After a creative pitch last year, it is thought the NZ Fire Service is set to appoint FCB as its creative agency. UPDATE: Ministry of Justice confirms it is also working with FCB.
For this year’s edition of Heart Week, Barnes, Catmur & Friends has given heart disease the shadowy face of serial killer being interviewed by a faux reporter.
Westpac has unleashed a delightfully awkward, tinfoil-hat-wearing protagonist in a new spot that aims to show that contactless payments are so secure that even the most paranoid person in existence would be okay with using them.
In a country as diverse as New Zealand, simplicity in writing is essential when it comes to large-scale publications that aim to reach readers of different backgrounds (not all native English speakers) and varying education levels. So, are Kiwi publications obeying this rule of simplicity and is it being reflected in the articles published on mainstream media on a daily basis? To find out, StopPress ran some of the nation’s websites through a readability test. Here’s how they fared.
In December last year, research company Roy Morgan closed the doors to its New Zealand offices on Auckland’s Swanson Street and let three staff members go in the process. But the company’s deputy chief executive Hugh Amoyal says that this doesn’t imply the end of business on this side of the ditch.
While everyone has been waiting with bated breath for the impending release of Neon, Sky this week released Fan Pass, a sports streaming service that will give viewers access to NRL, Formula One and Super Rugby. PLUS: the head of Fatso Cuan Gray has been given the reins to lead the new offering.
Last year, Countdown jumped onto the collectibles bandwagon by distributing DreamWorks Heroes 3D cards to customers who spent $20 or more in stores. And despite this previous campaign being criticised for relying on pester power and for not being environmentally friendly, Countdown is going for another collectibles ride—and this time it’s all about the inhabitants of the wild.
McDonald’s Balmoral franchise along Auckland’s Dominion Road is currently piloting a new initiative that brings a slightly more gourmet twist to its menu in an attempt to tap into the lucrative market currently occupied by the likes of Burger Fuel and Burger Wisconsin. The introduction of ‘Create your taste’ allows customers to customise their burgers via an digital touchscreen kiosk that offers a list of 20 ingredients.
Microsoft New Zealand is throwing down the gauntlet and challenging Google via a new campaign that will offer Kiwi small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) using Google apps a $25-per-user rebate if they purchase Office 365 before 30 April 2015 and switch before 31 May.
This week it has been reported on the NBR and Stuff that Vodafone would be offering its broadband subscribers six months’ of free Neon as part of an extension of its deal with Sky, which sees the internet service provider offering reduced Sky subscription rates to its broadband customers. And while Sky’s director of corporate comms Kirsty Way has confirmed to StopPress that these initial reports are true, she would not provide information on new launch date of Neon.
From March, Prime News, which airs on Sky-owned Prime, will be produced by the MediaWorks news division at their Auckland Flower Street Studios as part of a new deal between the two networks. And the deal comes with additional revenue potential for MediaWorks, because the network will also be selling advertising and sponsorship associated with the show. PLUS: Top Gear heads to TV3.
MediaWorks Radio and Radio Tarana (which has been broadcasting in New Zealand since 1996) have formed a new partnership in an effort to create fresh commercial opportunities for their respective clients. And the move makes sense for both the network and radio station, given the demographic changes in New Zealand over the last two decades.
Corona is supporting the Piha Surf Life Saving Club in a bid to raise funds for the redevelopment of the facilities located at the popular, and unquestionably dangerous, beach on Auckland’s West Coast. To assist the fundraising efforts, Corona has arranged an auction of surf photography as well as launching a pop-up bar to quench beachgoers’ thirst during the summer months.
Facebook has appointed experienced media man Spencer Bailey as the head of the New Zealand arm of the business. The appointment of Bailey brings an end to Stephen Scheeler’s stint as the acting head of Facebook New Zealand, and this sees Scheeler return to his previous role of head of retail and automotive for both Australia and New Zealand.
Fairfax has updated the entire Stuff platform by migrating it to Adobe’s cloud-based content management system called Adobe Experience Manager. And the media company’s product development director Robert Hutchinson says that the company aims to become as flexible as BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post in terms of its digital storytelling capabilities.
Witnessing a grown man with an impressive girth pouring what is hopefully chilled coffee all over his topless body isn’t necessarily an aesthetically pleasing experience, but this hasn’t stopped Bigpipe from featuring this bizarre scene in a new spot that promotes its unlimited broadband packages.
Late last year, when the aroma of summer barbecues was starting to coax workers away from their desks, subscription video on-demand service Lightbox and Coliseum Sports Media (CSM) announced a joint partnership, which will see the pair of companies bring their programming portfolios together. And now, following on from this, Spark has announced that all of its approximately 600,000 home broadband subscribers (and those who sign up before 30 April) will be given 12 months’ access to Lightbox free of charge. So do these moves make business sense for a telco in a very competitive market?
Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement have taken to crowd-funding website Kickstarter in a bid to raise $400,000 to take the mockumentary ‘What we do in the Shadows’ to cinemas in 70 cities across the United States. But this move hasn’t been met with a positive response from all ranks, with some Kiwi Reddit commenters pointing out that Waititi’s last campaign on the platform left many backers rather dissatisfied.
Yesterday, at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Committee for Auckland announced some of the key findings that have been compiled in its latest report called ‘Auckland as a Creative City’. The principle theme delivered during the breakfast event was that “Auckland needs an over-arching strategy to unlock the potential of its creative sectors and grow the economy to make the city more globally competitive.”
For the last 20 years, Sara Clemens has made an international name for herself in the tech industry, working for the likes of Microsoft, LinkedIn and now Pandora, where she was appointed chief strategy officer earlier this year. And while this title alone would be enough to intimidate some employees, Clemens thrives in these high-pressure positions and actually enjoys the challenge. StopPress recently had a chat with her about her previous successes and what she hopes to acheive in her new role.
Yesterday’s announcement from MediaWorks came with confirmation of two executive job cuts as chief executive of television Paul Maher and chief executive of interactive Siobhan McKenna were listed as casualties of the reshuffle. MediaWorks chief executive Mark Weldon told StopPress that these would be the extent of the job cuts for now.
In the digital age, the buying of radio frequencies seems almost archaic. The internet means that any major radio brand can now be accessed across the nation. And yet, in the recent Radio Spectrum auction, NZME broke a record by paying $7.4 million to retain the frequency it currently uses for Newstalk ZB in Christchurch. And while slightly more frugal than its competitor, MediaWorks Radio also pulled out the chequebook to pay $2.5 million for a frequency used for Mai FM in Waikato and $2 million for a frequency that will host George FM in Wellington. StopPress chats to MediaWorks group content director Leon Wratt and NZME Radio managing director Dean Buchanan to find out if it’s still worth paying that much for radio frequencies.
House of Travel has confirmed the appointment of Ken Freer as its new marketing director. Having just started his new role, Freer is already working on the company’s marketing strategy, and a spokesperson tells StopPress that the organisation (which currently doesn’t have an agency on the books) would likely look to secure a creative partner in early 2015.
In June this year, Google Creative Lab unveiled The Cube, a six-sided digital video platform that can be used to simultaneously tell different stories in the same digital space. And in a pair of innovative campaigns, Google Play and Sony are showcasing how the platform could potentially be used for branding.
StopPress sits down with BuzzFeed Australia’s editor Simon Crerar for a chat about the website being like a Parisian café, Kiwis being better sharers than Aussies and why inane animal .gifs can co-exist with serious content.
In November, Jamie Curry orchestrated a treasure hunt in Sydney as part of the #colouryoursummer campaign, which Coca-Cola has launched in an effort to get millennials thirsty over the warmer months. And this campaign has now also spread across to this side of the ditch, with the launch of the Kiwi version. And in continuing the trend of collaborating with YouTube personalties, Coca-Cola Oceania has announced that two up-and-coming Kiwi vloggers will also create videos for the local campaign.
With a total of 1.2 million subscribers across the world, the Kiwi vlogger Jamie Curry (of Jamie’s World) is one of only two New Zealanders to meet the YouTube star threshold of having more than a million subscribers. And her resonance with 13- to 24-year-olds recently caught the attention of Coca-Cola Australia, leading the drinks company to collaborate with the teen on the ‘Colour your summer’ campaign.
On 25 November 1989, only 25 years ago, TV3 had no viewers. The station was only set to launch the next day following a four-year period of legal wrangling to get government approval to introduce a commercial television station. Now, as the channel celebrates its quarter century, its parent company MediaWorks has a reach of 3,759,247 and has established itself as a respected competitor against the state-owned broadcasting stalwart TVNZ. And to coincide with the celebrations, MediaWorks is already looking to the future with the launch of a new brand expression called ‘For me it’s 3’ that places empahsis on the modern trend of social viewing.
Sinead Boucher, the group executive editor of Fairfax, has confirmed that the last digital edition of Unlimited magazine will be released in December this year.
On 15 October, The High Court at Auckland placed The Magazine Marketing Company (TMMC), which was founded in 2008 by Stuart Shepherd, into liquidation for failing to meet payment obligations, which included overdue GST, PAYE, KiwiSaver employee deductions, KiwiSaver employer contributions, student loan employee deductions and income tax. KPMG, which was appointed as the company’s liquidator, released its first report on 19 November, revealing additional details about the process thus far.