Monthly Archives: August, 2012

News
The Choco-ade chronicles: how Griffin’s, Assignment Group and Amber Johnson created a monster
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Nostalgia’s not what it used to be. But when it comes to biscuits, it’s obviously still a very powerful force, because the decision to get behind a campaign started by Upper Hutt-based biscuit crusader Amber Johnson to bring back Choco-ades has well and truly paid off for Griffin’s, with AZTEC scan data figures showing it set a new benchmark as the top selling product by value in supermarkets in its first week of sales, beating the Avatar DVD.

News
A gold for design
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If you’re anything like us, you’re wondering how Tom Selleck got involved in shot put coaching, why staying on your bike while waiting for the lights to change isn’t an Olympic sport yet, whether the Sunday Star Times cover was a casualty of coincidence or something more sinister, and what happened to Charlie Brooker to make him think the Olympics are better than they looked on the tin. You might also be wondering how an event like the Olympics develops its visual identity. Luckily, Design Boom has detailed the whole massive process to come up with a cohesive look for the games—and the pretty bloody impressive results.

Movings & Shakings
Movings/Shakings: 6 August
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TVNZ’s Eric Kearley joins Rick Ellis at Telstra, Air New Zealand shifts some troops, Copper prepares for growth with a double, Rory Carter opens the doors of Red Dennis, Getty bolsters its APAC marketing team, CAANZ welcomes a new recruit, Kip Brook heads into academia, and James Mok and Kelly Bennett get the call up for Spikes Asia.

News
Ambient Group hits the forecourt with new Caltex media portfolio
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Ambient Group and the Star Metro Retail Partnership have launched a new media portfolio consisting of fuel pump handles, door media at point of entry to the store, floor media in front of the payment till and fins on beverage fridges through 116 Caltex member sites covering Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and all other major centre and roads networks nationwide.

News
Burger King and Colenso wake up and smell the coffee
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Breakfast, as the old idiom goes, is the most important meal of the day. Burger King NZ obviously didn’t get the memo and left that segment of the fast-food market to competitors like McDonald’s and Wendys. But, as a new campaign by Colenso BBDO that spans TV, radio, press, online, sampling and PR states, it’s now “woken up to a whole new time”.

News
Cancer Society and &some humanise technology to drum up Daffodil Day donations
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It’s tough out there in charity land at the moment. There are lots of organisations fighting for funding, consumers are still counting their pennies and in EFTPOS-loving New Zealand the cashless society is a very real thing, which means the traditional street appeal doesn’t work quite as well as it once did. So to get around this and drive donations in the lead up to Daffodil Day on 31 August, the Cancer Society and &some have called on the ubiquity of the mobile phone to help smooth the process.

Movings & Shakings
Prodigal planner returns from the Orient for senior Y&R role
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When Colenso BBDO’s head of planning James Hurman decided to expand his horizons and take a role as planning partner at Ogilvy Shangahi, he said he’d probably be back in the homeland eventually. But he’s returned much sooner than expected, with the bearded one cutting short his OE to take up the role of managing director at Y&R, where he will be working alongside one of his old cohorts Josh Moore.

News
Build it and they shall come, float it and they might visit
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Readers of New Zealand building industry magazine Build can look forward to a new contemporary design in October as part of enhancements that will soon include digital delivery and better access to back articles. And island lovers have also got something to look forward to with the launch of the inaugural Island Destinations annual.

News
NIM wits: when is a magazine not a magazine? —UPDATED
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September is shaping up to be a watershed month for APN NZ—and, more broadly, New Zealand’s newspaper publishing sector. The New Zealand Herald is set to reveal its new compact weekday edition on 10 September and the newly redesigned nzherald.co.nz site will go live around the same time. There’s also a new Newspaper Inserted Magazine (NIM) on Mondays about food, health and well-being and readers will also be treated to a one-off premium glossy magazine on launch day called, appropriately enough, The Magazine. But what exactly is a magazine? Why are NIMs so appealing for newspaper publishers? And why is ACP’s Paul Dykzeul so fired up?

