When it comes to selling cars, there’s no substitute for getting bums on seats and letting potential customers get a whiff of that new car smell. And Hyundai and Shine have put a few different bums on the seats of its Accent model, including that of a truck driver, in an effort to inspire other Kiwis to take it for a hoon themselves. Plus: Hyundai’s rise through the reputational ranks.
Qantas has found a slightly different use for their inflight sick bags by encouraging passengers to utilize them as a canvas for a very unique type of art. Passengers are then encouraged to share there new masterpiece with the hashtag #QantasBlankCanvas.
Recently, Beck’s and Shine launched a series of playable posters for New Zealand Music Month, following on from its playable bottles last year. If only Beck’s sponsored New Zealand Wood Month, because then it could take some inspiration from Bartholomäus Traubeck, who modified a record player to play slices of wood and released a ten-track album called Years.
At 15, an age when most teens are experimenting with pimple-popping techniques, Brendan Jarvis had already entered the digital agency world. And this early foray set the foundation that would eventually lead him to the position of running The Space In Between, an agency with eight staff and a growing market in the education sector and the US.
After a couple of years as managing director at Y&R NZ, James Hurman has taken the best bits from his life in advertising and started up an innovation consultancy called Previously Unavailable that aims to help Kiwi companies create better products and services. So why did he do it and what will he be doing?
As the curtains were drawn on the fifth season of MasterChef NZ, the TVNZ team could tap each other on the back for once again dominating the ratings for the duration of the hit show. And this accomplishment will taste even sweeter given that it came in year when MediaWorks attempted take over the food porn throne with its bold—and at first confusing—The Great Food Race.
Just over a year after he arrived at Whybin\TBWA, Toby Talbot is departing the agency, with ex-M&C Saatchi executive creative director and chief executive Dave King coming on board as the replacement chief creative officer.
Every time a GPS-connected vehicle drives down the road, data related to the speed, route and habits of the driver can be recorded. And while most of this information might seem arbitrary, Tower has just released an app that uses it to reward responsible drivers with reduced insurance premiums—thereby marking a shift from the generalisations traditionally used to determine the amount to be paid.
You might think the 11 herbs and spices used by Colonel Sanders is a simple calculation of the ingredients required to create the world-famous deep-fried bird. But, according to consultant Greg Rowland from The Semiotics Alliance, you’d be wrong, because in the world of numerical symbolism, 11 supposedly has mystical powers. So which attributes do we ascribe to other numbers? And why?
Although content marketing has become one of the latest buzz phrases uttered at conferences, it has actually been around since 1895, when John Deere started Furrow magazine, a publication dedicated to information for American farmers. Following this in 1932, after seeing value in being associated with well crafted content, Procter and Gamble sponsored a radio programme via one of its soap brands, adding the term soap opera to the vernacular. It’s from this historical standpoint that a Getty Images video recently published on YouTube discusses how content marketing has evolved over the years to eventually give us a range of modern applications that that not only contribute to branding but also entertain viewers.
In recent years, The University of Otago has been trying to move away from what it sees as the negative student stereotypes of binge drinking, couch-burning and filthy flats. Of course, those elements of the student culture tend to be quite a drawcard for many Kiwi young’uns hoping to embark on a journey of mind expansion/erosion and a major reason a large number of them fly over a range of other institutions of learning to live and learn in Dunedin. And Godfrey Hirst and Feltex carpets have embraced some those stereotypes with an experiment that aims show off the qualities of its ‘student proof carpet’.
As the design proponents keep saying, good packaging can make a difference and change the way consumers react to products. And artist Paddy Mergui has proven that by adding some luxury to the quotidian in an exhibition called Wheat is Wheat is Wheat.
Whittaker’s signed up Nigella Lawson as its mascot back in 2012 when she was still the high priestess of euphemistic domesticity. That reputation changed markedly after the domestic abuse saga and the ensuing divorce proceedings that revealed she had used substances slightly more illicit than five roll refined chocolate. But Whittaker’s and its agency Assignment Group have stuck by their woman and just released an ad to promote the Creamy Milk Challenge.
