Throughout the history of marketing, various maxims have rung true: sex sells, ‘magic’ sells and giving away free stuff sells. The incredible success of gaming, particularly online gaming, proves a new maxim: fun sells.
The nominations were up considerably in comparison to 2010, but the medal hauls were similar this year, with local agencies taking one gold, four silvers and three bronzes at the Clio Awards and two bronzes at the One Show. And in other awards news, Traffic Group won a gold, silver and bronze at the Summit Creative Award competition and AUT Adschool grads take home the Aussie edition of the Cannes Young Print Lions.
Aside from the number of awards its advertising has won, it’s been a fairly sorry tale for Yellow in the past few years. But, last year, in the face of some horrific finances, Yellow stumped up with a $40 million investment in the business, more sales people and a strategy that focused more heavily on digital offerings. Well, it’s just launched a new digital directory called YellowLocal.co.nz. And it’s heading down a similar hyperlocal path to that of its soon-to-launch NZ Post-run competitor Localist.
It’s not every day you get to test yourself on a Segway, wax your bum crack, jump off the Sky Tower, drive maniacally around Auckland searching for bus shelters, dress up as an inmate outside a prison, almost run over one of your co-workers, ride a mechanical bull and do tequila shots at 3pm. But that’s basically what around 80 industry folk had to do last Thursday as part of the Adshel Rally. And, as you can probably see in these pictures, they appeared to love every minute of it.
Can you make a beer taste better by changing the shape of a bottle? DB Breweries, the makers of Tui Blond Lager think so, announcing a few changes to the brand’s traditional bottle design, including the addition of a “vortex internal neck emboss”.
Sadly, it’s something of a rarity to see examples of creativity in the world of print, especially when compared to the raft of nifty online gimmicks spewing forth. But ecostore, Special Group, Naked, Salt Interactive and ACP appear to be onto a winner with what they believe is a first: a mass-personalisation campaign that allows parents to make their child into a cover star on Little Treasures magazine.
More music media closures? Maybe not. After announcing yesterday that Groove Guide is producing its last issue, it appears several life lines have been tossed towards Tangible Media.
Publisher Vincent Heeringa is tightlipped about who and what and where.
“The announcement has flushed out a number of potential partners and …
There’s been plenty of heated discussion about the new Z brand that’s being rolled out in New Zealand at the moment. Now BP has joined the petrol party with a big new brand out of Ogilvy NZ.
Being in the South of France right about now sounds pretty good, but for NZ/Korean director Stephen Kang it just got even better with news his short film Blue last night won a Grand Prix at Critics Week (La Semaine De La Critique), part of the 64th Cannes Film Festival.
Tourism New Zealand’s 100% Pure campaign has come under renewed fire recently after our Dear Leader’s interview with Hard Talk. But as TNZ’s general manager marketing communications Justin Watson said in a recent interview with NZ Marketing, the campaign was never intended to be an environmental promise. It was about the whole experience. Recently, with the help of its agencies Razorfish and Assignment Group, it launched 100% Pure You to try and attract more ‘active considerers’ to the country and it’s just gone live with some new online trickery that’s being featured on popular German and Australian news and travel websites. See the birds, dolphins and underwater marvels here.
Increasingly, it’s in the interest of businesses to convey a social conscience and Botany Town Centre continues to do its utmost to show the public that it’s playing the role of responsible corporate citizen. In February it conducted a random acts of kindness social experiment where it randomly paid for customers’ purchases. Now for the entire month of May, it’s shuffled the focus to mothers by turning the 31 days in May into a celebration of mothers—a Mother’s Month, if you will.
A couple of weeks back, a group of ridiculously good looking, extremely important and intimidatingly intelligent advertising, marketing and media folk from Skyline Garages, Barnes, Catmur & Friends, ThinkTV and StopPress took a wee trip to the new and particularly classy Auckland Viaduct establishment Snapdragon to celebrate a famous, if slightly controversial, victory in the inaugural Think TV TVC of the Year competition with a good old-fashioned long and fairly wet lunch. We promised some photos of this auspicious event to inspire jealousy (and possibly even vitriolic comments), so fill your boots. And if you’re looking for a venue for your next event (or power lunch), we can assure you Snapdragon is a very good option.
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You’re all probably too busy putting the finishing touches on your entries for the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards to bother reading a story about the fact that it’s the last day to enter the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. But we thought we’d tell you anyway. And, if you’re not going to get it in before the cut-off at 5pm, never fear, for extensions are available until next Friday. You just have to ask the teacher nicely (and stump up with some cash).
Fancy becoming a copywriter or art director? Australia’s AWARD School is setting up shop in Auckland to help budding creatives do just that. Described as “the fast track way into the communications industry”, the 16 week course is a hub for ideas, creative thinking and processes involved in coming up with great ideas.
