Monthly Archives: September, 2014

News
ASB embraces the MAMIL for latest ‘money conversations’ spot
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Back in 2010, Mintel’s Michael Oliver charted the rise of middle-aged men wearing lycra and their big impact on the cycling market (the BBC covered the emerging trend of the MAMIL soon after). Since then, it’s become a fairly widely used term, often disparagingly, and there are plenty of Kiwi chaps who appear to have swapped the flashy sportscar for the flashy roadbike—or at least added to it—as part of the obligatory mid life crisis. Now, in a continuation of ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi’s latest campaign that focuses on the type of conversations the bank believes New Zealanders actually have about money, it’s combined cycling with another one of the nation’s loves: property.

News
St Matthew invites public to join billboard controversy
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In 2009, the national director of Family First NZ Bob McCoskrie labelled a St Matthew in the City billboard “insensitive and objectionable to many people”. And despite continued condemnation from the more puritanical ranks of society, the church has continued to invite controversy by launching a range of follow-on advertisements, a quirky e-campaign and a reference to a campaign from the underworld-loving Hell Pizza. And now, in a move that aims to make the public complicit in its billboard controversy, the Auckland church is hosting a competition that requires Kiwis to design a billboard to promote the The Kensington Swan season of Jesus Christ Superstar, which plays at the Q Theatre from 30 October.

News
From downing tools to upping DIY: Mitre 10 and FCB take ownership of the weekend
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Mitre 10 has been trying to convince Kiwis that DIY is in their DNA for a few years now, and, following on from the clever ‘Easy As’ campaign, which aimed to inspire Kiwis to pick up the tools by teaching them a few DIY tricks on YouTube, it released a new campaign that hopes to further enhance the store’s position as a Mecca for the nation’s weekend warriors.

News
Whybin\TBWA takes BOTAB title for 2014
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Axis gongs, client wins and the quality of campaigns usually define competition in the creative advertising industry. But every year, for one night, none of that matters, as the agencies take to the stage and vie for the greatest honour of them all: the Battle of the Ad Bands (BOTAB) title. This year was no different. A total of 550 fans converged at the Kings Arms to watch the madness unfold as Pegasus and The Job Numbers (Colenso BBDO), The Gypsy Thieves (DDB), The OG Villains (Ogilvy & Mather), The Expendables 5 (Sugar & Partners and String Theory), Foote Cone (FCB), Dooya (WhybinTBWA/DAN), Building 7 (Flying Fish) and The Chased (OMD) took a moment away from their day jobs to slap the bass in front of three judges.

News
Taste sensations
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Lurpak butter is a brand that has perfected the art of food porn with a range of mouthwatering recent ads. And Marks & Spencer, no stranger to the art itself, has continued that fine tradition with its latest campaign, ‘Adventures in Imagination’, by RKCR/Y&R. Plus: some other glorious food ads.

News
Colenso declared the smartest creative agency in the world
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Much has been written, said and trolled about the value of awards to creative agencies. And while the industry is still divided between those who choose to enter the slew of international competitions and those who shun them, it’s difficult to overlook how successfully Colenso BBDO has represented Kiwi creativity on the international awards circuit over the course of the last year. And now, with an award that shows the cumulative value of all this success, the agency on College Hill has been named as the world’s smartest creative agency in new rankings released by Warc.

News
Modern cubism: Samsung shows off its smart appliances with moveable home
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The next big battleground for the major tech players seems to be the home. Google has its eyes on that prize with the purchase of Nest, ​companies like GE and Cisco are betting big on the internet of things and, closer to home, Spark’s Digilife offer is gunning for the early adopters. And Samsung is also hoping to capitalise on this evolution, with a clever experiential activation called Home Smart Home set to launch in Auckland soon that aims to show how some of its products can fit into the homes of the future—and help make life easier.

News
Number One Shoes harnesses the power of the freebie for store relaunch campaign
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In 2010, Number One Shoes dropped the word ‘warehouse’ from its name in an effort to shift the brand from being associated with large storage facilities. And now, in a continuation of this move away from all things utilitarian, the chain is revamping its stores to create an improved shopping experience for those that walk through the doors. The Albany store, located in the Westfield shopping centre on Auckland’s North Shore, was the first store to be relaunched, and the shop at St Luke’s will follow suit next month. And to draw attention to the changes, Number One Shoes has launched a quirky series of campaigns via PR agency Starseed.

Movings & Shakings
Cousins returns for senior Lotto NZ gig
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After almost two years as global head of strategy for PHD’s Unilever business in London, Guy Cousins is set to return to New Zealand to take up the chief marketing officer role with Lotto NZ. He replaces Val Green, who held the role of general manager of marketing for almost two years before departing in May.

