Author Ben Fahy

News
From Telecom hate to Spark advocacy: Be Counted campaign rallies the troops to fight against price rises
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It wasn’t too long ago that Spark was a company to be railed against; a monopolistic monolith using confusion as a marketing tactic to suck money out of consumers. One Spark staffer tells of a focus group attendee from South Auckland before the rebrand saying that if an 027 number came up on their phone they knew it was either telemarketers or debt collectors so they’d just ignore it, which is a good indication of the level of disdain for the brand in that part of the country. But since then, there’s been a lot more openness from those inside the company and a lot more love shown by consumers, and this change in approach manifested itself in the Be Counted campaign, which was created by Touchcast and managed to get over 50,000 New Zealanders interested in regulatory process.

News
NZ Post calls on Charles Dance to show how it greases the wheels of Kiwi can-do
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NZ Post has had a rough ride over the past few years as its main revenue source—mail—continued to have its lunch cut by digital communication. That’s resulted in a series of restructures, asset sales and cost-cutting exercises, but necessity is the mother of invention, so those difficulties have also forced it to evolve its business and come up with some new ideas like YouShop and YouPost. The rise of e-commerce is also working in its favour, and it’s the role NZ Post can play as a supplier to business that it’s focusing on for its new brand campaign, You Can.

News
Sparking change: five jobs to go at Rapp, Dynamo investigates new location
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Following on from the report of two departures at DDB earlier this week—and what DDB says was the unrelated resignation of Chris Riley—we followed up on comments suggesting there were more departures than DDB chief executive Justin Mowday was letting on. He referred us to Rapp managing director Robert Limb, who confirmed the staff count on the third floor of the building would also be going down. PLUS: what changes to the Spark roster might mean for Dynamo.

News
IAB NZ looks to establish some ground rules on native advertising
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Content marketing and its dodgy cousin native advertising are big areas of focus for brands and media owners at present. And they’re also big areas of confusion, with no set rules on disclosure and very little data for this market. The IAB NZ’s Standards & Guidelines Council is aiming to change that and has set out on a mission to gauge the level of activity, build a resource on the topic and help educate and showcase what is currently being offered in New Zealand.

News
The Harcourts ‘he said, she said’
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While the era of managed corporate communications and non-disclosure agreements means pitching is far less public than the days of clients announcing how much their business was worth and which agencies would be fighting for it, the process is still all about competition. There is a winner (and occasionally winners) and there are losers. And in the recent Harcourts pitch, which was won by Contagion, it seems no-one wanted to be a loser.

Movings & Shakings
Whybin\TBWA says goodbye to two senior staffers, says hello to Starseed PR—UPDATED
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Whybin\TBWA’s chief executive Todd McLeay had a go at industry rumourmongers telling tales of senior departures in a story in the NBR last week, and while he told StopPress he definitely wasn’t doing that in an interview in April, it has lost a couple of other senior staffers: executive creative director Dave King and client service director Jodi Willocks. But it’s added around eight more after a merger with Starseed PR.

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Inside: The Spinoff
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Whether it’s the dormant corporate blogs, the desolate Facebook/Tumblr/Pinterest pages or the media start-ups that kick off with a hiss and a roar, are temporarily fuelled by enthusiasm but end up falling over, the internet is littered with good intentions. But Duncan Greive, founder and editor of TV-obsessed website thespinoff.co.nz and Barkers’ magazine 1972—is confident he’s found a model that works. And it’s all based around content marketing.

News
Young & Shand’s native-focused Nudge nails big licensing deal with Sharethrough
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Not quite two years ago, Ben Young, co-founder of Young & Shand, packed his bags and headed to New York to fill what he saw as a gap in the market for analytics around native advertising. Now its measurement tool Nudge has been given a major boost after entering a licensing agreement with one of the world’s leading native advertising software companies, Sharethrough.

News
Mobiles, music and multiplayer gaming technology: how 2degrees let punters ‘play the bridge’
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For many, it was disappointing to see the Auckland Harbour Bridge return to its standard gun-metal grey hue after 2degrees, Special Group and Gladeye added some colour—and musical interactivity—to the landmark during the seven week Play The Bridge campaign. And bringing “New Zealand’s largest lightshow” to life was an impressive feat of digital production problem solving and creativity.

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Strand and deliver: Amie Mills on the rise of transmedia storytelling
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It used to be so simple. Find an audience (usually from someone or something with enough money to own mass media), put an ad in front of that audience and roll around on a bed laden with cash, laughing maniacally. These days, there is huge media fragmentation, constant distraction (AKA ‘obesity of the mind’), more good content on offer than ever before and numerous ways for consumers to dodge ads. That makes reaching audiences much more difficult, but the rise of digital technology and the rapid changes in the way people are consuming media has meant broadcasters and advertisers have had to embrace more creative methods of storytelling to maintain the audience’s attention, something Blacksand’s senior digital producer Amie Mills discussed recently at the first TVNZ Outtakes event.

