Monthly Archives: May, 2012

Opinion
Everything is dead: Kevin Roberts on life in a ‘super VUCA world’
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The {insert thing here} is dead theme is a very common one in an industry that’s enamoured with the new. Newspapers are dead, magazines are dead, TV is dead, retail is dead, radio is dead, full-service agencies are dead .. and the list goes on. Typically, these rather evangelical assertions come from those with a barrow to push, not from those who are part of the ‘establishment’. So we were surprised to read a story about Saatchi & Saatchi’s global chief executive Kevin Roberts claiming marketing is dead, strategy is dead, management is dead and big ideas are dead in a presentation he gave at The IoD’s Annual Convention. 

News
New IdeaWorks incarnation keeps the momentum flowing with Beds R Us win
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IdeaWorks closed its New Zealand doors in 2009 and said goodbye to eight staff and all of its clients, including the big Warehouse Stationery account. But it was officially reborn in March this year with Y&R Group as the new owner. And after a solid campaign to launch the new FCO retail brand in New Zealand, it has also been appointed as creative agency for Beds R Us after a three way pitch. 

News
Off-road meets hi-tech as Brother rides shotgun with Rally New Zealand
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For many years, Brother has focused on promoting printers, copiers, sewing machines, labellers and other products from its “home and business IT peripherals” range, usually with a host of low-budget TV ads and that well-known tune at the end, ‘Brutttthhhher’. But it’s attempting to come out of the shadows in New Zealand—and, at the same time, showcase the Japanese company’s technological prowess—by signing up as naming rights sponsor of the Brother Rally New Zealand and the Brother International Rally of Whangarei. 

Opinion
A world gone digital
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The MA’s Digital Day Out Event last week was an opportunity to see how advertisers and consumers are interacting via social networking sites, the internet, TV, mobile devices, tablets and instore digital signage. And what may be involved in the future if those relationships hope to be strengthened. 

News
Spotify kicks off in Kiwiland
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Many have been anxiously awaiting the announcement, and it has cometh: digital streaming service Spotify is officially available in New Zealand and Australia, opening up its catalogue of more than 16 million tracks and bringing Spotify’s availability to a grand total of 15 countries. So what’s the deal? And why are brands like Coca-Cola getting involved? 

News
Nike goes deep with My Time is Now
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The last time Nike and Wieden + Kennedy got together for a massive advertising push was for the Football World Cup and most would agree the end result, ‘Write the Future’, was one of the best sporting commercials of all time. But it’s taken things up a notch for the launch of the 2012 European Championship with the brilliant and multi-layered My Time is Now.

News
Need an extension?
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Entries for the 2012 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards officially closed on Friday. But if you still haven’t got your entry in for whatever reason (laziness, inebriation, unreliable minions etc), all is not lost. You can extend the deadline until this Friday by applying for an extension here and forking over $50.

News
Confidence, couches and cockies
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Who’s it for: Rexona by Naked and Curious.

Why we like it: Depending on your viewpoint, the last Rexona spot that aired around the Rugby World Cup was either overwrought and overly earnest or powerful and beautifully shot. The follow up is fairly earnest as well …

News
A trip back in time—and a trip to National Bank country
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As the biggest lender to the rural sector, the National Bank knows more about how our agrarian warriors tick than most. And while this ad is an oldie that was made by DraftFCB and Robber’s Dog around the same time as the National Bank ‘For the Places you’ll Go’ campaign (we obviously we don’t watch enough Country Calendar and hadn’t seen it before), we reckon it’s a goodie. 

News
Ghost Chips come back to haunt AXIS judges once again as the people’s favourite takes TVC of the Year title
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NZTA, Clemenger BBDO and The Sweet Shop’s Legend campaign became something of a pop cultural phenomenon when it was released last year, with a couple of lines quickly becoming part of the Kiwi vernacular, t-shirts bearing images of Ghost Chips being worn around the country, and hundreds of parodies, spoof ads and TradeMe auctions referencing the original. And while all those involved in its creation are still smarting a little after the most talked about ad of 2011 went home without any gold at the AXIS awards, it appears there is some justice in the world, because it quite rightly received 11 percent of the vote to win the StopPress/ThinkTV TVC of the Year.

