From delivering pizzas, to firing rockets to finding lost souls to letting film-makers capture amazing aerial footage, drones are proving fairly useful. And New Zealand production company Reel Factory is benefitting from providing what it claims is the first drone-based footage for a live, full HD, international broadcast at the Cricket World Cup.
As Colin Peacock noted in MediaWatch this week, as two X Factor judges were sent packing for bullying and lambasted for having an over-inflated opinion of themselves, a man who has “built his reputation on his ego and on picking on people poorly equipped to defend themselves on air” is getting set to kick off his experimental, multi-media breakfast news show on April 7. And MediaWorks has launched the last phase of its marketing push to get New Zealanders to tune in.
Air New Zealand (x2), Westpac, Toyota and William Hill all get giant cheques this week.
Toyota is one of the country’s most trusted brands and has been a regular on the Reader’s Digest list (despite a couple of high-profile international recalls in recent years). This is a big part of the reason it’s still top of the pops when it comes to overall sales. And it’s playing on that trust—and on the fear people have of being ripped off by automotive cowboys—in a new campaign via Saatchi & Saatchi for its Genuine Parts business that sees Dai Henwood taking a leaf out of the Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence acting book and playing three different characters.
Originally established as a pre-press company in 1990, Image Centre Group has gradually moved into other areas like design, web development, full service printing, publishing, digital signage and advertising in an effort to bring the idea of an independent, marketing communications group to life. Now it’s added a crucial—and up until now missing—cog to that wheel: the creative heft of Mike O’Sullivan and his business The Collective.
The overall ad spend pie grew by 4.2 percent to $2.39 billion in 2014, according to the Advertising Standards Authority’s figures for the 12 months ended December 31. And once again it was interactive leading the charge, overtaking newspapers and getting close to TV.
FMG, Tourism Fiji, Daikin and Cuca have the luck of the Irish this week.
Last year, NBR launched a new mobile-first website that publisher Todd Scott says involved thousands of man hours. And the new features keep coming, with a personalised online radio service set to launch soon and the offer of a free six-month mobile subscription for its corporate and SME IP subscribers and, soon enough, anyone in New Zealand.
2degrees is attempting a fairly difficult telco trick at the moment as it tries to morph from a challenger brand with lots of low value customers into a grown-up company that’s more appealing to the high-rollers—and it could be argued its agency Special Group is on a similar trajectory as it evolves from a small indie with small clients into a serious multi-national network that’s competing with the bigg’uns. And now the pair are set to launch a very grown-up stunt to celebrate Auckland’s 175th anniversary, its new phone plans and the launch of Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 by turning the Auckland Harbour Bridge into an interactive light show.
A congratulatory bum pat to Anchor, ASB, Pump and the Warriors this week.
The Alternative Commentary Collective has been one of the country’s recent media highlights. The witty, oft-politically incorrect or downright offensive banter, the purposeful mangling of names (RIP Mrs Mangel), the dubious factoids, the humorous nicknames and, occasionally, the cricket commentary, have attracted thousands to NZME’s iHeartRadio platform, as well as a number of commercial partners. But after the ICC got a bee in its bonnet over Leigh Hart’s appearance on Gatorade’s bottle/inflatable penis during a drinks break at McLean Park in Napier on Sunday, the team has had their accreditation revoked, leading to howls of protest from fans—and probably a bit of sucking up from NZME—to ensure the caravan of cricket can continue doing the work of God for the rest of the tournament.
FCB’s current chief executive and Australia New Zealand chair Bryan Crawford took on a bunch of international responsibility with the FCB network last year. Those responsibilities continue to grow, so Brian van den Hurk, the current managing director, has been promoted to the role of chief executive.
NZME’s flagship lifestyle brand Viva comes as a separate magazine inside the Herald. And now it also comes as a separate website, viva.co.nz.
Technology was meant to make life so much easier. Paperless offices. Cheap communication tools. And, of course, robot vacuum cleaners. But instead we’re lonelier, more stressed and getting our hair eaten by our electronic assistants. Woman’s Day has noticed this shift as well, so, as part of a big—and quite rare—$1.5 million campaign via FCB, it’s foisted a Zsa-Zsa Gabor-esque character upon the nation in an effort to give its readers permission to take a break without feeling guilty about it.
