In 2010, Frucor’s ‘crown jewel’ V, which clocks up sales of $250 million in Australasia, was becoming a victim of its own success. It had been very effective in growing consumption with existing customers, but as it already had 55 percent of the traditional energy drink market …
Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) has announced its intention to review its Australasian creative and media agency support to manage its Australian advertising and global brand work.
When it comes to making successful branded apps, there are generally two rules: either make it useful or give it some novelty value. And, if possible, combine elements of both. And Heineken and &some have done just that with a new smartphone app that shows locals and visitors where to find official RWC bars, as well as their mates, their rivals, a taxi home and, if they’re lucky, even some tickets to the final.
Marine Industrial Design, a specialist naval architecture and marine engineering firm, was established in 1996, and, like many small businesses in New Zealand, it focused on the nuts and bolts—literally—rather than marketing. New business was won almost solely through word of mouth and via a relatively limited circle of industry contacts. But in late 2009 MID was purchased by Babcock Fitzroy and new goals and strategies were put in place in order to establish itself as New Zealand’s elite operator, one of Australasia’s premier suppliers in marine engineering and design consulting and a leading regional player in South East Asia and the Pacific.
At the beginning of 2007, Air New Zealand identified that to remain competitive and continue to build revenue and value it had to escape the ordinary and take a leadership position by creating a best-in-class long haul experience—and not just for the front of the plane, for everyone on the plane. Not only that, it also aimed to provide a story of Air New Zealand’s—and New Zealand’s—innovation to the world, build international talkability around the brand and give it a two-year leap on the competition.
The air was thick with the smell of rock, bourbon and groupies last night at the King’s Arms as the CAANZ and Flying Fish Battle of the Ad Bands, easily the most anticipated and important event on the advertising calendar, pitched agency against agency, virtuoso against virtuoso, rock god/goddess against rock god/goddess. And in what can only be described as a battle of the titans, TBWA\’s three-piece outfit Virgin Galactic backed up last year’s victory as Backslash and were crowned the kings of adland.
NZ Book month is an annual celebration with a simple intent: to promote books, reading and literacy amongst all Kiwis, young or old, beginner or pro. It was established six years ago to address the fact that, year after year, the number of books sold in New Zealand decreases. And this creates a serious cultural issue: Kiwi authors struggle to maintain a career and our country’s stories go untold.
First Orcon and DraftFCB got a serve from HeyDay for getting the date the internet was born in New Zealand wrong in its recent TVC. And now it’s in the eye of a social media storm after its new Genius all-in-one broadband/home phone product proved too popular for its own good, leading to a host of jilted customers venting their displeasure with the telco.
New Zealand is getting set to put on a bloody good show for our RWC visitors in the coming months. And there’s plenty on the menu to keep them all entertained, from the REAL NZ Festival to the Taste of New Zealand to trade and innovation shows and a whole heap inbetween. But some guests require a bit more impressing and the local events and activation scene is buzzing as official sponsors and plenty of other businesses hoping to use the tournament as a chance to butter up guests and potential clients look to roll out the branded red carpet.
There’s always plenty of marketing inspiration to be found in the annual awards issue of NZ Marketing. And the just-released 104 page September/October monster is no different. So to celebrate its tremendous girth, we’re giving away a copy of James Hurman’s new book The Case for Creativity (RRP $40) to the first 20 people who subscribe here.
The Effie finalists are out and Colenso has backed up last year’s most effective agency mantle with 16 nominations, followed by DDB and DraftFCB with 14, .99 with ten and Special Group with eight. And, as for the clients, Air New Zealand, Frucor, 2degrees, NZ Lotteries, ANZ, ALAC, Fuji Xerox, the Electricity Authority, Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind and DB were among the most nominated across the 15 categories.
In the extremely competitive grocery game, market share is king. And a minor change equates to millions of dollars in gained or lost revenue. Progressive Enterprises, which operates 158 Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworths supermarkets around the country, had been losing share to its main rival Foodstuffs since 2007. So something had to be done. And to do it, it had to take some big risks and break an age old grocery paradigm.
As you’re all hopefully aware, the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards were handed out last week, with Progressive Enterprises and NZ Lotteries nabbing the big ones. And to celebrate all the gamechanging bar-raising shapeshifters that won we’re going to publish a short case study each day, along with a few comments from the judges that were filmed by TVNZ. But if you can’t be arsed with just one a day, they’re all available in the latest edition of NZ Marketing and the first 20 humans to subscribe here will receive a copy of James Hurman’s new book The Case For Creativity, valued at $40.
Who’s it for: Xbox 360 ‘Rugby World Cup 2011’ by Republik and Automatic Films.
