Monthly Archives: September, 2014

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Bye-bye Benji? Nib swaps celebrity endorsement for crowd-sourced clips
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After taking over Tower Medical Insurance in late 2012, Nib launched into the New Zealand market in October last year with short-lived rugby convert Benji Marshall fronting the campaign. But now, just like the Blues, it has put him on the bench and released a new brand campaign that celebrates the joy of being human—and shows the need for adequate protection. Plus: a look at the launch of another overseas insurance company, Youi.

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Images you can almost touch
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Staring at computer screens for extended periods of time has become an inescapable part of living in the digital age, condemning office workers to red eyes and artificial air. Interestingly, rather than attempting to escape the glow of a digital screen after office hours, we substitute our work laptops with mobile phones, smart TVs and tablets in our spare time.

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‘Successful guy lighting at normal guy prices’
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Jeff Goldblum is a beautiful man, even when he’s half fly. And he’s also very successful. But, as this new ad for GE’s Link shows, it’s good lighting that got him to where he is today. So he’s obviously the perfect frontman for two minutes of Tim & Eric-inspired fake infomercial madness.

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Sony’s guiding lights
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After major hits like the Walkman and Playstation, Sony has been struggling to compete recently. It has recorded losses for six of the last seven years and it’s been all but left behind in the smartphone race by Apple and Samsung. Some analysts say its major issue is a simple one: it’s just not cool enough. So it will be hoping a few brightly-lit snowboarders and smoking skaters aimed at promoting the Xperia Z3 might go some way to changing that.

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Acclaimed writer Anna Funder writes short story for Special Group’s first major campaign across the ditch
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Special Group has announced its presence in the Australian market by collaborating with award-winning author Anna Funder, Warm Bodies actress Teresa Palmer and fashion photographer Derek Henderson in a campaign for luxury pearl brand Paspaley. At the centre of the campaign is a bespoke short story, called ‘Everything Precious’, written by Funder, which will be released to Paspaley subscribers daily in seven serialised instalments via email between 1 and 8 October. So is this a case of a writer selling out for commercial gain?

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Pippa’s double trouble
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Who should we believe? Is Kate ashamed of “off-the-rails and out of control” Pippa, as New Idea suggests? Or is she in fact proud of the fact that Pippa’s getting married, as the country’s recently crowned supreme magazine of the year, Woman’s Day suggests? Due to a pictorial whoopsie in this week’s women’s mags, you can take your pick.

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Focus Research wins big at Research Effectiveness Awards as two industry bodies play in the same sandpit for the first time
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For most of the year, research agencies are the unsung heroes of the industry, with their insights outshone by the creativity that usually takes centre stage. However, last Friday, the limelight shifted and drew attention to examples of the most effective research conducted over the course of the last year. Hosted at Auckland’s Hilton hotel and attended by a full house of well-dressed researchers, this year’s edition of the biennial Research Effectiveness Awards was hosted by comedian and sausage ambassador Leigh Hart. PLUS: a brief look at the merger between the Market Research Society of New Zealand and the Association of Market Research Organisations (AMRO).

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$6 million of shredded cash stars in new BNZ campaign
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In an effort to give a more tangible representation of the statistical fact that Kiwis who hold mortgages pay $6 million in interest every four hours, BNZ has launched a new campaign via Colenso BBDO in which that amount of money will be shredded and put on display in Auckland’s Aotea Square from 29 September to 1 October. This outdoor activation is being supported across various channels, with a TVC, a Facebook campaign and YouTube clips that all use the shredded money as a provocative reminder of the amount of money that Kiwis burn through their mortgage repayments every day.

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The Apple vs. Samsung fight touches down in New Zealand with feisty comparative print ad
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Samsung has been giving Apple uppercuts for a few years now with its The Next Best Thing is Already here campaign, and it has taken the attacks up a notch after the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus with a series of ads calling bollocks on the ‘innovation’ of its main mobile competitor (it doesn’t seem to have made too much difference, as Apple’s sales were still off the charts, although glitches with the operating system and bendy phones may have hindered that). And now the local arm of the Korean electronics behemoth is getting in on the act, running a print ad in some of the weekend papers showing a list of features from the soon-to-be-released Galaxy Note 4 that Apple should be taking note of for its next release.

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Kiwibank and NZ Post hand combined media account to OMD, Starcom and Ikon left empty-handed
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In May, New Zealand Post and its subsidiary Kiwibank announced that they would merge their media accounts and appoint a single agency to take care of the media side of the business. This announcement came with the consequence that at least one of the long-time account holders for the respective businesses—Ikon (Kiwibank) and Starcom (NZ Post)—would lose its account. And now, after a pitching process, Kiwibank’s head of marketing communications and content Regan Savage has confirmed that OMD has won the account, leaving both incumbents’ ledgers a little barer.

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APN christens its multimedia beast NZME
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Since taking over as the chief executive of APN New Zealand in May, Jane Hastings has been pulling together the discrete threads that make up the conglomerate in an effort to create a seamless entity that can be used to deliver commercial partners’ messages across all the available media properties. And all new things require a name, so for this reason APN sent out a release this morning saying that its print, radio, digital and e-commerce brands will from now on be unified under the moniker NZME (pronounced ‘en zed me’), which stands for New Zealand Media and Entertainment.

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It pays to be Dre
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Rapper, producer and sound-based entrepreneur Andre ‘Dr Dre’ Young has just been named by Forbes as the 2014 Hip-Hop Cash King. And it’s the sale of Beats Electronic to Apple that put him in the top spot. PLUS: Beats by Dre’s celebrity-heavy advertising.

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BMW connects with Connected Drive
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While Google messes about with a self-driving car, BMW is bringing the digital world to the driver in its newly released Connected Drive system. Already available in many parts of the globe, the onboard internet and SOS service comes standard with all new beemers in New Zealand, with optional subscriber services such as a 24/7 concierge phone service and a series of apps for integrating the car with your phone and home computer. But, um, why? Many of the features, such as GPS navigation, phone, internet and digital radio are available on all smart phones. So are AA, tow trucks and ambulances. So why not just bluetooth your brick and flick on the hands free?

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Truck me
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Volvo Trucks and its agency Forsman & Bodenfors had the world eating out of their hands last year after Epic Splits and a few other entertaining live tests showed how easy the trucks were to drive—and how B2B didn’t necessarily have to mean boring to boring. And, to show off its new i-Shift dual clutch technology, it’s continued that trend with a complicated stunt on the Italian Riviera featuring a rather confused-looking valet who gets a big shock during his first night on the job.

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Super creepy Rob Lowe ‘watchin’ folks swim’
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Parks and Recreation’s Rob Lowe has used a new pair of BBDO-created TVCs for DirecTV to illustrate that his acting skills extend beyond the remit of portraying an emotionally disconnected health fanatic. In fact, he is more than capable of playing two very different versions of himself in the same ad.

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Resn hits FWA milestone, celebrates with tool that lets fans give it a sitting applause
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Hitting the big 4-0 is generally met with mixed emotions, with some celebrating the fact that they’ve made it that far and others feeling a sense of impending dread as their elderly body and mind shows signs of falling apart. Resn’s big 4-0 is all positive, but it’s not age-based, it’s the number of times the Wellington digital agency has won the FWA site of the day award.

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