Monthly Archives: August, 2011

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Sayonara, Steve: an Apple advertising retrospective
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News that tech talisman Steve Jobs would hang up his black chief executive turtleneck due to ongoing health issues sent Apple’s stock price swiftly downwards. Of course, the company’s phenomenal success can be put down to the amazing products Jobs and his team created, but also to the savvy marketing campaigns that promoted them and Ad Age has compiled a retrospective of Apple’s top commercials, including classics like the now slightly ironic Orwellian ad to launch the Mackintosh, PC vs Mac, the iPod silhouettes and a range of clever interactive trickery. 

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Make it work, marketing people
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The pics from the Amazing Travelling Photobooth were a feast for the eyes. But we know you’re not full just yet. So make sure you tuck in to a big helping of Getty Images’ snaps from the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards at the Langham last night. Mmmm, glamorous. 

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Inside the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards photo booth
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You marketing types can’t resist pulling out a blue steel or two in a photo booth after a few wines. Click the expand button on the bottom right to see all the glamour shots/compromising evidence up close. And if you want the wonderous machine to come to your next event, check out the Amazing Travelling Photobooth website here.

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Retail giants rejoice as Progressive and NZ Lotteries dominate TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards
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The 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards were dished out last night at the Langham in Auckland in front of around 450 industry bods and a host of game changers and bar-raisers—some well-accustomed to collecting such awards, some venturing up on stage for the first time—were announced. But it was Progressive Enterprises that came away with the most coveted award of the night for merging three of its supermarket brands into one and forging a bold new positioning based on an enhanced definition of consumer value.

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Idealog, Idealog, it’s big it’s heavy it’s wood*
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The Design Issue of the recently redesigned and relaunched Idealog is out now. And it’s the first mag with ex-NBR advertising newshound Hazel Phillips’ name attached as editor (“It’s awesome. Buy it. Or else,” she says with positive aggression). Highlights include the cover story on Avanti’s success, a man who’s selling coffee machines to Italians and Vincent Heeringa’s look at design-led food and beverages. Check out everything else that’s on offer here and, for all those with fancy jabscreen machines, you can download the latest issue on Zinio for a measly $6 here.

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Wraps, wagons and watches: RWC sponsors join the marketing melee
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The smell of sponsorship campaigns gone wrong is wafting around the country at the moment and, with just over two weeks left until RWC kick off, there are probably a few nervous sponsors hoping they don’t get flamed like Adidas and Telecom. But there’s little chance of that happening with Landrover, KPMG or recently announced official watch sponsor TAG Heur, which have all got in on the act.    

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Wherefore art thou long lunch? Shirtcliffe and Co. takes top prize in Press competition
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A few weeks back agencies around the country were asked to put their thinking caps on by The Press and come up with a campaign to support the fundraising efforts required to rebuild the new Court Theatre in Christchurch. And the indie pairing of Shirtcliffe and Co. and Lassoo have come away with the win—as well as a long lunch and a chopper ride—for a campaign that used well known Shakespeare quotations.

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Last chance saloon for awards tickets, as Te Radar and Boyed face off
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We all know Kiwis suck at getting their tickets early and love nothing more than giving event organisers coronaries by leaving it all until the last minute. So, for all of you who fit into that category, there are still some tickets available to the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards being held tomorrow night at the Langham. Get ’em here and bask in the glory of the nation’s biggest game changers. And while you’re at it, check out the last instalment of TVNZ’s sponsorship leveraging, this time featuring the night’s MC Te Radar and One News newsreader Greg Boyed offering up some handy tips on effective networking. 

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Email and online video ad spend goes up, up and away in latest IAB survey
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Online spending always seems to be on the up every time the IAB releases its quarterly year-on-year ad revenue reports. Figures released for Q2 are no exception with total online advertising spend in Q2 up 19.46 percent to $84.15million. In fact, IABNZ chair and general manager of MSN New Zealand Liz Fraser is feeling so optimistic, she’s already predicting 2011 will experience an overall growth of approximately 20 percent.

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Affinity ID acts local, thinks global after client hat-trick
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Direct and digital specialist Affinity ID has a proud history of boxing above its weight—both in its home market and internationally. And it’s now helping a trio of new internationally focused clients—Les Mills International, publisher PQ Blackwell and magazine stable Trends—do the same by taking their ideas into the global marketplace.

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Adhub adds to its hub
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Adhub has won the rights to a couple of rather attractive online properties, becoming the sole agency for display advertising and sponsorship sales representation for allblacks.com and acquiring the New Zealand sales account for LonelyPlanet.com through its relationship with BBC.com. 

