Monthly Archives: April, 2015

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Lightbox, Netflix, Quickflix and Neon vie for consumer attention
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Lightbox has released two new TVCs by creative agency Consortium and production company Kontent in a continuation of its campaign, which has been rolling out since March with the aim of drawing attention to some of the SVOD provider’s more popular shows. But the Spark-owned SVOD service is by no means the only player in the market eager to get viewers’ attention, as Netflix, Quickflix and Neon also running campaigns that showcase their respective shows.

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The very strange future of broadcasting
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Channel Four in the UK has a fairly impressive in-house creative team, as evidenced by its magnificent Paralympics campaign from a few years back. And now, to launch its new ondemand platform All4, it’s peered 100 years into the future and predicted a same sex royal wedding, robotic horse racing and a series of mutant hosts.

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Work Communications gets up close and personal with the Kia Sorento
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Extreme close-ups can cause everyday items to look virtually unrecognisable as the characterising details are magnified under the photographer’s lens. And this serves as a reminder that though these tiny details might not be immediately apparent to the naked eye it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. So, in an effort to draw attention to the design details that went into the new Kia Sorento, Work Communications has launched a new spot that gives viewers a close-up look at the various sections of the vehicle’s bodywork.

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FCB, Colenso BBDO and Barnes Catmur star in international Effies Index, DDB third in APAC Effies
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The Effies Worldwide Index was released last week and, after tallying up the points earned through finalists and winners in the local Effie awards shows, FCB New Zealand and Colenso BBDO were ranked fifth and eighth respectively in the individual agency rankings, with Barnes Catmur fifth in the independent agency rankings. PLUS: all the Kiwi wins from the Asia Pacific Effies.

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Slingshot jabs Sky on social media
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Yesterday, Sky was again reminded of how intense and instantaneous online outrage can be when advertisers don’t deliver on what’s promised. In this case, the promise involved simulcast streaming of the new season of Game of Thrones at the same time as viewers located in the United States. Sadly, as 1pm rolled in, the stream failed and the online fury ignited. And while it wasn’t difficult to find scathing comments about Sky’s streaming mishap, it was quite entertaining to see Slingshot engage in a bit of corporate banter.

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A sheep in wolf’s clothing
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According to a story in Digiday, The Onion makes 90 percent of its ad revenue through content creation, with a number of big brands looking to infuse a dash of the site’s humour into their commercial messages. And this series for Honda about an unassuming office worker who is convinced by a stuffed wolf to pack in his job, buy a motorbike and ride the road “righting wrongs and making wrongs right” is one of our favourites.

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Made man’s patriotic mission: Dave Schiff on advertising with a purpose
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In 2012, Dave Schiff started ad agency Made in a coffee shop in Boulder, Colorado with two friends. They had no money, no clients and no idea how to run a business. Just three years later Made has more than 40 employees with a client list including a host of internationally recognised brands. And this week, Schiff is in Auckland to speak at Project15 on modern disruption and cause-based advertising.

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TV2 announces the arrival of Thunderbirds are Go through the awkward style of Brains
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In 2013, the long wait for a Thunderbirds are Go revamp finally ended with the announcement that ITV Studios and Pukeko Pictures (in association with Weta) had agreed to remake the show under the title Thunderbirds are Go—and last night Kiwis watching TV2 got their first taste of the CGI-powered live-action model sets coming to life during the first episode of the 12-part first series. PLUS: Brains introduces the new show.

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If product placement was allowed in the Bible
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Advertising veterans George Logothetis and Graham Clifford took part in a bit of blasphemous product placement over Easter, with their Product Placement Bible. The result is a humorous (or not so humorous depending on the individual) website which imagines scripture sponsored by some of the world’s top brands.

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FCB leads the pack among Beacon Awards finalists
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Awards season is chugging along, and earlier this month Caanz announced the finalists for the 20015 edition of the Beacon Media Awards, which are set to be hosted at the Viaduct on 23 April this year. Last year, at the inaugural edition of the rebranded Beacon Awards, FCB dominated proceedings, taking to the stage more frequently than any of the other agencies in attendance. And this time round the agency looks poised to repeat its 2014 performance on account of having picked up 20 awards nominations (two of which are in association with Running with Scissors).

