Bow down and give praise, for the the most interesting man in the world has returned.
Mmmm, animation.
Thanks Sticky Buddy (adult themes, viewer discretion is advised).
So many memes, so little time.
A very good, almost Conchords-esque musical piss …
Unlimited hunts for a new helmsman, MediaWorks plays some more news and current affairs swapsies with TVNZ, Rodney Hide sharpens his pen for the NBR, Grownups.co.nz finds some independence, EMC names new marketing director, Village PR adds to the flock, and Hamilton company Torpedo7 hops into bed with an Aussie suitor.
For a time, it seemed as though men—and quite a few ladies—couldn’t get enough of FHM’s tall-tales, humour and glamour shots of well-endowed models. But ACP has made the decision to close the magazine after it lost almost half of its circulation in the last six months of 2011 in Australia. And, as of May, it will also be taken out of the market in New Zealand.
After BNZ’s parent bank NAB recently shoulder-tapped Clemenger Group and asked Colenso BBDO to hop into bed with BNZ, Westpac was pushed out onto the floor and swiftly put its account up for pitch. At present, the Clemenger-owned .99, which recently had to show around 15 staff the door after the loss of Air New Zealand and Vodafone to DraftFCB, is Westpac’s retail agency but this new regional alignment and other agency changes for BNZ means it might be pretty tough to keep it that way.
Publicis Mojo’s executive creative director woes have continued, with Mike Barnwell resigning after 15 months in the job to return to his South African homeland and take up a role as the executive creative director at DraftFCB Cape Town.
Behind every great campaign there’s usually a very clever client. One of the most remarkable ads of recent years was Cadbury ‘Gorilla’ by Fallon London. With no dialogue, no product shot and minimal branding, it was a brave call for the FMCG giant, but it was credited with rekindling love for the brand and driving a five percent sales rise. We wondered how the idea came about, and how it lived to make it to air. So we tracked down the man behind the campaign, Phil Rumbol, former marketing director of Cadbury UK, and now founding partner of creative agency 101 London.
Hell Pizza is well-accustomed to gaining media attention with its controversial marketing stunts. But it has taken that to a whole new level with its Pizza Roulette promotion, which has been featured in the New York Times, TIME, Huffington Post and Reddit and also formed the basis of a story about sado-masochistic trends like the cinnamon challenge on CNN. We’ve got ten Pizza Roulette vouchers to give away to anyone foolish/brave enough to give it a go, so email [email protected] if you’re game and we’ll let our robot of randomness decide who gets them. The only prerequisite is that you have to agree to film the process.
The Dulux colours of New Zealand promotion, which asked Kiwis to send in pics of their region with the promise they might end up on TV, was pretty classy. And Clemenger BBDO and The Sweet Shop have maintained that momentum with a new ad for its Weathershield range that blurs the lines between the real and the fantastic with a combination of handcrafted and computer animation.
The results of a survey into value perceptions of some of New Zealand’s leading brands were released yesterday at Westfield’s Retail Breakfast Seminar in Auckland. And Pak ‘N’ Save was deemed to be the best value brand in the country, followed by TradeMe, Bunnings and Mitre 10.
After launching in January, giving away a new car to one person who signed up and doing a fair bit of promotion through MediaWorks’ channels, over 43,000 smartphone users have downloaded the Pluk app, which claims to offer an added level of interaction between brands and consumers and was developed by local company Foxtrot Media. And, after the first Pluk-enabled TV commercials went live this week, Foxtrot’s managing director Boyd Wason is fairly chuffed with the initial results—and so, he says, are the first clients Holden, InsureMe, Subway and Roadshow.
Success is fairly subjective in adland. Depending on who you’re talking to, it can be about the cash earned, growth rates achieved, accounts gained or creative plaudits won. And while DDB Group hasn’t quite had the run of things when it comes to awards of late, its “exceptional” business performance over the past year was enough to win it the 2012 Fairfax AdMedia Supreme Agency of the Year last night at the Imperial Lane Bar & Restaurant, adding to the agency of the year titles it has recently been awarded by the NBR, Campaign Brief and Campaign Asia Pacific. DraftFCB was a close runner-up, justONE won specialist agency of the year and OMD took the media title.