With 150 writers and more than 120 events over five days in and around Auckland’s Aotea Centre, the Auckland Writers Festival offers something for anyone interested in books, stories and ideas. We’ve got three double passes to three different events—Adrian Kinnaird’s ‘From Earth’s End’, Peter Alsop’s ‘An entrepreneurial tale’ and ‘Michael Leunig: exploring the creative process’—to give away, so post a link to some good writing, we’ll print it out, insert it into our prose-judging robot and give the tickets to those who offer up the best suggestions.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Paper? Pffff. Why doodle in 2D on dead trees when you could do it in 3D in the real world with the Lix pen, “the world’s smallest 3D printing pen”.
Whether it’s QR codes aimed at vetting tattoo artists, Goodby Silverstein’s work4rich.com, or BBH’s take on graduate recruitment, those in the persuasive arts often walk their talk and try to create interesting recruitment campaigns. And Y&R Media did just that last night at The Beacons with some WiFi jiggery pokery.
Industry moves and shakes at Y&R Wellington, Whybin\TBWA, Trade Me, Tangible Media, Mango, Mediacell and ADK.
For some, industry awards are about acknowledging excellence. For many others, they’re more of an excuse to get loose. And, to celebrate last night’s inaugural Beacons, the trio from Auckland Daze put that sentiment into song—and used the power of opera to give those who take their jobs a bit too seriously a prod.
Vampires are so hot right now. And so are Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. Combine those ingredients and you’ve got what looks like a very funny movie.
The first-ever Beacon Awards took place last night at the Viaduct Events Centre in front of a capacity crowd, and it was FCB Media that got by far the most exercise, with independent MBM winning agency of the year, MediaWorks TV winning media brand of the year, Maritime New Zealand taking client of the year and Nielsen’s Claire Harris accepting the inspiring individual award.
Hell’s hugely successful Pizza Roulette campaign showed that punters were willing to try something new, even if it burned the crap out of their (or, preferably, their friends’) mouths. And its gourmet (and slightly experimental) Rabbit Pizza proved it again after it sold out in less than three weeks and delivered the business its best week of sales in its 18 year history.
For the first time in the three-year history of the competition, Kiwi and Aussie entrants went head to head as they vied to be selected as one of Yahoo’s Digital Stars. And while our neighbours across the ditch dominated proceedings by taking seven of the nine available spots, employees from two Kiwi agencies placed among the winners. Ikon’s communications planner Meei Chai and OMD Wellington’s senior digital planner Will Innes were both singled out at the competition, which recognise the best up-and-coming talent in the media agency arena.
Social Media NZ co-founder John Lai has confirmed that he has sold his website to independent advertising and social media marketing agency Catalyst90. Established in 2009 by Lai and Leonardo Law, Social Media NZ serves as blog-styled platform that provides information and news stories related to the digital sphere in New Zealand. Updated with comments from Catalyst90 general manager Jess Bovey. (Image: Catalyst90’s founder Tom Reidy and general manager Jess Bovey)
The www.inthehouse.co.nz website, which hosts the video record of every session from the New Zealand Parliament since 2009, has been upgraded ready for this year’s general election by Christchurch-based company Tandem Studios.
Creating content that goes viral isn’t just about creating good content. It’s also about knowing how to fan the flames, writes Joanna James.
If we were told that there would come a time when we would long for the awkward pout of an incongruously placed duck-face, we wouldn’t have believed it. But, that day might well have arrived. The proliferation of drone ownership has led to a new means of unapologetic self-promotion called the taking of dronies (a portmanteu of drone and selfie). And while the lip pouts of teenage girls were certainly annoying, they pale in comparison to seeing grown men squinting into the sun as they try to capture footage of themselves with the drone flying overhead.
In an increasingly connected world, it’s not just about big data. It’s about big, useful, responsibly-collected data that can be used to make customers’ lives easier. And brands that don’t start earning their data will eventually lose out to those that do, says Christopher Dawson.
The wait for mobile viewing is over for Sky subscribers who don’t own iPads, as the broadcaster has just announced the launch of a new version of the Sky Go app that’s compatible on certain versions of Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Since launching in December last year, the Sky Go app has only been available to subscribers via Apple’s products—and the popularity of this initial release has led Sky to increase the inclusivity of its offering. Updated with statistics from Nielsen and with comments from TVNZ’s general manager of on-demand Jason Foden.
The spinning wheel of death, the buffering bar, ‘waiting for’ [insert website name here], that sickening modem dial-up sound. Humans really don’t like waiting these days. And Swedish broadband provider Ume.net has showed just annoying delays are in the real world with an entertaining experiment called ‘Living with lag’.