adidas New Zealand will be showing off one of the latest in marketing technology to its head office in Germany, all thanks to a Hamilton print company. Last November we told you about Print House in Hamilton’s new integrated multi-media technology that allows ultra thin video screens to ‘show-and-tell’ about a product. adidas New Zealand tried it, loved it, and are taking it to the company’s HQ in Germany.
Grabaseat’s ambassador Ron Rowwdy will be sharing his exclusive reports every Thursday throughout March on grabaseat.co.nz and Grabaseat’s Facebook page. His weekly reports reveal the very scientific formulas Grabaseat use to discover each week’s ‘nice price’. The campaign was developed in conjunction with Rowwdy Productions, the Grabaseat team, and the agency Contagion.
Accessing government information can be a necessary evil, one often accompanied by much gnashing of teeth, wailing, and tearing of hair follicles. Why? The word bureaucratic springs to mind, followed swiftly by convoluted, unnecessarily intricate, and confusing. But that’s all about to change, thanks to a brand spanking new website The New Zealand Government Directory. Now, understanding the workings of government, and its key power brokers, has never been easier. The interactive new site, developed by Network Communication, brings together all publicly available information onto the one site. Hurrah.
The Christchurch earthquake and New Zealand’s subdued economy are being blamed for Australian media beast APN News & Media’s full-year earnings sinking $45m into the red. The results come at the same time as APN announces an outdoor advertising joint venture with Quadrant Private Equity, allowing it to expand further into Australasia.
Kordia has delivered television and radio to our homes for the last 60 years, enjoying relative anonymity. But the switch to digital later this year leaves the state-owned telco competing with the likes of Gen-i, Telecom, and Telstra for slices of the telecommunications pie. So, Kordia and Silk Communications have come up with some novel ways to gain the attention of the people who count. Literally. The chief information officers (CIOs), by appealing to their inner geek.
The Phantom Billstickers Poems on Posters initiative has seen posters of Kiwi poetry pasted up all over the world; in London, Glasgow, Paris, Austria, Australia and the United States. It’s the brainchild of Jim Wilson, who started the project in 2009. His aim is to use posters to share the heart of the Kiwi poet with people outside of New Zealand, and to that effect, eight Kiwi poets are flying to New York next week for a live poetry performance at Saatchi & Saatchi on 28 February. To help spread the word about the event, Phantom have put Janet Frame’s poetry poster, The End, up in bright lights on a billboard in Times Square.
MSN’s recent investment in local news production and global news and video content is paying off big time, with latest Omniture figures showing a whopping 48 percent year-on-year upswing in unique browsers (UBs) visiting MSN’s news portal, up 250,000 to 771,000. In contrast, over the same period, UBs visiting rival Yahoo’s news offering dropped more than ten percent, from 1.7 million to 1.5 million. (Source: Nielsen MI).
It’s been a rough old time in the movie industry lately. The last few years have seen a general decline in ticket sales, partly from the competition of video-piracy and video-games, but also because some punters actually prefer watching the latest releases on DVD from the comforts of their own home. With advances in home entertainment rapidly evolving, cinema owners are having to up the ante, launching sophisticated technology not available in the average home. Synchronised motion effects built into cinema seats are the industry’s latest tactic to attract moviegoers—and they could offer some creative advertising opportunities as well.
The country’s favorite food magazine turns 25 years old this month, but Cuisine editor Sarah Nicholson isn’t resting on any laurels, in fact she’s set her sights even higher.
The bastion of business news, The National Business Review (NBR) is looking for fresh blood, as staff leave the building in droves in search of greener pastures.
It’s nearly a year since the Canterbury region suffered one of the biggest earthquakes our country has seen. It’s time to reflect and remember those who lost their lives, homes, jobs and loved ones, even forgo a latte or two to show some support for the region. So what are you doing on 22 February? How about showing Christchurch you care?
In the rush to satiate our appetite for smart phones, manufacturers are launching newer smarter mobiles every other day. Yesterday Nokia launched its new Lumia Windows phone. And Samsung’s getting in on the act for its soon-to-launch Galaxy Note with a clever marketing mix of pop culture and celebrity endorsement.
What GFC? The beans have been counted, the results are in, and it’s all good news for online. The IABNZ/PwC Insight report released today had the total online ad spend up nearly a quarter on the previous year. Display advertising has overtaken classifieds for the first time, up $1.27m (4.80 percent) on its previous quarter, making it the biggest quarter for display since PwC started measuring, back in 2007. The total online advertising spend in New Zealand for 2011 was $328.11 million, up 24.16 percent from 2010.
Judging by the amount of recruitment news this week, it appears plenty of folk began the year looking for greener pastures. Thick As Thieves has stolen Colenso BBDO’s art director Jae Morrison, marketing maven Simone Iles finds a new Post, Wellington Tourism gets some absolutely positive additions to the team, Paul Gardiner crosses the line wearing lycra, Gareth Davies joins RedYeti Films, Fee-fi-fo-fum finds the Ideas Shop, Market Pulse reaches for ignition, Hitchcock directs Flying Fish (no birds in sight), APN Outdoor’s Friends in High Places line-up gets a shakeup, The Sweet Shop moves even further into Asia, Prodigy signs Bradstreet boy, and Blair Haeata joins Ngage.