The Ad Contrarian is Bob Hoffman, chief executive of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco and St. Louis. He also writes one of the world’s funniest (and painfully truthful) blogs on advertising and marketing. Bob is former chief executive of Mojo USA and ex-president and creative director of Allen & Dorward. And in a former life he was a middle school science teacher. It’s with this objective point of view that he has burst many a hype bubble. His honesty and straight-forwardness is refreshing in a world of marketing mumbo jumbo. So if you like what Bob has to say, you’ll enjoy his books, The Ad Contrarian and 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising.
February was the last month of the ORCA year and two very different ads came out on top. BCG2’s Chris Long and freelancer Martin Brown took the win with the euphemism-heavy ‘Ridiculously Refined’ ad for Jesters Pies. While at the other end of the spectrum, Sarah Litwin-Schmid and Emily Drake from Saatchi & Saatchi took the Merit for their powerful ‘Jane’ ad for Women’s Refuge.
Nielsen’s managing director of media Stuart Jamieson is set to depart after around ten years in the hotseat to take up a role running the Nielsen business in the Philippines based in Manila. Rob Clark, who was appointed managing director, consumer group in August 2009, is set to take over the new position of country head, but a replacement as MD of media has yet to be announced.
National Australia Bank’s (NAB’s) ‘break-up’ campaign was so good it ended up as the lead story on the news, and generated countless free publicity before going on to win last year’s Grande Prix at Cannes Lions. With digital technology evolving faster than you can say business model or best practice, it’s now even more important to stay up to date with PR. To this end, CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group (MLG) is hosting a special event on 21 March: Re-Imagining PR. The brains behind the ‘break-up’ campaign, NAB’s Kevin Ramsdale and Clemenger BBDO’s Tim McColl Jones, will be sharing their creative nous at the forum, but here’s a few morsels of their method to whet your appetite.
Back in the day, my mother occasionally used to make lamingtons. One of her favourite party tricks was to cut a square piece of mattress foam, cover it with chocolate icing, coconut and cream, put it on the plate along with all the actual lamingtons and then laugh maniacally when some unlucky sod bit into the trick treat. So a wave of nostalgia surged through me when I noticed this pizza roulette campaign for Hell Pizza by Barnes, Catmur & Friends that aims to tap into the sado-masochistic pizza-eating market.
Who’s it for: Cody’s by Barnes, Catmur & Friends and Curious
Why we like it: You can take the boys out of Roto-Vegas, but it seems you can’t take the Roto-Vegas out of the boys. More nice work from BC&F for Independent Liquor and typically …
Fairtrade schemes typically aim to help end child labour, address child poverty and give producers in developing nations a fair shot at a good life. All Good Bananas has been doing just that by helping kids in the El Guabo cooperative in Ecuador, but it decided it was time to try and help out some of the local young’uns in need by giving away 5,000 bunches (25,000) bananas this year.
Local ad network Adhub is claiming first place in a couple of eyeball races, with new sites Gloss, Beauty Bible, GardenNZ, FashionNZ, My Netball, The A List and View New Zealand soon to be added to its existing list of online properties like FLICKS.co.nz, Realestate.co.nz, allblacks.com, BBC.com, Lonely Planet and E!Online. The new sites come online on April 1 and, according to Adhub’s managing director Josh Borthwick, create the largest household shopper (1,486,335 monthly UBs) and entertainment/lifestyle (618,570 monthly UB’s) channels in New Zealand.
NZ Post certainly doesn’t like the trend towards receiving bills electronically, but it makes a lot of sense in these digital, environmentally conscious times. And RAPP Tribal and Telecom tried to bump up their numbers by dangling a philanthropic carrot with the Bills to Storybooks campaign, what they’re calling ‘the country’s first ever storybook written by New Zealanders for New Zealanders’.
