Idealog chats to James Hurman on a book he wrote called ‘The Boy and the Lemon’, illustrated by Juliet Burton, which he says is an attempt to teach kids to be lucky. Hurman’s about to launch a Kickstarter this week, hoping for a bit of luck himself so he can fund its production.
Humans love a good origin story. And, in the business world, the power of the overnight success narrative often means the extremely difficult period of starting and growing a business is conveniently overlooked in the mythology. The latest Kiwi business to join that club is Stolen Spirits, which was started around five years ago in a bedroom in Mt Eden and this week sold a controlling interest to US company Liquid Asset Brands and Spirits Investment Partners for $21 million. And it’s another great example of a Kiwi business that has understood the power of marketing to create a huge amount of value in a short amount of time.
James Hurman’s annual Gunn Report run-down of the campaigns that have won both a Cannes Gold Lion and a gold Effie shows that the most effective campaigns drive ‘viral’, ‘word of mouth’ or ‘fame’ effects far beyond the norm. And two of them are from this part of the world.
Yesterday, at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Committee for Auckland announced some of the key findings that have been compiled in its latest report called ‘Auckland as a Creative City’. The principle theme delivered during the breakfast event was that “Auckland needs an over-arching strategy to unlock the potential of its creative sectors and grow the economy to make the city more globally competitive.”
Since normal companies tend to be dissatisfied with their levels of innovation, it might be time to take a slightly more abnormal approach, argues James Hurman.
Industry happenings at Springload, DesignWorks, NBR, MediaWorks, The Muesli Hub, GrabOne and Spikes Asia.
Inspired by a conversation with Al Brown on the new-found optimisim surrounding Auckland, James Hurman set out to discover why people were feeling so good about the city. Then, after speaking to 50 leading Aucklanders, he compiled a report that aims to create a shared understanding of ‘New Auckland’. These are some of the main insights.
After a couple of years as managing director at Y&R NZ, James Hurman has taken the best bits from his life in advertising and started up an innovation consultancy called Previously Unavailable that aims to help Kiwi companies create better products and services. So why did he do it and what will he be doing?
After serving as the managing director of Y&R NZ for fewer than two years, James Hurman is set to bid farewell to the agency.
Back in 1964, sci-fi writer and biochemistry professor Isaac Asimov wrote an article for The New York Times predicting what life might be like in 2014. He got a few things right (although he was off in other areas, but humans do tend to remember the hits and overlook the many misses of futurists and psychics, something often known as the Jeane Dixon effect). And while there’s no doubt we live in a remarkable age, filled with an array of remarkable innovations designed to make our lives easier, we’re still obviously a long way from cracking the audio-to-text puzzle, as this transcript of an interview Vincent Heeringa recently gave to James Hurman that was converted by an automated online service attests.
This new year we’ve again gathered together a family of campaigns that represent something of a high water mark of achievement in our industry. To be judged Gold at Cannes and then Gold at the Effies is evidence of an advertising idea that is beyond reproach, both in terms of the commercial or behavioural impact it creates for its client and the way it moves our industry forward through sheer imagination and innovation. And in 2013, 12 campaigns achieved this remarkable distinction.
James Hurman has been in the Y&R hotseat since mid 2012. And there’s been plenty of change since he arrived, with a swanky new office, a number of big hires and, after a few unsuccessful pitches, some wins with the Co-op Bank, Westfield and Interislander last year. Here he is having his way with 2013.
Lorde’s insistence to produce something that’s of true quality and distinctiveness, yet also absolutely mainstream, is the hallmark of truly great commercial innovators. That’s exactly what New Zealand is striving to be, says Y&R New Zealand’s James Hurman, and he believes her rise has plenty of relevance for those working in this industry.
We’re big fans of doppelgangers here at StopPress. And while there’s been a lot of talk about Lorde’s Royals featuring in Samsung’s new ad, ‘The Developer’, no-one’s mentioned the important fact that Lionel Messi is a dead (but beardless) ringer for Y&R NZ’s managing director James Hurman.