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Clarifications, commerce and Campbell Live
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The idea that Campbell Live is, to use the often emotive language of the media, ‘on the chopping block’, seems to have been popping up for a few years now, and that’s not entirely surprising given the changes to the free-to-air TV market and media in general. But it was officially confirmed yesterday when MediaWorks management said it was undertaking a review. The Herald’s John Drinnan wrote about that decision and alluded to a rumour that Jono and Ben could be taking over the slot, but MediaWorks has taken the unusual step of responding to that story by issuing a clarification and saying it’s a “complete fabrication”.

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The social media danger to rhinos
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There are currently only 29,000 rhinos left in the wild, and this number continues to reduce every year as poachers continue killing these magnificent herbivores for their horns. And given that the conservation efforts are failing to stop this from happening, tourists on safaris often take advantage of what is becoming a quickly diminishing opportunity to take snapshots of the animals in their natural habitat. However, the problem with this is that smartphones often geo-tag images, giving poachers pinpoint coordinates to the the rhinos they so desperately covet.

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ANZ and RSA let Kiwis remember their Anzac heroes
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ANZ has teamed up with the RSA to launch an online campaign that gives Kiwis the opportunity to publicly honour the heroes who were part of the troops that landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. Hosted online on a microsite dubbed called Shadow Battalion, the campaign allows visitors to select a hero and then provide a reason for remembering this person.

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Callaghan Innovation aims to inspire some literal blue sky thinking through drone tech prize
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Recent market research has forecast the economic impact of drone technology in the USA alone to be $82 billion dollars by 2025 and it’s predicted that 80 percent of the commercial market for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) will eventually be for agricultural uses. Given our reliance on that sector, and our history of agricultural innovation, New Zealand stands to benefit from this development. But Callaghan Innovation is also hoping to drive its use in the film and screen industry through an innovation competition.

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Social eating: Burger Burger’s physical/digital expansion
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The rapidly growing ‘better burger’ segment has brought joy to the mouths of many New Zealanders—and some concern to the cheaper, more quotidian fast food incumbents (in a classic case of if you can’t beat them, join them, McDonald’s is attempting to ride the premium train with some new ‘create your own’ options). Burger Burger has quickly become one of Auckland’s favourite posh burger establishments since Mimi Gilmour, she of Mexico fame, launched it last year and Motion Sickness Studio (MSS) has helped make that happen.

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Whittaker’s sends New Zealanders on another gigantic Easter egg hunt
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The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt NZ in support of The Starship Foundation ran again this Easter and saw 100 giant eggs created by leading and emerging artists hidden in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The public had to scramble the streets for the artworks and download the app for a chance win four gold Whittaker’s Wabbit necklaces crafted by Partridge Jewellers. And of course, there were several brands involved.

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TVNZ traces historic letters to modern ancestors to tell Anzac stories
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This year, 25 April marks the centennial anniversary of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli, a poignant moment that to this day serves a reminder of the solidarity that holds the Antipodes together. Given the national interest driven by the event, TVNZ has planned a range of programming dedicated to the infamous moment in history. And in an effort to spread early awareness, the broadcaster has launched a campaign called ‘Letters from our past … delivered to our future’ tells the stories of soldiers who fought in the battle.

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Wheel of fishing misfortune
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Greenpeace Australia has teamed up with DDB’s Andy Fackrell for a campaign called ‘The Meal of Fortune’, which aims to draw attention to the lack of fish labelling laws in Australia by reminding viewers how little they know about where their fish is sourced from.

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Volvo shines a light on cyclists
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After some high-profile accidents, there’s plenty of attention on cycle safety at the moment—and some positive signs that the powers that be are taking heed and starting to create cyclist friendly infrastructure in our bigger cities. Various campaigns have tried to get drivers to look for cyclists—and tried to get cyclists to make sure they can be seen—and now Volvo has developed a cool new product that will help both sides: Life Paint.

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