Nigel Roberts is one of London’s most highly-awarded copywriters. Starting life as a junior copywriter at Saatchi & Saatchi in the late ’80s, Nigel worked his way up through some of the best agencies in London with his art director Paul Belford. For many years, their potent combination of brilliant copy and conceptual art direction earned them a reputation as the best print team in the world. Creative directorships at Ogilvy London, AMV BBDO and CHI & Partners were followed by a return to Leagas Delaney London to run the creative department. Over the years he has won nine D&AD Silver Pencils, six Cannes golds and four One Show Golds (the full list is too long to publish). Nigel spared us a few moments to answer our questions and share his thoughts on the industry. We hope you find it as inspiring as we did.
After moving its media strategy and buying to Republik almost 18 months ago, big US brands Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge (CJD) have now, in another blow to previous account holders .99, formally appointed the agency to take care of its creative business after working together on a project basis for the past 10 months.
In another round of bankland swings-and-roundabouts Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has appointed Colenso BBDO as its new creative agency, in alignment with with its Australian parent bank. BNZ spends around $10 million on advertising a year, so it’s a good win for Colenso, but Westpac may not be so thrilled… it dumped Saatchi & Saatchi for Colenso BBDO just 18 months ago.
If the Mr Vintage t-shirts are anything to go by, Jermaine Kerehi of Masterton unwittingly became something of a New Zealand cult hero last week when he uploaded a video of some “motherfucking eels” slithering around in the gutter outside his home in Jones Place. And, as a result of his enthralling YouTube clip, he has been handed the latest Alcohol Sponsorship Press Award (ASPs), beating out a virtual who’s who of the New Zealand media scene.
This year, digital advertising turns 18, and it’s come a long way since the blinking banner ads of the early web. Google is a huge part of that today, of course, so it’s not surprising that the company has taken it upon itself to remix four iconic ad campaigns from the 1960s and 70s from Alka-Seltzer, Avis, Coca-Cola and Volvo.
Think neon-filled skylines, The Strip, epic experiences, and of course a wedding chapel. Cody’s new TVC, made by Barnes, Catmur & Friends and Curious, marks Cody’s first foray into television commercials, and takes three good mates on a man-cation to Sin City… so, will it measure up to the real Vegas, back home?
Sir John Hegarty is one of the world’s most famous advertising creatives and was knighted in 2007 for his services to advertising. He’s founding partner and worldwide creative director of BBH, an agency he set up in 1982 with fellow ex-TBWA staffers John Bartle and Nigel Bogle. The network now spans London, New York, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai and Sao Paulo and is famous for pushing the boundaries creatively and transforming its clients’ businesses as a result (Levis and Lynx are two great examples). Hegarty’s values have never wavered, he is as driven now as he ever was and BBH’s work is consistently entertaining, irreverent and insightful. We sent him a few questions and, as always, he was happy to give us a bit of his time and share his views.
It’s a novel way to do business. The National Business Review is launching a new performance-related freelance contributors system for its online news service. Last month we reported the authority had some positions vacant. Today it has announced a new freelance scheme, which is ‘as well as’ not ‘instead of’ replacing those staff. The service will link the value of each story to its popularity on the site.
The power of good public relations, not to mention the perils of bad, cannot be underestimated, just ask Qantas, adidas, or Telecom. To help marcomms folk avoid such epic PR fails, CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group (MLG) is hosting a special event, Re-Imagining PR. It’s PR, ‘but not as you imagine, or know it’–because with social media constantly evolving, PR business models are also having to. Matt Bruhn, one of the speakers at the forum, answers a quick Q & A for those of you who can’t wait for the 21 March gig.
We’ve searched high, low, near, far and also wide for the best ads and ‘creative executions’ in this month’s crop of local magazines and now you get to decide which one is the best by voting in the March edition of The Glossies. See this month’s entries below. And remember, there’s just one vote per computer.