Why we like it: Video game ads rarely stand out, but this one does (and so does this one). Entertaining, well-made, a nice line and extra points for a local indie getting to …
It’s hard to get advertisers and journalists to lie. Just kidding. It’s the easiest thing in the world. Hell, it’s pretty much what you all get paid to do. So what better way to drum up excitement for the CAANZ Battle of the Ad Bands than with completely fabricated news.
They just won the rugby. And soon the Aussies might also be photoshopping Dan and Honor, designing our Y-fronts and marketing a range of clothing, shoe and houseware labels because it seems Pacific Brands has decided to close down the marketing and design departments in New Zealand and move the whole shebang to its Melbourne base.
After the huge success of Powerswitch, Consumer NZ has waded into the murky waters of the telco industry and set up another price comparison website called Tel Me, which covers internet, landline, mobile, TV and mobile broadband services and hopes to clear up some of the confusion that has long characterised the industry.
After ‘pinkfistgate’ and ‘Adidebacle’, the nation is on high alert for more RWC-related marketing clangers. And while nowhere near the same degree, we felt duty bound to tell you about one that’s just been outed in Nelson.
On the back of some solid advertising revenue increases, TVNZ has reported underlying earnings of $32 million for the financial year ended 30 June 2011, a $19.8 million or 164 percent increase on the previous financial year. And across town, Sky also announced impressive financial results and subscriber numbers.
iSite Media, New Zealand’s largest out of home advertising supplier, has entered into an agreement to purchase all of OTW’s billboard sites. But the deal will only go ahead if the Commerce Commission believes it won’t substantially lessen competition in the market.
The 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards were dished out last night at the Langham in Auckland in front of around 450 industry bods and a host of game changers and bar-raisers—some well-accustomed to collecting such awards, some venturing up on stage for the first time—were announced. But it was Progressive Enterprises that came away with the most coveted award of the night for merging three of its supermarket brands into one and forging a bold new positioning based on an enhanced definition of consumer value.
At a time when traditional retailers are struggling, the trendsetting soothsayers believe pop-up stores and venues are one of the next big marketing things. And judging by the number, er, popping up for the Rugby World Cup, maybe they’re right.
Direct and digital specialist Affinity ID has a proud history of boxing above its weight—both in its home market and internationally. And it’s now helping a trio of new internationally focused clients—Les Mills International, publisher PQ Blackwell and magazine stable Trends—do the same by taking their ideas into the global marketplace.
Who’s it for: Cadbury by DDB NZ and Goodlife films
Why we like it: Creating a song from the sounds of joy was a brilliant idea for a campaign. And, as this final musical instalment shows, the whole thing, from the experiential elements down to the involvement …
Much like the domestic magazine sector, newspaper readership remained relatively stable in the latest Nielsen reports and the overall trend for circulation continued downwards. And while the online and mobile properties of the two big publishers are continuing to lure Kiwi eyeballs, recent financial results show the digital dimes still aren’t replacing the lost analog dollars.
It’s that time again, a time when publishers weep, gloat or possibly just say ‘meh’ and get on with it as the ABC circulation and Nielsen’s Magazine Comparatives Q2 2010 – Q2 2011 readership results are released. And while the market appears to have stabilised after a fairly rough period, there are some interesting, some might say counter-intuitive trends on display in the yearly comparisons, with some significant disparities between circulation and readership for some titles and publishers.
It used to be that everyone wanted to be like Saatchi & Saatchi. But, after the recent Telecom debacle, one agency has even resorted to taking out print ads out to ensure no-one gets confused.
Who’s it for: Purex by Colenso BBDO and Partizan UK
Why we like it: We’re suckers for origami. We’re suckers for stop motion. We’re suckers for soft toilet paper. And we’re suckers for ruffle-faced shar-peis. So imagine how excited we were when all …
With a whole stack of newbies that were well-liked by respondents and strong on their branding, it was a tough job picking this month’s Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award winner. But it seems we enjoy having a bit of laugh at ourselves, because Goodman Fielder’s Kiwi Bacon ad by Buffalo Creative and Curious came out on top with its quirky celebration of our local importation traditions—and, by extension, our local pigs.
An advertising agency that decides to advertise is, slightly ironically, about as rare as the proverbial hen’s tooth. Which is strange really, considering adfolk seem to quite like showing off and spend their days coming up with clever ways to promote various businesses. Of course, most claim their work is the best form of advertising. But, to celebrate what would be the 100th birthday of one of its founders, Bill Bernbach, DDB has followed his lead and broken the rules by putting a Kiwi spin on the world’s best ad.