Another senior hire for Y&R, another big scalp for the Radio Network, a rare expansion at MediaWorks, more volume for Volom and a fashion expert for Pead.
Y&R New Zealand got some good news today when it found out it had won a bronze lion at Cannes for the MetService’s Weather to Wake app. And it’s got some more good news to announce: the appointment of experienced advertising campaigner Abbe Hale as general manager.
Nielsen’s latest figures on online shopping show more Kiwis are clicking to buy. And from holographic retail assistants to interactive zombie gaming to mobile apps that allow users to purchase items via QR codes, retailers and marketers are donning their digital thinking caps to find the most creative ways to lure and retain customer attention in the colliding world of bricks, mortar and online retailing. Deirdre Robert shops on.
Magazines may be working. But magazine advertising isn’t, says Y&R NZ’s managing director James Hurman.
Naked’s loss is Y&R’s gain, Jeanette Paine leaves school, VW’s Denise Goodwin swaps cars for floors, Will Radford gets a fresh pair and the MPA welcomes two new board members.
There are plenty of creative ways to sell more booze, but not quite as many to convince punters to drink less of it. So, in an attempt to clear up some confusion around what one standard drink means, Y&R and the Tomorrow Project, a social change initiative run by the country’s beer, wine and spirit producers aimed at educating consumers about responsible drinking, have given it its own special glass.
The real and the online are increasingly mingling and the MetService and Y&R have tried to tap into that by constructing a rather novel billboard that looks like a web browser and was intended to be shared online.
After coming close in a few big pitches recently, Y&R had cause for celebration when it was named as Westfield’s new partner last week. And it’s backed that up with another win: The Co-operative Bank.
DraftFCB resigned the Westfield account at the start of the year and took up the Paper Plus business soon after. And after a competitive pitch, it’s thought Y&R has finally put one in the win column and taken over the account.
Over the past year and a bit, Y&R NZ has been undergoing something of a transformation (as its logo said, ‘re-est. 2012’). And, along with a new brand, new sub-brands and a swanky new office in the Auckland CBD, there have also been a host of changes to the staff roster in recent months.
As the tide of digital has washed over this industry in recent years (the Ad Contrarian calls it The Triumph of Disinformation), blowing the trumpet of traditional media has been fairly tough going. But as part of the magazine industry’s renewed zeal to grow advertising market share and convince clients it is an effective advertising medium—and in an effort to inspire some optimism among those selling magazine ads and show how magazines are evolving—the Magazine Publishers Association is putting on a conference featuring big brained magazine supporters such as Y&R’s James Hurman, Fisher & Paykel’s Sonya Aitken, Pacific Magazine’s Peter Zavecz and Contagion’s Richard Thompson.
As a guest contributor for The Gunn Report, Y&R NZ’s managing director James Hurman looked for the campaigns that had hit the ‘high water mark of human achievement in creative communications’ by winning both Cannes and Effie golds. And just nine campaigns joined this exclusive club in 2012.
Following on from Colenso BBDO’s place atop the agency rankings of the Big Won report—and the individual nods for its staff members Nick Worthington, Levi Slavin, Simon Vicars, James Tucker and Jae Morrison in the creative director, copywriting and art direction categories—a new update to the list has added the world’s most awarded planners, planning directors and suits. And, not surprisingly, Colenso staff again featured prominently, with the agency’s ex planning director and now Y&R NZ managing director James Hurman named as the number one planning director in the world.
With some quality work, a fresh management team, an amazing new office in the Cityworks Depot in central Auckland and an almost but not quite moment in the recent Genesis pitch, a few agencies might be looking over their shoulder at Y&R next year. James Hurman and Josh Moore go for a hoon on 2012.
Esquires Coffee Houses is moving on to its third different agency in as many years, with Y&R picking up the business following a review of several local creative agencies. Media buying will be retained by Mediacom.
Auckland indie agency Shine doesn’t really play the show-offy PR game like many of its contemporaries and tends to focus on doing good work for some pretty big clients like Fonterra, Speight’s and Hyundai. And it’s thought it has added another two scalps to that list, taking House of Travel off Saatchi & Saatchi and GE Capital off Y&R.