Monthly Archives: September, 2011

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StopPress’ alternative RWC infographics: cannabis use
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In news that’s sure to warm Don Brash’s libertarian cockles, it turns out we’re leading the rugby world when it comes to smokin the ‘erb, as this wee infographics.co.nz ditty shows. If the IRB gives out a $10,000 fine to Samoan player Alesana Tuilagi for wearing a branded mouthguard, one can only imagine how much it’ll cost the All Blacks when Graham Henry makes a bong out of the Webb Ellis trophy on October 23 for a celebratory toke with the team. 

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Spring brings new HR life…
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…as Clems hires an experienced digi-boffin, Designworks adds another senior string to its management bow and Reach Media and Positively Wellington Tourism both announce new business development managers.

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Show us your buns
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In another pump of patriotism McD’s has released a third ad saluting the unconventional spirit of Kiwis, and celebrating our innate ability to tinker with things in an effort to make them better.

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Battle of the bananas: Dole thrusts, All Good parries
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All Good Bananas won the Sustainability prize at the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards recently. And, according to its entry, it managed to gain four percent market share and sell its Fairtrade bananas at a premium. But not everyone is singing its sustainable praises, as evidenced by an email we received from Steve Barton, the New Zealand representative for Dole Asia, that questioned the assertions made by its smaller competitor. 

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Winks gets nod
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We searched over hill and over dale for the perfect deputy editor on NZ Marketing and StopPress.co.nz. And it was a highly sought after position. But in the end ex-Campbell Live bod Catherine Winks beat out the guy with experience in the adult entertainment industry and the guy who started off his interview by saying he hated advertising. 

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Dear Leader turns DJ
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In an apparent first for New Zealand, Prime Minister John Key will be hosting a one-hour radio show this Friday, 30th September from 2pm on RadioLIVE, and he’ll be chatting with a few special guests, including Sir Richard Branson and our other Dear Leader Richie McCaw.

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Alt’s algorithm-savvy Auckland Art Gallery branding
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MoMA as a name might work well for New York’s Museum of Modern Art, but apply the same acronym theory to Auckland Art Gallery (AAG) and Alt Group’s Dean Poole reckons it would sound more like something “the cat would bring up”. No, according to Poole, having the consistent theme of ‘ART’ running through the redeveloped gallery’s new branding is much more effective.

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Young & Shand discovers large growth, gives birth to ‘web/dev eco-system’ in Britomart
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Young & Shand, a digital agency that flicked the switch at the end of 2009—and at the height of the recession—has gone from three staff to nine in the past year, has recently added Jasons Travel Media, Lucky Rentals and Goodman Fielder brands Puhoi Valley and Kiwi Bacon, and now has a total of 45 clients on its books. But, not content with mere digital domination, it’s now moving into bricks and mortar by attempting to create a creative hub in an office it has secured in Auckland’s Britomart.

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Hawke’s Bay backing the Black Sticks
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In a possible world first, an entire community has joined together to sponsor a national sports team in its quest for Olympic glory. The Hawke’s Bay have partnered with New Zealand’s national hockey teams – the Black Sticks men’s and women’s teams – to give them the support they need to take on the world’s best next year in London.

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Bell bows out as Tangible modifies management
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Image Centre Group has this week started a review of its publishing business and, as a result of a more streamlined management structure, Martin Bell, Tangible Media’s chief executive, co-founder of HB Media and deputy chair of the MPA board, has resigned. 

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The joy of nothingness
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Whether it be at the urinal, in the elevator, at the pharmacy, at the adult concept store or even when someone is shown on the big screen for too long, ‘uncomfortable time’ is an enduring comedic device. And Sky, DDB and Flying Fish have embraced this concept wholeheartedly with a new, entertainingly awkward ad that celebrates the fact its customers don’t need to do anything when the digital switchover arrives next year—and, at the same time, parodies the prevalence of ‘non-threatening brand spokespeople’ on our TV screens. 

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GrabOne wins more fans with Gimme5
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Leading daily deal site GrabOne has launched its first Faceboook app ‘Gimme5’ and it’s proving hugely popular. As well as being a highly addictive game to play, there’s the chance to win prizes like iPads and a trip to Los Angeles.

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The sublime and the ridiculous
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Who’s it for: Toyota Hilux by Saatchi & Saatchi and Thick as Thieves.

Why we like it: Advertising is, by nature, hyperbolic. But this rather surreal spot for the new Hilux takes that hyperbole to another, absurd but entertaining level. It already appears to have split the commentators …

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In Kirk we trust
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Rugby’s pretty close to being a religion in New Zealand. And the outwardly progressive, typically controversial St Matthew in the City and its agency TBWA\ have referenced that with its latest billboard, which uses the ‘Turin Shroud’ style of iconography and endorses David Kirk as a Kiwi deity due to his team’s heroic efforts in 1987.

