Clemenger Group chief executive Jim Moser this week confirmed the consolidation of the Auckland-based teams at Proximity and Touchcast under the Colenso BBDO brand. So what does this mean for the Wellington arm of Touchcast? And is there still room for digital specialists in an integrated world?
Browsing: Touchcast
As we start the lead up to Christmas with a daily chocolate treat, Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA) has launched the seventh edition of the Wondrous Wellington Advent Calendar, counting down the days till Santa arrives with a 360-degree view of the city.
Touchcast has announced three new senior appointments to its Auckland team, including general manager Jacqui Copas, client service director Steve Poutney and design director Dean Pomfrett.
Three-hour queues, people pulling up on bikes to snatch away chocolate and a determined three-year-old boy are just a few indicators of the success of last year’s Wondrous Wellington Advent Calendar campaign run by the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency. Here’s how the agency combined the digital with the physical to bring joy to city-dwellers.
Industry happenings at Radio New Zealand, Touchcast, Sugar&Partners, Uno Loco and The Breeze.
It wasn’t too long ago that Spark was a company to be railed against; a monopolistic monolith using confusion as a marketing tactic to suck money out of consumers. One Spark staffer tells of a focus group attendee from South Auckland before the rebrand saying that if an 027 number came up on their phone they knew it was either telemarketers or debt collectors so they’d just ignore it, which is a good indication of the level of disdain for the brand in that part of the country. But since then, there’s been a lot more openness from those inside the company and a lot more love shown by consumers, and this change in approach manifested itself in the Be Counted campaign, which was created by Touchcast and managed to get over 50,000 New Zealanders interested in regulatory process.
In the digital world, there are many who talk a good game or have a different digital world-view, says Andrew Hawley. And it’s not until they’re under extreme pressure that you discover the true extent of their capabilities, or lack thereof.
Education New Zealand has released a new campaign to raise the country’s profile as a great study destination through an online competition where international students may enter for the chance to have a friend or family member flown over for a 10-day study adventure.
Digital agency Touchcast has released an online game called ‘Get Out Stay Out’ for the New Zealand Fire Service to help educate young Kiwi kids about fire safety.
Wellington’s wide array of promotional activities have helped to greatly increase visitor numbers to the capital, both domestically and from Australia. Now it’s trying to get some of our neighbours to think about staying for longer with the Wellington Works digital campaign.
Andrew Hawley, the managing director of Touchcast was recently elected to the CAANZ executive board, an appointment that served as commendation for the quality of the digital work his agency has delivered since its inception. Recently, Touchcast was ranked 6th fastest growing company in New Zealand, and 46th fastest growing tech company in Asia Pacific. Touchcast’s work has featured at the RSVP and NZDM Awards in New Zealand, the Caples Awards in New York, at Cannes, the Future Marketing Awards for Asia Pacific Region, and the Best Design Awards in New Zealand. He has been on the digital jury of the Clio awards in Miami, and has judged the Axis and Effie Awards in New Zealand several times. And given his interest in creating digital experiences, StopPress recently sent him a few questions on how the interactive channel is evolving and what challenges this is introducing.
To succeed in the digital world, you need to focus on what the audience wants as well as what your business needs. And editors straddle that line well, says Mark Glenn.
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 Andrew Hawley, managing director of Touchcast, thought about 2014.
Standing outside Wellington’s Te Papa Museum is a cargo container tagged with warnings of the prehistoric live cargo carried within. And in the event that skeptics doubt the veracity of these cautions, the growl that comes from within serves to quickly convince them that something terrifying is concealed behind the corrugated iron. This quirky outdoor installation forms only part of the multi-faceted campaign that Te Papa Museum has rolled out over the past few months in an effort to encourge families to purchase tickets for ‘Tyrannosaurus: Meet the Family’, an exhibition that showcases the period when reptiles reigned supreme.
There aren’t many things more tedious than trying to find a park around Lambton Quay, Wellington, even on a good day. But if there is one thing that can quell how harrowing it is driving around in circles just to be pipped at every post by aggressive drivers with sharp parallel parking skills, it’s free parking.
Industry happenings at Touchcast, Healthy Life Media, BOTAB, CAANZ and Blockhead.
Touchcast will work with Tourism New Zealand to zjush up TNZ’s digital brand asset management platform that helps all New Zealand’s various tourism activities appear unceasingly epic to the world. TNZ has large image and footage libraries online that currently tourism industry businesses can apply to use, as long as it is used to promote New Zealand as a holiday destination, is mostly be distributed outside of New Zealand, and is not used in paid advertising. In the last year over 65,000 downloads were made from the system.
Industry happenings at Touchcast, Waitemata Films and Reload Agency
Andrew Hawley won his first piece of business—Telecom’s youth-focused mobile brand Pulsate—in 1999 when he was still at design school at Massey University in Wellington. 15 years on and the executive creative director and managing director at 72-strong “digital experience agency” Touchcast is still working with his foundation client, albeit in a much larger capacity, as well as with a number of other big Kiwi companies that have been drawn to its attractive combination of speed and quality. He tells us how that panned out and what makes the full service digital agency tick.
Moves and shakes at Touchcast, MediaWorks, Pure SEO, Domino’s, Touchtech and OptimalBI.
Touchcast has developed a new site for Forest and Bird to tell a new audience about the organisation’s mission and supporters the chance to donate. Inournature.org.nz also helps people spread the word via social sharing.
Spilt rabbit, self-deprecation and schadenfreude catch our attention this week.
Touchcast says digital installations like the one it sourced and ran for Telecom’s Cut & Paste design contest recently are a growing part of its business. That’s because audiences get deeply engaged, says managing director Andrewy Hawley.
This year Positively Wellington Tourism is targeting Kiwis who take to the road for the Christmas holidays, not just locals, with its online advent calendar. And it’s the first time it’s harnessed the social crowd to find out what the calendar should showcase.
A new Positively Wellington Tourism campaign aims to sweep away perceptions of a blustery city where the chances of an enjoyable visit depend on the weather. The domestic marketing push shows off people and places: craft beer tasting at Garage Project; cheese buying at local food institution Moore Wilson’s; fish and chips with the family at Oriental Bay; brunch at Maranui Cafe and more.