Monthly Archives: October, 2015

News
Report ranks New Zealand as world’s fifth strongest nation brand
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New Zealand’s combination of pride and self-doubt means we still seem to crave foreign endorsement. And a report by Brand Finance, which “specialises in brand valuation and strategy, evaluates the financial impact of the image and reputation of the top 100 countries”, has given it to us, showing New Zealand sits at number five on the list of healthiest country brands.

News
My Kitchen Rules vs The Block: battle of the formats kicks off neck and neck
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The ladles and the drills came to blows last year, as the local editions of My Kitchen Rules (MKR NZ) and The Block saw TVNZ and MediaWorks go head to head with their respective multi-night format shows. And the competitive banter between the networks is set to continue this year, with both shows returning to Kiwi screens. The first round of the bout went to MediaWorks, with the Block coming out on top in the 25-54 demographic as it attracted an audience of 158,800, narrowly ahead of the 157,100 people who tuned in to watch MKR.

News
Grab life by the balls
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The classic, reasonably disturbing ad for Neat 3B Action Cream is a brilliant example of the power of anthropomorphism and it’s a firm favourite in the StopPress offices (second only to Auckland Glass). And Bonds has added to that body of work with its latest effort featuring two talking testicles.

News
In memory of dial-up tones, frozen faces and broken links: Contagion and Chorus put early internet moments on display
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The stuttering dial-up tone of a modem typified the internet experience in the 1990s and early 2000s. And in those early online days, there were no guarantees. The line could be dropped any moment. YouTube clips buffered for longer than they played. And video calls were reduced to an unimaginably awkward series of frozen snapshots of family members. Lest we forget how far we have come since these struggles, Contagion has released a new campaign for Chorus, which shows iconic early internet moments on display in what appears to be a museum.

News
Pak’nSave: ‘Big Game’ hunters
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In this week’s instalment of ‘The Big Game’, a prestigious award dished out to the best example of euphemism usage from non-sponsors hoping to ride the attention train during the Rugby World Cup, the award goes to Pak’nSave for its punny egg-based Facebook post.

Features
TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards 2015: Slow and steady wins the race for Chorus
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For the next few weeks, we will be showcasing all the winners of the 2015 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. First up, Chorus’ Gigatown, which, after more than a year of parochial hashtags, press and Instagram videos, effectively informed Kiwis about UFB, drove interest in the economic and social benefits it could offer, generated millions of dollars of media value for the brand and came away with wins in the Supreme, Utilities and Technology categories.

News
Industry welcomes KPEX, but also asks a few questions
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While yesterday’s announcement by the nation’s big four publishers about the creation of a joint ad exchange has largely been welcomed by the industry as positive move that could, if effective, serve to keep a bigger chunk of ad spend in the local market rather than feeding it into the international exchanges, it has also raised a few questions that will need to be answered as it comes into effect. We chat to the big brains at Countdown, Pak ‘n Save, OMD, VivaKi, Acquire Online, ANZA, Bauer and TVNZ about this move.

Opinion
How you create an agency, by David Walden
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Having worked at TBWA\ from 2005 to 2010 alongside David Walden, Michael Goldthorpe was asked to share a few words about his mentor and friend at last night’s Effie Awards, which fell on the same day as Devo’s unsurprisingly well-attended and colourful funeral. And he decided to let Devo’s words, which serve as the introduction to a book that will be available to buy soon, do most of the talking.

Partner articles
Sounding off: More FM’s local/national fusion lures the listeners
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As part of a content partnership with MediaWorks, we’ve asked a few of the company’s programme directors about the performance of their brands, the state of radio and the importance of digital channels. More FM was one of the few brands to increase its audience in the recent T2 radio survey. And network programme director Christian Boston says its dual strategy is paying dividends.

News
Say that again? CWG aims to prevent ‘bad lip reading’ for the deaf and hard of hearing
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The New Zealand Captioning Working Group has released a campaign via The Business called ‘Bad lip reading’ featuring a humorous clip of overdubbed rugby players to raise awareness of how hard it can be for deaf people to lip read when watching TV or on demand content. At the core of the campaign is an online petition requesting support to legislate captioning on the country’s screens.

News
24 hours of Trade Me
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To keep the wheels at Trade turning 24 hours a day isn’t easy. It takes approximately 500 staff members across a range of disciplines to make sure that late-night browsers, whose minds are riding a wave of pinot, are able to click the ‘buy now’ button when they encounter some completely unnecessary—but undeniably awesome—bronze fighting rooster statuettes*. So, for its new staff recruitment video, Trade Me takes viewers on a tour through the business, showcasing the various roles that potential employees could take on by joining the company.

Partner articles
Up Country: Hawke’s Bay Today’s Andrew Austin on local pride, beating the internet and the role of branded content
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In conjunction with News Works, the Up Country series talks with some of New Zealand’s top regional newspaper editors about the performance of their titles in print and online, the role local news plays in regional communities, where they see the industry going and why advertisers should stick with them. Next up, Andrew Austin, editor of Hawke’s Bay Today.

News
Effies 2015: Colenso crowned most effective agency, Clemenger snags Grand Effie
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As the attendees took their seats at the Langham, the table occupied by Colenso BBDO employees carried the most expectation, with the agency’s 24 shortlistings across categories making it the leader among the nominees. And Colenso BBDO didn’t leave disappointed. The Clemenger-owned agency consistently picked up metal throughout the night, and was eventually declared the most effective agency in New Zealand for 2015. The other big winners on the night were Clemenger BBDO, FCB and JWT.

Partner articles
Sounding off: Magic finds a sweet spot
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As part of a content partnership with MediaWorks, we’ve asked a few of the company’s programme directors about the performance of their brands, the state of radio and the importance of digital channels. And the newest kid on the block, Magic, has got off to a good start, attracting a good number of loaded oldies in its first few months and performing well in the regions. We talked to Ian Avery about the birth of the new brand.

News
Embattled Volkswagen picks FCB to help get brand back on track
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Following the news that Volkswagen New Zealand was set to part ways with its agency of around two years, Colenso BBDO, and the recent discovery of dodgy software that cheated on emissions tests, FCB New Zealand has been handed the creative business—and been given a pretty big challenge to help the brand win back people’s trust.

News
The temple of advertising
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Following on John Oliver’s founding of Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, Adam&EveDDB has now also launched its own religious organisation, dedicated entirely to worshipping the advertising of the agency.

News
Four of New Zealand’s biggest media companies form ad exchange alliance, aim to take on Google and Facebook—UPDATED
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In a joint statement released earlier today, Fairfax Media, MediaWorks, NZME and TVNZ announced the launch of a new local advertising exchange service called the Kiwi Premium Advertising Exchange (KPEX), which will provide advertisers access to premium advertising inventory across each of the publishers’ online properties. So will this give the local players the scale to compete with Facebook and Google’s respective ad exchanges?