A group of entrepreneurial young Westlake Boys students are doing their bit to prove that businesses with a soul can help make the world a better place. And Liquid Change, a bottled water business with a charitable twist that started off as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme, has gone further than most of its student ilk: into the fridges at one of the country’s biggest oil networks, Z.
The worst kept secret in the New Zealand magazine business was confirmed this morning when Bauer announced it had added APN-owned magazines The NZ Listener, NZ Woman’s Weekly, Simply You, Simply You Living and Creme to its roster, subject to Commerce Commission approval.
NZ Rugby World has made significant advancements in the digital space this year, launching its iPad edition, increasing the frequency of its eDm to weekly and growing its Facebook fan base to over 20,000 friends. And its latest promotional piece features one of the sport’s most promising players, Steven Luatua, who encourages viewers to buy a copy—or else.
Radio New Zealand is pretty popular with the oldies and, according to Nielsen, it was the top rating station in the country last year. But its role is to appeal to all New Zealanders, so it’s aiming to do just that with the launch of its new youth-focused multimedia brand, The Wireless.
As the rise of content marketing changes the way some clients are choosing to advertise, integration/media solutions/native advertising/branded content/advertorial/*insert another buzzword here*, is a big growth area for TV networks—and other media. And TVNZ has referenced that shift by appointing Lyndsey Francis as general manager of media solutions and customer insights and adding some more research firepower to the team.
Fresh Up’s all-too-powerful thirst quenching, perception shifting from The Warehouse, more moving personalisation from NZ Police and NZ Golf’s entertaining coattail riding.
Once again, Nielsen’s latest readership results and the ABC’s circulation numbers don’t make for particularly pleasant reading for the magazine sector, with all weeklies charting declines deemed significant on the same time last year, plenty of other significant declines and a rare few increases. And, perhaps not surprisingly, the MPA and the various publishers are hoping to change the conversation from a one-dimensional discussion about quantity, to a multi-dimensional discussion about the quality of engagement across a number of platforms.
Affinity ID kicked off in 2008 when Geoff Cooper and Angela Day took the agency into private ownership from the Clemenger Group. It began life with 27 staff and has grown to almost 80 digital specialists across a range of disciplines. And it has added two more big names to its board and senior management team, with Nigel Tutt joining as group general manager and Roger Shepherd joining as an independent director.
New Zealand Rugby conducted something of an experiment last week when the Bledisloe Cup test between the All Blacks and Australia was streamed live and made available on-demand on www.youtube.com/allblacks to more than 45 countries where the digital rights hadn’t been allocated exclusively to a broadcaster. So how did it go? And should Sky be worried?
Last night, in a big shed down on the docks of Auckland town, Jeremy Corbett and Hillary Barry helped launch MediaWorks new season line-up. And, with the return of most of its local shows, some big-rating new international numbers and a couple of new branded content initiatives, director of sales and marketing Liz Fraser is confident it can continue its solid run of form in 2013 next year.
Fairfax Media is celebrating a victory over its main rival APN after Nielsen numbers showed more Aucklanders are reading stuff.co.nz than any other site, with its unique audience for September in Auckland clocking in at 391,000 compared to the nzherald.co.nz’s 360,000.
The Warehouse has transformed its offering in recent times, allocating $430 million over five years to refit its stores, improve the customer experience, increase the number of staff on the floor, stock a better range of products and brands and communicate the offer more effectively with the market. That’s led to nine consecutive quarters of profit growth and an increase in sales to $1.55 billion. But while its regular customers were aware of all the improvements, those who had written it off years ago still had some engrained negative perceptions. So, with the help of DDB, it’s faced up to them with The Warehouse Challenge.
When it rains it pours, and new business is pouring all over Colenso BBDO at the moment, with the latest addition to its growing roster being George Weston Foods.
An emotionally charged Duracell, a retro Tip Top and a modern Kiwirail get the nod this week.
The NZRU is openly hunting for new international partners in an effort to squeeze as much value out the national team as possible. Main jersey sponsor AIG was a big scalp, and it’s used that platform quite well. And now it’s added Proctor & Gamble’s Duracell brand to the list of All Black sponsors, launching the partnership with a new TVC and marketing campaign based around trusting your power.
