Emirates appears to have gone on a bit of a media spending spree recently and it’s been rewarded with more than just additional passengers after Starcom’s online campaign took out Yahoo!Xtra’s fourth quarter Digital Strategy Award.
How things have changed over the past few years. New Zealand is now punching way over its weight in the ad business. For decades, New Zealand creatives simply didn’t have the budgets that the bigger markets had. But, as the best ad people do, they have turned this negative into a positive and worked out how to use these small budgets to make big, world beating campaigns.
There was plenty of StopPress discussion after Designworks’ chief executive Sven Baker offered some suggestions for ways the design industry could help Christchurch recover from the quake—and not long after he narrowly avoided falling victim to it himself. Now Designworks and Jay Wester, owner of plumbing and heating supplier Leap Australasia Ltd, have launched the first initiative to come out of those discussions, a registered trust called letsfixit.org.nz that aims to get Christchurch’s in-home domestic water services re-connected pronto. And according to Baker, it’s already working, with the first volunteer plumbers expected to be on the ground in Christchurch in the next few days.
Who’s it for: Skyline Garages by Barnes, Catmur & Friends and Cirkus
Why we like it: It’s hinged on an insight that garages have been put to a range of inventive uses in New Zealand over the years, whether it be making rocket packs, boats, motorbikes or …
Image: stuff.co.nz
The historic Press building was badly damaged in last week’s earthquake and, sadly, Fairfax lost one of its staff members in the disaster. But, as The Press editor Andrew Holden’s story details, even when surrounded by death and destruction, journalistic duty kicked in and, with the help of the other Fairfax hubs, the team somehow managed to get a paper out the next day. And as the rest of New Zealand watched and listened to the broadcasts, many Christchurch residents were still without power, which meant the local papers became the main source of information. Sandra King, group sales and marketing manager, Fairfax Media, sent this note to agency partners and clients about the state of the Christchurch paper, which is set to celebrate its 150th anniversary in May.
An earthquake influenced five metre print
Everyone from the Adgraphix team in Christchurch made it through the earthquake safely and the large-format printers are once again fully operational. But company director Scott Shore says it’s time for businesses—both in Canterbury and around New Zealand—to stay positive and support each other.
New Zealanders are well-accustomed to seeing foreign magazines on the shelves. But New Zealand mags being published overseas? Surely not. Well, after a very successful run in Australasia, the Healthy Food Guide is heading to the UK after publishing company Eye to Eye Media licensed the mag from its Kiwi owners Healthy Life Media.
MediaWorks has been under a huge amount of financial pressure recently as its private equity paymasters Ironbridge attempt to cut costs and squeeze out some much-needed cash. And while the losses reported in 2009 were massive, things appear to be looking up slightly, with figures for the year ended August 2010 showing earnings before interest and tax of $50 million, an 11 percent improvement on the previous year’s total of $45 million. Consolidated revenue across the group was $258 million for the year, up one percent from $256 million the year before.
A sense of humour and some design prowess can get you a long way. In fact, for Kiwi-founded and now London-based designer chocolate bar company Bloomsberry & Co, it can take you all the way from New Zealand to the UK, and beyond.
Greetings from the remains of The Media Dept. Appreciate you advising that Stacey and I are safe and well and trucking on. Our building at Ground Zero was actually a damn good place to be. Whilst it may be very old, the complete refurbishment two years ago has meant it is as strong a place as any and stood up well enough for me to (stupidly?) race back in and get mobiles and the laptop! But the devastation in our area at High/Lichfield/Manchester is massive and unfortunately a lot of people will have perished around us.
It has been said that AWARD golds are rarer than both hen’s teeth and fish lips and that was proven once again on Friday night, when just six were handed out and some Cannes Gold winners left with only bronzes. But in news that’s sure to further warm the cockles of New Zealand’s ad scene, half of them went to Kiwi agencies.
There are a number of companies, both small and large, trying to do their bit to help Christchurch. So if you’ve got something planned, if you’re giving a donation, or if you need to get a message out, let us know and we’ll update this page regularly and try to spread the word. The Ministry of Civil Defence says the best way to help people affected by the quake is through cash donations so if you haven’t already, visit Red Cross.
It felt wrong to be celebrating anything on Friday night, let alone excellence in response-driven marketing, but DraftFCB and The Ministry of Health’s ‘The Journal’ campaign absolutely dominated the RSVP and Nexus awards, taking home the RSVP Grand Prix and the Nexus Supreme Awards—the first time this has been achieved in the 23 year history of the awards—and eight other golds.
If ad agencies planned birthday parties.
