Monthly Archives: February, 2016

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‘Daddy daycare in my polo wear’
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Last year, we were blessed with the brilliant piece of satire that is Activewear by content creators The Skit Box (and distributed via the Van Vuuren Bros YouTube channel). As the saying goes imitation is the best form of flattery—and imitation has arrived via Auckland Theatre Company (ATC).

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Protestors, F-bombs and vox pops: TPPA coverage shows the ups and downs of live streaming
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On 4 February, thousands of TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) protestors filed onto Auckland’s city streets carrying signs, chanting and blocking off access to motorway access points to mark their objection to the agreement as our government was putting pen to paper. And among all the chaos were the nation’s media outlets, all competing to get the best coverage of the event and live-streaming it directly to thousands of online viewers. Here’s a rundown of how the media used live-streaming to create a more immersive experience for viewers, and a look at what the dangers are of live-streaming events like these.

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The long game: why Heineken is trumpeting moderation
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Last week, at an event hosted at the Auckland viaduct, Heineken gathered the media and a collection of millennials to unveil its latest brand ad, which again has a very strong moderate drinking message. But as a brand that lives and dies by the number of bottles it sells, why is it trying to encourage consumers to think twice about handing over their cash?

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Hot selfies in the Polish winter
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Saatchi & Saatchi/ Interactive Solutions Poland and Saatchi & Saatchi Switzerland have teamed up with GSK, a research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare company, to fight the flu during Poland’s winter by placing a thermo-scanner camera in Warsaw. The camera measures the users temperature to assess whether or not they have a fever, a symptom of flu, before taking a photo.

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A drag queen, a stuntwoman and a pair of trampolinists walk into an Anchor ad as Fonterra bets big on brand
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Fonterra is rolling out a major global platform in a bid to strengthen the Anchor brand in several international markets. Strategically developed by Colenso BBDO, various creative iterations of the core concept are set to appear in New Zealand, China and Sri Lanka (and later in Chile and Malaysia). The creative announcing the campaign to the local market is unreservedly audacious, seeming more akin to a gritty movie trailer for a series of interlinking stories than an ad for a dairy product.

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When brands boycott customers
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Who said the customer is always right? For years customer service workers have had to deal with rude customers, receiving abuse with smiles on their faces, because of that silly old saying which has been beaten into them by their superiors. But Tesla has just proved that for its brand, the saying is irrelevant, and if the customer is going to throw a paddy, then it ain’t going to get the goods.

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#LoveYourTrolls
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I can’t help but feel a bit bad for Match. All it tried to do was to deviate away from most dating sites/apps which often trumpet the ‘hot singles in your area’ and show that it’s okay to have a few flaws like a bad singing voice or a habit of wearing your socks in bed. But, we at StopPress can’t resist a good Twitter troll and the hashtag attached to this campaign was used and abused in the best ways possible.

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FCB erases the boundaries in strategic restructure, brings in Murray Streets and Dan West
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Following on from last week’s news of his departure from Saatchi & Saatchi, Murray Streets has now been confirmed as the general manager for business innovation and strategy at FCB. This appointment comes as part of the launch of what FCB is calling “a fully integrated strategy unit”. We chat to head of media and strategy Rufus Chuter about what these changes mean for the agency. PLUS: a look at some of the other staff changes at the agency.

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Grin Toothpaste reaps the rewards of the organic boom
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As the number New Zealanders making a conscious effort to return to their grass roots increases, so too does demand for products to become available in both natural and un-natural make. New Zealand’s organic sector saw a 25 percent increase from 2009 and 2012 and now, the latest product to grace shelves and satisfy the need for everything natural is a manuka oil and fennel based toothpaste.

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VW returns to TV with first spot by FCB
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It’s no secret that VW had a complicated 2015. The moment the emissions scandal struck, the brand jolted to halt and shifted into damage control mode. But the brand is now looking to bounce back, launching its first TV campaign via its new creative partner.

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Burgers and wine, the perfect ingredients for love? Burger Burger and Fullers hope so
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Fullers and Burger Burger have teamed up to play cupid for a match-making campaign via Motion Sickness Studio. Hoping that burgers and wine are the perfect aphrodisiac, the two companies will host dates for lucky entrants looking for love.

While a collaboration between a burger restaurant and ferry service may seem a bit unconventional, creative director and founder of Motion Sickness Studio Sam Stuchbury says the companies have a cross over in their target demographics.

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Burger King attracts hungry mouths as Backyard BK receives thousands of entries–UPDATED
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Yes, it’s true, most of us are back at work. But as Auckland’s ridiculously humid, hot, sticky weather has proved lately, summer is still very much here. It’s not quite time to pack away the barbecue and shake the sand out of the beach towels just yet. Burger King has launched a new campaign via Colenso BBDO to remind us of this fact, which allows fast food aficionados to apply online to host a ‘Backyard BK BBQ’ to feed their hungry mates.

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The cog at the centre of it all: a look at the Newshub app
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Sometimes I wonder why we download mobile news apps and allow oft depressing and sensationalist headlines to be zapped to our phones to give us bursts of misery and existentialist angst throughout the day. But we’re suckers for it, we want to know what’s going on when it’s going on, and the major news outlets know this (they also know our phones are practically glued to our hands or pocket insides). Which is why MediaWorks has wasted no time in launching a dedicated Newshub app with all the bells and whistles, which, 18 hours after it launched became the most popular app downloaded from the App Store.