News
Agencies place their bids as MSN NZ’s ad exchange reels in the digital punters
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MSN NZ announced a few big changes to its business last year, including the launch of real-time bidding (RTB) system Microsoft Advertising Exchange, something akin to a media stockmarket that allowed advertisers and publishers to buy and sell digital inventory. And the bet seems to have paid off, with MSN reporting significant local uptake of the system and a big recent increase in revenue. 

Movings & Shakings
Movings/Shakings: 22 May
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Mark Richardson and Shannon Ryan get themselves on The Block, Haystac reaches double figures, ACP’s Kia Ora is voted world’s third best inflight mag, Frucor quenches its thirst with Gatorade, The Sweet Shop adds Wellingtonian animation director done good to its stable, and TVNZ teams up with Xpo for the upcoming MyBiz expo.

News
Westpac and .99 focus on the little things for annual Chopper Appeal
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The Westpac rescue helicopters have saved thousands of lives in New Zealand. But saving those lives doesn’t come cheap (in fact, it costs around $4 million a year to fund a three-crew 24/7 immediate-response team). And despite the ongoing support of principal sponsor Westpac and other partners, the assistance of the public is also crucial to help keep them flying, so this year’s fundraising campaign by .99 aims to remind Kiwis that every donation is valuable regardless of its size, just like the equipment inside each helicopter. 

News
Massey goes mobile with New Zealand’s first iPhone-created TV ad
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It really is quite amazing how much technology is being packed into our pockets at the moment. And Massey University and Assignment Group’s Wellington office have shown just how far things have come—and how ‘the engine of the new New Zealand’ is changing the lives of people here and around the world—by getting the University’s vice-chancellor Steve Maharey to film its new 30-second commercial on an iPhone, something the Commercial Approvals Bureau has confirmed is a New Zealand first. 

News
APN bags the big ‘uns at Canon Media Awards, as The Press rewarded for courage under fire
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A rapidly changing media landscape means it’s not the happiest of financial times for many in the newspaper and magazine publishing sector at the moment, but those issues were briefly forgotten on Friday night as the industry gathered in Auckland to reward the best in the business at the Canon Media Awards. And it was APN, which has recently enlisted the help of Deutsche Bank to conduct an asset review, that again popped the most corks on the night and followed on from its ‘grand slam’ last year by taking out the vast majority of the big awards. 

News
MediaWorks rejoices as More FM claims clean sweep at NZ Radio Awards
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52 awards acknowledging on-air personalities, programming, news and sports reporting, promotions, creativity and production, sales and community involvement were handed out via webcast last week at the 2012 New Zealand Radio Awards, and MediaWorks Radio is claiming victory after nabbing 21 of them, with More FM taking all three station of the year accolades.

News
Intergen study shows online engagement on the up, but Kiwi companies still hedging bets
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The second Engaged Web in New Zealand Report, which saw Intergen assess the five most visited New Zealand websites from ten different sectors to measure their level of customer engagement, has just been released, with the highlights being that 90 percent of websites increased their level of engagement since last year, companies are focusing less on the primary corporate websites, New Zealand’s news and media websites are the most engaging and the shopping and classifieds, and banking and finance sectors have made the biggest improvement. 

News
Us vs. them
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According to a study commissioned by San Francisco-based advertising agency Heat, advertising and marketing types are pretty unique in their use of social media. Perhaps unsurprisingly, ad types are three times more likely to pay attention to brands on Facebook and Twitter. But—more interestingly—they’re also much more likely to do drugs (26 percent vs three percent of the general public), throw up from excessive drinking (37 percent vs nine percent) and hook up with a colleague (26 percent vs eight percent).

