Totino’s Pizza recently released what is undoubtedly one of the strangest ads ever after it let Tim and Eric loose on their brand. And it’s continued the madvertising trend by proving Buzzfeed wrong and using some supposedly unusable stock images.
What would you do with the print outs of all of the letters from your bank? Perhaps make a bonfire? Kiwibank is so proud of its communications with its customers it’s printed them out and hung them off its headquarters in Wellington.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
With the enactment of the Financial Markets Conduct Act earlier this year, Government opened the door to peer-to-peer lending, meaning that micro lenders—whether banks or payday loan companies—would be next in line to take on the challenge posed by the peer-to-peer threat. StopPress takes a look at what HarMoney brings to the table.
With a new app called Wakie you could be getting one every single morning. If you so desire.
The ALS charity got a whole heap of cash by challenging people to tip a bucket of icy water over their heads. And KidsCan is hoping its challenge—getting people to don a Santa suit and do a short run—will too. So, to help bump up the numbers, DDB has laid down the gauntlet and challenged other ad agencies and corporates to get involved in the event.
On 26 November, TV3 celebrated its 25th year—or ½ half century, according to Jono and Ben—on air in New Zealand. And since joining the fray in 1989, it has come to represent a significant chunk of the time Kiwis spend in front of box in the living room. But the introduction of a new TV player isn’t the only thing that has changed in that time. These days, we have more screens to choose from than ever before, and this is changing the way we consume media. Interestingly, across 30 countries surveyed by Colmar Brunton on screen use, the denizens of only four—the UK, France, Spain and New Zealand—still spent more time consuming media on a TV than on a smartphone.
The finalists of the NZ Direct Marketing Awards have been announced and perennial award-hoggers Colenso BBDO/Proximity are in the lead with 18 nods, followed by justONE/.99 with 16, FCB with ten, and Chemistry Interaction with eight.
In both surfing and skateboarding culture, a harmonic groan often accompanies a wipeout. Whether it’s a group of pros waiting in the channel at Teahupo’o or a few mates just having a bowl session at the local skate park, this groan serves as a salute to the fallen. And the more severe the wipeout, the more animated and pronounced the reaction from the specators on the sideline.
Barbara Miller, a spokeswoman for the US National Candle Association, told The New York Times last year that 35 percent of the $2 billion of annual candle sales happen in last three months of the year. And, in an effort to get more of its candles in stockings this year, Ecoya has released a beautiful festive film that celebrates the joy of giving and getting.
Changes at Insight, Fairfax, BrandWorld, MediaWorks and MoreFM.
Colenso BBDO and Assembly have borrowed a few tips from The Incredible Hulk in a new Just Juice campaign that shows a series characters drinking juice and then transforming into different, more colourful versions of themselves. But rather than turning into a massive green monsters with temper problems, the black-and-white, 2D characters simply change into happier, colorful 3D versions of themselves.
It’s not often, especially not in the digital age, for a trailer to accompany the publication of book. However, for the release of ‘Surviving Middle School,’ a tongue-in-cheek guide for young girls, writer David McGrail has gone all out by commissioning the production of a three-minute clip, which gives a hyperbolic glimpse at what happens when school girls make the wrong choices.
In recent months, Sky TV has been very active in the digital channel with a variety of promotions, including several Facebook campaigns and a pair of Buzzfeed-based efforts. And this trend is now continuing with the launch of a new competition called GameFace, which is designed to drive interest in the upcoming Cricket World Cup. Update: this campaign has been put on hold in respect to the passing of Philip Hughes.
Hyundai launches a customer platform that acts as a rewards system, entertainment centre, and Hyundai community hub all in one.
After Apple announced the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Samsung came out firing (once again) with a comparative print ad that pointed out the next best thing was already here in the form of the Note 4. And its approach to promoting the Galaxy Tab S is similarly comparative.
The Rumpus Room, the UK-based sister company of The Sweet Shop, recently completed a mobile activation to commemorate Lewis Hamilton’s victory for this season’s Formula One World Championship. The activation was set up to lead into the final race in Abu Dhabi , and featured footage sourced from the driver’s seven million fans, who often share their support via social media. The Rumpus Room invited fans to share their experiences via a mobile web app, and this content was then cut and edited into a video dubbed #TeamLHmovie, which was released only hours after the race.
The programmatic bus rolls on, with Magna Global predicting a 31 percent annualised growth rate through to 2017. And with Google’s latest consumer barometer showing Kiwis use an average of 2.7 devices each, a new Kiwi agency called Made Media—a collaboration between sales manager and partner Michael Buhagiar and Latch Digital—believes it’s found a gap in the market for a locally owned and operated demand side platform that brings those two elements together.
With a total of 1.2 million subscribers across the world, the Kiwi vlogger Jamie Curry (of Jamie’s World) is one of only two New Zealanders to meet the YouTube star threshold of having more than a million subscribers. And her resonance with 13- to 24-year-olds recently caught the attention of Coca-Cola Australia, leading the drinks company to collaborate with the teen on the ‘Colour your summer’ campaign.
As we wrote last week, DDB is on the hunt for a tinge of ginge to spruik Speight’s new alcoholic ginger beer. An excited and then dejected Karl Burnett featured in the first spot and now, in what could be seen as the exact opposite of Sky’s Casting Tapes campaign, it’s released a second clip showing off the auditions.
A new B2B app allows businesses to sports-pick outside the immediate workplace, with a view to “cut through the clutter” and inspire commitment from customers who are inundated with deals.
Following on from the recent launch of ShopViva, NZME is continuing down the online retail path by announcing the 2015 launch of ShopGreen, an online shopping hub for ethical products.
Twitter is an amazingly fluid and responsive medium for brands. But understanding when it’s appropriate to join the conversation is the difference between a good brand and a great one, says Katie Byrne.
Airbnb has made some quality ads in its time, with everything from the charming and inventive crowd-sourced film Hollywood & Vines to the rather enticing spot for its recent—and slightly controversial—rebrand. And now it’s made another stunner with the help of Kiwi animation house Cirkus.
According to research conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry in London, one spoonful of ice cream could stimulate an immediate and positive effect on the brain’s orbitofrontal cortex. What this means is that ice cream makes eaters feel better and this is reflected in how they treat others and how productive they are. Ever the skeptics, Tip Top’s creative agency Colenso BBDO decided to put this theory to the test by conducting some uncontrolled and scientifically questionable experiments on unsuspecting Kiwis.
One of the major struggles for news publishers is that the rise in online audiences and revenue has struggled to make up for the loss of print advertising and subscription revenue. And a new feature on the Herald seems to give readers another reason not to pay for paper.
In what has become an annual tradition, the students at Media Design School have developed a quirky campaign to encourage the nation’s ad folk to attend their end-of-year show. In the latest iteration, a series of cut-out headshots of the nation’s admen are accompanied with some humorous sound effects.
What’s in your fridge at the moment? According to Smirnoff’s new campaign, ‘Pure Potential’, it can see the potential in any ingredient to make a great drink.
The last few TVCs from DirecTV has introduced to some remarkably creepy variations of Rob Lowe. And adding to this catalogue of weirdness is a new character called Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe, whose sofa scene might be the creepiest of the series thus far.
Stuff.co.nz has launched a new web series on its site, after running a campaign to source real content for the show from its readers.