Monthly Archives: March, 2010

News
Fairfax back to nurture Kiwi ad cubs
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Fairfax Media has announced the launch of the 2010 Fairfax Media Cannes Young Lions competition, which will give four of New Zealand’s top advertising talents the chance to compete at this year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival.

News
Kan recycled for Magazine Awards
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Comedian and writer Raybon Kan, who has recently returned to Kiwi shores after a stint in London, is set to dazzle the magazine industry with witty quips in his role as MC at this year’s Magazine Awards.

News
Air New Zealand plays the spoons
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Air New Zealand has kept the novel marketing fires burning with another new – and potentially slightly controversial – social media campaign featuring Dai Henwood that aims to capitalise on the buzz created in January over the new long-haul innovations.

News
Logos-a-go-go take out Oscar
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Consider it your Monday morning brand warm-up. And tell your boss it’s solely for the purposes of market research. But try to wrangle 17-minutes to watch Logorama, the film featuring more than 2500 logos that recently took home an Oscar for best animated short.

News
Gather round children, it’s social media story time
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There were scones and jam and cream. There were a host of digital natives and possibly even a few digital virgins. There were a few ironic technical glitches. And there were a range of social media truths laid bare and observations made by the five speakers at yesterday’s CAANZ Digital Leadership Group Social Media in Business forum.  

News
Wellington gets absolutely positively Hitlered
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The Wellingtonistas they are not pleased with the idea of the tacky, unoriginal textual adornment slated to grace their proud hillside. And there’s almost no better way to gauge that rage than by waiting to see how long a Downfall-meme will take to crop up (not long …

News
Ads@6: 4-10 March
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So many ads@6, so little time. Sam Neill leaves his Central Otago grapes unattended for a bit and pops up on screen with Raymond for some Kiwibank backpatting, courtesy of endorsements from ‘The Media’, in the ‘Kiwi Thinking’ campaign; NZTA’s new spot laughs in the face of Father Time; and tank enthusiasts rejoice, because the long-awaited Tank Collection is available now.

News
News just in: StopPress makes you rich
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The latest Nielsen Market Intelligence report shows unequivocally that anyone who reads StopPress will almost instantly become extremely wealthy and is up to four times more likely to be accepted into New Zealand’s nouveau über-riche set. Either that or all of you marcomms and media folk are overpaid.

News
Sliding Doors takes cakes at Grande ORCAs
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It was was a double-whammy for Anne Boothroyd and Brigid Alkema from Clemenger BBDO (WGN) at the Grande ORCA awards, with ‘The People’ overwhelmingly agreeing with the judges and picking ‘Sliding Doors’ for the New Zealand Transport Agency as their favourite radio ad.

News
Methven showered with praise
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Methven, the New Zealand-owned designer, marketer and exporter of water and energy efficient bathroomware, has won a Red Dot Product Design Award at the 2010 competition in Germany for its Shower Infusions, a system that “transforms a daily shower into a luxurious, mood enhancing spa experience”, as can be seen from the reaction of this showering naked lady.

News
Heineken goes large to create oversized RWC atmosphere
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It’s still 18 months until the Rugby World Cup kicks off, but a massive behemoth of a billboard has already been erected on the corner of Albert Street and Custom Street East in Auckland to mark the auspicious occasion and Heineken New Zealand thinks the rather lovey dovey text (“Turning great rivalries into even greater friendships, since 1873. It’s almost time”) hints at the experience tournament attendees can expect from the beer brand in 2011.

News
PR: It’s the inches that count
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The way Kiwi organisations measure the value of PR-generated media coverage is the subject of a nationwide review being conducted this month by the CAANZ Marcomms committee and the New Zealand Marketing Association (NZMA), with agencies and clients around the country being surveyed in an effort to find out about their use of Advertising Equivalent Values (AVE) and other PR measures.

News
Penchant for online slows, but continues to grow
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The latest Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers Insight Report shows the total online ad spend in New Zealand for 2009 coming in at $213.89m, a 10 percent increase from 2008 ($193.15m). And, while this could be viewed as modest growth when compared to previous years, Michael Gregg, the IAB chairman, believes it demonstrates marketers’ confidence in online as a medium that delivers results when budgets were being cut on other media.

News
Wattie’s heralds return of the Beanman
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Tim Skellern, who spent three years with Wattie’s after immigrating to New Zealand from the UK in 2004 before throwing in the towel to set up his own company in 2007, has returned to the nurturing bosom of Heinz Wattie’s to take up the role of general manager marketing. 

News
The future called. It wants its presentation system back
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Traditional business presentations are often characterised by slow moving slide shows, unreliable software and cheesy whirling squares. But Christchurch company Orly Productions hopes to change all that with a new, more engaging and extremely user-friendly business presentation platform called iPRES that it has designed to help companies communicate better and sell more.

News
Reversing drink driving
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Who it’s for: The New Zealand Transport Agency, by Clemenger BBDO Wellington and PRODIGY director Matt Palmer

Why we like it: It’s like real life, only backwards. Strangely, messing with accepted chronology and going for the good old film it in reverse approach always seems to …

News
Social media: all talk, no action?
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Social media is certainly all the rage at the moment, but while most in marcomms land seems to be talking about it, not too many Kiwi businesses appear to be following up on all that chatter, if the results from the CAANZ Digital Leadership Group (DLG) survey from December 2009 are anything to go by. 

News
NZ Gardener tends to its editorial crops
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New Zealand’s top-selling gardening magazine, NZ Gardener, has appointed Jo McCarroll as its new editor. She will lead the team but will be under the watchful eyes and green fingers of current editor Lynda Hallinan, who will take up a new role as editorial director.

News
Marketing Alumni to get words from the Wise
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Over the past five years the St. George bank brand has experienced significant development and in 2009 was named Australia’s 9th most valuable brand. And key to this success has been the leadership of Martin Wise, the general manager of brand and marketing.

Awards
Line up for your all Axis passes
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Tickets for the 30th anniversary Axis awards are now on sale at the CAANZ website. But the powers that be have sent a stern warning: tickets are limited, so you need to get online and secure them now.

News
Deep Origin adds silver to its bottled water
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Whakatane’s Deep Origin sparkling water, or, more particularly, the bottle the sparkling water is housed in, tickled the fancies of a range of H20 purists at the 20th Annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Awards in the US recently, walking away with the silver medal in ‘The People’s Choice Packaging’ competition.