Monthly Archives: November, 2014

News
Making museums and airports buzz: the story of STQRY
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Two years ago, after a trip to Wellington Zoo, Chris Smith and Ezel Kokcu founded STQRY, a “storytelling mobile experience company”. The story goes that the pair was reading about pelicans at the zoo and wanted to know more, sparking the idea of an app where people could garner more of an experience from an object. This idea was pitched to the zoo, which picked up immediately. Soon thereafter, Gareth Morgan also threw its weight behind the company. Now, STQRY has 17 staff, and the company’s young founders have set their sights on a range new projects. So, StopPress sat down with the pair to find out where they’re headed next.

News
Lightbox fills the Kiwi void with 19 locally produced shows—UPDATED
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At end of June, upon lifting lid of Lightbox, the Spark subsidiary’s head of programming and local content Maria Mahony told StopPress that she was in talks with local film distributors to secure a deal to screen several local shows. Shortly after Lightbox’s announcements, Quickflix sent out a release saying that it had snapped up pair of local shows, which Lightbox was thought to have been interested in, and this seemingly spoiled the party for the newcomer. Then, when Lightbox later revealed its lineup there was a clear Kiwi-shaped hole in its programming, leading to questions as to whether the subscription video on demand (SVOD) provider would in fact be adding any local shows to its lineup. However, these questions have now been answered by today’s announcement that Lightbox has added no less than 19 local shows to its catalogue. UPDATE: Quickflix ups its local game with seven more shows.

News
V Energy gives thousands of fans superhero moments at Armageddon
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With the rise social media, the way marketers think about experiential marketing has changed. Not long ago, the term experiential was used as a synonym for on-site promotion and often annoyingly manifested itself as a brand lurking about a car park, shopping aisle or public venue. The fact that consumers can now publish their responses instantly to massive audiences means that brands need to be more strategic about how they incorporate experiential marketing. The experience that they offer needs to be something worth talking about. So, as part of its sponsorship partnership with the Armageddon event, V Energy brought in Colenso BBDO and Beryl to create an experience that fans would be willing to share.

News
FCB picks up September Orca for taking over the airwaves
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Given the insight that Kiwi worker down their tools at 3.29 every Friday, at this time on 12 September FCB created a radio roadblock by playing Mitre 10’s ‘Bring on the Weekend’ song across six stations. And this creative—if somewhat unconventional approach—has now resulted in the agency winning an Orca award for the month of September.

News
CAANZ announces category changes, as Axis call for entries kicks off
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2015 will mark the 35th anniversary of the Axis Awards, and to commemorate this milestone CAANZ will be showcasing some of the work that has been awarded over the course of that period. But, as has always been the case, this year’s edition will be about awarding the best work produced over the course of the last year. And to do that as effectively as possible, CAANZ has introduced a few changes to the awards categories for this year’s event.

News
Honda re-imagines split-screen storytelling
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The bar for long-form advertising on YouTube has been raised by the ambitious projects several major brands over the last few years. Guinness, Chipotle, Johnnie Walker and Chanel No 5 have all commissioned the development of creative projects that seemingly conflate the disparate worlds of advertising and entertainment. And recently, when Honda released a series of teasers for its upcoming campaign, it seemed as though the online community would be treated to another online advert posing as a short story. But, what we got was something quite different.

News
Knobs and knockers: Consumer NZ calls for action against doorstep violators
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Consumer New Zealand is calling for door-to-door salesman to be locked out in a new campaign released earlier this week. The consumer watchdog’s chief executive Sue Chetwin says the organisation often gets complaints about the “hard-sell and exploitative sales tactics” the doorknockers use. To counter against this problem, the organisation is distributing free “Do not knock” stickers to protect consumers from unwanted intrusion.

News
TAB confirms gambling is a rollercoaster ride in new campaign
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Right in time for the gambling rush that annually coincides with the Melbourne Cup, TAB has launched a new campaign via Sugar & Partners that features a group of friends seated on a flying rollercoaster. And while this might sound like an aptly terrifying metaphor to accompany the ups and downs of gambling, the characters depicted in the 45-second ad seem to enjoy the trackless journey through the sky.

