A virtual cornucopia of new work to choose from this week, with a double for Robber’s Dog.
Who’s it for: V by Colenso and The Sweet Shop
Why we like it: It was always going to be tough to beat V Pomparkour in the coolness stakes …
TVNZ and MediaWorks are always competitive, as the rather confrontational comparative promo TV3 ran after the Japanese earthquake showed very clearly. But this was taken to a new level on Sunday when TVNZ sent out a press release saying 60 Minutes had “lost almost half its audience since March and almost 300,000 viewers per week since February”. Embarrassingly, the figures TVNZ used were wrong and, understandably, MediaWorks is none too pleased.
Given we published a story in January about the Radio Network winning the rights to broadcast the Rugby World Cup, it was slightly surprising to get another release from its arch enemy MediaWorks Radio today saying it too had won broadcasting rights for the tournament.
NZ Post has taken its sweet time choosing a new agency to replace long-time partner Saatchi & Saatchi, which decided not to repitch for the business when the expressions of interest were called for in December. The pitch was thought to have finished more than six weeks ago and it seems a decision on its new agency has been made. But no formal announcement has been released and the lips of the Posties and the two agencies thought to be battling it out for the win—Clemenger BBDO and DraftFCB—are staying sealed.
When it rains it pours. After a brief dry spell on the new ad front, numerous newbies have recently been set free. So, for your viewing—and possibly even critiquing—pleasure, a selection of the freshest TV cuts, including Mitsubishi’s new brand ad by Clemenger BBDO, Meridian and Assignment Group’s polar expedition, TVNZ’s new patriotic promo for its news and current affairs offering, State Insurance and Colenso’s fireproof box promo, Sealord and Saatchi & Saatchi’s wonderous condiment contraptions, DraftFCB’s latest work for Genesis Energy and Gregg’s and Lumino and Wag the Dog’s extended, nationwide tonsil hockey tour.
There’s no denying the print sector has suffered at the hands of the digital revolution and recession double whammy. But as everyone goes gaga over new technology and predictions about the death of anything that isn’t the internet continue to spew forth, it’s easy to forget that good old-fashioned paper-based publications are still holding on and, in many cases, going great guns. Promoting the vitality of magazines as a medium was the basis of a huge ‘Power of Print’ campaign in the US. And now the Magazine Publishers Association and Y&R have just launched a localised version of this message with a new trade campaign called ‘Magazines Add. Add Magazines’.
Subway has just been given a creative spruce up by its recently appointed agency Publicis Mojo and, for a fast food brand that’s generally played it pretty straight with its marketing in the past, the new ‘You Rule!’ direction is rather surreal and of the times, with a big nod to video game culture, crude but popular YouTube animation and possibly even robot unicorns.
It’s coming into winter and the Christchurch rebuild will be kicking into gear soon, which means the heatpump advertising battle is, ahem, heating up. There’s already Stephen Fleming for Fujitsu, the bald guy holding a cat for Mitsubishi, the anthropomorphic door snakes for Toshiba and, recently, a creepy Dan Carter hanging on the wall for Daikin. Now, after Panasonic embarked on something of a spiritual journey with its agency Publicis Mojo to find out what core brand attributes and values it wanted to convey, there’s a new frontman to add to that list: stubby-wearing, bum-scratching Gerry.
Back in November, Smirnoff and Special Group launched a campaign to get people to come up with kerrrazzeee ideas for events, with the winning concepts brought to life and the highs and lows of the lead-up and execution filmed for an unscripted reality show that would screen on FOUR. Well, that show kicks off tonight at 10.30 and Special Group creative director Tony Bradbourne is pretty damn excited about it.
First Brent Smart left his managing director role at Colenso BBDO for a plum posting at the BBDO mothership in San Fran. Now Adam Good is following suit, with the AIM Proximity Auckland chief executive and Clemenger Group Australasian director of digital innovation resigning from his posts to take up the role of executive vice president of Proximity Worldwide.
