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With ever better visuals, characters and stories, and even the addition of things like scents, games are getting more and more real. In its new TVC by Crispin, Porter and Bogusky, Microsoft warns obsessed gamers just how real things are getting.
What happens when engineers and artists come together? No, it’s not engineer/artist babies, it’s creative new products. Sony wants to show us that hardware is all about feelings.
Some of us like to ask friends and family before we buy something, others spend hours browsing websites and catalogues before they hit the shops. Now furniture retailer Ikea has an alternative with an app that uses the Chinese signs of the Zodiac to make recommendations.
Apple is harnessing the value of poetry in a new ad that aims to promote the iPad Air. The 90-second spot couples an excerpt spoken by Robin Williams in the Dead Poets Society with video footage that showcases the splendour of human endeavour. PLUS: see which other brands have dabbled in verse to flog products.
After cancelling its expensive output deal with 20th Century Fox, just as it had with the other big studios, MediaWorks was forced to stop screening some of its most popular shows in November last year. But in late December it announced it had struck up a new relationship with the big US studio that will see many of the shows it lost returning this year, although they won’t all be back, because Sky has nabbed some of the studio’s big shows for itself.
Running with Scissors used much of 2013 injecting new life into some renowned Kiwi brands and ushering a few new names onto the market. In addition to revamping Heinz Wattie’s tomato sauce, Whitlock & Sons and Pagani, the RwS team also introduced Orchard Thieves cider to Kiwi shelves. And to top it all off, the company also opened doors to its new London office. Now it’s over to head of business Roger Shakes for his thoughts.
In New Zealand, Duracell clutched at straws with its follow-up to the All Blacks sponsorship launch ad by saying “when the All Blacks want to play at their best, there is only one battery they trust”. But in the US, Duracell and Saatchi & Saatchi have taken a more realistic and much more inspiring approach for its latest sponsorship push by telling the story of Derrick Cole, the first legally deaf player to be part of an NFL offense.
Samsung Singapore has released a new app that stops phones from receiving phone calls, text messages or social media notifications when people are travelling at faster than 20 kilometres per hour. PLUS: check out the Yellow Jacket (stun gun) iPhone case.
The ad that portrays Nescafe’s Dolce Gusto Melody coffee machine as a work of art has won the Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award for last November. Colmar Brunton noted the TVC’s brand impact and a dash of frothy humour.
Last year, Barnes Catmur and Friends finally ended Aussie dominance at the Campaign Asia Pacific Awards by becoming the first Kiwi agency to win the Australia/New Zealand Independent Agency of the Year category. In addition to this, the consistent indy team won the Battle of the Ad Bands, showing that its creative streak also extends into other disciplines. Given that the agency spent 2013 moving from strength to strength, it comes as no surprise that managing partner Daniel Barnes was positive, albeit laconic, in his assessment of the year.
Father Time was shown begrudgingly accepting his obsolescence in the face of MySky technology last year. And he’s back in two new spots by DDB NZ and Exit Films that show he’s still enjoying its time-shifting power.
Media companies around the world are increasingly trying to cut out the middle men and profit from clients’ thirst for content. TVNZ’s in-house production team at Blacksand is no different and, as well as doing plenty of quality work for the mothership, like the launch of and promotional campaign for Seven Sharp and the Shortland Street end of year campaign, it’s doing a lot more work on production partnerships, like Telecom’s ‘Tech in a Sec’ and Mitre 10’s ‘Easy As’. Here’s Blacksand’s executive creative director Jens Hertzum’s highlight reel for last year.
It was a year of light and shade for DDB NZ. In the plus column, it took the no. 1 ranking at Spikes Asia, won more Cannes Lions than ever, was named the Campaign Asia Agency of the Year, won most effective agency at the Effies for the second year in a row, welcomed new clients BMW/Mini, Speights and Telecom (through Dynamo) and made some fairly big changes to the executive structure as Sandy Moore stepped back and Chris Riley stepped in. On the other side of the equation, it was forced to let a few staff go late in the year after losing VW and George Weston Foods to Colenso BBDO and it’s currently seeking a new ECD after Andy Fackrell took up a regional role in Australia. Here’s managing director Justin Mowday stoking a few coals.
James Hurman has been in the Y&R hotseat since mid 2012. And there’s been plenty of change since he arrived, with a swanky new office, a number of big hires and, after a few unsuccessful pitches, some wins with the Co-op Bank, Westfield and Interislander last year. Here he is having his way with 2013.
This year, the Clemenger Group made a significant addition to its offering by fusing .99 and direct/CRM/1-to-1 agency justONE. And with Ben Goodale taking the reins as managing director of a team of over 100 people, the move seems to have worked well thus far. In addition to shrinking New World’s merchandise and putting smiles on Kiwi faces everywhere, the collaboration also led the field in terms of nominations at the NZDM Awards. It thus comes as no surprise that Goodale was optimistic when it came to sharing his thoughts on a year fraught with change.
