Bambi Boutique is the latest venture by Auckland business tycoon, Iyia Liu, proving time and time again that influencer marketing is the key to quick growth. The Bambi Boutique launch went off without a hitch, while Liu’s influence saw the launch almost completely subsidised by the vendors involved.
Browsing: sponsorship
Vodafone has signed a four-year sponsorship deal with New Zealand Rugby that will see the telco take on the role of ‘connectivity partner’ for the five national teams, including the All Blacks.
Next month, some 25,000 international athletes will descend upon Auckland to compete in the 2017 World Masters Games and celebrating the event as presenting sponsor is Barfoot & Thompson in a campaign via Big Communications.
The news this week of veteran news heads Mark Jennings and Tim Murphy launching a news service was widely celebrated across journalism circles, with many applauding the arrival of a publication dedicated to, as Murphy said, focusing on quality and “doing the news”. But was that excitement a bit pre-emptive? And – the question of the ages – how is it going to pay for it all?
If you were wondering where that bright floodlight was coming from that was beaming up into Auckland’s night sky was last weekend, well look no further. It was merely ANZ, marking the launch of the next phase of its Olympic campaign, which has seen it release a brand new app where users can send Olympians messages through the stars (yes, you heard correctly) as well as another TVC by True promoting the app and creating anticipation for the Rio games, which kick off early next month.
Super Rugby sponsor KFC has launched a new campaign via Ogilvy & Mather called ‘For the fans’, which celebrates that sense of camaraderie fans experience when heading to a game. It’s also released a spot for its picnic hampers, which is a bit of a departure from its usual ads, swapping light-hearted humour for the heart-warming family time card.
The annual Auckland Pride festival (5 February – 21 February) has been running for the past four years and the highlight is the Pride Parade, which saw colourful floats and well-known drag queens sashaying down Ponsonby Road on Saturday. Here’s a look at how the parade’s sponsors were involved to show their support for the rainbow community.
ASB is taking advantage of the holiday period—and new interactive camera technology—with its upgraded sponsorship of the ASB Classic tennis tournaments.
While the numbers competing in the Auckland Marathon were down significantly this year due to the clash with the Rugby World Cup final, ASB had a foot in both camps as a sponsor of the All Blacks and the event. So it couldn’t really lose. And its clever ‘Run down Your Rate’ campaign was the latest in a series of impressive sponsorship activations from the bank and its agency Saatchi & Saatchi.
Brands have been acting fast and loose in their application of the hashtag ‘ad’ rule, with only some using it sporadically at best. So, StopPress asks a few people in the industry whether this rule is still relevant or whether it might be time for an update.
Judging by the numerous rugby-related office discussions and the blanket media coverage—from the above board chat on outlets like Radio New Zealand to the below board banter inside a giant scrotum as part of the Alternative Commentary Collective’s Champagne Rugby, you could be forgiven for thinking the nation has a collective ‘code boner’ over the Rugby World Cup at present. But is rugby losing its lustre in New Zealand? And is there a limit to the All Black appropriation?
Brands are increasingly looking to produce online content that viewers find entertaining enough to share. And as part of its sponsorship deal with the Winter Games, Audi set out to do something a little different by inviting a collection of 20 lucky Kiwis to attend a pop-up bistro event high up in the Pisa Range hosted by celebrity chef Simon Gault.
During the Cricket World Cup, ANZ used its Dream Big initiative to get cut-through the marketing noise during the Cricket World Cup. Rather than focusing exclusively on the event, the bank brought its Black Caps sponsorship to life by travelling around the country showing its support for grassroots cricket by upgrading the facilities at various grounds around the country. And now, with the Rugby World Cup fast approaching, ANZ is at it again, this time renovating Waitemata Rugby Club in a new video posted to Facebook. The difference in this instance is that ANZ isn’t even a sponsor of Rugby New Zealand, the All Blacks or the Rugby World Cup.
In a bid to assist mothers who have heard the Frozen soundtrack once too many times but don’t really want navigate the online catalogues of children’s music, Pandora has teamed up with Huggies to develop a radio station dedicated to musical tastes of the youngest of young’uns.
We’ve had Vegemite and Cadbury, and L&P and Whittaker’s. And now we’ve got Red Bull and the Vodafone Warriors, with the pair coming together to produce a specially-designed Red Bull can.
In a prime example of how the world has gone fairly fucking insane, fast food companies and sugary drink providers have their finger lickin mitts all over high performance sport. McDonald’s is in bed with FIFA and the Olympics, KFC is into cricket and rugby (where’s the chicken cannon, Colonel?), Wendy’s is a long-time supporter of the Warriors, Coca-Cola is practically everywhere and now Burger King has shacked up with boxer Joseph Parker—and he’s already making some outrageous demands.
