Industry happenings at JustOne/.99, PHD, Designworks, TVNZ, Springload, DDB, Interbrand and Cannes Lions.
Browsing: Guy Roberts
Festive changes at Saatchi & Saatchi, TVNZ, Choice TV, Qrious, Orangebox, MediaWorks and Robber’s Dog.
It’s fair to say the last major campaign launched by ASB didn’t go as well as planned, with the shouty, bearded frontman Brian Blessed being sent back to Blighty a bit earlier than expected. The bank’s Succeed On tagline remained, however, and, after being in a bit of a holding pattern as far as its comms were concerned, ASB has now returned with a new campaign via Saatchi & Saatchi that aims to show how New Zealanders really talk about money—and the ASB products and services that might be able to help them deal with it.
Since Antonio Navas first arrived in New Zealand in 2011, there have been murmurings about his impending departure. “I heard that Antonio is leaving” almost became as common a phrase as “integrated cross-channel marketing initiative” in conversations between those in the industry (they had to get it right eventually). And despite this speculation, Navas just shrugged it off and focused on what he came here to do in the first place: create ads that get noticed. Here are a few thoughts from Navas on his time in New Zealand.
In a release sent out earlier this afternoon, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand’s chief executive Nicky Bell announced that executive creative director Antonio Navas would be returning to the States, bringing an end to a stint that started in June 2011. Taking the Venezuelan-born creative’s place are Corey Chalmers and Guy Roberts, who will be promoted to the positions of joint executive creative directors, effective 1 September.
Saatchi & Saatchi has been steadily regaining its confidence under Nicky Bell, Antonio Navas and Murray Streets. And while Brian Blessed was quietly put out to pasture and its Telecom business continues to be chipped away, it did catch plenty of eyeballs with Tui’s Beer plumber stunt and took out our TVC of the Year for Toyota’s ‘Feels Good Inside’. Plus, as Colenso BBDO’s Axis love letter shows, taxi drivers still think the agency is synonymous with advertising. Creative directors Guy Roberts and Corey Chalmers spill their beans all over 2013.
Toyota is renowned for creating brave, entertaining and memorable advertising that resonates with New Zealanders. And it continued that trend last year when it introduced the nation to a car-loving cat called Alloroc, the furry star of the ad that took out the 2013 StopPress/MediaWorks TVC of the Year Award.
2011 wasn’t a particularly memorable year for Saatchi & Saatchi, with the pink fist debacle casting a major pall. But the new executive and creative team has shaken things up and, after winning ASB without a pitch earlier this year and releasing some of the best work of 2012, the confidence—and the quality—appears to have returned. Creative directors Corey Chalmers and Gus Roberts speak up.
According to a recent Commerce Commission report into the telco industry, the number of broadband connections in New Zealand has more than doubled in the past five years and Telecom has around half of the total residential ISP market. But it’s aiming to increase that, sweeten the deal its for existing customers and get more people streaming by doubling the amount of data for all Total Home broadband packages for no extra charge. And, as the new ‘Why Not?’ campaign from Saatchi & Saatchi shows, that means you can download and share to your heart’s content.
There were a few raised eyebrows in the industry when Corey Chalmers and Guy Roberts followed the ASB business from TBWA\ to Droga5. Now, after 18 months with the agency, the pair have upped sticks again to fill the role of creative directors at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ, while Droga5 has named Anomaly London’s executive creative director Nathan Cooper as a replacement.
Fancy becoming a copywriter or art director? Australia’s AWARD School is setting up shop in Auckland to help budding creatives do just that. Described as “the fast track way into the communications industry”, the 16 week course is a hub for ideas, creative thinking and processes involved in coming up with great ideas.
If they haven’t been washed away by the flash floods, six lucky New Zealand bastards are currently swanning about in the South of France. Of course, business is being mixed with pleasure: they are there in a professional capacity as judges for the Cannes Advertising Festival awards, which, as the world’s biggest and best advertising event, invites the world’s biggest and best advertising brains along to do the deciding. So here’s to them.
Six of the country’s largest, most impressive creative brains will join a host of other large, impressive international creative brains as jury members for the 2010 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.