In November, when Volkswagen and George Weston Foods departed DDB for Colenso BBDO, it seemed as though the Auckland-based agency was headed for a subdued Christmas party. But only a matter of weeks later, DDB managed to pull a pair of rabbits out of its hat by adding BMW and Speight’s to the ledger. These two wins capped off an award-filled year, which saw the agency’s planning director, Lucinda Sherborne, walk away with the Austrailia/New Zealand Planner of the Year Award at the Campaign Asia Agency of the Year Awards. And now it’s over to her for some insights on a year of contrasts for the agency.
In a time when every media doomsday prophet is speculating on the eventual expiration of print, News Works has continued to push print-based titles and has retained its belief in traditional forms of media. And to applaud the efforts of writers, editors, publishers and designers for their contributions, News Works again organised the Canon Media Awards, New Zealand’s biggest journalism awards. But rather than simply focusing on the newspaper industry, News Works also used 2013 to commend the creativity of ad agencies via the News Works Agency League. Here’s what executive director Jenny Stiles thought of the year.
Since the ectoplasm of 2011’s ghost chips was starting to wear off, Clemenger BBDO decided to give Kiwis something equally memorable in 2013. The agency put three talented kids into a car, gave them an infectiously creative script and once again proved that serious issues don’t have to be presented in an overly didactic way. Here’s what managing director Andrew Holt thought of the year.
2013 was an eventful year for Pead PR, with a feisty Twitter war over My Food Bag, some quality sharkvertising for Xbox One and its relationship with Samsung coming to an end. Pead PR’s managing director Deborah Pead and her team look back—and forward.
Michael Goldthorpe runs his own consultancy called Hunch and, inbetween doing actual work, he has written some wonderful things for StopPress over the past couple of years, the most wonderful being his extremely well-received piece on how “mad people are attracted to advertising, just as advertising is attracted to us”. So here he is writing some more about the year that was.
Mango Communications got Kiwis on their side in 2013 with the ‘Freedom Friday’ campaign that encouraged Kiwis to reduce the work week. But the year wasn’t all about fun in the Bay of Islands sun. It also had a busy year working with a range of clients—around 25 percent of which are aligned to DDB—and helped deal with some big changes to the DDB’s executive team (it also farewelled Bob Glancy for a life in literature). Mango’s managing director and CAANZ marcomms leadership group member Claudia Macdonald reflects on the year and divines on what the future might hold.
With many joining the media diaspora and leaving the couch in favour of online entertainment options, it hasn’t been an easy year for television broadcasters. But instead of simply admitting defeat and watching the viewers head off into the distance, TVNZ’s head of sales and marketing Jeremy O’Brien led an innovative team that pinched popular shows, further developed on-demand streaming options and took quite a few risks. Here’s what O’Brien has to say about 2013.
See what the industry juggernauts, heavy hitters and high rollers had to say about 2013.
DraftFCB ended 2012 with the much–loved Driving Dogs campaign, and in 2013 the agency continued in this good vein of creative form by producing a range of memorable ads. In addition to sending voices to the moon for Dr Who’s 50th, DraftFCB also encouraged Kiwis to say “no more beersies,” introduced us to the cringey cool dad and revisited the over-the-top antics that pervaded ’80s action films. Given that it’s been a good year for the team at DraftFCB, it comes as no surprise the executive creative directors Regan Grafton and Tony Clewett had a bit of fun when sharing their thoughts on the last 12 months.
The Research Agency has continued to grow rapidly this year, with big clients like ASB, VW, Vodafone, IAG, Fonterra and NZ Lotteries entrusting it with their research needs and a number of new staff added to the roster to help deal with the new business. Managing director Andrew Lewis, who has penned a host of great columns for NZ Marketing, and the team opine on 2013.
David Bell, ex-creative director at Media Design School’s creative advertising course and the recipient of the 2011 lifetime achievement award at Axis, is still helping to mould, shape and nurture young ad brains. But he has been spending most of his time spreading the word about his book The Dog Hunters and, after a successful fundraising drive on Kickstarter, he’ll be spending more of it creating an illustrated version.
A 60th anniversary, a little promotion that went large, a series of new infomercial style ads, another consistently cheeky performance from Stickman and the end of Real magazine made it a big year in the Foodstuffs corner. Here’s what Steve Bayliss made of it.
As the numbers of obese New Zealanders increase, the heat on drink manufacturers increases with it. And, whether you see it as lip service or legitimate, Coca-Cola responded with a campaign showing the steps it was taking to address the issue and, more recently, the launch of Move60, which aims to get Kiwis exercising. Wendy Rayner, who’s been in the role of general manager of marketing at Coca-Cola Amatil for just over a year, shares her thoughts on 2013.
After leaving DDB for a stint in the UK, Toby Talbot stayed true to his word and returned to New Zealand, where he and Todd McLeay had the industry frothing at the mouth when they took over the Whybin\TBWA reins from David Walden and Andy Blood. Here’s what it loo
John Baker has helped bring a degree of collegiality and a sense of purpose to the Magazine Publishers Association in his role as chair and he’s riding the content marketing wave as a publisher at Tangible Media. Here’s his take on the year.