Social media is still the hottest of marketing topics at the moment (although there are signs a backlash may have begun and Facebook growth in the US seems to have stagnated), and the early-birds were out in force this morning to catch some of the social media worms being dished out at the Marketing Association’s Jericho Brainy Breakfast.
Global trends, macro forces, cool websites and articles that get forwarded around the office and don’t pertain to new-born babies birthed by the chick in accounts generally tend to refer to the latest, coolest and, if the authors are to believed, ‘will change the face of marketing/retail/research/strategic thinking/toasting bread’ theme. But the issue with these wonderful insights is the relevancy to us here in New Zealand.
As broadcasters around the world increasingly focus on the internet to distribute their news and content, as print media invests in additional video and audio assets to enhance its online offerings, and as previously separate mediums seem to become more and more alike, the quest for media convergence means many of these outlets are being forced to cut each other’s lunches and create content that can be used across different platforms. And, despite stellar ratings for its traditional free-to-air news and current affairs shows in recent months, TVNZ is preparing for this new digital frontier with what it says are the biggest changes in 20 years.
Come fly the Wammo, Pound and Mash skies, where you can sit back, relax and marvel at some of the strange and exotic ways ad folk from around the world try to get people to hand over their money.
Global design and marketing staffing company Aquent has released its 2010 Market Eye survey, which offers a snapshot of hiring intentions and salary predictions for the marketing and design industries in Australasia. And the results bode well for continued recovery, with particularly strong signs of recruitment glee in New Zealand.
Television ratings, much like the make up of sausages, are a fairly mysterious realm for those outside the marcomms industry, and, after asking around a bit, it seems they’re also a fairly mysterious realm for many within it.
If you liked Muto, then you’re up to twelve times more likely than normal people to like this, the new, ridiculously time-consuming and fairly amazing real-life animation from the Blu Blu collective called ‘Big Bang Big Boom’.
New sport: extreme rainbowing (and the unbridled enthusiasm …
Of note this week on Ads@6, plenty, really. The nice wee number for the new Mastercard promotion sees the All Blacks getting owned; the phrase ‘cook us some eggs’ gets bandied about by a kid in the Henergy ad; TSB continues to milk its most recommended status; the Benadryl cold monster is awesome; the new Canon campaign is, as they say in Mexico, very muy bien; Hyundai goes epic and cringey; the Furnware spot for Vodafone tickles a little bit of fancy; and the woman in the Big Save commercials with the nigh-on sinister enthusiasm for low prices wins the prize for scariest eyes ever seen on New Zealand television (aside perhaps from Anthony Dixon).
A television campaign that was created for the University of Florida Health System, UF & Shands, by Auckland visualdigianimation studio Oktobor and directed by Tracey Rowe from Robber’s Dog has taken out a Best of Show nod at the 2010 Aster Awards, an annual US contest that recognises excellence in healthcare marketing and advertising.
With the Rugby World Cup only 18 months away, many businesses are thinking about how they can leverage off this event. And the prudent answer is ‘very carefully’, bearing in mind the provisions of the Major Events Management Act 2007 (MEMA).
Back in the mists of time, a journalist asked British prime minister Maurice Harold Macmillan what was most likely to blow governments off course. And his famously witty response was reputed to be: “Events, dear boy, events”. Unfortunately, events can also blow magazines off course from time to time and in the soon-to-be released July/August of NZ Marketing, his quote, ‘events, dear boy, events’ (which is the headline for a feature about the expos and exhibitions industry, in case you were wondering) has somehow managed to slip onto a full-page ad for ad agency Whistle.
At some point, we’ve all had a bit of a wardrobe clean out and chucked a plastic bag filled with mangey old garments in the clothing recycling bin, left it outside the op-shop, or, God forbid, just thrown it in the wheelie bin. But Fashion Trade, a new initiative from Country Road and Red Cross hopes to change all that.
You know the drill: the mechanic’s car is perpetually broken and the builder’s deck is half finished. Who has time when your expertise is in hot demand elsewhere?
Nothing focuses the mind like a deadline (aside perhaps from P). And Adshel, the Auckland Fringe and StopPress have joined forces to see if that rule also applies to the dark, mysterious advertising arts with the announcement of the Creative Challenge, a new event that aims to showcase the talents of Kiwi creatives and, at the same time, promote creative excellence in outdoor advertising.