There were rumours of a few hearty celebrations at Ogilvy yesterday and while nothing has been able to be confirmed, it seems the frivolity is on the back of news that it has, in line with most predictions, retained the big Auckland Council account, beating out Colenso BBDO/.99 and DDB. Standby for an update.
Landrover’s unique play on safety.
A bit of monky business for Cadbury. And here’s another new dancey number.
Horrible bosses are humorous, as this new film attests.
Chocolate bars meet rock stars in this classic Pinky ad from many moons …
The ASA’s annual report for 2010 is out and the always interesting top ten most complained about ads of the year has been released, with the Erotica Expo billboard, ASB’s IVF ad and a Durex condoms outdoor campaign taking the medals.
…as Fiona Woolley swaps postage for precision German engineering, Insight Creative hires a new strat man, Matt Shirtcliffe reprises a South African role, 3rdeye gets Pearced, Nicky Dunn swaps TV for shoes and Oktobor finds a new friend in Radiate Sound.
After a fair bit bureaucratic faffing, the clean zones for the Rugby World Cup 2011 have been announced, so agencies and advertisers now know where they can and can’t put their marketing during the tournament. And in some cases, the restrictions are quite extensive.
The organisers of the 58th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which kicks off on June 19, just couldn’t wait until the start date before handing out the first accolade, so they’ve given IKEA the prestigious Advertiser of the Year Award for distinguishing itself through inspiring innovative marketing of its products and embracing creative work.
It’s one of the publishing industry’s biggest nights and tickets to the 2011 Magazine Awards are now available. So pry open your wallet, air out your glad rags from the musty wardrobe and get ready to celebrate the best in the words and pictures business on Thursday 23 June at The Pullman Hotel in Auckland.
Megan Clark has been elected chair of the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group (MLG), replacing Claudia Macdonald, who is stepping down following her two-year term in the hotseat.
DDB NZ turns the tables to try and up the donations for the Coastguard’s MayDay appeal; Colenso releases its first TVC for Westpac and keeps fighting the good fight for Amnesty International; the eyes have it in Saatchi & Saatchi’s latest NZ Army campaign; professional meets amateur in Publicis Mojo’s print ad for Panasonic’s new Lumix camera; TAB and Sugar follow up with another bad call; and a great new Cadbury Glass and Half Full production out of South Africa.
Entries for the 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards close this Friday 20 May. But never fear, if procrastination, popularity or poor time management are hampering your entry efforts, extensions to Friday 27 May are available.
Greedy old advertising behemoth DDB makes it three in a row on TVC of the Week, following on from its two new ads for Volkswagen.
Who’s it for: Cadbury by DDB and Goodlife Films
Why we like it: It’s easy to make an ad. It’s …
From wristbands to t-shirts, concerts to text donations, there’s been a bunch of generous and creative fundraising initiatives in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake. But a project led by Christchurch graphic design company Ratio is only just coming into the light.
Given the slightly difficult period youth-oriented media seems to be going through at the moment, with MTV packing up the local office, a few well-established magazines folding and MediaWorks deciding to grey up its demographics on TV3 and FOUR, there were questions about whether the decision to launch a youth-focused commercial channel called U to replace TVNZ6 was wise. Well, the first cumulative Nielsen numbers are in and TVNZ are stoked with the results, with 1,392,400 viewers—or 34 percent of Kiwis—tuning in to the new channel at some point in the four weeks ending Saturday May 14.
It was a cool idea. But yMedia, which mixed up a potent broth of industry professionals, tertiary students looking to add some experience to the CV and not-for-profits that needed some help with their comms efforts, won’t be held this year and has gone on hiatus.
The IAB and its main protagonists have become quite accustomed to putting out press releases trumpeting rising online ad spend over the past few years. And, despite an expected decrease for the first quarter of 2011 in comparison to Q4 2010 as a result of the earthquake and generally unfavourable economic conditions, the worm is still heading swiftly upwards, with a 20 percent year-on-year increase and a total haul of $68 million, up from $26 million in Q1 2007.
While we obviously enjoy the fact that the marcomms community seems to like getting its fix of marketing, advertising and media news, views and hullaballoos on StopPress, we’re still dirty old traditionalists who like nothing more than sitting back with one of those old, supposedly antiquated paper-based things known as magazines. And there’s plenty of editorial goodness to soak up in the May/June edition of NZ Marketing, which is filled with what a host of Belgian experts have said is ‘Essential Marketing Intelligence’. As such, you can probably ask the boss to pay for a subscription, but to grease the wheels you can get 35 percent off the retail price (subscribe for one year here or two years here) if you sign up before Friday. Anyway, enough of the sales pitch. Here’s what you’ll find in the latest issue.