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Of blindness and uteruses
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Using the company vehicle for a dash of marketing is a long-practised commercial tradition. Usually it’s all fairly standard fare that blends into the rest of the melee. But this punny wee number spotted on the back of a van in Auckland got our attention. As did this personalised plate, but for another reason altogether. As a perplexed passenger said: “What does a bathroom truck have to do with a uterus?” 

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Mobile homes meet mobile phones as Campermate tries to clean up the countryside
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There are currently thousands of tourists gallivanting around New Zealand, and many of them are freedom camping. Mostly, that’s a positive thing. But in some cases it leads to the inevitable negative stories about disrespectful visitors leaving a trail of filth behind them. Over the past 18 months, a team of mobile gurus has been trying to remedy this by plugging the information gap that currently exists with a free location-based app called Campermate that offers information about nearby rubbish bins, campgrounds, toilets and other amenities. And two of them are trying to get visitors to download it by heading on the ‘2-egg roadtrip’ and bribing them with free food. 

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Say hello to our little friends…
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…as Les Mills International announces two key staff changes, Ogilvy signs up Ellison, the NBR announces a new admedia reporter, two new in the nzherald.co.nz crew and D&AD chooses its chiefs. 

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Colenso feels the burn with Les Mills International
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It’s been a difficult few months for Colenso, with Vodafone pulling the pin and moving up the road to .99 before a full pitch kicks off. But the good news is starting to filter back in: executive creative director Nick Worthington has just returned from Spikes Asia with an impressive haul of medals and it has also won the Les Mills International account. 

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Steak and cheesus Christ! Saatchi & Saatchi dabbles in the surreal with new Hilux campaign—UPDATED
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When compiling a list of classic Kiwi TVCs, there are bound to be a few Toyota Hilux ads in there. With the likes of Bugger and the Scotty and Crumpy series, it’s a product with a rich advertising heritage, so a new campaign is always cause for a bit of excitement, both for Toyota fans and for many in the marcomms sector. And Saatchi & Saatchi has gone to great, rather surreal and comical lengths with the ‘Tougher than you can Imagine’ campaign to launch the 2012 model. 

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Two staff move on as Mediaweb merges titles
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Mediaweb announced today it is “repositioning” two of its titles in an attempt to strengthen its position in the sector.

The company acquired several food industry magazines when it purchased TPL Media’s titles earlier this year.

Mediaweb publisher Toni Myers says two titles, FBT (Food & Beverage Today) and Catering Plus, are not sufficiently different from Hospitality Magazine to continue as they are.

Two staff who both worked on FBT and Catering Plus have left the company as a result of the changes.

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Green Party takes ownership as Running With Scissors delivers ‘For a richer New Zealand’ party campaign
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As John Armstrong said in the NZ Herald, the Greens are on a roll in the polls, have largely shed their image as a “bunch of bicycle-clip-wearing eco-obsessives”, and “have made their strongest pitch yet to be treated as serious participants in the debate on economic policy”. The National Party don’t think much of the ‘Green Wave’, and neither does Act for that matter. But the Green Party hopes to convince the public with its new campaign, which is positioned around the primary message of voting ‘For a richer New Zealand’. The campaign was timed with the party’s unveiling of its Green Jobs Initiative, which plans to create 100,000 clean green job that will “be at the heart of a new economy for New Zealand”.

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Traffic Group flies winning Kiwi flag at US marketing awards
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Kiwi marketing agency Traffic has muscled its way past campaigns for the likes of Hilton Hotels to triumph in the business-to-business category of the Summit Marketing Effectiveness Awards in the US.

Overall, the awards received more than 600 entries, but Traffic was the only New Zealand winner among them. The …

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Enter thy Kingdom of Tonga with new tourism campaign
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Tongan supporters have certainly drawn a lot of attention over the Rugby World Cup campaign and riding on the back of that enthusiasm comes the unveiling of the country’s new tourism campaign ‘Tonga – The True South Pacific’. Featuring a brand overhaul, the campaign comes courtesy  of agency bcg2 and sister agency Mediacom.

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Air New Zealand flies the customer friendly skies with big online overhaul
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In a recent Idealog column, David MacGregor wrote: “User experience (UX) is a central thought for marketing today. Products are just stuff. There is no shortage of replacements for yours.” When you consider that more than a third of Air New Zealand’s revenue is generated by its global websites, and nearly half the people visiting go straight to the booking search tool, UX is an especially important aspect of the increasingly digital-centric travel industry. Those figures look likely to increase, so Air New Zealand has heeded the words of the digital soothsayers and made www.airnz.co.nz more customer friendly with the most significant changes to the site’s usability in six years. 

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