The gaming community was breathing into a paper bag after Sony launched its next generation PlayStation 4 console a few days ago. And Sony and its new agency BBH New York are embracing the fantasy with an epic ad entitled ‘Greatness Awaits’, which features a range of character cameos, exploding sets and, of course, OTT violence.
Judging from the (unusually) complimentary comments on StopPress, the pundits seem to like the new—and quite bizarre—Instant Kiwi campaign. And, to launch NZ Lotteries’ new overarching tagline of ‘Winning Happens’, DDB has also released a series of entertaining radio ads featuring monkeys, kung fu masters and tense reality show music that aim to drum home the fact that there’s a winner every second-and-a-half across the whole portfolio.
Airlines and tourism marketing entities go together like raspberry and Coke, and following some successful recent partnerships, Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand have upped the stakes, agreeing to a one-year, more than $20 million deal to promote travel to New Zealand, an increase of around 80 percent on the previous year. PLUS: Air New Zealand drops the blue in new livery.
I launched my first app on the Apple App Store towards the beginning of May. It’s a Newsstand magazine app called Aucklandia, which shows some of my street photography work and little stories about each photo. I’m taking the opportunity to share with you what I’ve learned in my first month as a bona fide app developer.
I was unimpressed by Microsoft’s Surface RT, which was released in New Zealand earlier this year. I saw the potential in the device, but it was hamstrung by its poor performance and the lack of apps. The Microsoft Surface Pro is that potential finally realised.
It missed out on the big Foodstuffs account recently, but the new executive team at Whybin\TBWA has chalked up a welcome win after being appointed as the new creative and strategic agency for the Bell Tea & Coffee Company’s (BTCC) stable of tea brands.
Come next week, throngs of industry folk will touch down in Cannes to pat backs, sip rosé and try to be inspired. Agencies and their holding companies invest huge sums to take part. But duo Michael Middelkoop and Sharif Elmawla, who are currently working at Saatchi & Saatchi Amsterdam, decided to find out what else the entry money would be able to buy with their website www.insteadofalion.com.
We wrote about Beck’s and Shine’s Edison-inspired beer bottle last week. And now there’s a making-of video created by magazine/media company Vice that shows the whole, very involved process.
Watties’ ‘Food in a Minute’ has been running for 16 years, and it hasn’t changed much in that time. But it’s just launched a national, multi-channel campaign to celebrate its new look and modified focus.
In the war for talent, the marcomms sector is on the frontlines, with regular poaching of staff and a strong desire for those attracted to the industry to take on ‘new challenges’. So how do you attract and retain staff in this digital age? While employees are motivated by perks and pay, new research from Deloitte and Google has found that workplace IT is becoming an increasingly important factor.
You may have noticed an inordinate amount of frothing at the mouth from Apple acolytes yesterday as the company announced some significant changes, including a newly redesigned iOS and Mac Pro, as well as iTunes Radio and multi-tasking. And it’s promoting its changes, the importance of design and the human experience its products offer with a new and intimate campaign via TBWA\ in the US.
One of the handy things about having an app in the Apple App Store is the iOS developer centre , which comes with early access to new builds of the operating system. After downloading and playing with the beta version of iOS 7 for iPhone I’ve come to the conclusion that Apple’s made real strides to compete with Android, but has managed to get hit by the ugly stick on the way.
One-dimesional welders, trans-Tasman comparisons and enthusiastic old men take the TVC crown this week.
Charlotte Squire is the irrepressible optimist who has been living and breathing online magazine Happyzine for the past five years and trying to succeed with what she calls “solutions focused journalism”.
When Contagion launched a few years back, it was loudly beating the digital and social drum. It still is, but it’s also doing more of what some would call traditional agency work. So is it selling out? Or is getting in on the groundfloor by offering specialist skills that clients seem to be looking for and then gradually taking a bigger chunk of the business a smart strategy?
Instant Kiwi is all about giving low-level gamblers a short, sharp thrill. And DDB has brought that idea to life in its latest campaign, one of the first executions to feature New Zealand Lotteries’ new over-arching tagline ‘Winning Happens’.
TVNZ’s new current affairs show Seven Sharp got off to fairly shaky start. So 18 weeks in, how is it holding up? And what has its arrival meant for the 7pm ratings? PLUS: Comment from TVNZ’s new HONCA John Gillespie.
We Kiwis like to think we’ve got it sorted, living as we do in our little slice of ‘100% Pure’ paradise. But we have plenty of demons and the truth is that New Zealand is “one of the worst-ranking OECD nations in terms of the percentage of the population that works ‘very long hours'”. So Westpac and DDB have dramatised that fact with another entertaining ad as part of its ‘Start Asking’ campaign that shows the pitfalls of owning your own business.
Over the past few years, we have seen a series of memes that have had the potential to cause injury, such as planking, owling, batting and, of course, extreme ironing/hammocking. The Harlem Shake, however, never really seemed too dangerous. Ridiculous, yes, but not particularly life threatening. Fonterra disagreed, however, after it sacked two of its staff for shaking it on the Takanini factory floor.
New Zealand-based photography and illustration house International Rescue is setting up shop in Australia, with a new office in Sydney.
Inside most major TV networks there exists an often unrecognised group responsible for developing show promos, design collateral and marketing campaigns that aim to get viewers excited about the content. And these teams were rewarded recently in the second Promax New Zealand awards.
One of the joys of this business is that companies are often willing to spend untold sums in an effort to bring often-ridiculous ideas to life. Red Bull has made an art form of it over the years and, with its increased focus on media, it’s creating some remarkable things, likes its recent project filming the fastest bird in the world, the peregrine falcon, hunting down one of the best downhill mountain bikers in the world, Gee Atherton.
There’s a Tumblr for everything these days, heck – there’s probably a Tumblr curating all the times the phrase “there’s a Tumblr for everything these days” is used in an article. So it’s not surprising that the biggest news story of the week, the NSA and PRISM cyber spying scandal, gets the full Tumblr treatment.
When life gives you lemons, go back in time and punch it in the face. That’s the message behind BJ Golnick’s entry into Saatchi and Saatchi’s global Music Video Challenge, which saw hundreds of entrants remix their original video onto OKGO’s latest track ‘I’m Not Through’.
More online ad spend figures, this time a new quarterly study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau New Zealand (IAB) and PwC, which shows interactive ad spend is up 26 percent to $99.2 million in the first quarter of this year.
A new challenger for New Zealand’s TV shopping market is set to launch in the country later this year. Korean-based KD Media has announced the new (and yet to be named) channel, led by Auckland-based investor and chief executive Paul Ding.
According to Nielsen research, 54 percent of Kiwis aged over 18 years are now shopping online, an increase from 38 percent of New Zealanders five years ago, with New Zealanders spending $3.7 billion in the last 12 months.
Nielsen’s latest figures on online shopping show more Kiwis are clicking to buy. And from holographic retail assistants to interactive zombie gaming to mobile apps that allow users to purchase items via QR codes, retailers and marketers are donning their digital thinking caps to find the most creative ways to lure and retain customer attention in the colliding world of bricks, mortar and online retailing. Deirdre Robert shops on.
At the start of this month Charlie’s announced its new name: The Better Drinks Company. But that’s not the only change taking place behind the scenes for the drinks manufacturer. A new office space was commissioned to physically represent the company’s new philosophy.
To promote the fact that 2degrees customers on a Carryover Plan can call and text their Aussie mates at no extra cost, the cheeky telco has released an ad via TBWA that details the similarities between the two countries. But it still manages to stoke the trans-Tasman coals with a Troy McClure-esque disclaimer at the end.