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Inside: Barnes, Catmur & Friends
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Back in 1996, Daniel Barnes started up his own agency. In 2008, he was joined by Paul Catmur, who moved down the road from his role as ECD at DDB to fight the independent fight. And seven years on, Barnes Catmur & Friends has established a solid reputation for pumping out effective work, its in-house media model is catching a bit of attention and some big clients have come knocking recently.

News
A vexing question: Clemenger BBDO asks Kiwis what they stand for as the flag goes to the vote
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As Eddie Izzard showed in one of his typically entertaining stand-up routines, flags were crucial when it came to claiming territories. The mark of British colonialism still sits in the top left hand corner of the New Zealand flag that was first flown in 1902, but not everyone wants it to stay that way, including John Key, so, as part of a $27.5 million two-year project, the government has launched the first public phase of a campaign that aims to get Kiwis engaged in the process of deciding whether we need a new one. PLUS: some of the ideas suggested so far and lessons from vexillology.

News
Special wins Holden’s hand after advertising duel
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After separating from its long-time agency Ogilvy, Holden decided to choose its new creative partner in a novel way by giving the two top contenders FCB and Special Group their own real world tests. And it’s Special Group that has come out victorious.

News
‘Running fast and holding on’: Laura Maxwell-Hansen discusses NZME’s digital developments
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Whenever large entities merge, there is generally an expectation from those outside the business—and often from those investing in it—that things will change faster than they practically can. NZME’s ​group director digital Laura Maxwell-Hansen says that’s certainly the case at the moment as it attempts to bring “three businesses [APN, TRN and GrabOne] that have three different everythings” together, but she says its digital strategy is beginning to bear fruit, with audience numbers on the up and revenue growing ahead of the market.

News
Adshel restructures sales team ahead of digital roll-out, looks to sell advertisers on flexibility
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APN Outdoor started the large-format digital party in New Zealand in 2013, iSite is set to launch its own large format digital network soon and a few other smaller players have added their own sites. Now Adshel is joining in the fun, with 35 digital panels set to be switched on in the Auckland CBD and fringe suburbs in June. And general manager Nick Vile says it opens up a range of possibilities for advertisers.

News
Inside: Whybin\TBWA
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There have been plenty of changes at Whybin\TBWA over the past few years, both in terms of staff and clients. But after winning a few pitches, including the Auckland International Airport business, trying to establish the right model and operating as part of a trans-Tasman team, chief executive Todd McLeay and chairman Scott Whybin reckon it’s on the right track.

News
In your space: TRA
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TRA has always positioned itself as one of the cool kids of its sector and its previous High St office looked more like a trendy agency than a dowdy research company. It’s taken that even further with its new office in Britomart, which developer Peter Cooper has pronounced “as the best fit out in the precinct”. And it’s bringing a few new clients along with it after winning the Spark, Toyota and Te Wananga o Aotearoa research accounts.

News
Shame on your name: NZTA shows the perils of old drinking habits, looks to change engrained middle-age behaviour
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Back in December, the blood alcohol limit was lowered from 80 milligrams to 50 milligrams per millilitre, and while every human is different, that equates to about two standard drinks over two hours before drivers blow the bag. NZTA and Clemenger BBDO announced that change with a simple informational campaign. But, as they have been doing for years, they’re now playing the emotional card. PLUS: How the changes have impacted the booze business.

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A virtuous circle? Our First Home and the two sides of quantifying TV success
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As we’ve seen with the Campbell Live debate, fans believe the importance of the show can’t be reduced to ratings because it also serves an important social function. And broadcasters seem to be saying something similar when quantifying the success of reality shows that include a high level of sponsorship integration because they are leading to commercial results for advertisers. So is that also the case for the inaugural season of Our First Home, which wrapped up earlier this week after three live auctions?

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Clarifications, commerce and Campbell Live
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The idea that Campbell Live is, to use the often emotive language of the media, ‘on the chopping block’, seems to have been popping up for a few years now, and that’s not entirely surprising given the changes to the free-to-air TV market and media in general. But it was officially confirmed yesterday when MediaWorks management said it was undertaking a review. The Herald’s John Drinnan wrote about that decision and alluded to a rumour that Jono and Ben could be taking over the slot, but MediaWorks has taken the unusual step of responding to that story by issuing a clarification and saying it’s a “complete fabrication”.

News
Social eating: Burger Burger’s physical/digital expansion
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The rapidly growing ‘better burger’ segment has brought joy to the mouths of many New Zealanders—and some concern to the cheaper, more quotidian fast food incumbents (in a classic case of if you can’t beat them, join them, McDonald’s is attempting to ride the premium train with some new ‘create your own’ options). Burger Burger has quickly become one of Auckland’s favourite posh burger establishments since Mimi Gilmour, she of Mexico fame, launched it last year and Motion Sickness Studio (MSS) has helped make that happen.

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