“We’ve been through the bad and the good,” says ANZ’s head of sponsorship Sue McGregor in describing the bank’s 16-year partnership with Cricket New Zealand. And while the recent World Cup certainly falls into the latter category from a sporting perspective, is this also the case in terms of ANZ’s commercial interests?
This year marks 100 years since the ANZACs got involved in Word War One. And to honour the sacrifice, an Auckland artist has embarked on the massive undertaking of creating the world’s largest poppy, which will consist of 59,000 red metal discs with contributors’ names and messages placed by him and members of the public on Auckland’s Domain in support of the RSA. PLUS: a few other ANZAC initiatives.
ASB is the latest brand to bask in the reflected glow of the All Blacks after its partnership with New Zealand Rugby was announced today. And, in celebration, the bank has rebranded for a day.
Cricket mania, or, at least, slightly increased cricket enthusiasm, has hit New Zealand once again in the form of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, which kicks off tomorrow when the Blackcaps play Sri Lanka. And, like many large sporting events, plenty of big big brands are hoping to profit from all the attention. Here’s what KFC, Matua, Hyundai, the MPI and others are up to.
In a decade which has seen a rapid increase of reality television, it comes as no surprise that New Zealanders will have a new one to watch this year in the form of The Bachelor. And Michael Hill Jeweller has jumped on the romantic bandwagon and will act as broadcast sponsor in the first series of the New Zealand version.
The internet loves animals. According to CBS, a remarkable, nigh-on unbelievable, 15 percent of internet traffic is cat-related. And dogs probably aren’t far behind. Chuck in a celebrity or two and a well-made video and you’ve got all the ingredients required for modern-day marketing gold, as ASB can now attest after its promotional stunt for the ASB Classic tennis tournament received plenty of love.
Back in 2013, ANZ’s summer cricket spot was about as naff as you could get, with a few of the bank’s sporting ambassadors watching Eric Murray get a tennis ball beamer from Shane Bond. This year it’s taken a more serious approach for its naming rights sponsorship of the Sri Lankan series and its sponsorship of the upcoming Cricket World Cup by launching a campaign called Dream Big.
Since it launched its ‘Born to Defy’ campaign back in July, Steinlager has done a good job of drawing attention to its new ambassador William Trubridge—and the sport of freediving—through a combination of TV ads, outdoor ads, snazzy websites, special elevators, in-bar activations, PR coverage, social media action, promotion via TVNZ and a bit of content marketing. And as he gets set to submerge 102m and break the world record, Steinlager’s still trying to drum up support and viewership for the live broadcast tomorrow at 7.50am on Breakfast.
As we wrote last week, the classic endorsement approach in New Zealand seems to be bunging a rugby player (or even a coach) on your ad. But Invivo’s strategy is at the other end of the spectrum, with international talk show host and self-proclaimed he-devil Graham Norton called on to help create—and now help promote—a very special wine.
There will be plenty from the marketing community gearing up for the Melbourne Cup today and, with a couple of Kiwi options, the TAB is aiming to get the locals to lay down a few more bets this year. But founder and chief executive of NZ Tax Refunds NZ Cilla Hegarty has managed to combine marketing and horses in a very different manner: racing a branded thoroughbred/”fast-moving advertising billboard” called Gottagetmywoohoo.
This Sunday the All Blacks will take on the United States in a widely hyped exhibition match in Chicago. While the United States certainly can’t be described as a rugby playing nation, all 61,500 seats at the Soldier Field have been sold out. Such is the star power of the All Blacks that they are capable of filling a stadium in a country where rugby ranks below badminton, ten-pin bowling and pro wrestling in terms of popularity. And given the seeming supernatural ability of those who don the increasingly tight black shirts to make people interested in things that they don’t necessarily care about, it comes as little surprise that Kiwi brands have shown such a willingness to attach their labels to rugby players. StopPress looks at how rugby players are helping brands get noticed.
The elusive Honey-billed William is like catnip to brands (and media). And after he announced his return to rugby earlier this year, Adidas swooped in and signed him up as an ambassador in May. Now it’s released a short clip telling his story as part of its #leaveyourmark campaign. PLUS: exciting jersey-related news.
News from the sponsorship desk, as Sonny Bill Williams dons the denim for Just Jeans, The Warriors re-sign with Canterbury and X Factor NZ announces its commercial partners, minus a couple from last time.
Sports sponsorships are pretty big business in New Zealand, with an IMR report from 2013 estimating the value of 257 different sponsorship deals at NZ$182 million. Not surprisingly, rugby is the biggest drawcard in this country, with “Adidas paying in the region of US$25 million per year and AIG, the shirt sponsor, US$12.4 million” for their All Blacks deals. Ford has been the team’s vehicle sponsor for many years, and it also backs cricket and hockey, so, to try and win a few more hearts and minds, it’s released a new ad thanking Kiwi parents and supporters—and showing that it’s ‘the driving force behind New Zealand sport’.