A radio stunt giving away an all-expenses paid divorce on Valentine’s Day on The Rock FM has backfired in spectacular fashion on the shock jocks behind it. Notorious pranksters Robert Taylor and Jono Pryor, ran the ‘win a divorce’ competition on Valentines Day, despite a raft of negative media attention both here and overseas. A listener could win the divorce on condition they broke up with their unsuspecting spouse live on air. But it was a lesbian couple who had the last laugh, sabotaging the competition and turning on the presenters, leaving them speechless for the first time.
As sponsors of the Wellington International Sevens, Nikon set out to build brand awareness amongst the thousands of fans that turn out for New Zealand’s biggest annual party. With a bit of help from BRR Ltd, it created an integrated campaign that stood out in the stadium and saw its fan base rocket up a whopping 850 percent.
Could Wilson the Lotto dog get any luckier? Lotto is launching another installment of its award-winning Lotto campaign–and in it the popular canine hero Wilson finds a girlfriend. Lotto is also getting into the spirit of Valentine’s Day, and sharing the love… name the lucky bitch, and you could win prizes.
As 2degrees closes in on its millionth customer, Whybin\TBWA launches its latest 60 second brand TVC for them, The Mission Continues, with the inimitable Rhys Darby.
Nothing endures but change, and the latest newspaper and magazine stats from Nielsen and the Audit Bureau of Circulation are no exception, as the ABC changes both its methodology, and its frequency of audits. The ABC will now be sending out quarterly rolling averages, instead of the six months end-on-end averages it has been doing. The key benefits for marketers and agencies will be receiving more regular data, and the methodology of releasing rolling annual totals is aligned with readership.
Now, no matter where you are in the world, you’re never far from a poem reminding you of home. It’s all thanks to a project started in 2009 by Phantom’s Jim Wilson. So… what’s the reason for all this rhyme?
Sponsors Wetspac attracted entries to the NZ Dairy Industry Awards with a newspaper ad appealing to the innate sense of style dairy farmers are renowned for. And the creative culprits behind the ad, .99 have been rewarded for their efforts by taking out NAB’s Decemeber Newspaper Ad of the Month award.
Who would have thought an ad for the humble pen could be so engaging? The new ad for Paper Mate’s InkJoy pens takes an everyday situation we can all relate to, adds humour sharper than a paper cut, and shows just how compelling stationery can be. In the process, it nabs itself January’s Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact Award for the most Impactful new ad on TV.
The race for convergence means hitherto distinct media entities are cutting each other’s lunch. TV and radio stations now have their own news websites, while news sites are increasingly moving into TV’s realm with video content. We wrote about it a few months back, and now the country’s most popular news site is now officially available on the big screen, as Fairfax Digital launches its Stuff IPTV Channel on Sony Internet TVs (smart TVs).
The Labour Party is feeling vindicated after the Electoral Commission decided an hour-long radio show hosted by Prime Minister John Key last September broke the law. The EC are understood to have referred the matter to police. RadioLive could face fines of up to $100,000 if it is found guilty of breaching the Broadcasting Act.
It seems more and more mates are joining Bruce. 2degrees has announced a larger than expected growth, providing mobile services to 875,656 New Zealanders now, after two and a half years in the market. Included in this are more than 275,000 customers who brought their existing mobile numbers with them.
Ah Novus. The Auto Glass Repair and Replacement company behind one of the more divisive ads in recent history. This week Novus launches another campaign – again urging us to show them our crack. It is equally as, ahem, memorable, and looks to be made with much the same budget as the original. But this one comes with the chance to win a trip for two to the ultimate crack – The Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. So get cracking and enter here. (ps you don’t need to send in an actual photo of one’s crack. There is an online entry form. Sorry about that Novus. Could you please just delete that email attachment I sent earlier?
Your last chance to be touched by a Hurman. New Zealand’s marcomms community is bracing itself for its biggest loss since Uncle Toby bid adieu. But in a kind and generous move before heading east, planning director, talented author, effectiveness evangelist and all round good guy James Hurman is prepared to share some top tips. And let’s face it, the hairy Hurman has been involved in pretty much every piece of great, highly awarded work the Colenso BBDO has done in recent years including Vodafone, Yellow, V, DB Export and Westpac.
Super Bowl ads are known for generating buzz—and viewers—but not all creatives are created equal. Chrysler courted controversy and won kudos for a two-minute Super Bowl advertisement that was less a car sales pitch than a rousing political message in election year. Chrysler ignored the unwritten rules of Super Bowl advertising – to be brief and funny, for the second year in a row. But it was still voted best ad of the event. Volkswagen’s The Dog Strikes Back was a distant second and M&M’s dancing candy ad polled third (results here).
Earlier this year All Black hero Piri Weepu recorded his third Smokefree advertisement, made by the Health Sponsorship Council and Base Two. His appearance in two earlier Smokefreee ads had been so successful they inspired both his brother, and his mum Kura Weepu, to quit smoking. But now, a furore by the ‘breast-is-best brigade” has seen a two second clip of Weepu dropped from the new 2011 ad, for *gasp* bottle feeding his baby daughter.
An ongoing investigation into a bug found under a plane tree has won New Zealand’s most coveted media prize. Number 8 Wire, an online community news service in Waikato settlement Gordonton, scooped the latest Alcohol Sponsorship Press Award with its breaking stories about the life cycle of a caterpillar.