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Winds of change keep blowin’…
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… as another MediaWorks executive feels the heat, Jeremy Corbett farewells the wireless, Michele Teague departs her Campaign Palace gig, Alt Group’s Dean Poole joins an elite club, Interbrand adds two more humans, Jade Software appoints an international marketing manager, NZ Women’s Weekly names just its fifth ever food editor, a couple more Kiwis are named in Spikes Asia juries, well-known TV director Stuart McDonald joins the Sweet Shop and Sony Ericsson welcomes a new Oceania chief. 

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Of joy and accidents
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Who’s it for: Cadbury by DDB NZ and Goodlife films

Why we like it: Creating a song from the sounds of joy was a brilliant idea for a campaign. And, as this final musical instalment shows, the whole thing, from the experiential elements down to the involvement …

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Tuatara comes to fans’ rescue with alternative All Blacks strip
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There have been a few savvy campaigns capitalising on the RWC without breaking the rules around sponsorship recently. And there have also been a few campaigns trying to capitalise on the own goals scored by adidas and Telecom. This ‘interactive’ print ad for Tuatara beer by Y&R Wellington cleverly combines the two. 

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McD’s pumps up the patriotism for ‘Just Because’ push
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 Whether it’s banks, bacon, lamb, insurance or telcos, there’s no shortage of brands trying to tap into the idea of New Zealandness. And McDonald’s and DDB have just launched a campaign for two particularly Kiwi products that fits snugly into this jingoistic genre by focusing on idiosyncratic domestic habits.

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Publishers up the reach, but still hunting for missing moolah
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Much like the domestic magazine sector, newspaper readership remained relatively stable in the latest Nielsen reports and the overall trend for circulation continued downwards. And while the online and mobile properties of the two big publishers are continuing to lure Kiwi eyeballs, recent financial results show the digital dimes still aren’t replacing the lost analog dollars. 

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Trading currencies: readership and circ face off as latest mag stats released
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It’s that time again, a time when publishers weep, gloat or possibly just say ‘meh’ and get on with it as the ABC circulation and Nielsen’s Magazine Comparatives Q2 2010 – Q2 2011 readership results are released. And while the market appears to have stabilised after a fairly rough period, there are some interesting, some might say counter-intuitive trends on display in the yearly comparisons, with some significant disparities between circulation and readership for some titles and publishers.

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The little engine that could (advertise)
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These days advertising seems to encroach on almost everything, public transport especially. But apart from DDB’s Instant Kiwi campaign back in 2010, which saw scenes from the Sistine Chapel installed on the ceilings of buses throughout the city, there hasn’t been much by way of skyward advertising, particularly when it comes to trains. But while the practice may be common in places like the UK, Auckland trains is only just now getting its first dose courtesy of a campaign run by Fly Buys to promote its Star Deals initiative.

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Musical chairs continue as more surprising hires announced
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It’s tough to make a buck in the music industry these days. But those creative types can sometimes make a pretty penny if they sell their soul and head into advertising. And it seems a few musos have left their instruments behind for scamp pads and sharpies of late, with Dave Gibson joining DraftFCB, the Kids of 88 starting at Barnes, Catmur & Friends and P-Money coming on-board at TBWA\.

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Kay in effect at Effie Effectiveness event
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The EFFIEs are looming, judging is currently taking place and tickets are now on sale for the effectiveness function featuring guest speaker Gareth Kay, the director of brand strategy and associate Partner of Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, San Francisco, which, in semi-related news, is currently getting a bit of stick for its ‘new’ logo.

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Applauding the voice of reason: Irwin inducted into TVNZ Marketing Hall of Fame
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Jeremy Irwin has been the main man at the Association of New Zealand Advertisers (ANZA) for the past 15 years. And always having to take the side of advertisers and marketers means he’s fought—and won—plenty of ferocious battles with academics, politicians, special interest groups and other antagonists. He’s stepping back from the public policy coalface to focus on some well-deserved rose sniffing and, one week ahead of TVNZ-NZ Marketing awards night, Irwin was inducted into the TVNZ Marketing Hall of Fame in front of a 350-strong crowd at the Marketing Association’s Brainy Breakfast yesterday. Here’s what he told us about his long and esteemed career in the last issue of NZ Marketing.

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TVNZ feasts on almost all-week Breakfast
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TVNZ’s head of news and current affairs Anthony Flannery has said in the past that Breakfast’s popularity comes down to a good combination of “light and shade”. And the balance will be tipped in favour of light come September 3 when a new Saturday edition of the show that will be co-presented by Rawdon Christie and Toni Street is launched. 

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Abstain removal: Telecom licks wounds, Hell puns it up
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Moa, like many others, has already jumped on the randy bandwagon with its own pro-sex response to the widely rubbished and now-dumped Telecom ‘Abstain from the Game’ campaign. And the other most likely contender, Hell Pizza—with its agency Barnes, Catmur & Friends—has followed suit with this punny wee number. 

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