Finalists for the One Show have been announced and 24 Kiwi entries made the cut, up from nine last year. Colenso leads the Kiwi pack with seven contenders and more recognition for both Yellow Chocolate and TVNZ’s The Pacific campaign; DDB is just one back on six, with the good old reliable Sky Arts Channel work again finding plenty of favour; and Alt Group got three shortlistings in the design category. Clemenger BBDO and DraftFCB got two, while JWT, Special Group, Saatchi & Saatchi, AIM Proximity Wellington and TBWA\ all got one each. There were no finalists in the College section.
Last year Alt Group sent out chocolate keyboards as Christmas gifts for its clients. Pffff, chocolate keyboards, Whittaker’s probably said, because at the time it was in the middle of a lengthy mission to create the world’s first ‘chocolate website’.
Not much in the way of new and exciting ad goodies around this short week. So we’ve had to go back a week or two to find the winner.
Who’s it for: Gregg’s coffee by DraftFCB and Robber’s Dog
Why we like it: Ah …
The pitch for the Super Council account is well-underway and it’s now a three-horse race between Ogilvy, DDB and Colenso/.99 after DraftFCB pulled up lame last week.
It’s often said ad agencies need to get rid of the mirrors and work more closely with their clients to understand their business. Well, Auckland design and interactive shop Fracture has taken that to another level with one of its new clients after taking out first prize for Most Creative Trolley in the recent Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix.
You can rely on the rather liberal St Matthew in the City church in Auckland to ruffle the feathers of the puritans and zealots with its ‘progressive’ billboards. And, as history has shown, you can also rely on Hell Pizza to stoke a few offensive coals with its advertising. Well, this Easter, the two of them have become surprising bedfellows.
Who’s it for: Speight’s by Shine and Curious Film.
Why we like it: Inept, high-maintenance and presumably well-moisturised city-slickers head to the hills for some toughening up. And who better to whip them into shape and enhance their gradually decreasing manliness than a strong, silent, Speight …
Colenso has followed up its impressive Axis haul with four ‘in-book’ accolades at the D&AD awards, while Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB NZ scored one each. But, unlike last year, there will be no pencils handed out to Kiwi agencies as no local work was deemed good enough to make it through to the nomination stage.
DWA, “the world’s only tech-focused media planning and buying agency”, has just opened up a New Zealand branch in Parnell and tech media veteran and native Kiwi Stephen Old has been chosen to run it.
Over 10,000 entries were submitted from around the world and the nominees for The Webby’s, AKA the Oscars for nerds, were announced this week. And Special Group’s ‘Living Office’ web banner, New Zealand-based Drugs.com and Supply’s ‘Scam Machine’ for Netsafe are the only local contenders up for an award, while Resn, DraftFCB, Alt Group, Oh Baby, Fairfax and APN all received the next best thing, official honoree status.
While Skyline’s animated ode to garages took out our TVC of the Year award, it’s clear the ad won because of a concerted effort from the company’s staff and suppliers. Some felt it was a tribute to the passion and pride the employees have in the small company, but others felt the ‘win by any means necessary’ approach was slightly embarrassing, wasn’t in the spirit in which the award was set up and didn’t accurately reflect the best, most popular ad of the year. It was within the rules, but if you’re in the latter camp, then it’s fair to say Lotto’s ‘Lucky Dog’ by DDB and The Sweet Shop was the ‘pseudo-winner’, as it was leading the polling by a fairly large margin up until the last couple of days. And with five other DDB creations also making it into the top ten, DDB had an impressive overall showing, something executive creative director Toby Talbot says can be put down to the power of solid client relationships.