News
OgilvyAction takes the biscuits with Griffin’s win
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After launching earlier this year, Ogilvy’s shopper marketing division OgilvyAction picked up the NZ Pork account and  released a campaign starring Simon Gault. And it has put another sticker on the wall after winning the Griffin’s Foods below-the-line account in a three way competitive pitch thought to have involved Energi and the incumbent Apollo. 

News
TV and online stuff moneyboxes with a few additional millions
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Total online advertising spend in New Zealand for Q1 2012 totalled $79 million, up $11 million year-on year. But that figure is down almost $10 million on Q3 2011. And over on TV, total television advertising revenue for the March quarter rose four percent to $125 million, up $4 million on the first quarter of 2011.

Movings & Shakings
Movings/Shakings: 18 May—UPDATED
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Creative seeds are planted as a new PR agency launches, MediaWorks TV says goodbye to its long-serving director of programming while MediaWorks Radio puts some wind in its sales, Ocean Design’s increased workload leads to a host of new recruits and a new office, Bullseye’s new Auckland office gets its hands dirty with Tui Products, Tamati Coffey takes a place on the Breakfast couch, Pluk gets set for expansion with a new country manager, and local animation ringmasters Cirkus get the call up for Cannes alongside Bill Clinton, Ridley Scott and Debbie Harry. 

News
TVNZ works itself into a promotional lather for Shorty’s big milestone
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Avid fans might remember the debut of Shortland St back in 1992. Aside from delectable ’90s fashion and haircuts, it featured a particularly naughty romantic rendezvous between Dr Chris Warner and a lycra-clad aerobics instructor played by Suzy Aitken, and also gave birth to that line now etched in the Kiwi psyche: “You’re not in Guatemala now, Dr Ropata.” Early signs weren’t too promising, however, and ratings dropped after its launch. But that was two decades ago and as the show edges closer to its 20th anniversary, its popularity seems well assured, with the show consistently capturing over 600,000 viewers in the 5+ market, second only to One News. And with a big promotional push to celebrate the milestone, culminating in a special anniversary feature episode on Monday 21 May, TVNZ is hoping those ratings will soon be shooting upwards.

News
Start your morning with a clarification
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On March 27 StopPress published a story about a BNZ campaign by its outgoing agency Sugar. A comment ostensibly authored by Jasmine Wilkinson was published under that story that took aim at Sugar, BNZ and other partners. We can confirm that Jasmine was not the author of this comment and that another user posted this comment using Jasmine’s name and email address. The comments were inaccurate and in no way representative of the views of Jasmine nor of StopPress, and were thus removed. We regret that both StopPress and Jasmine were implicated in this malicious use of the blog. We have reviewed the commenting system and will implement a new system in the near future. 

News
OMD and Fly Buys chip away at greasy lovers with new media channel
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As Marshall McLuhan famously said, the medium is the message, “creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived”. Very rarely does the medium get the message across and also have the ability to soak up grease, but OMD’s novel campaign for Fly Buys Visa that will see deep fried goods up and down New Zealand being wrapped in branded paper has managed to do exactly that. 

News
Telecom doubles its data, ups its game
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According to a recent Commerce Commission report into the telco industry, the number of broadband connections in New Zealand has more than doubled in the past five years and Telecom has around half of the total residential ISP market. But it’s aiming to increase that, sweeten the deal its for existing customers and get more people streaming by doubling the amount of data for all Total Home broadband packages for no extra charge. And, as the new ‘Why Not?’ campaign from Saatchi & Saatchi shows, that means you can download and share to your heart’s content.  

News
Cavalier Bremworth strikes while the stain’s wet
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The stain jokes have been flowing freely after an onanistic carpet cleaner got busted busting one out on Target this week. And Cavalier Bremworth, with the help of its agency Federation, hasn’t let the opportunity to promote its carpet stain remover pass it by. 

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