Author Deirdre Robert

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Sealord’s new logo gets complimented in one breath while its fishing practices get butchered in another
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When Sealord unveiled its new logo in May this year, feedback wasn’t overly kind and elsewhere more than a few comments suggested the company should instead focus on improving its sustainability credentials. Fastforward to July and the company was busy championing its deal to supply McDonald’s restaurants in Europe with Marine Stewardship Council certified hoki fish from New Zealand. But try as it might to churn out the positive PR, Sealord’s ocean practices are never far from the limelight, especially when Greenpeace is keeping a close eye on developments. The organisation yesterday launched a massive outdoor ‘subvertising’ campaign in Auckland to expose Sealord’s sale of tuna caught using destructive fishing methods. The campaign includes posters and banners that feature the new Sealord logo along with the words ‘Nice Logo. Bad Tuna’ that were deployed along main routes into the city and throughout the city centre by volunteers.

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The little engine that could (advertise)
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These days advertising seems to encroach on almost everything, public transport especially. But apart from DDB’s Instant Kiwi campaign back in 2010, which saw scenes from the Sistine Chapel installed on the ceilings of buses throughout the city, there hasn’t been much by way of skyward advertising, particularly when it comes to trains. But while the practice may be common in places like the UK, Auckland trains is only just now getting its first dose courtesy of a campaign run by Fly Buys to promote its Star Deals initiative.

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Thou shall abstain from a sense of humour: Telecom and Saatchi & Saatchi’s anti-rumpy pumpy rugby campaign
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If a sign of a successful campaign is the courting of controversy, then Telecom and partners in crime Saatchi & Saatchi are well placed. But the wealth of opinions that have gushed forth following the unveiling of the ‘Abstain for the All Blacks’ campaign seems to have those involved retreating for shelter. Meanwhile others have offered alternative campaigns of a similar vein.

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TV revenue continues its steady rise despite Canterbury quake
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The television revenue numbers for the year ended 30 June are out and, despite the March results being heavily impacted by the February Canterbury earthquake, overall, the year saw a 5.1 percent growth. The figures, fresh from ThinkTV, show advertising revenue reached $613 million, compared with the $583 million gathered from the previous 12 months. 

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Report reveals gaps between public perception of ‘green’ brands and reality
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Toyota’s leadership in making the environment a core management priority, while also engaging in a meaningful way with audiences around the world, has seen the company take out the top spot in Interbrand’s Best Global Green Brands 2011 report, which ranks the top 50 “green” brands with a global presence. But some of the very brands that ranked highly in environmental sustainability performance lagged behind when it came to public perception of their performance, suggesting many companies have a ways to go when it comes to communicating their corporate social responsibility efforts.

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Dan Carter pulls out the razor and shares different side
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We know this much about Dan Carter: He likes heat pumps and certain brands of deodorant and underwear. He’s also an awesome first five-eighth. And now in his latest foray into sponsorship territory as the brand ambassador for Philips electric shavers, we’ve been told a different side of the All Black will be revealed.

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Absolute power entertains absolutely in new PowerShop campaign
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Playing around with some of the nastiest dictators to have ever set foot on earth might seem a touch risky, but for online electricity upstart Powershop, it’s hoping a new campaign by DoubleFish, staring the likes of North Korea’s Kim Jong II and Saddam Hussein, will give the company a point of difference against its larger competitors.

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GrabOne toasts its first birthday by drinking design
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If you want to sway the discerning public’s attention to your product, there’s nothing quite like involving them in the development of the product, risky as it may be. And, in a bid to celebrate its first year of business, that’s exactly what daily deal site GrabOne did. Harnessing the pull of its GrabOne Bottle site, Facebook fans were invited to vote on three designs by Media Design School graduate Allan Wrath, the top design earning itself prime position on an anniversary edition wine bottle.

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Radio rebrand waves continue—UPDATED
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In a move that draws parallels with the Radio Network’s recent Classic Hits’ station brand shift, MediaWorks’ More FM has also been busy on the refresh front, unveiling a new look that features a spotted logo and the positioning phrase: “Live it. Love it. Sing it.” According to More FM Network programme director Ande Macpherson, who joined the station in February to help reconnect the brand to its core values, there’s been a disconnect with what More FM actually stood for.

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MasterCard taps into nostalgia to inspire more ‘priceless’ moments
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In early 2009 MasterCard was announced as the second worldwide partner for the 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC) and the TVC campaigns flowed shortly after. One of the first, ‘MasterCard Roadshow’, saw the boys in black racing with drinks on trays in one hand and baguettes in another. But the unveiling of the latest round of TVCs—at the hands of agency McCann Sydney and Prodigy—reveals a more emotional and grass roots-orientated campaign, honing in on the memories of those who made history and those who watched it happen. 

