, the winning band, Barnes Catmur & Friends’ Friends Electric, ate the 50 gallons of personalised ice cream and drove the Audi slightly above the speed limit. They were also given a recording session at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios and had a music video filmed. So, as the industry gears up for this year’s musical showdown tonight at the Kings Arms, what better time to reveal the fruits of that labour.
The most important night on the advertising calendar looms once again. And if the Battle of the Ad Bands registration poster is any gauge, it looks like it’s going to be a twerk fest this Thursday at the Kings Arms Tavern. So make sure you get your tickets.
Colenso BBDO has formalised its relationship with Samsung and will be the agency of record for all its various divisions, making it one of the few markets in the world where the Korean behemoth isn’t aligned with a Leo Burnett agency. But it means the agency has had to say goodbye to a long-time client, Haier-owned Fisher & Paykel.
Using a full page ad to poke fun at a Hell Pizza competitor with faux legal jargonry has won Barnes, Catmur & Friends the June Newspaper Ad of the Month award from News Works.
Condom-based promotions, racist ads for brownies, accusations of franchisee bullying, awarding sex crimes with prizes on social media … Hell Pizza has often been on the wrong side of the authorities over the years for its controversial marketing stunts. But the shoe is on the other foot now and, in quintessentially cheeky Hell style, it’s sent a “cease, desist and go sit in the corner” letter to one of its major competitors, Pizza Hut.