Yesterday’s announcement from MediaWorks came with confirmation of two executive job cuts as chief executive of television Paul Maher and chief executive of interactive Siobhan McKenna were listed as casualties of the reshuffle. MediaWorks chief executive Mark Weldon told StopPress that these would be the extent of the job cuts for now.
Changes at Bauer Media, Designworks, Tourism Fiji and Wynward Group.
Yesterday, MediaWorks announced it was merging its newsrooms to enhance efficiency. Fairfax has long favoured the network approach. And NZME is doing similar things by bringing its various strands closer together. So how will that affect the news? Conan O’Brien knows.
While many agencies are completely addicted to winning awards and use them as evidence of their ability to change the commercial fortunes of clients and attract staff, many of the call for entires campaigns for the awards take a much less serious approach. Axis had its brilliant Share the Love campaign, Strategy in Canada got a host of local agencies to take the proverbial out of the industry and now the ANDY’s have added to the strain of self-awareness—and self-flaggelation—with a very funny campaign via Wieden + Kennedy that shows ad folk being praised for their unceasing bravery and commitment by an explosive ordnance disposal specialist, a surgeon and a firefighter.
Murphy’s Law dictates that when digital gurus give presentations they will have technical difficulties. And it also states that when you announce the acquisition of a digital agency, your website will be broken, as was the case with JWT this morning. Heyday to the rescue …
What do you get the 150 year old agency that’s got everything? A new digital agency, of course. After celebrating a big milestone last week, JWT has announced another large piece of news: it has taken a majority stake in Wellington-based Heyday.
Late afternoon on 8 December, MediaWorks sent out a release announcing a significant reshuffling of the business, which included three major changes.
Tech companies have long focused on how their products can augment life. Google has released a few stunners, like the amazing story of Saroo Brierly; Apple’s iPad Air campaign featured Yaoband, Jason Hall, Cherie King and Esa-Pekka Salonen putting the product to good use; and Samsung has employed the services of corporate mascots like Lebron James and, more locally, Israel Dagg. Now the local branch of Samsung is focusing on arts and crafts by showcasing how jewellery designer Rachel Sloane from Naveya & Sloane uses the Note 4 to help bring together the real and the digital.
AJ Park patent specialists Anton Blijlevens and Jillian Lim touch on some interesting patents to look out for on the shelves.
When Smirnoff launched its #PurePotential campaign, promising that the company could see potential for a yummy cocktail in any ingredient, I thought the idea was romantic but unrealistic. It’s proven me wrong.
While most marketers in the action and outdoor industry attempt showcase their products as survival essentials, Mons Royale founder Hamish Acland has veered away from this trope to present his brand as a fashionable label that offers both utility and aesthetic appeal. And this approach has now been continued in a new promotional clip that showcases imagery that is both sexy and utility-based. Featuring Jossi Wells, Christy Prior, Connor Macfarlane, Will Jackways and beautifully shot in the Mons Royale hometown of Lake Wanaka, the over-minute-long video provides a glimpse at the lives of these extreme sports enthusiasts.
As Southpark recently pointed out, messages of moderation from alcohol companies often seem slightly paradoxical. But Diageo has nailed it with the help of manly moustachioed man and regular booze brand ambassador Nick Offerman, who, as part of a wider campaign called My Tales of Whisky, sings about the things you shouldn’t do while drinking.
Throughout the course of the last year, Getty Images has been making a point of identifying the visual trends that define business culture in the modern age. In addition to seeing changes in media representations of women, middle-aged people and beauty standards, Getty has also drawn attention to the way technology is influencing photography through extreme close-ups and point-of-view cinematography. And as the world stands poised to draw the curtain on 2014, the team at Getty have taken a moment to look at what the future in a new article published on its website.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
New Zealand is set to become the 82nd country to have a homeless store, with an ordinary kiwi bloke at the helm of organising a pop-up on Quay Street in Auckland Central.
Nothing gets brands more willing to spend dollars on advertising than a special event. Be it Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or Christmas, brands throughout the world embrace the moment, throw caution to the wind and try to capitalise on the consumer frenzy that often accompanies these days. And in the lead up to to Christmas 2014, brands have not disappointed, delivering yet another entertaining dose of humorous and tear-jerking spots.
New insights from Nielsen on New Zealand’s business decision makers indicates that reading a magazine is one of the movers and shakers’ favourite ways to consume media.
Industry happenings at ZM, Paralympics New Zealand, Fairfax, Spaceworks, Ad2one and Beat Communications.
The one major advantage of a digital billboard is that it can be updated instantly to reflect something that is happening at a specific moment. During the election, TV3 used this to its advantage by feeding live updates of the results onto APN Outdoor’s collection of digital billboards in Auckland. And now, DDB and ZenithOptimedia are collaborating with Mother Nature on a new outdoor campaign for Speight’s that adjusts in accordance with the temperature.
You creative, markety types like a bit of art. And the World Giving Report shows that New Zealanders are pretty generous too. So why not combine the two and head along to ‘It’s Complicated’ at Studio 230 in Ponsonby next week.
In the digital age, the buying of radio frequencies seems almost archaic. The internet means that any major radio brand can now be accessed across the nation. And yet, in the recent Radio Spectrum auction, NZME broke a record by paying $7.4 million to retain the frequency it currently uses for Newstalk ZB in Christchurch. And while slightly more frugal than its competitor, MediaWorks Radio also pulled out the chequebook to pay $2.5 million for a frequency used for Mai FM in Waikato and $2 million for a frequency that will host George FM in Wellington. StopPress chats to MediaWorks group content director Leon Wratt and NZME Radio managing director Dean Buchanan to find out if it’s still worth paying that much for radio frequencies.
There’s plenty of discussion about whether the 100% Pure campaign has had its day and the country appears to be reaching peak Hobbit, but there’s no doubt New Zealand’s clever tourism marketing tactics over the years have done the business and attracted more tourists to these fine lands.
William Trubridge didn’t quite manage to break his own free-diving world record on Wednesday morning. But, with the help of a big push from Steinlager and a live broadcast from TVNZ, he did manage to get plenty of New Zealanders watching the attempt on Breakfast.
As it says on the James Walter Thompson online timeline, the agency’s history is the history of advertising. And as it celebrates its 150th birthday, we talk to Simon Lendrum about its role in New Zealand’s cultural fabric—and its recent renaissance.
House of Travel has confirmed the appointment of Ken Freer as its new marketing director. Having just started his new role, Freer is already working on the company’s marketing strategy, and a spokesperson tells StopPress that the organisation (which currently doesn’t have an agency on the books) would likely look to secure a creative partner in early 2015.
In June this year, Google Creative Lab unveiled The Cube, a six-sided digital video platform that can be used to simultaneously tell different stories in the same digital space. And in a pair of innovative campaigns, Google Play and Sony are showcasing how the platform could potentially be used for branding.
StopPress sits down with BuzzFeed Australia’s editor Simon Crerar for a chat about the website being like a Parisian café, Kiwis being better sharers than Aussies and why inane animal .gifs can co-exist with serious content.
Facing what Spark says will cost it $60 million per year more than anticipated, the company is, in the public eye, in a state of shock and turmoil. But some are saying the shock should have, and possibly would have, been anticipated.
The winners of the NetGuide Web Awards were announced earlier this week, and Spark and NZME both came away with a triple treat and TVNZ Ondemand took two.
If you don’t like Iggy Azalea, Lil John or Maroon 5 but love a good mashup, we have got just the thing.