News
Neigh-tive advertising*
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There will be plenty from the marketing community gearing up for the Melbourne Cup today and, with a couple of Kiwi options, the TAB is aiming to get the locals to lay down a few more bets this year. But founder and chief executive of NZ Tax Refunds NZ Cilla Hegarty has managed to combine marketing and horses in a very different manner: racing a branded thoroughbred/”fast-moving advertising billboard” called Gottagetmywoohoo.

News
Hunch and Hell’s ‘wrong deliveries’ bring the right results for MS Auckland
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Every year, multiple sclerosis awareness week sees hundreds of bucket-shakers hitting the streets to raise funds for those who suffer from this debilitating disease. But this year, MS Auckland wanted to raise more money and more awareness than ever before. So indie agency Hunch came up with a way of illustrating the disease’s effects—and raising some cash—by shacking up with Hell Pizza and sending out a few deliveries to unsuspecting recipients.

Opinion
The romance and unhappiness of advertising
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Damon Stapleton notes that unhappiness levels in the industry seem higher than usual, and he thinks this might have something to do with the lack of courage among agencies these days. So where did that courage go, and how can it be brought back?

News
The beer that doesn’t have beer in it: FCB gives water a makeover in new HPA campaign
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Last year, FCB introduced the line ‘No More Beersies’ to the Kiwi vernacular via its ‘Say Yeah, Nah’ campaign for the Health Promotion Agency (HPA), and it became a ubiquitous catchphrase in weekly conversations. Now, just over a year later, the agency has carried the beersies line into a follow-on campaign that borrows from the tropes of beer advertising to reinvent the humble glass of water. In each of the clips, the pouring of a glass of water is accompanied by the stereotypically deep voice of a beer advert narrator, who over 30 tongue-in-cheek seconds draws attention to the crisp goodness of a simple glass of H2O. PLUS: we look at whether the ‘Say Yeah, Nah’ campaign was effective.

News
You’re dreamin’: Sleepyhead, Slumberzone and Sealy’s attempts to sell sleep
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No doubt the bed makers were happy to see Arianna Huffington extolling the virtues of sleep, lambasting the burn-out culture of the corporate world and promoting the idea of nap rooms at work during her recent visit to New Zealand. And here are a few recent efforts to get Kiwis buying a new rest station from a vampirical Sleepyhead, a rugby-loving Slumberzone and a design-savvy Sealy.

Features
Omni-channel importance
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Emma Eichbaum “In this digital age, integrated marketing communications means more than it ever has,” says Emma Eichbaum, associate director, TNS New Zealand. “Cutting through isn’t…

News
ECD Angus Hennah leaves Ogilvy
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StopPress understands that Ogilvy and Mather’s executive creative director Angus Hennah has left his post at the agency, bringing an end to his two-year stint. Paul Manning, Ogilvy’s executive director, says that Hennah made the decision to resign and that the team at Ogilvy was disappointed to see him depart.

News
John St’s latest industry prod puts real-time in the firing line
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Some believe there’s no bigger sucker than a marketer who thinks they’re missing out on a trend. And Toronto agency John St has managed to illustrate that by gently skewering its own industry and the lemming-like traits of those who inhabit it with a series of very funny clips about catvertising, making things go viral and exFEARiential marketing. And its latest effort, Reactvertising, continues that trend. John St creative Jacob Greer answers a few queries about the success of its comical self-promotional strategy.

News
Lacoste on the loop
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As we wrote last week, there are a few Kiwi brands experimenting with the captivating loops of Vine. And, to announce the arrival of its new online boutique, Lacoste asked social media savant Zach King, who gained fame through the digital trickery displayed in his online videos, to help out.

News
Sky aims to woo fan boys and girls with launch of The Zone
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Despite announcing record profits at last week’s AGM, Sky does not appear content to rest on its laurels. The broadcaster recently unveiled Neon, its subscription video on demand (SVOD) offering, and from today it will be screening a new channel called The Zone. Designed to fill the sci-fi void in Sky’s programming, the new channel will screen horror, fantasy, science-fiction, cult and superhero shows via Sky and SkyGo.

News
A salute to the hirsute
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Once again, a number of facial follicles are being left to run rampant this month to raise funds for men’s health as part of Movember celebrations. And this year, in an effort to drive sign-ups among ‘mo bros’ and ‘mo sistas’, BBDO Toronto created a moustachioued male stereotype called Bruce to show that, despite the often hideous appearance of those who take part, they really are heroes.

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