Monthly Archives: November, 2015

News
As festive biscuit buying season approaches, Griffin’s and Assignment ask Kiwis to create a guide to ‘biscuitiquette’
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While it’s tough to top Whittaker’s when it comes to socially savvy FMCG brands, Griffin’s has also had a fair bit of success in that field, with its Choco-ade campaign from a few years back the stand out. And to capitalise on the festive I-need-to-get-them-a-generic-gift-but-it-can’t-be-too-expensive biscuit rush (which is closely related to the chocolate gift giving Cadbury has been promoting for a few years), Griffin’s and its agency Assignment Group are asking Kiwis to provide some rules around appropriate summer Sampler consumption.

News
Smokin’ to the west: Snoop launches new marijuana brand
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Before the laws loosened up in the US, Snoop Dogg was already well known for his love of the Mary Jane. Now he’s aiming to profit from his habit with the launch of his new marijuana brand, Leafs by Snoop AKA LBS, which consists of flowers, concentrates and edibles and will be sold in Colorado medical and recreational dispensaries. And it looks pretty classy.

News
NZME delves into the archives of ad:tech 1987—UPDATED
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This year’s edition of ad:tech again saw some of the most influential members of the industry assemble for a day of brain expansion/occasional brain explosion. And as part of its sponsorship of the event, NZME has delved into the back catalogues and uncovered some fantastic footage showing a panel of speakers (with a remarkable resemblance to several current NZME radio personalities) sharing their thoughts on the future of the video game industry. In addition to sensational graphics and a great example of a sweater on the shoulders, the clip provided scintillating debate, as well as some classic contrarian opining by one speaker.

News
Brands bet on Bond
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Despite the initial controversy surrounding Daniel Craig as the new 007, the blonde Bond has proven to be extremely marketable whether it be Land Rover, Heineken or Omega as these Spectre-related promotional spots demonstrate.

News
Air New Zealand puts the spotlight on its partnership with the Department of Conservation
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Air New Zealand is well aware of integral this environment is in terms of attracting tourists to New Zealand, which is evidenced by the airline throwing its weight behind the Department of Conservation (DOC) in recent years (the partnership is worth about $1 million annually). And this partnership continued last week with the release of a new video clip by creative agency True promoting the Great Walk programme. PLUS: experience the Great Walks through Google’s street view.

News
ASB imagines a night in the life of a St John ambulance
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Recently, ASB re-developed Kashin the money box to bring it in line with the increasingly cashless society. And for its latest campaign in support of St John, the bank is keeping the focus on children by telling the story of an animated toy ambulance saving a solitary teddybear lying in the garden.

News
Canadian agencies once again show their love/hate relationship with advertising
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Every year, Canada’s Strategy Magazine asks local agencies to indulge in some creative self-flagellation to celebrate its agency of the year awards. Last year, there were riffs on vending machine stunts, the industry’s culture of long hours and many other advertising-specific issues. And this year is no different, with fun poked at everything from brands co-opting female empowerment to the ridiculousness of “spec” work to the benefits of early targeting.

News
Fonterra Brands calls on the power of Annabel Langbein—and the power of the table—to get Kiwis cooking
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The holy grail of content marketing is to create a win-win-win: something that’s good for the consumers, good for the brand and good for the ambassadors/publishers. And Fonterra Brands, Annabel Langbein and Milk reckon they’ve done just that with a new content-led campaign/’inspiration platform’ called ‘We Are What We Eat’, which aims to provide Kiwis with the tools to cook more often and more simply—and, at the same time, promote the surprisingly large benefits of getting the family around the table.

News
Six sides to one story
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Like all forms of traditional media, photography has also been rocked by the digital age, leaving those who ply this trade in a very uncertain position. And while it’s relatively easy to now access photography of just about anything, a new campaign from Canon shows the important role good photography can still play in telling stories.

