Humans can’t seem to get enough of screens these days. And they’re increasingly using their devices while watching TV. So locally developed app Pluk is working with advertisers and trying to point them in the right direction, writes Lesley Springall.
Monthly Archives: November, 2012
Kiwi publishing company Healthy Life Media is aiming to tap into the increasing concern it says Kiwis have for the environment—and give them practical ideas for easy ways to live more sustainably and save money—by launching a new monthly magazine called Green Ideas.
MediaWorks showed off its new season nuggets yesterday, and TVNZ is doing the same next week. So we thought it was high time we took a look at Nielsen’s TAM figures to see what shows tickled the fancies of New Zealanders from the key demographics in 2012.
String Theory’s last brilliant viral effort for the Good Books charity, Metamorphosis, recently took gold and bronze at the London International Awards, and it could have another winner on its hands, as Havana Heat, the next innuendo-heavy, bodice-ripping Mills and Boon-themed instalment has just been released. And, coincidentally, it’s been created by The Mill of London, which won production company of the year at the same awards.
Less talky talky about brand, more worky worky on reputation, says Oliver Haydon.
Air New Zealand’s hairyplane, AA Insurance’s tribute to the wonders of its industry and Speight’s New York knocking get the goodness.
Metro claims to be “the most trusted guide to eating in Auckland”. And the title is playing to its strengths and moving to where its audience is increasingly looking with the launch of Metro Eats, a new mobile app that was developed by Satellite Media and combines content from the magazine’s Top 50 Restaurants, Top 100 Cheap Eats and Top 50 Bars.
Ze Germans have created an extremely valuable country brand based around reliability, precision and quality design and engineering, which has certainly helped the likes of VW, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz conquer the world’s roads. But Sweden is trying to find its niche, and in New Zealand it’s doing it with a ballsy new campaign for the new Volvo V40 hatchback that takes aim at the established German car brands and taps into the desire to be ‘Über Different’.
What do you get when you cross glitter canons, cheerleaders showing their bums, overly dramatic sound tracks, media types eating all the nibbles and Paul Henry? A new season TV launch, of course. And first cab off the rank for 2013 was MediaWorks, which announced some of the goodies it will be showing on TV3 and Four at Sky City, interviewed some of 2012’s stars on the couch and introduced the first X Factor NZ judge, Stan Walker.
MasterCard is launching a new national direct to consumer (cardholder) privileges programme in the New Zealand market, and it’s putting the call out for agencies with a bit of mana in the travel, loyalty, offer generation, experiential and POS space.
Entries for this Thursday night’s Adshel Creative Challenge wind up on Tuesday night at 5pm. And there are still a couple of spots available for agency teams who enjoy eating pizza, drinking booze and developing a campaign for Surf Life Saving New Zealand in just 60 minutes.
It’s that time of year again, when fresh faced young’uns with dreams of creative greatness prostrate themselves in front of adland’s judgemental powerbrokers and show off the year’s handiwork. So get thee to the end of year show for the AUT Ad Creativity course on Friday 9 November at the Film Construction building in Minnie St if you want to see it.
The TV industry, here and around the world, is currently dealing with some major challenges, but all that serious business was mostly forgotten on Saturday night as the stars—from in front of and from behind the camera—of the local industry turned up to accentuate the positive at the 2012 New Zealand Television Awards. And in the annual (mostly) two horse race, it was MediaWorks that wrested the big news prizes off TVNZ, and TVNZ that took home most of the prizes in the drama and reality sections.
As a small airline that can’t afford to buy attention like some of its larger competitors, Air New Zealand has long advocated the benefits of content marketing through effective seeding of its unique—and often polarising—campaigns and safety videos and a world-class YouTube channel. With the help of Weta Workshop, it nailed The Hobbit inflight video. And it’s already a global hit, achieving worldwide media coverage and 6.2 million YouTube views in just four days since launching.
There were 1200 entries from 46 countries for this year’s Pentawards, which celebrate outstanding packaging design, and three projects by specialist consumer branding and packaging agency Redcactus made the final cut and were announced as winners.