News
AMI rallies the troops to help move the dial
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It’s been a difficult 18 or so months for AMI, which required government assistance to stay afloat after the quakes and was eventually bought by IAG. But it isn’t taking the negativity surrounding it lying down and it has launched a new campaign from DDB and Flying Fish that focuses on the fact that its staff are still committed to the cause.

News
Missing greatness! Food babies! Value! Britain! Goog! Sexy lollies! Death! Underground Korean hip-hop! Down under! Vocal locals! Other things!
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We can’t all be great, what could be the next logical brand extension of MasterChef, shopping like you’ve never seen it, the great David Mitchell on the not so great British public, Amstel’s nicely told tale of the tape, another stunner from the Goog, lollies are sexy, the best death scene ever, a song so addictive it is “certain to penetrate the foundations of modern philosophy”, Telstra’s Olympics promo, a man of many talents, turns out advertising is like S&M, novel greeting cards, the rather comical faces of Olympic diving, all you ever wanted to know about beards, a very bad idea, celebrating the sports Brits are good at, and something for those who love bacon to death.

News
Z kids say the darndest things
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As Sir Peter Blake often said, if it’s not hard, it’s not worth doing. And there’s no doubt trying to get a bunch of young kids to stick to a script is fairly difficult. But one of the major pay-offs of working with children is that you might get to release an out-takes video, like this very entertaining behind-the-scenes number for Z’s latest campaign by Assignment Group and Exposure’s Kevin Denholm.

News
Greasing the wheels of goodness
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Back in May, Mercury Energy sent its experimental ‘Good Energy Taxi’ onto the streets of Auckland. At the time, Tequila’s main brains Ross Howard said the motorised version of a karma bank was a bit of a double whammee, with the experiential element meaning a range of Kiwis came into contact with the taxi—either in person or via social media—and the footage taken from inside the cab being made into a short documentary that captured some of the Kiwi good sorts. And now you can check that documentary out.

News
ASB’s new mobile app: creating digital gimmickry or creating the future?
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ASB has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most innovative banks, as evidenced by its inclusion on the Financial Brand’s list of ten brands to watch, the Top 35 Banks on Facebook and Top 35 Banks on Twitter. It was the first to launch internet banking in New Zealand in 1997, its virtual ‘Facebranch’ was an award-winning world-first, and its latest development has followed that trajectory by letting users pay Facebook friends through its updated mobile app. So is it digital gimmickry? Or is ASB adhering to its slogan and creating the future? We chat with general manager, brand experience and digital channels Anna Curzon.

Awards
Talkin’ bout a revolution
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The digital age is changing the way we live and work. And whatever your industry or interest, you’re part of the wave, like it or not. And digital media conference The Project, described as “a collision of thought on social media and digital communication”, is your chance to figure out how to ride it.

Movings & Shakings
Moore replaces Ramage as Y&R NZ’s top dog
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After a bit of a rough patch, the newly rebranded ‘global boutique’ Y&R NZ has been slowly getting back on the good foot, with some nice work for the likes of HRV, Shapes Roadies and ACC, and some big names being added to the staff roster, among them Josh Moore as executive creative director, Ross Goldsack returning as non-executive director and Scott Henderson manning the fort in Wellington. And now there’s another big change to announce, with the chief executive of seven years Jon Ramage stepping down and being replaced by Moore.

News
A bit sheepish: Cavalier Bremworth promotes ovine versatility with new animated campaign
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Back in the day, as a young lad living with a flat full of horrible men in Dunedin, we (mostly jokingly) discussed the idea of investing in a flat sheep because it was such a versatile animal, providing warmth, a footstool, lawnmowing services, fertiliser, ‘comfort’ (for the Southlanders) and, eventually, food. And Cavalier Bremworth is equally fond of the humble sheep’s versatility, because they’ve launched a new campaign to remind Kiwis that wool is the best choice for carpet as it has already passed the toughest tests when it was on the beast’s back.

Opinion
A very Pinteresting breakfast
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The Marketing Association hosted yet another sell-out Brainy Breakfast event last week, with over 300 marketers filling the Crowne Plaza’s conference room ready to listen to international social media expert, Brian Giesen and Jennifer Duval-Smith, executive director at Social@Ogilvy in New Zealand, speak about Pinterest—and how to use it to leverage social media campaigns.

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