Kiwi online hardware store Trade Tested has taken to YouTube with its own version of the cheesy informercial genre. A woodchipper at the company’s warehouse near Auckland International Airport is one of the stars of the videos, modelled on infomercials like the US series Will It Blend, by blender firm Blendtec.
Trade Me has won the October Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award for its New or Used campaign, which it says highlighted the range of new products available while staying true to the “Kiwi tone” of its brand. And it seems the bike seat, burdened in the TVC by a large naked man, attracted the most curiosity.
There’s nothing new about the dimension of smell in video games, but there is about a crazy looking character that plugs into your phone and emits the delicious scent of hot, buttery popcorn.
With a new co-owner on board and a desire to differentiate, Rush Munro’s ice cream has lifted the lid on a new look from Dow Design that’s pumped up the colour and personality.
New top level domains are a unique opportunity to register an address that aligns perfectly with a brand or company’s personality. But we’ll have to wait and see if the release of the domains will be a land grab or an insurance policy for brand IP, says Anthony Gardiner.
As you sit there staring forlornly at your screen, thinking about all the boring things you need to get done before the end of the year, here’s something that will either make you feel completely inadequate or inspire you to get out there, switch on the GoPro and try something ridiculous.
Hard on the heels of Coke Zero’s website that put the ugly yuletide jersey in the spotlight, beer brand Budweiser is doing the same, but this time it’s for a serious cause. The Knitbot supports and rewards designated drivers using tweet power.
Tristan Marris and Mark Osborne tried a raft of products to manage their digital creative agency 96black since establishing it about three years ago. In true startup style, frustration with what was available drove them to create something that better suited their needs and they want small agencies to give it a try.
Chorus says Gigatown competition not under review despite financial troubles; says it has dramatically reduced spam among participants in the competition, which offers a region fast internet connectivity.
Alan Gourdie joins the board table at Designworks, Dave Gibson adds NZFC chief executive badge to his decorated career, Marsden Inch acknowleges young duo’s talents, Porter Novelli brings on young comms hotshot for six-month internship, Justin du Fresne follows Deaker out the Newstalk ZB door, IBM and the Marketing Association put their heads together.
Taking inspiration from the ‘Fix. Fasten. Forget’ campaign slogan from the well-loved Havoc and Newsboy campaign of the early 2000s, Y&R Wellington has now launched ‘Fix. Fasten. Don’t forget,’ a government-funded follow-on that aims to remind Kiwis of the importance of securely fastening items around the home. But rather than using a humorous educational approach, Y&R aims to catch the audience off guard with three ads designed to shock Kiwis out of their inertia.
Those who climb the corporate ladder tend to be narcissistic, Machiavellian and psychopathic, according to psychologist Oliver James. So here’s a classy corporate parody video that might help you hone those handy career skills by showing you how to make the world your office, use powerful acronyms and create the best business card ever.
Prime TV and DraftFCB have taken out the November round of News Works Newspaper Ad of the Month for ‘Dish—Doctor Who Moon Bounce’, while DB and Saatchi & Saatchi took a highly commended for their Big Boys Toys Tui Breweries Lager voucher.
Two entertaining PSAs for HPA and Maritime NZ, shock tactics from EQC and some clever use of video from Burger King get the festive baubles this week.
Christmas is rapidly approaching, but instead of getting the gamer in your life something for their Xbox One or PS4, how about something a little more realistic?
While it’s unclear what opera or skateboarding have to do with whiskey, this ad for Ballantine’s does a great job of bringing together the disparate worlds of urban and classical art.
Last year, New Zealand’s Got Talent (NZGT) enjoyed an average viewership of 839,209 over the course of 13 weeks, but the follow-up season couldn’t even match that amount in the final episode, with only 726,900 viewers tuning in on Sunday night to see season-ending episode. These results from Nielsen bring a disappointing end to the second season of TVNZ’s show, which was originally tipped for further success when it was announced.
We’re big fans of dad dancing—and of the powerful parenting technique of embarrassment—here at StopPress. And those two things have been combined to good effect in a new campaign for the Health Promotion Agency (HPA) via its agency DraftFCB that aims to draw attention to an upcoming law change around the supply of booze to young’uns.
In just 18 months, AA Smartfuel signed up half the country and a host of retail partners to its innovative loyalty scheme.
At a time when Big Wednesday was becoming the reason sales targets across the business were not being met, the New Zealand Lotteries team went back to the drawing board to try something new. And what they did was re-work the Big Wednesday marketing approach to focus on what players really wanted to hear about: the jackpot.
Creative agency Fly turns 10 next year and to mark the milestone, has brought founder Shane Hansen back into the fold to give the brand a bit of a facelift. Creative director Johnson McKay elaborates on the shift and reflects on the journey to date.
Les Mills is one of the country’s most successful weightless exporters. Now it’s also a successful weight exporter, thanks to the Smartbar.
While most Kiwi boaties now carry life jackets on their vessel, they’re only worn 70 percent of the time, largely due to an erroneous belief that they’ll be able to whip them out and put them on if they get into trouble. So Maritime NZ and DraftFCB have attempted to illustrate the ridiculousness of the carrying-but-not-wearing scenario by harnessing the immense power of the ‘80s buddy cop drama.
By educating consumers and health professionals about Champix, Pfizer New Zealand has helped thousands of Kiwis stop smoking—and once again caught the eye of head office.
Telecom has made some big changes this year—both internally and to its agency structure. And there’s time for another big one before Christmas, with general manager of brand, communications and digital Kellie Nathan set to depart in February after taking on the job of general manager of marketing at Pumpkin Patch.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
From next year, the CAANZ Media Awards will be replaced by the revamped Beacon Awards, which in addition to featuring a new name will also have a new digs and a flash new look.
New Zealand’s history of sports sponsorship goes back a long way, and it has become common around this time of the year for the sponsorship shuffle to start as brands renew old deals, strike new ones or depart from teams entirely. And this year has been no exception, with Ford, Telecom, NIB, Adidas, Steinlager and a new Kiwi startup all getting in on the action.
Strahan Wallis will step into the role of managing director of Porter Novelli New Zealand on 1 January 2014 in a move that will see him replace Jane Sweeney, who is set to leave the company at the end of the year, after approximately nine years of service.
