Monthly Archives: July, 2014

News
Lego becomes a pawn in the Greenpeace vs. Shell game
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Greenpeace has been nipping at Shell’s heels for years, pulling out everything from fake press releases to sneaky banners at car races to a big emotional ad featuring a homeless polar bear to draw attention to the oil company’s proposed Arctic drilling. Now it’s targeting one of the world’s most-loved brands, Lego, after it signed a deal to create a series of toys for Shell. And it’s flipped the premise of the hugely popular Lego Movie to show that everything is not awesome.

News
Getty Images founder talks about the power of pictures
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Speaking during the Cannes Lions festival earlier this year, Getty Images founder Jonathan Klein uses a series of iconic images to illustrate the intrinsic potential of an image to move the viewer and how photography can, in fact, play an integral role in shaping the way we see the world.

News
Inside: Ubiquity
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We speak to Ubiquity’s Nathalie Morris about her team’s philosophies around developing for a changing world, about being number two, and about what exactly you do when you’re the “technical muscle” for a marketing campaign.

News
Getting paid to chat
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Earlier in July, Kiwi start-up Postr launched with the promise that it would pay users to host advertising on their smartphones. And while this could prove a novel way to encourage mobile users to voluntarily accept advertising as part of the experience, the premise has already been taken a step further by an app called Quack.

News
Contiki gets vloggers onboard again for the Roadtrip 2014, and this time it’s got a Kiwi flavour
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Contiki is back with its YouTube vlogger roadtrip for the third year running, once again piggybacking on the millions of pairs of eyeballs already following every single step those vloggers take. This year New Zealand might be captive too, with Kiwi star Shannon Harris onboard as the only person from outside North America. Sales director Tony Laskey believes The Roadtrip is potentially one of the most powerful marketing strategies Contiki has ever used.

News
Want to reach Kiwis? NZ On Air media consumption study shows the old dogs are still dominant, but digital is nipping at their heels—UPDATED
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When it comes to reaching New Zealanders, ye olde traditional broadcast media is still on top, with the results of NZ On Air’s independent media consumption study showing the majority of Kiwis are still consuming lots of linear television and live radio every day. But music audiences, the young and the Asian community are leading the charge to digital platforms.

News
Postr launches, promises to pay consumers for hosting ads
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In April, StopPress reported that a team of Wellingtonians was planning to launch a technology start-up called Postr, an app-based service that would get brands into consumers’ pockets by serving ads on their smartphone homescreens. And now, only a few months later, the project has officially launched and is accessible to the Kiwi public.

News
Thumbs down: Kiwi social media users snubbing their noses at brands
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If you believed the hype, social media was destined to knock traditional media off its perch and marketers have invested heavily in it in recent years. But Kiwis’ engagement with brands and companies on social media is on the slide, with a Colmar Brunton survey on the social media habits of New Zealanders showing the number of Kiwis who follow brands on social media dropping from 41 percent in 2013 to 27 percent this year.

News
Heat map shows how mad Twitter went during Brazil vs Germany match
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Brazil’s 7-1 hammering at the hands of the Nationalmannschaft has rendered all other conversations over the last 24 hours completely irrelevant. And in addition to hijacking all office-based conversations, the footballing debacle also took hold of Twitter, breaking a few records along the way. And, in an effort to give a graphic representation of how mad the online community went during the match, Twitter published an interactive map that shows how people throughout the world responded to the each goal being scored.

News
The ad blocker threat: what media owners are doing to stop ad avoidance
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In the traditional media channels, advertising couldn’t be avoided. When viewers listened to a radio broadcast or watched a television show, ads were an inevitable part of the experience and often provided a momentary break to run to the bathroom or make a cup tea. But with the growing tendency of online viewing, this coerced ad-watching is no longer a given. Simple software downloads, such as AdBlock, now give viewers direct access to the content that they want to watch. So what are media owners doing to protect their advertising?

News
Part two of ANZ campaign reverses a series of unfortunate events
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Following on from the series of unfortunate events that provided the narrative for the first part of ‘Time really is money’ campaign, ANZ has now released a sequel that gives a markedly more positive re-imagining of the day in the protagonist’s life. The second spot, released over the weekend, gives a scene-by-scene reversed reworking that eventually presents ANZ’s mobile banking as the catalyst that allowed the evening’s proceedings to run more smoothly.

News
The colour of content: Resene continues down that owned media road with redesigned Habitat site
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It’s no secret that brands are increasingly moving away from traditional forms of paid media in favour of other options like branded content, native advertising and owned media, with a recent PWC report in Australia showing 67 percent of marketers were shifting their spend from bought to owned channels and a quarter of marketers spent between 20 percent and 30 percent of their budget building their own media channels. But Resene has been ahead of the curve in this regard, with its twice-yearly magazine Habitat launching back in 2004. And it is continuing that evolution with the launch of a new responsive, content-rich website www.habitatbyresene.co.nz.

News
Boot poetry
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In terms of vehicular annoyances, people who put those little white stickers of their family on the back window rank pretty highly. Why, people, why? Personalised plates are not far behind. And cheesy spare tyre covers are also a leading cause of road rage. But this one, which was spotted in deepest suburbia on a leisurely Sunday drive, is an exception and, with some quality Engrish, shows the essence of the RAV4 brand.

News
When colonialism meets commercialism: Sky and ANZ aim to spark interest in the Commonwealth Games—UPDATED
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There’s no better way to celebrate centuries of oppressive colonialism than with a series of sporting contests. Thankfully, we’ve got the Commonwealth Games for that. And while they might not be quite as prestigious (or popular) as the Olympics, official broadcaster Sky TV and NZ Olympic Committee sponsor ANZ are doing all they can to draw attention to the upcoming Glasgow games.

News
#PotatoMadness
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Up until relatively recently, Kickstarter had rules and a degree of vetting to try and keep out the scams and fakes. That meant there was no funny business like that seen on various auction sites. The rules have changed, however, and now it’s basically a free-for-all as long as “it’s not illegal, regulated or dangerous”. And one of the first major beneficiaries of that has been Zack Danger Brown, who asked for $10 to make his first ever potato salad and currently has over $30,000.

News
Y&R flicks the switch on first campaign for Electricity Authority, reinvigorates ‘What’s my number’
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Y&R NZ has picked up where FCB left off by launching its first campaign for What’sMyNumber.org.nz since winning the Electricity Authority account after a competitive tender earlier this year. The new campaign, unveiled over the weekend, features a series of of people in torturous work-based scenarios and aims to remind Kiwis of what they endure in order to earn their salaries.

Opinion
Winning in real-life: Mark Pickering’s experiential entry tips
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As the gongs from the recent Cannes award nights get cleaned of their champagne and finally take their place in agency and client boardrooms across the country and a new round of New Zealand awards begins, Mark Pickering offers some tips on putting together an award-winning experiential entry. PLUS: three of his favourite experiential campaigns.

News
Ghost cars
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There was a lot of excitement when Google launched its prototype driverless car recently. But, as this impressive stunt for Hyundai shows, we already seem to have the technology.

News
Time and tide: TSB talks up its customer service, aims to inspire switching with ‘Perfect Day’ bribes
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Time has been a fairly popular theme for Kiwi brands in recent months, with Hyundai running its Family Time Project and ANZ just releasing a couple of ads detailing how time really is money. TSB has also joined that club, with a new campaign via Special Group that aims to turn potential customers on to its business by promoting its ‘putting customers first’ philosophy.

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