Monthly Archives: July, 2015

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Poultry and Polaroids
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Worried about putting your greasy mitts all over your phone to take a photo while you’re munching on some dirty bird? Then this invention is not for you.

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Better Burger’s delicious design
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Burger joints appear to be popping up left right and centre, emerging as a better quality alternative to traditional fast-food chains. And Britomart-based Better Burger is trying to create a point of difference with its eye-catching branding.

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Countdown goes back to the collectables well once again, this time with Disney Pixar
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The human urge to collect is a powerful one (and makes for excellent television). And our local supermarkets have been tapping into this urge in recent years, whether through tiny groceries or animal cards. In pretty much every case, the nation seems to have gone completely mad for them, with swap meets being organised, black markets being established and kids regularly tugging on parents’ pants demanding the full set and the associated plastic tat. Now Countdown has struck up a deal with Disney Pixar for its latest collectables campaign, Domino Stars.

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FQ brings its style home with Life brand extension
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Bauer’s Fashion Quarterly released its latest offering Fashion Quarterly Life this month which includes content about stylish interiors, health and well-being, wine trends, inspiring people and more. We had a chat with Fashion Quarterly’s editor Sally-Ann Mullin to find out why it decided to release the issue in an already crowded home and lifestyle market and to see what feedback has been like so far.

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Should brands pin their hopes on Pinterest?
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While some big brands have been successfully using the likes of Snapchat and Instagram to market themselves, it would appear that Pinterest has been a little slower to take off here in New Zealand compared to abroad. However, with Pinterest announcing its Buyable Pins which began rolling out last month, we imagine many more brands will jump onboard once they’re available here. Here’s a look at the platform and a rundown of which New Zealand brands are using it.

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Beans & ‘shaghetti’ – Wattie’s turns R-rated
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Providing Kiwi families with everything from baby food to its classic tomato sauce, Wattie’s has a place in the heart of many New Zealand families. However, with its latest Google ad, it appears that Wattie’s has slightly changed its marketing strategy and is prepared to launch a new R-rated product.

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Sites for sore eyes: agencies and the art of online showoffery
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Agencies have many ways of wooing clients. They wine and dine them. They try to win awards. They send out press releases to trade media. They try to destabilise the incumbents. They invest in fancy offices to create the perception of success should they visit. And they also show off their work, their strategy and their talent to online visitors. The agency website is basically a digital shopfront and it’s often seen as an indication of the type of work it might be able to do for clients. Many agencies are guilty of creating boring and/or unfunctional sites and regularly slipping into cliche. But there are some good ones out there. So here are a few of our local favourites.

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Inside: Neighbourly
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After launching halfway through last year Neighbourly is growing quickly, with 142,000 households now signed up and a number of big brands getting onboard too. Having just launched its business platform, we thought it was about time we caught up with Neighbourly to see what it’s up to and how these brand partnerships are coming along.

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Ford gets chatty with the All Blacks
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New Zealanders are well-accustomed to getting whacked over the head with rugby ads and sponsorship activations. And that only increases in the lead up to—and during—the Rugby World Cup. Many of the tournament sponsors like Land Rover, Heineken, Mastercard and Coca-Cola have played their first promotional hands. And, among the All Blacks sponsors, Adidas has embraced the players’ inner animals for Force of Black, Air New Zealand has upped its sponsorship and its efforts around the #crazyaboutrugby platform, Steinlager has teased the return of the white can and NZ Rugby even decided to do its own campaign. Now Ford and JWT have joined in with an online video campaign called The Driven that talks to three All Blacks about their driving habits and their favourite models.

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2degrees and Special Group play on polarity to launch new broadband offer
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2degrees has managed to secure around 1.3 million mobile customers since it launched in 2009. But if it wanted to play with the grown-up telcos, it knew it needed to become full-service. That became a reality after purchasing Snap internet earlier this year. And after discovering that Kiwis find the various plans and jargon a bit confusing, it’s aiming to remove the complexity by offering just two plans, something it’s focusing on in its launch campaign.

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The tough life of the male cheerleader
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Following on from a story we wrote today which delves into the discrimination against gingers, nor should male cheerleaders be put down, as humorously explored by this Foster’s ad which provides an autobiographical account of the life of the male cheerleader.

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Riffin’ on ginge and juice: Karma Cola reps the redheads with unique content marketing strategy
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They [some arbitrary people] say things come around in cycles and it appears to be true, particularly of fashion. Who thought we’d see the likes of platform shoes again (let alone silver ones) or those tattoo-chokers which were popular in the 90s and most recently flares have also started making a come back. Who woulda thunk it. But what else is making a come back is ginger, the hideous root as well as the golden follicle, which for the purposes of this article, we shall dub the gingernaissance. One brand which has cottoned on to the trend is Karma Cola which has even released a zine about ginger/gingers to celebrate its Gingerella Ginger Ale concoction.

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BK and Colenso BBDO keep the self-reflexive, extortionate advertising flowing
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Burger King has been getting a fair bit of love on Facebook for its Joseph Parker promos, which involve a couple of stereotypical marketing lackeys begrudgingly acquiescing to the boxer’s demands and aim to reward customers with special short-term deals if he wins. And Burger King and Colenso BBDO are continuing to have a laugh at their own expense with an ad that riffs on the fast food industry’s penchant for stretching the truth in its ads. PLUS: Parker’s latest spot ahead of his fight on Saturday.

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Does good news travel? Airbnb tries to beat the negativity bias
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News is bad, mmmmmkay. And the often negative, simplistic and sensationalist stories favoured by the media—and the ‘if it bleeds it leads’ mentality that was skewered brilliantly in Nightcrawler—often clouds the fact that, by many measures, there has never been a better time to be alive. There have been plenty of efforts at focusing on good news rather than bad, like The Philosopher’s Mail or, more virally, Upworthy. And, as part of its ‘Is Mankind? campaign, Airbnb is trying to do the same by producing the ‘Daily Kindness Bulletin’ and showcasing what it feels is some much-needed positivity.

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Studio Alexander’s geometric effort wins Gareth Morgan’s flag comp
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Over 9000 designs were submitted online as part of the government’s $27 million flag consideration campaign (and many of them were ‘avin’ a laff). But businessman and philanthropist Gareth Morgan, who is a big proponent of changing the flag—”to bury this artefact that tells a lie and is an insult to Maoridom”—didn’t feel the brief was adequate, didn’t feel people understood the history of the existing flag and didn’t feel the Treaty of Waitangi was being placed at the core of the process. So he decided to stump up $20k for an alternative competition and incentivise designers to come up with something that would tell the story of New Zealand. And Auckland design agency Studio Alexander beat out around 1000 entries for the prize with ‘Wā kāinga / Home’.

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