Browsing: Matt O’Sullivan

News
Build it (in the mall) and they shall come (to the school): Unitec brings the campus to life with ‘Open Home’
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Unitec has done a good job of bringing academia to life in recent years, with its reality-advertising campaign Change Starts Here, GPS-enabled buses that turned Auckland into a media platform for ‘We make the people who make it’ and, most recently, the personalised Umag. And it’s once again taking the school to where the potential students are: the mall.

Movings & Shakings
Pierson swaps OMD for Open
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OMD’s strategy director Jacquie Pierson has signed up as partner and shareholder in new media start-up Open alongside founder and ex-Naked Communications partner Matt O’Sullivan. And she’s certainly not mincing her words about the state of the local industry and the big media agencies that inhabit it.

News
Unitec basks in Media Awards glory, Mitre 10 close behind
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For the past few years, Unitec, Special Group and Naked—which has recently closed and been reborn as Open—have tried to bring a bit more chutzpah to the education sector and change the impression of the institution in potential students’ minds, first with the ‘Change Starts Here’ docu-ads and then with the trade-focused follow-up, ‘We Make the People who Make it’. And in a slightly surprising victory, the campaign managed to beat out the big boys for the best in show prize at last night’s Media Awards at the Langham.

News
O’Sullivan opens Open for business
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The news that Naked was shutting up shop in New Zealand surfaced a couple of weeks ago, and there were a few differences of opinion from the major players on the reasons behind the closure. But Matt O’Sullivan, as expected, has now launched his new entity: Open.

News
Naked to lead Owen Glenn’s social change crusade
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After a competitive pitch involving six agencies, Owen Glenn has appointed Naked Communications to join the team of the ‘Glenn Inquiry’, an initiative funded by the businessman and philanthropist to address child abuse and domestic violence in New Zealand.

News
TBWA\ brings home a prize Bird
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Naked announced the appointment of Guy Cousins as its managing partner last week. And as he comes in the front door, highly regarded strategist and planner Simon Bird has snuck out the back for a role as the head of planning within Whybin\TBWA.

Movings & Shakings
Movings/Shakings: 21 February
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Guy Cousins swaps SparkPHD for Naked, Yahoo! promotes two of its own, Rachel Broadmore swaps five-star for financial services, Ian Finch presides over New Zealand’s patent attourneys, Margaret Zabel takes the reins at The Communications Council in Oz and Renee Bushby changes tack. 

News
Non-guinea pigs unite as ecostore ramps up opt-out campaign on Facebook
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Ecostore’s latest campaign has been pushing the ‘I’m not a guinea pig line’ to encourage consumers to opt out of using nasty chemicals often found in other baby, beauty, body and household cleaning products. Now, in what it claims is a marketing first, it’s taking that idea a step further by trying to get consumers’ entire Facebook networks to do the same. 

News
Out-of-home, technology and pavement pounding collide in The Powerade Challenge
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For years, brands have created ads and placed them in appropriate media in the hope that they’d help sell more of their stuff. These days, brands are increasingly creating experiences in the real world that are relevant to the product and involving consumers in those experiences. And The Powerade Challenge, a 9km running course/interactive marketing campaign around Auckland’s waterfront, is a prime example of this shift. 

Opinion
The year in review: Matt O’Sullivan
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Naked Communications is a force to be reckoned with overseas, but it’s only been on the local scene since late 2009. In that short time, it’s certainly had a big impact, taking a fair swag of strategy and channel planning work off some of its larger competitors and winning a couple of media award golds for its work with Diet Coke. Matt O’Sullivan, who left his posting at Carat to set up the Auckland office with Simon Bird, is one man who’s never short of opinions. So here are a few on 2010.

News
Fonterra goes out and gets Naked, OMD cries over spilt milk
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There’s been plenty of talk around the industry traps recently about both the commoditisation of media and the apparent fragmentation of big clients’ business. A lot of it seems to be just that: talk. But not when it comes to the country’s biggest company, Fonterra, which has split up its media business, giving Naked Communications the communications, strategy and channel planning work and leaving OMD with the media buying.

News
Adshel and Telecom embrace the great outdoors
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Walk around any major New Zealand urban centre and you’ll probably notice a host of strange tardis-like constructions emblazoned with large white squiggles. Some call these relics from another time ‘phone booths’ or ‘payphones’ and, as a result of the rampant onslaught of technology, they are becoming increasingly irrelevant. But, as they’re typically situated in the most convenient locations, they’re also extremely visible. And where there are eyes, there are often advertisers. Enter Adshel, which has struck up a deal with Telecom to use its national network of 3,700 payphones as a new form of out-of-home media. 

News
Bird flies the coop to join Naked
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Naked has hired Simon Bird as one of the key personnel in its New Zealand operation. Management duties will be shared by Bird and Matt O’Sullivan, who left Carat after just nine weeks a few months back to set up the New Zealand arm of the international media agency.