In the first instalment of a series that showcases how some of the winners from this year’s Magazine Media Awards are adapting to the modern era and helping advertisers grow their businesses, Ben Fahy talks to Kate Coughlan, editor of the supreme magazine of the year, NZ Life & Leisure.
Late last week Cure Kids’ campaign consisting of a video clip for a song, dubbed Team, Ball, Player, Thing as a fight against Batten disease and a Rugby World Cup sendoff featuring, well, pretty much every New Zealand celebrity blew up, with news of the clip dotted all over the internet. Cure Kids and Augusto worked tirelessly on the campaign and faced some big challenges (like not having all of the featured celebs in the same room when filming, for instance). Here’s a look behind the scenes to see how this enormous project came together.
Brushing aside strong competition from the Australian metropolitan publications, the New Zealand Herald has been judged the Newspaper of the Year at the annual Pacific Area Newspapers Publishers’ Association (Panpa) awards. PLUS: Jared Savage wins Hegarty Award and Fairfax also picks up a few gongs.
For a small country New Zealand fared well at the Spikes Asia awards held late last week, winning Spikes in most categories, with DDB bringing home two Grand Prix awards and Colenso BBDO bringing home one, as well as winning ‘Agency of the Year’. Here’s a rundown of the NZ wins.
Most people have that private dance that they turn on when no one is looking. It’s generally typified by an awkward shuffle that stutters its way across the floor to the beat of whatever sound might be playing in the background. Music is optional, and in most cases the elaborate dance moves are brought to a neck-breaking halt if any spectators—beyond the most trusted—suddenly appear on the scene. However, over the last year, Kiwibank has through its ‘Indepen-dance’ campaign given these private dance moves the exposure they deserve. And for the latest iteration of the campaign, the bank has turned to its employees for content.
The difference between consumers’ claimed behaviour and actual behaviour is often vast. And while marketers like to have concrete data to make plans, Andrew Lewis thinks they need to become better at observing customer behaviour.
As a still-nascent format, digital video can be a confusing realm for brands to navigate. So do you need it? And if you do, then what? Facebook video or YouTube? Long form or short form? DIY or through a production or media company? Pre-roll, in-feed, standalone or the whole kit and kaboodle? Once you’ve built it, will they come? And if they do come, how do you measure success? Fortunately, we’ve gathered together a gang of big brains to answer those questions, guide you through some of the trends and help you get better results at an event on Tuesday September 22.
Anchor recently released a black milk bottle to differentiate itself in the aisle (and show its support for the All Blacks, because nothing else matters and because it got back together with the national team after an 80-ish year delay). We cast our eye to the darkest corners of the internet to find some other dairy-based promotions attempting to stand out. They say dairy gives you weird dreams, so perhaps these marketers overdosed on the products they were attempting to sell.
As the All Blacks depart to defend the Webb Ellis cup in the UK, the nation is gearing up for a few weeks of early morning code watching. It’s obviously a pretty big deal for a rugby-loving nation and, as we saw during the Cricket World Cup, the clicks are likely to follow. But the Herald might be taking it a bit far with the branding of its rugby hub, which is sponsored by—who else?—Steinlager. Syrian refugee crisis? Pfffffff.
As has increasingly become clear, content marketing is an effective, progressive and less intrusive way of reaching an audience. The modern audience has less time for shouty or obvious tactics. We’ve grown smarter, wiser and more distracted with a myriad of content options to consume, particularly the millennial audience, which is spending less and less time in front of the television. While perhaps a few years ago it would have been hard to see it coming, banks have gotten very good at employing content marketing tactics, particularly when targeting a younger audience. We thought we’d take a look at a few examples from the main players.
Changes at Ikon, AMP, Hypermedia, Publicity PR and Southern Discoveries.
Kiwibank’s general manager of brand and communications Nicky Ashton is one of the many big brains speaking at the NZ Marketing Summit on Thursday September 17 at Skycity. Ahead of the event, which is split into four streams—brand, digital, data and live—we asked her a few questions.
Streaming content is a hot topic at the moment. Companies like Netflix, Lightbox and Neon are all fighting for share, the telcos are signing up content deals left, right and centre, YouTube is still growing rapidly (and Facebook isn’t far behind with its auto-play option), and traditional free-to-air, ad-funded broadcasters are upping their game to try and compete. But the latest arrival in this already crowded market has come from an unlikely source: Family First.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
The ISP market has been buzzing lately with acquisitions, threats of legal action and an explosion of streaming services. Taryn Hamilton, M2 Group’s general manager of consumer for Slingshot, Orcon and Flip, sits down for a chat and lives up to his reputation of being a straight talker.
Back in 2013, Tauranga-based Trustpower launched its ‘Better Together’ campaign, which positioned the company as a multi-utility service provider offering power, gas, phone and broadband. In April 2014, it ventured back into the Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton markets after an absence of ten years. And then in March this year it launched its ‘$49 Unlimited Data Broadband’ campaign, which shows two quirky characters—Captain Energy and Broadband Girl—connecting at a nerd convention. Now, following what marketing communications manager Carolyn Schofield says was public demand, the pair have returned and they’re taking their relationship to the next level through karaoke.
