APN News & Media Limited today announced in a release that it will acquire full ownership of The Radio Network (TRN) and Australian Radio Network (ARN) from US-based Clear Channel Communications for $246.5 million. This move will give APN 100 percent control of what it claims is the largest network of radio stations across the trans-Tasman region.
Monthly Archives: February, 2014
Following the decision of the two big Aussie supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, to remove New Zealand-produced goods from their house brand labels and Shane Jones’ request for a Commerce Commission investigation into the way Progressive Enterprises treats its suppliers (and the inevitable Facebook campaign asking Kiwis to boycott the company), Foodstuffs has taken the opportunity to remind the nation that the big brands under its umbrella—Pak ‘n Save and New World—are full-blown Kiwi.
In November last year, Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand (LBC) got 12 celebrities to silently stare at a camera as part of the ‘silent treatment’ campaign. And now, only three months later, that silence is being broken with the stories of Kiwis who have decided to shave for cure. The integrated campaign, once again developed by .99 and brought to life by Blockhead Visual Effects, aims to spread awareness for the annual ‘Shave Week’ appeal that runs from 17 to 23 March.
Birdseye UK is set to create food madness with the very social Mashtags, potatoes transformed into @ symbols, smiley emoticons and hashtags. Seems the humble french fry was just too straight (or crinkled) for the discerning digital generation.
BNZ is capitalising on the increasing blur between professional and personal use of social media, arming staff to get social on its behalf. That’s evident in its current bid to promote the YouMoney tool with a road trip to university campuses.
Google has awarded Kiwi AdWords partner Localist for AdWords quality in a category open to its group of premier small and medium business Premier AdWords partners on both sides of the Tasman. The quality score measures how relevant ads are to users.
Bullseye’s Moments campaign, which sees Auckland Airport arrival and departure experiences shared in photo and video, played a part in its business director securing a Sitecore award for digital strategy.
If you’ve ever run into a fellow mall shopper because you or they are staring down at their mobile phone, you’ll appreciate US brand Caribou Coffee’s efforts to make a show of what its users are posting on Pinterest.
Pure SEO founder Richard Conway has a formula for recovering if you’re hit with a Google Penalty, the tech giant’s punishment for link spam. He warns it’s a delicate and lengthy exercise.
A crazy mash of retro style game graphics and actual bobsled footage is the Jamaica Tourist Board’s attempt to get fans during the Sochi Olympics. We can’t help but point the finger at Cool Runnings.
If the TVC for this Chinese online dating service is anything to go by, the country seems to prefer luring lonely hearts with guilt than the prospect of a happy relationship. So why not throw in a grandmother desperate to see her granddaughter at the altar?
The creator of the Android app Caller Ads, currently being piloted, is targeting telcos and advertisers that have messages to push to prepay mobile users. The cloud-based service’s first iteration is like an audio pre-roll subscribers opt to take before a call.
BBDO New York tapped into the boundless imagination of a child to create a spot that oozes creativity while simultaneously applauding the awesomeness of mums (or moms) who work for GE. Every scene in the slick ad brings an absurd idea of a child to life, and thereby shows that the extent of possibility is directly proportional to how far the imagination can stretch.
The ad industry often seems like a young man’s game. But there’s no substitute for experience, as renowned copywriter Paul Burke wrote recently. And, if you’re wondering when you’ll come up with that brilliant product innovation, that revolutionary campaign idea or perhaps that long-awaited solution to the world’s energy needs, turns out you might have to wait a while.
Rather than falling into the regular sports advertising trope of the burly sports star making a great play, the team at &Some* has instead opted for a fan-centric approach that doesn’t hold the promise of victory. The idea behind the ‘game of hearts’ campaign comes to life most evidently in the print versions, which feature the faces and quotes of six different Voadfone Warriors fans—both male and female—of different ages.
Jim Beam’s integrated global campaign Make History hit New Zealand shores last week with TVCs shot and produced largely in our country. The clips were produced by Auckland company Ruskin and directed by Nathan Price.
For the past few years, the Iron Maidens—Sarah Walker, Sophie Pascoe and Lisa Carrington—have been promoting the culinary pleasures of the flesh. But NZ Beef and Lamb has taken a slightly different tack with its new ‘Tough Standards, Tender Results’ campaign, which shows how the butchery trade has changed throughout the years and aims to reinforce the attributes of the New Zealand Beef & Lamb Quality Mark.
In this series, we talk to Kiwi keyboard tappers that have managed to shift from the personal realm of blogging to create online media brands that are widely read (and in some cases profitable). In this segment, we chat to Jenene Crossan, the founder and current director of nzgirl.
MediaWorks has launched new apps for iOS and Android in a spruce up of its on demand platform. The new offerings have a refreshed interface, a new programme guide and sharing functionality and the company is eyeing a wider range of Android devices.
Last week Special Group made Barnes Catmur & Friends a quilt of love as part of the Axis Call for Entries campaign. And, after a slight delay due to ‘censorship issues’, Barnes, Catmur & Friends has returned the favour, with creative managing partner Paul Catmur embracing the confrontational interviewer within, aggressively singing the praises of his fellow indie and probably ensuring his agency will never be bought by WPP.
Outdoor and camping clothing manufacturer The North Face recently followed free-climber Alex Honnold to Mexico, where he climbed up El Sendero Luminoso (the shining path). And the six-minute video that resulted from this endeavour offers a visceral glimpse at what it’s like to dangle from the tips of your fingers.
On 10 February, Getty Images announced that it would be going into a partnership with LeanIn.org, a women’s empowerment not-for-profit founded by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, which aims to create an online library of imagery that depicts powerful images of women and girls.
Over the course of the next few weeks, Colenso will be adding security camera footage of customers that purchase the ‘Outlaw’ burger to a series of pre-rolls, online banners and social media. Once the advert has been released, the public will be given one day to identify the person depicted in the ad, and the first person to do so on the Burger King Facebook group will be given a $250 reward.
DraftFCB’s campaign for the Neurological Foundation was as much about capturing minds as hearts as it seized on Valentine’s Day to tell people about the true source of love. The foundation is a partner in the upcoming Brain Week which raises money for brain research.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
While chocolate hearts, cherubic angels with bows and Hallmark cards have nothing to do with the history of St Valentine, they are a bit more light-hearted than the imprisonment and torture of a man in Rome. So rather than condemning the unbridled commercialisation of love (and martyrdom), let’s celebrate some of the good ideas and be thankful that we don’t have to endure the annual retelling of the horror that befell a random historical figure.
Viewers could’ve been forgiven for believing that the food cooking format had reached its capacity on Kiwi TV with the addition The Great Food Race. But the networks beg to differ, and TVNZ recently announced that it has acquired the rights from Endemol to produce a New Zealand version of My Kitchen Rules, the popular Australia show that enters its fifth season this year. Plus: find out which shows are being dropped by the broadcaster.
New romances blossom at TVNZ, MediaWorks, InWaiting, Xero, Breakfast, Blockhead and PR Partners.
This year, here’s what we’re going to do. When our clients say, “What’s the future of media, anyway?” we will bedazzle them. Show them new, more powerful ways to link magazines with digital media and other outlets. New ways to use social media and websites, with competitions, special events, display advertising, viral campaigns, sponsorships, customer incentives and a bunch of other stuff that’s so new and so amazing, we’re not even going to tell you about it yet.