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Classic Hits gets contemporary with logo revamp
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Over the past 18 months adult contemporary music radio station Classic Hits has been the subject of a significant shake up in terms of its musical, advertising and dj line-up. And with those changes now firmly in place, the station has rounded off its makeover with a new logo that’s actually a significant departure from the green and red logo that’s been in place since 1993.

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Introducing the best in Kiwi magazine design
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With the New Zealand Magazine Awards hangovers now well and truly abated, it’s time to reflect on those who did it best in the realm of magazine design. All up ten Best Cover Design awards and nine Designer of the Year awards were dished out across several categories.

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Social decency infringers beware, the DASR is on the prowl
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We all love the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Oh wait, we don’t. But that’s the whole point behind a comic campaign launched by Barnes, Catmur & Friends on Monday on behalf of the ASA. To raise awareness and hopefully generate more funding via the ASA’s voluntary levy scheme, the team at Barnes, Catmur & Friends, led by creatives Matt Weavers and Jesse Stevens, created a mock website called the Department of Advertising Standards and Regulations (DASR).

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I’m tweaking our future campaign
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How personal is too personal? ASB know all about that, after all its Creating Futures campaign has been centred on providing that personal touch. But it all got a little too personal recently when its In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) commercial was unveiled to the viewing public, prompting a raft of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority for being too simplistic and exploiting the vulnerable, among other reasons.

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Wake up and smell the Scarborough Fair redesign
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It’s been around since 2004, but in a bid to further stand out from its competitors on supermarket shelves, the Scarborough Fair brand of coffee, tea and chocolate has recently undergone a design makeover, courtesy of the folks at &Some, or as they refer to themselves, the creative co-conspirators for a connected world.

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Origin Design and Insight Creative align
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Mergers can often be a little murky, but in the case of Origin Design and Insight Creative, they’re adamant it’s all about clarity. After Insight Creative purchased Origin Design in February last year, the two companies have finally aligned to reveal their new single brand, simply called ‘Insight’. And with that comes a new creative strategy that ties in with a bold and clean look.

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Rebrand takes the shell out of Shell and puts the Zed into z—UPDATED
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When Shell’s fuel business was sold to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and Kiwi infrastructure company Infratil in April last year (for a cool $695 million, we might add)—both of which are owned and operated by Greenstone Energy—the wheels were set in motion to replace the brand with something Greenstone Energy describes as “entirely Kiwi”. $35 million later, the new petrol stations, called Z Energy, are being unveiled across the country as part of a complete brand overhaul. And, coupled with extensive market research, the finished product comes courtesy of a number of industry players, including Cato Partners and Assignment Group.

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New Zealand’s 100% Pure brand gets flamed by BBC
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For over ten years now, Tourism New Zealand’s 100% Pure New Zealand campaign has been a staple brand for marketing New Zealand to the world. But whether we ought to be laying such a pure claim at all has come under fire on many occasions, most recently on BBC programme Hardtalk where John Key was left sweating after host Stephen Sackur put some tough questions to the Prime Minister about the clean and green image on which New Zealand prides itself.

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Dogs, velocity and cars
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Get your physics hat on for this week’s TVC

Who’s it for: Volkswagen by DDB and Robber’s Dog

Why we like it: As Volkswagen seeks to deliver its first ever ute into the New Zealand market, and with Toyota the dominant player in the market …

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A stroke of Strategy paint genius here, another Alt win there
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The good news keeps coming for Alt, which is no stranger to winning global accolades. The design agency has picked up a bronze from the Art Director’s Club of New York for its efforts on Auckland Museum’s I AM campaign, developed from an acronym of Auckland Museum, and a pattern language developed as part of the identity of the museum. And Strategy Design is also sitting pretty with a nomination in the Clio Awards. 

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Guitar-playing Apache finds animated online following
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Small Wellington-based commercial production company HoverLion, which specialises in animation, motion graphics and a touch of live action, has been creating a bit of an online buzz with a viral video that features a unique type of animation created by company co-founder Ned Wenlock.

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World’s two biggest voucher sites add to the daily deal cacophony
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Last week it was revealed by the latest Nielsen Online Retail Report that two thirds of online New Zealanders have received email alerts from daily deal websites, and a further 40 percent said they made a purchase from such sites in the past three months. Now two of the world’s biggest deal sites, Groupon and Living Social, are set to arrive and take some more of New Zealand’s discount dollars.