Over the past few years, social media has become an enormous part of the lives of many. Studies show we spend hours online per day, and much of this time is spent perusing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like. And apart from stalking old school friends who have become more successful than you, or (for some) discovering what Kim K’s latest move is, these have also become platforms for people to openly share their views, exercise their right to free speech, and learn what others think about relevant and important issues. This activity on social media has led to many news publishers embedding tweets in their online stories, or further, basing an entire story around a strong public reaction to a tweet. So, we decided to ask ‘why?’
SelfieJobs, a Stockholm-based startup, is shaking up the recruitment industry with an app that approaches recruitment and job hunting in much the same way that millennials are going about dating. The app requires users to pitch a 22-second pitch video and then swipe through available jobs in their region.
In an effort to draw attention to continued murder of humanitarian aid workers, Action Against Hunger has released a moving campaign that features a young boy called Barrack Obama calling on world leaders to provide support to the aid workers who are trying their best to feed those caught up in the misery of war.
Contagion’s Dean Taylor investigates why Google, Amazon and Apple dominate their respective fields, and what he finds is that these three juggernauts have a lot in common.
Trendsetters trade on being early adopters, whether it’s fashion, technology or creative pursuits. And, in a world where social media has become so important, sharing something before it goes viral has become a form of social validation (check out Kevin Alloca’s TED Talk for a look at some of the reasons). Now Spotify has launched a tool called Found Them First, which shows you how many artists you streamed before they hit the bigtime.
Since taking his post as the head of Facebook in New Zealand, Spencer Bailey has become accustomed to fielding questions about when Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram would be opened to advertisers in the local market. Asked how many times he’s had to sidestep the question since April, he gives a wry smile and says: “Just a few times … every week.” Well, the wait is finally over. Facebook has announced that advertising will now be available to Kiwi advertisers on Instagram.
Back in May we sat down for a chat with Duncan Greive, founder, editor and publisher of The Spinoff, “a little TV website which has lately been nursing big dreams”. He mentioned his dastardly plans to expand its editorial coverage and its network of sponsors. And he was confident the model “could end up being a good vehicle for a plurality of native advertisers”. Now, as it celebrates its first birthday, he’s taken a big step in that direction, launching five new sections—sports, books, politics, media and society—and hiring eight new staff to help fill them up.
Since 1964, Kashin, the ASB moneybox, has been an inhabitant of countless Kiwi homes, serving as a tool used by parents to teach their kids about the value of money. However, at a time when coins have become something of a rarity, Kashin was becoming a largely unused anachronism—a white elephant, if you will. So, in response, ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi have given Kashin a digital makeover and introduced a new moneybox called Clever Kash.
According to Wikipedia, “at least some of the workers who built the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs received paid sick leave as well as state-supported health care”. And ever since 1500 BC, employees who understandably love the idea of getting paid while doing absolutely no work have been claiming they’re ill and taking days off. Now Destination Queenstown is incentivising that behaviour and has enlisted the help of Australian comedian Dan Ilic to teach his countryfolk how to squeeze in a sneaky spring ski trip.
While there’s plenty of excitement about the possibilities of immersive virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR at the moment, sometimes the simplest innovations are the best and Google Cardboard, which combines mobile phones and the act of folding to create inexpensive virtual reality goggles, is definitely in that category. Google has made its design open source and while Kellogg’s and shopper marketing and digital activation agency Geometry Global NZ have taken inspiration from this technology and, in what it says is a first for the New Zealand grocery market, turned a box of Nutri-Grain into a virtual reality experience.
When we think about going on holiday often our imagination kicks in. We might picture ourselves on some luscious tropical island, lying on the beach, pina colada in hand, listening to the soothing sound of rolling waves or maybe even off on some big adventure, backpacking across Europe or Asia perhaps. Well, now Contiki is giving prospective travellers the opportunity to truly envision a travel adventure, with the use of virtual reality technology.
Through a content partnership between Marketo and StopPress, we look at how technology is being used to automate marketing processes and what this means for industry. This time we ask Rob Cooke about how automation is changing the way marketers and creatives go about their jobs in the industry.
When you haven’t done something for a hundred-or-so years, you’re unlikely to get it right the first time. So, we might disagree over our favourite designs, or whether the flag should be changed at all, but I’m sure we can all agree that the process has not been a success.
The radio survey period is usually typified by a pair of contrasting situations. On the one side, you have the silence of radio executives who are precluded from saying anything about the survey lest their comments interfere with the accuracy of the results. And on the other side, you have have a flood of loud, in-your-face promotions with the sole purpose of pushing listeners in the direction of MediaWorks and NZME. But does this approach even work? And is radio promo season set to become a thing of the past?