This post was created by one of the small but mighty StopPress team of journalists. Among their number are: Zahra Shahtahmasebi, Niko Kloeten, Penny Murray and Rachel Tsai. Send your news to [email protected].
TVNZ and Kiwibank are calling for nominations for the 2016 New Zealander of the Year Awards and showing off a refreshed visual identity developed by Assignment Group in a new TVC made by Blacksand.
Unskippable pre-roll video ads, according to a recent study by Ad Block Plus and Page Fair, are among the most annoying of all ads. But marketers and agencies are trying their hardest to make them slightly more bearable, with efforts by Colenso and BK’s anti-preroll and Geico’s unskippable pre-roll campaigns standing out recently. Volvo and Grey Canada have also joined in the fun, and, rather than making one pre-roll ad, they linked 60 of the XC60’s new features to the six billion hours of YouTube content that is typically viewed in a month in an effort to tailor them to the videos people were watching.
As mobile phone technology has improved, there have been quite a few films and ads (like Bentley and Apple) made on them. But Land Rover and Y&R New York have taken it a step further recently with its 5 x 5 film project.
For this year’s edition of the Semi-Permanent speakers’ event, Young & Shand has developed a slightly depressing campaign that looks at how over-worked creatives in the ad industry are. Showing scenes of the late-night activity going on in the offices of Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB, FCB and Colenso BBDO, the promotional video encourages creatives to remember to nurture their tired brains.
Last night, at an event hosted at the Pullman Hotel, CAANZ kicked off this partnership by introducing two new courses to the local market: The IPA Effectiveness Test and the IPA Commercial Certificate (CAANZ also plans to release a third paper focused on search marketing before the end of the year).
StopPress lifts a glass to DB Export, the Co-operative Bank and Q Card this week.
Industry happenings at DNA, Facebook, Adshel, Orange Productions, MediaWorks, Vanilla Brief, BTL and Maori TV.
With its haul of 16 gongs (one gold, six silver and nine bronze), Colenso BBDO was the standout Kiwi performer at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The agency’s chief executive Nick Garrett was on the ground in the South of France and he recently got in touch to share his thoughts on the proceedings. And while he was pleased with the tally that Colenso accumulated over the course of the event, he says that the general consensus among attendees was that this was far from being a vintage edition of the awards event.
AA Smartfuel and Air New Zealand were the recipients of Colmar Brunton Ad Impact awards for March and April respectively. Air New Zealand doing so through its TVC promoting its retrospective exhibition at Te Papa in celebration of its 75-year history, and AA for its loyalty card offer illustrated through the eyes of a charming taxi driver.
Whittaker’s has done it again, releasing a new limited edition flavour-fusion with Tip Top’s Jelly Tip, but perhaps New Zealanders are feeling a bit exhausted by its attempts at innovation, as many have flocked to Twitter to suggest some of their own ideas for a new kind of chocolate, somehow we don’t think Whittaker’s will be so keen.
The fifth and final awards ceremony for the 62nd Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2015 concluded in the weekend with Clemenger BBDO and Cirkus Auckland taking home a gold and a bronze.
While you’d be hard-pressed to find an advertising creative openly disappointed at winning a gold, silver or even bronze Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the grand prix awards are the ones that they all want. These elusive gongs are perhaps the most coveted perhaps in any advertising competition around the world, and winners over the preceding decades now stand as a veritable advertising canon, giving modern creatives the opportunity to take their place alongside the greats who came before. And as the festival’s days roll on, 2015’s generation of grand prix winners will simultaneously take their positions in the canon as they walk onto the stage at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes to collect their awards. Here is the list of Cannes Grand Prix winners thus far. This post will be updated throughout the week.
State Insurance, famous for its eye-catching and dramatised advertisements has drawn influence from the comic-book realm for a new TVC which promotes its online services with the help of Colenso BBDO and FINCH.
The average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has decreased from 67 years in the 1920s to 15 years today, and technology is the main reason for that change. Not surprisingly, the big consulting firms have been helping companies deal with this for a while now, but PwC has officially launched its new digital consulting arm, PwC Digital, in New Zealand and it went with a couple of indies—Sugar & Partners and MBM—to help do it.
DDB Paris went dark for this commercial, introducing a poor type-casted actor who over the course of his career is “The Man who Died the Most” in movies, for a commercial about organ donation.
