Monthly Archives: January, 2014

News
BNZ asks Kiwis to see, snap and save—UPDATED
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BNZ has announced an update to YouMoney that enables users to add accounts dedicated to specific items via a smartphone. And to spread awareness of the update, the blue bank has also launched a social media competition that asks Kiwis to share pictures of things they want via social media channels.

News
Big Day Out cross-collaborates to offer more than just music
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In 2013, many Kiwi music fans were left with a Big Day Out-shaped hole in their hearts on account of the event being pulled due to the disappointing 2012 lineup resulting in poor ticket sales. But this year, with Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire, Deftones and Snoop of the canine or feline persuasion making an appearance, the hype has attracted not only fans but also a few Kiwi businesses. Here’s what attendees can look forward to at this year’s event.

News
Games get real
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With ever better visuals, characters and stories, and even the addition of things like scents, games are getting more and more real. In its new TVC by Crispin, Porter and Bogusky, Microsoft warns obsessed gamers just how real things are getting.

News
Sony wants us to be moved
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What happens when engineers and artists come together? No, it’s not engineer/artist babies, it’s creative new products. Sony wants to show us that hardware is all about feelings.

News
Ikea rides to rescue of indecisive shoppers
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Some of us like to ask friends and family before we buy something, others spend hours browsing websites and catalogues before they hit the shops. Now furniture retailer Ikea has an alternative with an app that uses the Chinese signs of the Zodiac to make recommendations.

News
Jucy opens door to caravan of love
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Jucy is rewarding hopeless romantics for their creative and quirky displays of public affection on social media. It’s launched a competition that offers a week of glamping, the sophisticate’s version of what traditionalists used to know as camping.

News
Apple gets poetic
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Apple is harnessing the value of poetry in a new ad that aims to promote the iPad Air. The 90-second spot couples an excerpt spoken by Robin Williams in the Dead Poets Society with video footage that showcases the splendour of human endeavour. PLUS: see which other brands have dabbled in verse to flog products.

News
MediaWorks partially rekindles its Fox romance, Sky swoops in and snaffles some big shows
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After cancelling its expensive output deal with 20th Century Fox, just as it had with the other big studios, MediaWorks was forced to stop screening some of its most popular shows in November last year. But in late December it announced it had struck up a new relationship with the big US studio that will see many of the shows it lost returning this year, although they won’t all be back, because Sky has nabbed some of the studio’s big shows for itself.

News
The Year in Review: Roger Shakes
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Running with Scissors used much of 2013 injecting new life into some renowned Kiwi brands and ushering a few new names onto the market. In addition to revamping Heinz Wattie’s tomato sauce, Whitlock & Sons and Pagani, the RwS team also introduced Orchard Thieves cider to Kiwi shelves. And to top it all off, the company also opened doors to its new London office. Now it’s over to head of business Roger Shakes for his thoughts.

News
Hear ye, hear ye: Duracell celebrates a different type of power
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In New Zealand, Duracell clutched at straws with its follow-up to the All Blacks sponsorship launch ad by saying “when the All Blacks want to play at their best, there is only one battery they trust”. But in the US, Duracell and Saatchi & Saatchi have taken a more realistic and much more inspiring approach for its latest sponsorship push by telling the story of Derrick Cole, the first legally deaf player to be part of an NFL offense.

News
TVCs of the Week: 14 January
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One big hit from NZTA and Clemenger BBDO, another big hit from Old Spice and Kiwi Steve Ayson, a curious child calls Christmas into question in a spot for ze Germans by Mark & Louis, and a collection of oddvertising for Carlton Dry from Taika Waititi.

News
Samsung app aims to keep eyes on the road
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Samsung Singapore has released a new app that stops phones from receiving phone calls, text messages or social media notifications when people are travelling at faster than 20 kilometres per hour. PLUS: check out the Yellow Jacket (stun gun) iPhone case.

News
Orange invasion: how cricket fans are promoting Tui
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Judging by the prevalence of orange T-shirts at the recent T20 match between the West Indies and the Black Caps, it’s clear that cricket fans are very keen to get their hands (or hand) on one of 12 cash prizes of $100,000 that Tui is giving to spectators who make a one-handed catch while at the West Indian and Indian T20 and ODI games during the 2013/14 season.

Opinion
‘Good to great to good’: the 2013 Cases for Creativity
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This new year we’ve again gathered together a family of campaigns that represent something of a high water mark of achievement in our industry. To be judged Gold at Cannes and then Gold at the Effies is evidence of an advertising idea that is beyond reproach, both in terms of the commercial or behavioural impact it creates for its client and the way it moves our industry forward through sheer imagination and innovation. And in 2013, 12 campaigns achieved this remarkable distinction.

News
The Year in Review: Daniel Barnes
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Last year, Barnes Catmur and Friends finally ended Aussie dominance at the Campaign Asia Pacific Awards by becoming the first Kiwi agency to win the Australia/New Zealand Independent Agency of the Year category. In addition to this, the consistent indy team won the Battle of the Ad Bands, showing that its creative streak also extends into other disciplines. Given that the agency spent 2013 moving from strength to strength, it comes as no surprise that managing partner Daniel Barnes was positive, albeit laconic, in his assessment of the year.

News
Mums/Moms: the good, the bad and the ugly
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Procter & Gamble and Wieden + Kennedy decided to celebrate mothers’ roles in the creation of world-class athletes in a campaign that ran as part of its sponsorship of the London Olympics. And it’s back with another earnest spine tingler focusing on winter sports for the upcoming Sochi games in Russia. P&G-owned brand Old Spice also released an ad about mothers recently, although the musical ode to those who can’t let their teenage boys go is quite a bit different from that of its parent company.

Opinion
The Year in Review: Jens Hertzum
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Media companies around the world are increasingly trying to cut out the middle men and profit from clients’ thirst for content. TVNZ’s in-house production team at Blacksand is no different and, as well as doing plenty of quality work for the mothership, like the launch of and promotional campaign for Seven Sharp and the Shortland Street end of year campaign, it’s doing a lot more work on production partnerships, like Telecom’s ‘Tech in a Sec’ and Mitre 10’s ‘Easy As’. Here’s Blacksand’s executive creative director Jens Hertzum’s highlight reel for last year.

Opinion
The Year in Review: Justin Mowday
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It was a year of light and shade for DDB NZ. In the plus column, it took the no. 1 ranking at Spikes Asia, won more Cannes Lions than ever, was named the Campaign Asia Agency of the Year, won most effective agency at the Effies for the second year in a row, welcomed new clients BMW/Mini, Speights and Telecom (through Dynamo) and made some fairly big changes to the executive structure as Sandy Moore stepped back and Chris Riley stepped in. On the other side of the equation, it was forced to let a few staff go late in the year after losing VW and George Weston Foods to Colenso BBDO and it’s currently seeking a new ECD after Andy Fackrell took up a regional role in Australia. Here’s managing director Justin Mowday stoking a few coals.

Opinion
The Year in Review: James Hurman
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James Hurman has been in the Y&R hotseat since mid 2012. And there’s been plenty of change since he arrived, with a swanky new office, a number of big hires and, after a few unsuccessful pitches, some wins with the Co-op Bank, Westfield and Interislander last year. Here he is having his way with 2013.