For the second year in a row, Barnes Catmur & Friends’ Friends Electric took the top prize at the only ad award that really matters, BOTAB.
Back when I was a young lad, I went to the supermarket with a couple of my older cousins. They kept throwing jars at me. And I, of course, kept catching them. When I tried to retaliate and threw a jar back at them they, of course, moved aside and left it to smash on the ground, leaving me to deal with an angry manager. So you can imagine the painful memories that came flooding back after seeing NZTA and Clemenger BBDO’s latest anti-drink driving ads, which show a good—although slightly wasteful—way for responsible chaps to say no to another beersie from their mates.
Anti-capping, pro-holidaying and station swapping make it onto the dais this week.
Colenso BBDO’s impressive winning streak continues to roll on and, after adding Volkswagen, Samsung, a few extra Fonterra brands and another yet-to-be-announced client to the roster recently, it’s also working with Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development (ATEED) and Heart of The City (HOTC) and will put its mind to luring more domestic travellers to the region and more Aucklanders into the central city.
DDB and DraftFCB continued their winning ways at the Effie Awards last night, with DDB holding on to the most effective agency crown and DraftFCB taking the supreme Effie for its work on the Health Promotion Agency’s depression initiative.
Colenso BBDO has formalised its relationship with Samsung and will be the agency of record for all its various divisions, making it one of the few markets in the world where the Korean behemoth isn’t aligned with a Leo Burnett agency. But it means the agency has had to say goodbye to a long-time client, Haier-owned Fisher & Paykel.
Another week of quality Kiwi TV work, with DB Export, Sky, Steinlager, Trade Me and Telecom getting special ribbons to wear on their blazers.
Trade Me kicked off back in 1999 when Sam Morgan saw an unmet need for an online marketplace selling used goods. That’s largely still how consumers see it. But around 40 percent of its listings are new goods, so it is aiming to draw attention to that aspect of its business in the lead up to Christmas with a campaign via Whybin\TBWA featuring naked fat men, well-coiffed dogs and apparent rectal probes.
The T2 radio survey results are out. And they present a mostly positive picture for radio year-on-year.
Not long after one German car company chose its favoured agency, another German car company is following suit, with DDB, Special Group and DraftFCB getting set to duke it out for the BMW and Mini business.
Over the past few years, Sky has favoured the humorous approach in its ‘My Happy Place’ advertising. Its new ‘Come with us’ brand was rolled out around the start of August and, while a series of relevant movie quotes dotted around HQ certainly gave the brand a sense of whimsy, its big, cinematic and poetic TVC by DDB and Ruskin is a much more serious, intriguing and emotive affair that’s designed to showcase the range of quality content subscribers can access.
Five good’uns this week, with ukuleles, emoticons, family time, song rash and Rotorua making the cut.
Since DraftFCB took over the Air New Zealand account at the start of last year, its work has been fairly retail focused, with the airline’s deals being promoted on TV and online. But it’s finally got a chance to have a bit of fun with a campaign to promote the launch of the new Airpoints credit cards.
There’s a growing movement in food around provenance, as seen by US restaurant chain Chipotle’s recent campaigns. And there’s a growing, but still unfortunately fairly niche movement in business around ethics, as evidenced by the creation of organisations like The B Team and the real steps being taken by big companies like Puma. All Good Organics has tapped into both of these trends, first with bananas and recently with its drinks range, and co-founder Simon Coley recently put down the crayons at Powershop and, along with Matt Morrison, headed to the jungles of Sierra Leone to see how the kola nut farmers it works with have benefitted.
After a long period of flying under the radar, Auckland-based food company Tasti Products came out all Kiwiana guns blazing with a cliche-filled online and print campaign in September last year. A few months back it took the next logical step down that path, launching its first ever TVC with a very colloquial remix of OMC’s How Bizarre and some completely over the top, almost ironic patriotism. And while some in adland didn’t seem too keen on it, consumers seem to be, because the ad has taken out the August instalment of Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact Award.