Electronic and dance music station MediaWorks-owned George FM has released a shiny new TVC in conjunction with its roll out as a national network.
In the past, much of the emphasis at advertising awards events has been placed on television advertising on account of the fact that this has traditionally been the area that attracts the biggest chunk of ad spend. But as more money shifts to the digital, the categories that have a digital element are attracting more attention. One such area is the cyber Lions category, which encompasses branded online, digital, and technological communications.
Social@Ogilvy has been “reinvigorated” with Mike Watkins now heading up the agency and Oliver Maisey jumping on board as executive creative director.
While there has been a lot of focus on digital advertising lately, sometimes you just can’t beat the traditional. But instead of the classic billboard, Denver Water is going the extra mile, drawing inspiration from the craft world for these exquisite handmade ads, which look like they belong in a gallery.
Colenso found itself among the winners at Cannes again overnight, picking up a pair of silvers in the Radio categoy for the ‘Lottery’ and ‘Whack job’ spots produced for Mars.
In a recent opinion piece by Duncan Garner he said he strives to find more of a work-life balance and prioritise the important things after the loss of his father and realising Parliament was “a ridiculous place to work”. He might find that a bit difficult now, as it was announced today he will be a co-host on Campbell Live’s replacement Story alongside Heather du Plessis-Allan while continuing to present his RadioLIVE drive show from 3-6 weekdays. But no doubt the show will be welcomed with open arms after Come Dine with Me has failed to deliver in the ratings department as TV3 hits an all-time low.
A recent Reuters report of 20,000 people in 12 countries shows the way we digitally source news is continuing to evolve globally, with main findings being an increased use of Smartphones, a decreased use of desktops, a higher number of people looking to social media for news, and digital-born brands rivalling traditional players in domestic markets, sometimes beating them internationally.
Each day in Cannes brings fresh batch of awards winners—and inevitable rosé-induced hangovers—as gongs in the various categories are distributed to the agencies that have over the course of the last year produced the best creative efforts. And this continued overnight as the winners in the Outdoor, PR, Media, Creative Effectiveness and Glass Lions categories were announced. This time, Colenso, DDB and FCB were among the winners.
McDonald’s may be struggling globally as fast casual chains and the popularity of premium burgers eat into its share, but the Kiwi arm managed to lift sales by two percent last year. And, as part of its mission to be more transparent with the Our Food, Your Questions campaign, it’s got comedian Guy Montgomery to take punters through the patty manufacturing process.
An art project on the nature of Tinder, named Tender, cleverly (or very grossly) plays on the expression “Treated like a piece of meat”, and given we’ve had a bit of a dating focus lately, we thought we’d better feature it.
Results for the Promo and Activation, Direct, Press, and Mobile Lions categories came out overnight, and there a few Kiwi winners in the mix. The New Zealand contingent picked up gongs in each of the categories listed, but the only Kiwi gold came in the Press category for Colenso BBDO’s ‘Breast Cream’ campaign developed for Skinfoods and the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation.
There were over 40,000 entries to the Cannes Lions this year, and while there is currently much excitement and hedonism in the South of France, there also seems to be a growing sense of cynicism about the importance placed on the awards, with Tom Goodwin’s thought-provoking article in The Guardian questioning the industry’s reality distortion field and inward-looking nature. And for the cynics who think these clever ideas on display are all a bunch of arse that are unlikely to solve real business problems, you’ll probably enjoy the Grand Prix Generator.
Air New Zealand’s most recent safety video was all about surfing. But the wetsuits are being swapped for woolly onesies and, following on from last year’s efforts to lure Australians (mostly) to the now well-covered slopes, the airline and a few of its friends have created a beautiful timelapse video that focuses on the thrill snow lovers get from the change of seasons.
For the first time in a decade Nissan has released its new Navara model, the NP300, and in celebration it’s teamed up with Whybin\TBWA to develop an interactive game called ‘Navara Says’ to show off its new features and one Kiwi will get to take one home if they’re skilled enough.
Last month we wrote about a clever ad we saw on the back of AUT’s Debate magazine, which looked like an old library list showing the generations of great minds and talents who had been inspired by George Orwell’s 1984. We’ve now learned more about the campaign, which includes other influential texts such as the Holy Bible and Romeo and Juliet with the goal of exploring how digital natives view great pieces of literature in an online world.