News
Horse’s Mouth: Craig Herbison, BNZ
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After Craig Herbison was appointed as BNZ’s chief marketing officer in 2011, his first big act was to launch the new brand platform in the form of a polarising, existential teaser campaign that asked whether money was good or bad (answer: neither, it’s what you make of it that counts). Since then he’s made ‘Be Good with Money’ a central pillar of the business and around one year ago, he was promoted to director of retail banking and marketing. So, after saying goodbye to the Airpoints scheme and launching another confronting campaign about the perils of not planning ahead, are the marketing efforts paying dividends?

Partner articles
Up Country: The Northern Advocate’s Craig Cooper on bucking trends, understanding responsibilities and ‘new media’ arrogance
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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. And for the final instalment, The Northern Advocate’s editor Craig Cooper offers his $0.02.

News
Putting the face in Facebook
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Depending on your viewpoint, Facebook is set to get either creepier or more effective because the social media giant has announced the introduction of photo recognition to its popular Messenger app.

News
First the research, now a TVC: Lightbox jabs Sky again
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Several weeks ago, Lightbox released a research claiming that one in five people were likely to drop their Sky subscription following the Rugby World Cup. From the outset, it was clear that Lightbox was having a go at Sky and looking to win subscribers from the paid TV broadcaster. And although Lightbox chief executive Kym Niblock said the emphasis on Sky was simply a by-product of the research, there’s little or no ambiguity in terms of which who Lightbox is referring to in its latest TVC. PLUS: Niblock calls for the industry work on portraying ‘binge-watching’ in a more positive light.

News
Tip Top taps into the rise of bourgeois burgery, calls on Kiwis to offer up their best suggestions
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Burgers are so hot right now and weirder and more wonderful offerings at popular events like Wellington on a Plate’s ‘Burger Wellington’ competition have shown the levels of experimentation burger eaters are willing to indulge. These gentrified consumer tastes have given rise to the ‘better burger’ movement, a niche occupied by chains like Burger Fuel and Burger Wisconsin and popular restaurants like Auckland’s Burger Burger. Even that bastion of standardised beef and cheese, McDonald’s, has announced moves to posh up their burgers by allowing customers to create their own. But ‘bourgeois burgery’ has now moved to the humble Kiwi BBQ, if the entries to Tip Top’s ‘Build a Better Burger Challenge’ are anything to go by.

News
‘Why read a magazine with your hands, when you could read a magazine with your whole head?’
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Those working in marketing, advertising and media are generally suckers for a new trend and live in constant fear that are somehow behind the times. Like magpies, they swoop around, find shiny things to take back to their nests and regularly attack cyclists. Many are betting big on virtual reality being the next big platform and a range of brands—from Samsung’s live-streamed birth to Jaguar NZ’s recent ‘actual reality’ stunt—have jumped on that bandwagon recently. The New York Times has also embraced it (with the help of Google Cardboard) and sees it a nascent form of storytelling, but The New Yorker is slightly less convinced the technology will be able to improve the reading experience, as the very funny video about its ‘mind-blowing virtual reality experience’ shows.

News
Finding stories in the statistics: welcome to the age of data visualisation
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Data is, as they say, big. It’s everywhere. We’re all creating it all the time. And within all the data are stories. Millions and millions of stories. And to help us make sense of those stories, a new breed of data visualisation from the likes of Pitch Interactive’s Wes Grubbs has arisen to deepen and broaden our understanding of the world around us. PLUS: some of our favourite data visualisations.

News
Snickers plays games with the gamers
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Globally, eSports is surprisingly big (at least to non-gamers). And, with news that a local tournament is set to come to a Sky TV pop-up channel, it’s starting to gain traction in New Zealand. At this stage, MyRepublic has put its name on the hoardings, but sponsors are few and far between for the local event and it’s not clear if Sky will sell advertising around it. But due to the growing popularity of eSports among the hard to reach younger (and predominantly male) demographics, it is starting to attract interest from major brands, including Snickers, which recently punked thousands of people on the gaming platform Twitch.tv.

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