Monthly Archives: March, 2011

News
Amid the new agency chatter, ANZ launches massive Rugby World Cup campaign—UPDATED
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As the industry worked itself into a gibbering mass of excitement after it was announced late last week that the ANZ account had shifted to TBWA\, ANZ, DDB and Ogilvy Media were getting ready to launch their ‘Welcome the World’ promotion as part of the bank’s Rugby World Cup sponsorship. And with a big TV blockout on Sunday, a flash mob-esque stunt to welcome commuters in Auckland and Wellington this morning and plenty more media activity planned to ramp up interest in the competition, it’s set to be the bank’s biggest promotion yet—and quite possibly the biggest of the tournament. 

News
The people have chosen: introducing the inaugural StopPress/ThinkTV TVC of the Year Award
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Despite the beliefs of slightly extremist doomsayers who claim television is dying and the days of big brand ads and mass awareness marketing are over, most would agree that television commercials are still one of the most effective ways for brands to convey emotion, tell stories and, in most cases, get their messages in front of humans. Since StopPress was sent into the wild in September 2009, we’ve been celebrating that collision of art and commerce in our TVC of the Week section, which, as the name suggests, showcases what we deem to be the best locally-created TV ad(s) of the past seven days. It’s supremely unscientific, of course: it has nothing to do with research, testing or sales figures, it’s simply based on gut feel; on whether an ad is funny, beautiful, engaging, well-made, memorable, creative or occasionally even so bad it’s good. Well, now we’re taking it a step further with the first annual StopPress/ThinkTV TVC of the Year Award. So get in there and vote for the ads that have tickled your fancy in the past year.

Awards
Return of the prodigal daughter: Sarah Robb O’Hagan to speak at marcomms forum
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Sarah Robb O’Hagan, the president of Gatorade North America and global chief marketing officer, sports nutrition, PepsiCo, is one of the country’s most successful marketers and she’s heading back to New Zealand to speak at a half-day forum jointly presented by the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group and the Marketing Association on 5 April at the Crowne Plaza in Auckland. So to celebrate we thought we’d send her a few generic questions.

News
Rico goes gangsta, as Snoop gets his freak on for Air New Zealand
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Air New Zealand’s suave yet moderately offensive travelling mascot Rico has already laid down some beats with a couple of Wellingtonian musos. But he’s taken his music career up a few notches recently after recording his debut track ‘Hello Sunshine’ in Los Angeles. And it features a pretty special guest who’s also earned a reputation as something of a ladies man: Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. AKA Tha Doggfather AKA Snoop Dogg.

Opinion
TV3 lays news gauntlet at ONE’s feet
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Trumpet blowing, back-patting and self-congratulation are par for the course in the world of marketing. But it’s always more interesting if there’s a bit of healthy confrontation involved, as this promotional number for TV3 shows.

News
Bands of brothers: TelstraClear calls on its friends for Chch charity drive
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One of the unintended consequences of a natural disaster like the Christchurch earthquake has been a reaffirmed belief in human decency. There were, of course, the expected low-life opportunists trying to take advantage of the situation, but the vast majority of New Zealanders seem to have dug deep and tried to do what they could to help. While claims of ‘quake washing’ have already surfaced, it’s difficult to criticise members of the marcomms community who have decided to harness their communications skills to launch and run a range of worthy fundraising initiatives. And the Bands4Hope campaign is a good example of this industry cohesion.

News
Oktobor cuts advertising apron strings, shifts focus to animation
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Oktobor’s managing director Bruce Everett told Stuff in September last year that the company’s commitment to advertising was still deep, despite the fact it was steadily being transformed into “visual effects, animation and digital creative convergence studio”. Well, the connection to advertising wasn’t that deep, obviously, because Everett has announced that Oktobor won’t be offering TVC and VFX services to the advertising and commercials market on a day-to-day basis anymore and will instead shift resources across to the relatively recently christened but obviously very successful animation arm, Oktobor Animation.

News
Welcome to the jungle: Edentify opens Kiwi office
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The research business is pretty damn tight at the moment as clients cut back on ‘luxuries’ and agencies increasingly take the work in-house. But that hasn’t stopped Edentify, a specialist online market research agency that was started in Australia 11 years ago, from opening its doors in Auckland.

News
DDB NZ flies the rather limp Kiwi flag at Adfest
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It was a mixed bag for DDB New Zealand last week. The team were forced to drown their sorrows late last week after the agency realignment everyone was talking about saw it say goodbye to the big ANZ account. But, on the plus side, it dominated the Fairfax Admedia agency of the year awards and it’s continued its run of hot form with another good awards haul, this time at Adfest in Thailand.

News
When it rains, it pours (with appointments news galore)—UPDATED
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Sheesh, it’s been a big week in the biz. ANZ is now in TBWA\’s hands, the National Bank brand looks like it’s set to be sacrificed, Mojo has just won a few cars and online advertising has moved ahead of radio and magazines in terms of ad revenue. And while all that’s been happening, a range of humans have been moving and shaking all over the show. So, without further ado, Pauline Hanton resigns from her Hypermedia post; ex-Telecom boffin Matt Crockett takes up a big gig with APN in Australia; Barnes, Catmur & Friends gives the new head of digital some natural light; Yahoo!Xtra expands its sales team; and Republik welcomes a new addition.