When Noodles attack.
Jumping is for sissies. Real men barge.
Harrison Ford like you’ve never seen him; the Forbes’ list of the 25 most ridiculous warning labels; Coca-Cola embraces Robo-schtick with Daft Punk bottles; the perfect present …
We have to mobilise the New Zealand design community around the relief and rebuild efforts in Christchurch. This means we have to coordinate our own meaningful industry response. We have an important role to play in assisting both now and throughout the rebuilding of a shattered city. And I think this can work at two levels.
Aussie-based media behemoth Fairfax Media has released its results for the last half of 2011, with TradeMe continuing to shine and the New Zealand arms of the business also reporting double digit profit increases despite a slow economy.
CAANZ has announced the three foreign dignitaries for Axis 2011, with Kiwi expat Andy Fackrell of 180 (Amsterdam), Bryan Rowles of 72 and Sunny (Los Angeles) and Dejan Rasic of Colman Rasic (Sydney) making up the illustrious international award hogging panel.
It’s been an unusually exciting week in the world of business directories: first came news the NZ Post-run Localist was suing Yellow. And now Yellow Pages Group chief executive Bruce Cotterill has stepped down, although the two events are said to be unconnected.
Soon-to-launch business directory 0133 has partnered with Mediaworks and deployed a free-to-call service to take non-emergency queries and ease pressure on already strained emergency phone numbers in Christchurch.
.99 announced the appointment of DDB’s Paul Hankinson as its new creative director last week. And he will be joined by Ogilvy’s current head of art Nic Hall, who has accepted the role of deputy creative director and head of art.
On behalf of its members, the Outdoor Media Association of New Zealand would like to convey its deepest sympathy and thoughts at this difficult time to the residents of Christchurch. All members have pledged to do whatever they can to assist with rescue efforts, whether that be fund raising, assistance with communication and on the ground support.
Understandably, with surreal pictures such as these, overseas interest in the Christchurch earthquake has been extremely high and generous offers of international support have been numerous. And, according to YouTube, a six minute edited compilation of footage posted on the ONE News channel was the second most watched video worldwide yesterday, receiving 1.1 million views.
PRINZ sent this message out asking for PR assistance, so if you can help, get in touch on the numbers below.
Strategy’s Christchurch offices took a bit of a beating after the last quake in September. But group managing partner Geoff Cranko and group creative director/founder Guy Pask have been in touch and it seems everyone is safe. Cranko: “The most important factor is that all our staff are safe and well. First advice is that our building is going to be out of commission for some time so we are looking for some new space for the studio. Thank goodness for our studios in Auckland and Sydney. I will keep you posted.” Pask: “Luckily everyone is okay. Will give you an update when we have a clearer idea of what’s happening.”
Based on a survey of 147 of the country’s leading marketers, New Zealand businesses are planning to spend more on marketing this year. And PR and experiential came out as the big winners over more ‘traditional’ forms of advertising. But difficulties around ensuring accurate measurement are still hampering the sector’s growth.
People and companies all around New Zealand are coming up with ways to try and help those in Christchurch (although it seems a few filthy bastards are trying to profit from the disaster with scams and stealing) and iSite Media is showing its support for Canterbury by offering agencies and clients the opportunity to purchase space for their logo on a 12m x 3m billboard and two Zeus Bus panels in Auckland and Wellington, with 100 percent of the donations going to the Christchurch Relief Fund.
It’s difficult to get too excited about the announcement of the AXIS finalists given what’s happening in Christchurch at the moment. But the world keeps turning and after 50 judges spent three days going through 650 entries across 43 different categories, the rather long shortlist for the 31st instalment of the creative awards has been released. And, after some exhaustive counting, Colenso BBDO came out on top with 75 finalist nods, followed by DDB on 55 and DraftFCB on 49. Download the pdf here. Axis Finalist List.
Christchurch ad agency Harvey Cameron opened the doors of its new Merivale office last year, having—rather fortuitously, it turns out—moved away from its office in the CBD. And this is what managing director Neil Cameron had to say about the events of 22 February.
Between them they’ve worked under the Spark PHD roof for over 20 years and Nikki Grafton and Stuart Rutherford have been rewarded for their loyalty after being appointed as joint managing directors.
The radio, design, digital, creative innovation and integrated finalists for AWARD have been announced, with Clemenger BBDO, Colenso, DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA\, Publicis Mojo, Rapp/Tribal, AIM Proximity and Special Group all making the cut. But coming out on top for the Kiwis in terms of overall finalist nods are DraftFCB, DDB NZ and Special Group. The awards will be handed out on Friday.