Howcroft and Marsh
Nigel Marsh, the chief executive of Y&R Brands Australia and New Zealand, will soon step down from the role. He will be replaced by Russel Howcroft, the national chief executive of George Patterson Y&R in Australia and the man Y&R New Zealand’s chief executive John Ramage reports to.
The accolades keep flowing for DDB NZ’s Arts Channel radio campaign for Sky TV: after taking home a big bag of metal at Cannes, it has also nabbed a win in the May ORCA awards.
Ah, Baileys, hiding there in the depths of the booze cabinet, next to the port that’s been open for 20 years, the half-finished cheap whisky that your dodgy uncle brought round for that ill-fated family barbecue and the watered down bottle of vodka your teenagers got stuck into for their after-ball. The problem with this all-too-common alcohol scenario is that Baileys is best served chilled, so, to encourage people to put it in the fridge, it has launched a new on-pack promotion where a code on the sticker is revealed once the bottle has been suitably chilled.
An embarrassment of riches this week, so it’s a tie.
Who it’s for: Fonterra/Mainland by Colenso BBDO and Prodigy.
Why we like it: Keepin’ it real, keepin’ it quirky and keepin’ it simple. There are no bells and whistles required for a piece …
After embarking on a fairly successful first foray into mobile out-of-home advertising to draw attention to its Fly Buys Music offering during NZ Music Month, Loyalty New Zealand has gone back to good old reliable mass-awareness television with a new campaign that aims to drum up support for its partners among different groups, including flatmates, builders, mums, teenagers and even orphans.
The 2010 Australasian Promotional Marketing Association (APMA) Star Awards winners were announced last week in Sydney and Kiwi agencies AmbientX and Apollo Marketing New Zealand walked away with a couple of gongs in their goodie bags.
You’ll definitely want to lick the spoon after reading this.
The cut off for the NZ 2010 Best Design Awards, which celebrates the cream of New Zealand’s graphic, interactive media, product and spatial design crop, is looming ominously, so if you’ve got work from the past year to show off, get it in before 14 July. And alongside the awards, event sponsors The Pond, GEON, MINI, BJ Ball and ProDesign have launched a competition to try and get people excited about design.
Entries for the 10th YoungGuns awards are now open, so if you’re under 30 and you’re already delivering awesome ideas that are “challenging and changing the way communication is done”, get in there for a chance to be recognised as the best emerging creative talent in the world—and to have your place of employ recognised as a supporter of the yoof.
Air New Zealand already has plenty of customer loyalty, but plenty obviously isn’t enough, because the national carrier has come up with another way to inspire brand allegiance after it jumped on the location-based social media bandwagon and opened its Foursquare account.
After every Olympic Games, New Zealand’s obsession with medal tables and country rankings becomes apparent as we do a few sums, take comfort in our per capita performance and repeatedly utter the phrase ‘punching above our weight’. But in the advertising world, if results from the Cannes Lions are anything to go by, New Zealand doesn’t even need to rely on per capita results, because the 25 Lions won by Kiwi agencies, which was up from 23 in 2009, meant we were again near the top of the pile in terms of total awards won.
The 2010/2011 rotation of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau’s (NAB) Newspaper Ad of the Month competition has begun and it’s off to a spluttering start, with the guest judges for June shaking their heads, waggling their fingers, furrowing their brows and deciding the quality of the entries wasn’t good enough to award a winner.
All good things must come to an end (except for honey, which doesn’t have an expiration date) and the axe is currently hanging ominously over Ira Goldstein, the New York banker who, since 2000, has been the endearingly stupid face of ASB bank.
With all these new hires, it’s like a staff party in your mouth. And everyone’s invited.
Earlier this week, a customer service survey showed Kiwi consumers are voting with their feet when businesses don’t meet their expectations. And another customer service survey, the KiwiHost/JRA Customer Service Pulse, shows those expectations now involve organisations responding to their concerns much faster than they have in the past.
Elvis is back in the building. And since some of the ad folk have apparently been hassling CAANZ since March about what’s going down this year, consider this your first official notice to get practicing, because the finalists for the always hotly contested Battle of the Ad Bands will go on stage at The King’s Arms on 19 August.