News
Mojo gets out of MDL’s dreams—and into its cars
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Motorcorp Distributors Limited (MDL), the authorised importer/distributor of Jaguar, Land Rover, Range Rover, Renault, and Volvo in New Zealand, has appointed Mojo and its media arm ZenithOptimedia after a competitive pitch, leaving a rumoured agency list of Shine, Droga5 and River/GI Media in its dust.

News
TBWA\ cuts DDB’s lunch as ANZ changes hands-UPDATED
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The tongues have been wagging fairly violently in agency land about the possibility of ANZ shifting agencies. And the speculation has now been confirmed, after Whybin TBWA was officially appointed as its global creative agency after a four month pitch.

News
Discover truth, destroy lies by asking Axis oracles the tough advertising questions
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The Axis Awards are just around the corner. And Andy Fackrell of 180 Amsterdam (quite possibly the most successful ex-pat Kiwi creative), Bryan Rowles of 72 and Sunny in Los Angeles and Dejan Rasic of Colman Rasic in Sydney are the three international boffins doing the judging. All three will show their work and wax lyrical at the Axis Creative Function on Wednesday 30 March (tickets are on sale at www.caanz.co.nz), but in an effort to limit the awkward silence that almost always eventuates after Kiwi crowds are asked if they have any questions, we want you to add yours to the comment wall. The best ones will be read out on the night by MC Oliver Driver, leaving you to focus on your drinking.

News
DDB top of the pile at Fairfax Admedia awards, but changes to judging criteria critiqued
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The Fairfax Admedia Agency of the Year awards were dished out at 1885 in Britomart this week. And while there were the usual mutterings about the decisions—and some other mutterings about changes to the judging criteria—DDB New Zealand came away with the biggest haul after being handed three of the top awards, including Agency of the Year, CEO of the Year for Sandy Moore and Rookie Suit of the Year for Zoe Macfarlane’s work on McDonald’s.

News
Attack of the drones: Mini’s Carmonica starts humming along online
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Mini’s advertising has been consistently good in recent years, both here and overseas, and it’s undoubtedly one of the automotive industry’s most innovative brands. In New Zealand, DraftFCB’s creative and media strategy during the Soho campaign was top notch and the experiment to get rid of car yards and see if people would buy new cars online was a particularly brave retail strategy (although the MINI Garage on Ponsonby Road does look suspiciously like a car yard). Well, now it’s got another hit on its hands with the Carmonica.

News
The customer is always right—and the customer experience is always critical
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It’s been seven years since we started Customer Experiences and two things became very clear to me back in 2003: one was that businesses struggled to find a competitive advantage in a market that was fast becoming “a world of sameness”, and two, the future success of a business was going to be very much tied to the quality and consistency of its customer experience.

News
Step away from the toaster, donate Fly Buys points to Chch instead
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There’s already been a steady stream of cash donations to the various Christchurch Quake appeals and plenty of initiatives from the business community to raise funds. Now Loyalty New Zealand, the company behind Fly Buys, has come up with another way to help those affected by the disaster by allowing its 2.5 million card holders to donate their points in one hundred point lots to the Red Cross or the SPCA Canterbury. So get in there and donate your points here.

News
Of giant hands and skinny dogs
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Who’s it for: 2degrees by TBWA\ and Digital Post

Why we like it: Once again, 2degrees has managed to entertain and inform simultaneously with its new Pay Monthly spots. As we’ve all come to expect, they’re funny, quirky, easily understood and also quite …

News
Data hounds go weak at the knees as NZ Post beefs up Genius
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New Zealand Post launched its Genius segmentation tool last year and info-nerds everywhere fell into a deep swoon. Now, in an effort to offer enhanced levels of customer insight—and therefore more benefits to marketers—three new innovative enhancements have been added to the arsenal: Car Genius, Ethnicity Genius and a new segment level media profile component being used by Nielsen and Roy Morgan.

News
ANZ brand implementation grabs international nod
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While murmurings of a possible merger with the National Bank remain shrouded in secrecy, what is certain is that ANZ’s super-regional strategy, and more specifically the associated brand roll-out that comes with it, is doing something right after Asia-Pacific brand delivery company Diadem won an award for best brand implementation for its ANZ project as part of the seventh annual REBRAND 100 Global Awards.

News
Hello, is it me you’re looking for…
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Lionel Richie is performing in Auckland this week. And in completely unrelated but presumably more important news, one of Healthy Life Media’s main protagonists has sold her shares in the hugely successful company; Waitemata Films has added two more to its flock; and EYE has found its global marketing head honcho.

Awards
Conference speakers to weave magic, unlock secrets of retail
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The retail sector’s troubles over the past few years have been well-documented, but there’s one thing the New Zealand Retailers Association is particularly excited about: its National Conference, which will feature two distinguished international keynote speakers, a who’s who of local retail boffins and even the team from Rugby World Cup 2011.

News
Catalogues 2.0: TBWA\Tequila brings Super Rugby sales to life with interactive trickery
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Last year, TBWA’s executive creative director Andy Blood predicted the future of the industry and, in something of a mission statement for the agency following the loss of ASB, said it was all about bringing the creative ideas of the advertising world closer to the utility now offered by digital technology. Well, that’s what TBWA\Tequila has done with a cool new interactive video catalogue for adidas’ Super Rugby merchandise.

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