Typically, agency folk harness their creativity to help clients’ businesses. But occasionally that creativity is put towards their own projects. And that’s exactly what globally recognised young creative and burrito aficionado Ben Polkinghorne has done with the Bangerrito, a burrito-flavoured sausage that’s made its way onto a few high end supermarket shelves and, all going to plan, might soon be seen in other markets.
The IAB has just released its latest quarterly update and it shows another sizeable rise in digital ad spend in New Zealand. Standard Media Index (SMI), which calculates ad spending trends based on the data from media agencies, also shows a steady rise. And its breakdown of the category shows the key growth areas in digital.
Land Rover, 2degrees, Westpac, Wendy’s and Eclipse tickle our advertising fancies this week.
Car brands love stunts, as evidenced by this cracker from Ford in the US. And car brands also love restoring old models/pimping out new ones, as evidenced by Holden’s 60th campaign and the bespoke Toyota Hiluxes created for Willie Apiata and Matt Watson. But Land Rover New Zealand and Y&R NZ have combined the two in a clever campaign that has brought joy to the hearts of many—and presumably some jealously to the hearts of those who wish it had happened to them. And there’s a special connection, as one of the recipients, Will Radford, is my tin-arse brother in law.
Mat Yurow, the associate director, audience development, at The New York Times, wrote a great piece on Medium recently about the publishing industry’s “iTunes moment”. And it could be argued that TV is having an iTunes moment of its own as viewers are increasingly able to consume the shows (or, increasingly, the sports) they’re interested in on their own terms, online, and without the need for a channel brand or an all-you-can-eat subscription. TVNZ is embracing that change with its soon-to-be-updated Ondemand platform. And we had a preview to see what’s instore.
Apparently, data is the new oil. But, just like oil, data needs to be refined to be useful. And Dot, a ten-strong Wellington company that mixes analytics with storytelling is doing just that in an effort to find influencers, reduce churn and even beat the bookies.
Over the past five years, chief executive Nicky Bell, the recently departed Antonio Navas, head of planning Murray Streets and many others have helped Saatchi & Saatchi regain some of its former glory after what they all admit was a fairly rough patch. It’s won some big accounts, it’s put a few big awards on the mantelpiece and it’s lured a few big names across its newly renovated offices on The Strand. But due to a reduction in client spend—particularly from Spark—and an evolution in the kind of work the agency is being asked to do, it has had to restructure the business.
After two years at Whybin\TBWA, joint creative directors Lisa Fedyszyn and Jonathan McMahon have departed.
In many developed markets, digital ad spend has overtaken print. But, despite consistent drops over the past few years, the local publishing sector has held firm in second place behind television, according to ASA figures. The IAB has predicted the change will happen in New Zealand next year, but, according to year-on-year SMI data, which collects ad spend from the 15 top media agencies in the country, that’s already happened.
After around 25 years spent working with various agencies under the Clemenger Group, Clemenger BBDO’s executive creative director Philip Andrew has decided the time is right to pass the baton.
There are plenty of examples of brands being integrated into TV shows these days. And plenty of examples of fun being poked at the ad industry. But Wellington-based video strategy and production company Stem Creative is aiming to combine those two things in a new satirical web series called Agency that follows three “hapless but genuine and enthusiastic” employees at a small creative marketing agency in Wellington and, as Stem founder and director Ben Forman says, “pulls the veil off the ad industry”.
At last year’s new season launch, TVNZ’s head of sales Jeremy O’Brien likened the business to having a shotgun—broadcast TV—and a rifle—its upgraded, registration-required OnDemand platform. And, ahead of the launch of the service in February, it’s unveiled a new brand via Blacksand.
Triumphant early 2015 showings from Tip Top, Midas and The Bachelor.
In an era where the online realm has allowed marketers and media owners to measure, track and chart everything in real-time, it seems slightly anachronistic to record radio listenership by getting people to fill in a paper diary. And the radio industry seems to agree, because it’s currently reviewing its research methodology and, as a result, it won’t be conducting its regular T1 survey.
Every year around this time, banks attempt to grease up the young’uns heading off to expand/erode their minds at University. But banks are rarely at the top of the priorities list at this stage of life and erecting a makeshift tent and handing out branded pens at a festival or over Orientation Week just doesn’t cut it anymore. So ASB is running a Snapchat campaign called Snap Scholarships—replete with the obligatory prizes—to try and lure them in.