The Southern Man has been a feature of Speight’s advertising—and a prominent feature of Kiwi pop culture—for many years, so any major change to the much-loved advertising figure is obviously fraught with danger. But times have changed. And, while New Zealand might not have too many skyscrapers, the new Speight’s campaign aims to show that we’ve got our priorities right.
Mother always said not to dwell on the past. But what would she know? She doesn’t even have an iPad. So, once again, we will soon be flying back through the mists of time for our ever-popular Year in Review series on StopPress. We’ll be lining up some of the industry’s most vigorous cutters and dastardly thrusters and asking them a few questions about the goods, bads and uglies of 2012. But we thought we’d ask our dear readers who they wanted to hear from most. So add your suggestions in the comments section and we’ll see what we can do.
Two days in to November and the lip hair of males around the country is already sprouting. The Movember industry challenge also kicked off yesterday, and while there are a few publishers stepping up to the mark, it could do with a few more contenders from agency land. But there’s still time. And all those who enter will be up for some tasty beverages, with Mo of the Week sponsored by TVNZ, which is putting four $150 bar tabs up for grabs, and Most valuable Mo sponsored by iSite, which is putting up a $300 Libertine voucher. Robert Dunne, the Movember country manager, will be picking the winners. So if you’re up to the task, register now, join your agency team and the Movember agency challenge (or become a team captain for your business) and show the industry just what kind of incremental growth you can deliver.
Tourism New Zealand’s marketing strategy is all about convincing ‘active considerers’ to give New Zealand a go. And almost all of its budget is now spent on digital marketing to communicate directly with consumers, with the award-winning newzealand.com website acting as the central hub to convert them to travel. And, with the help of TBWA\’s Digital Arts Network (DAN), the latest iteration of the site has been launched.
Cameron Slater takes on The Truth, OMDepartures and arrivals, digital developments at Colenso, McComms, Orange Group’s mission gets underway, a good Choice, Komli buzzes out, and another Bright Spark.
Whatever St Matthew in the City can do, Chapel Bar can do better. To celebrate seven years of Almighty Nights at the Ponsonby Road institution, it enlisted the sacrilegious services of Ogilvy, which created a great (unless you’re a devout Christian) ad that’s bound to appeal to the secular customer base.
An appropriate punishment for those who use buzzwords; Megan Fox: dolphin whisperer; beware the Zomney apocalypse; a beautiful bit of horse play; spot the Halloween-inspired ‘ghostbombing’; Call of Duty is back with a few more surprises; Nike’s very cool ‘live freeze’; a proper boom box; another kooky feline musical number for Litter Genie; If ten-year-olds ran an agency; the social media protest song; Wieden + Kennedy goes gonzo with Old Spice recruitment challenges, the Taxonomy of Arse, quite possibly the best Halloween costume ever conceived.
When Localist launched as an Auckland-only print directory, plenty of questions were raised about the rationale behind the creation of a new product that went head to head with a dominant player in what many saw as a dying industry. 18 months on and it’s still here and, confounding the sceptics, it’s still growing. But as of next week Localist will be very different and 100 percent digital.
As Genesis, the country’s biggest spending energy company, gets set to announce the results of its recent pitch, Contact, the country’s second biggest spending energy company, is also searching for some new agency partners, although, judging by the number of go-to industry gossips who didn’t know about it, it seems to have been a slightly more exclusive affair.
Recent changes to Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm have got a lot of people up in arms. Yet again, the social sky is falling. But PHDiQ’s Polly Williams is here to be the voice of reason.
Air New Zealand became the official airline of Middle-earth a few months ago as part of a marketing deal struck up between Tourism New Zealand, New Line, MGM and Warner Bros. And, after plenty of teasing, including a countdown clock on its Flying Social Network site, it’s released a classy new Hobbit-themed safety video.
Last year’s impressive Step Up campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi for the RNZAF offered users the chance to experience four live simulated challenges that tested their skills against some of the everyday situations they’d encounter if they took up a career in the Air Force. This year’s version, ‘Virtual Missions’, follows a similar path and it’s been deemed good enough to win the IABNZ Online Creative Award for November 2012.