You chose ’em. And here they are. A few surprises in the mix, most notably the fact that little old Skyline got more votes than DDB’s epic canine adventure for Lotto (which is closing in on one million views on YouTube) in the TVC of the Year poll. The much-discussed brand ad for New World by .99 took 13th spot, ahead of Colenso’s ‘V Pomparkour’ and Genesis ‘Pukekos’ by DraftFCB came in near the top at fourth. Not too surprising, however, is the fact that six ads made by DDB, an agency renowned for its excellent TV work, made it into the top ten.
It looked like Lotto’s ‘Lucky Dog’ had it in the bag the whole way. But some excellent campaigning at the final stages of voting last week saw the animated spot for Skyline Garages created by Barnes, Catmur & Friends (BC&F) and Cirkus beat out the big boys with the big budgets to take the inaugural StopPress/ThinkTV TVC of the Year award.
Dan Carter is a marketer’s dream. He comes across as a fairly nice chap, he’s well-spoken, he doesn’t get into drunken brawls outside bars, he’s bloody good at rugby and, as evidenced by the fact the E channel voted him the third sexiest sports star in all the world and Jockey chose him to model their gruts, he’s easy on the eye. But Daikin and its agency The Works have somehow managed to make him look creepy in their new TVC by sticking him on a wall, making him perform the role of a heat pump and having the female talent make googly, come hither eyes at him.
Plenty of new stuff to choose from this week. And we’re feeling particularly generous so we’re sharing the love.
Who’s it for: Stihl by DDB and Robber’s Dog
Why we like it: If there was an Axis for funny, DDB would probably win it …
52 overly sensitive souls complained to the ASA about DDB’s last ad for Stihl because they felt it lacked sensitivity and was disrespectful of death. The vast majority, including the agrarian warriors who buy such machinery, embraced the dark humour. Thankfully, the ASA saw sense and none of the complaints were upheld. Well, the complainers will probably have their pens at the ready again after the latest in the Stihl series ‘Mercy Dash’ went live last night and while the death isn’t quite as overt this time, it’s still lingering there entertainingly in the background.
It was announced in September last year that Nielsen had been chosen as the preferred research supplier for the print/publishing industry until 2016 after a big global hunt for the best contender was undertaken by the snappily titled Print Media Industry Research Review Group. At the time, chairman Derek Lindsay said Nielsen’s newly pimped out Consumer and Media Insights (CMI) package would provide a big fillip for the publishing industry because it drilled down so much deeper into the data. And at the launch of the ‘new Nielsen’ yesterday, it became apparent how this “360 degree view of the media consumer” would benefit marketers, agencies and media owners.
If you thought Mike Hutcheson was the smartest man in New Zealand, you thought wrong. Turns out it’s Brennan Martin. And we couldn’t help but chortle with delight/smack our gobs in disbelief at the man’s brazen show of commercialism when we received a press release boldly offering his services to endorse various goods and services. “Everybody who is human has their price,” he says, very intelligently, while smoking a pipe in a room filled with leather bound books. “As a unique promotional opportunity being offered to public and private businesses, I anticipate I will be well paid for my efforts. The rights to use my image and voice are a bargain at any price. However, my performance and appearance fee are negotiable.” Mmmm, confidence. He’s basically the thinking man’s Dan Carter. So tell us what kind of product/service/promotion you could use the country’s smartest man for and we’ll send the best effort a Tui gnome, a hip flask of Smirnoff and maybe even a couple of crappy business self-help books.
Who’s it for: Whittaker’s Peanut Slab by Assignment Group
Why we like it: Good honest chocolate. Very good entertaining montage. And there are plenty more very funny ‘swear by the slab’ moments here.
Who’s it for: Persil and Curious Film
Why we like …
After taking out the big one at the Marketing Awards last year, selling its wares to over 580,000 customers and bringing home a few other weighty accolades in its 18 month history, 2degrees and TBWA\ are already well-accustomed to winning. And it can add another trophy to the box sitting in Rhys Darby’s attic after the new Bruce and Brian spot was judged the winner of the March edition of Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact Awards.