News
Ford tugs on parental heartstrings, draws attention to its sport support
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Sports sponsorships are pretty big business in New Zealand, with an IMR report from 2013 estimating the value of 257 different sponsorship deals at NZ$182 million. Not surprisingly, rugby is the biggest drawcard in this country, with “Adidas paying in the region of US$25 million per year and AIG, the shirt sponsor, US$12.4 million” for their All Blacks deals. Ford has been the team’s vehicle sponsor for many years, and it also backs cricket and hockey, so, to try and win a few more hearts and minds, it’s released a new ad thanking Kiwi parents and supporters—and showing that it’s ‘the driving force behind New Zealand sport’.

News
Samsung calls bollocks on Apple’s new ‘innovations’
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Samsung has successfully take the fight directly to Apple—and the fans willing to line up for their new toys—with The Next Big Thing is Already Here campaign. And after Apple launched the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as the Apple Watch this week, it’s continued the ribbing with a series of ads that show a couple of ‘geniuses’ discussing the new ‘innovations’.

News
A poor reflection
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It doesn’t take much to get a scolding on social media these days and the masses always smell blood when whoopsies like the AFR’s major front page gaffe, or the Herald’s mistaken identity (and mixed up movie quotes) are spotted. And here’s another (small) one from Stuff on a story about Dunedin.

News
What Pandora, Spotify and iHeartRadio are doing for a cut of online (and mobile) ad spend
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References to the rapid growth of online and mobile ad spend in the industry have been so ubiquitous in recent months that they’ve become something of a media cliché. And with this growth in revenue has come an inevitable attempt on the part of online media owners to get a piece of this burgeoning pie. And nowhere is this more evident than in the online radio market, which, despite its relative infancy in the local market, is starting to catch the attention of Kiwi advertisers due to its resonance with the mobile-hungry youth market. So, given that there have been some interesting moves made by the major players, StopPress decided to take a look at what they’re doing to get in on the action.

News
Cool Story, bro: Jarvis and Sneddon launch new digital content marketing agency
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The appetite for content marketing is growing rapidly, with much of it happening in the digital space. Many brands have invested in their own content marketing teams and platforms. Publishers like Fairfax, APN and Tangible Media all have their own content marketing teams working on both digital and print. And agencies of all stripes are also trying to make hay while the sun shines by filling up the variety of channels consumers now use. Now Brendan Jarvis and Ron Sneddon have joined the fray with Story, a standalone business that has a “laser-like focus” on digital content marketing.

News
APN bets on business, follows international publishers’ lead with big site update—UPDATED
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The changes are coming thick and fast at APN NZ under new chief executive Jane Hastings, with a new exec team announced this week, a more integrated sales approach across its media portfolio and some clever new products like ShopViva. And now the Business Herald is getting in on the action, with more tools, more content and more interactivity added to the website in an effort to deliver “more relevant digital news to New Zealanders”.

News
MSN announces homepage update, aims to create personalised online command centre
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Following on from last week’s announcement that Yahoo had updated its website with features that allow for greater personalisation, MSN has now similarly given its homepage a facelift. And althought the website has not yet been officially released, Kiwis can catch a glimpse of the changes by visiting the preview site. StopPress takes a look at what the update will offer users and advertisers in the near future.

News
The fruits of Friends Electronic’s artistic labour offer some audio-visual BOTAB inspiration
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The hair is being groomed and the guitars are being tuned for tonight’s Beatles-themed Battle of the Ad Bands at the Kings Arms, and while the winner of the last two year’s events, Barnes, Catmur & Friends’ Friends Electric, is out of the running this year (all the members are thought to be pursuing solo projects after a huge falling out, with Daniel Barnes going through his Sting phase and focusing on the lute), it’s an opportune moment to show off the saucy full-length music video the band made as part of its prize from its win in 2012.

News
VW gives Toyota a friendly buggering
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Comparative advertising is fairly rare, perhaps because brands don’t want to be perceived as being negative or due to the potential for legal action from competitors. And comparative advertising that references an ad from a competitor is rarer still. But VW and Colenso BBDO have done just that in a cheeky print execution that aims to spell out the reasons why the Amarok is a better option than the Hilux.

News
How Kiwi brands commemorated Father’s Day 2014
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Last Sunday once again marked the annual time of year when Kiwis are unified in an attempt to assuage some of the guilt associated with pretty much commandeering the word relaxation from the vocabularies of the nation’s fathers. And it does after all make sense, because once children enter the world, men’s lives change: sleeping in late becomes virtually impossible, prized possessions become ad-hoc teething soothers and monthly bills start to stretch in a way that defies all the rules of physics. So here’s a rundown of various brands that decided to tap into this shared guilt in the hope of extracting a few coins.

News
How Apple’s promoting its newest toys
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Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook took to the stage this morning in Cupertino to launch the iPhone 6 (and its larger brother the iPhone 6 Plus) and the Apple Watch. It’s put a selection of videos from the launch on its YouTube channel, including a cool (and slightly controversial) clip about Perspective, Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake showcasing the new phones, a lengthy explainer from lead designer Jonny Ive and a clip featuring U2.

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