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As lovers of high quality drama, awkward scenes involving gratuitous product placement and those who are famous for no apparent reason, StopPress is delighted to hear The Ridges are coming to New Zealand TV. And, much to the joy of MediaWorks, which, judging by the promo clip, is revelling in all the negative publicity the reality show has already generated, it’s even being mentioned in other ad campaigns.
In just 18 months, Jasmine Griffin has helped turn Whittaker’s from a fairly traditional FMCG marketer into a company lauded for its digital and social media savviness.
From product and price to advertising and loyalty, Air New Zealand is customer-centric at every point of the experience and marketing-led at every point of the business. And its consistency over the past three years makes it a worthy winner of the inaugural Marketing Excellence award.
For all you effectiveness sponges out there, Red Spider Network’s Charlie Robertson, a world leading strategic planner in brand strategy and communications and the international guest judge for this year’s Effie Awards, will be spreading the good word tomorrow night at at a function hosted by CAANZ, TVNZ and AUT Business School.
Following on from its performance in the recent APMA Star Awards, marketing and promotional agency Belowtheline has won big at this year’s APPA Awards, taking home five awards including a gold, two silvers and two bronzes.
We’ll be showcasing all the winners of the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards on StopPress over the coming days. And we’re kicking things off with big winner Volkswagen, which invested heavily in indigenous research and advertising to better connect the brand with Kiwis, launched some very successful new products and quickly went from ‘niche street to main street’.
Alana Schultheis joins The Pond, Michael Cornwell takes Samsung NZ’s top marketing gig, Mango nabs a triple, Luke Shanahan goes global with Robber’s Dog, and VeNA looks on the Bright side.
They came, they drank, they feasted, they smiled for the cameras, and a few even marched up onstage to collect an award or three.
Timing is everything in business and over the years Barry Colman, who has been publishing the National Business Review for 24 years, has shown that he has a deft touch. And, given the state of the newspaper trade at the moment, he may have just shown it again, selling the publication he bought from John Fairfax & Sons for $1 in the late ’80s to current chief executive Todd Scott, who will be the sole shareholder.
Despite the fact that Samsung has morphed from a relatively small player in the consumer electronics market into a globally respected brand in ultra quick time, it isn’t really renowned for the quality of its advertising and, in many cases, there’s a whiff of naffness about a lot of it. But as part of its Olympics sponsorship and to markt the opening of the Paralympics, it’s released a pretty amazing new campaign called ‘Sport doesn’t care who you are’—and it’s right up there in the spine-tingling stakes with Channel 4’s ‘Meet the Superhumans’.
When we sat down for a chat with DDB’s new executive creative director Andy Fackrell a few months back (see full interview below) he said he was enjoying being back in the Kiwi countryside and was pretty keen to stick around if he was enjoying himself. And that’s exactly what’s happened, because he has signed on to become the permanent ECD eight months into his 12 month contract.
While most think of Isaiah Mustafa on a horse when they think of the Old Spice guy, Terry Crews was there earlier on, flexing his pecks and yelling a lot. And he’s back for more with a brilliant—and suitably surreal—interactive Vimeo clip made by Wieden + Kennedy called ‘muscle music’, where different instruments—including a “flame sax”—are played through Crews’ rather rhythmical flexing. Pfff, V Motion Project. But wait. There’s more. After the vid is finished users can perform and record their own song with the keyboard.
From NZ Life & Leisure’s Insider’s Guides to NZ Rugby World’s First XV, magazine publishers are creating more one-shots and brand extensions than they perhaps needed to in the past. And following on from the success of the 2011 special issue Everyday Dish, which has sold “heaps”, according to Tangible publisher John Baker, the Dish team has sifted a few more ingredients and moulded it into Baking Dish.
With the country’s two biggest telcos each releasing big new brand campaigns at the same time, we thought we’d compare and contrast some of the follow up work. So, dear StopPress friends, who do you think is winning the communications battle at this early stage?
If Kleenex can do it with toilet paper, Kim Crawford can do it with wine. Well, kind of. As part of its Fashion Week sponsorship, the winemaker has launched a campaign in conjunction with The Business and MediaWorks where six teams of students from Whitecliffe’s Fashion School look for some inspiration in the bottle.
Just as New Zealand’s advertising industry is world renowned, so too is the local market research industry, routinely succeeding in the face of tight budgets, big tasks, and an ever-increasing need to do more with less. And the people and companies behind some of the industry’s recent achievements were acknowledged at the 7th biennial Market Research Effectiveness Awards at the Hilton last week, with Ipsos coming out on top as the supreme winner for the third time in a row.
Shine’s Julian Andrews goes free range, APN announces its new Herald line-up, DDB welcomes back a prodigal duo, Admission admits many, TradeMe seeks out Vivaki, DraftFCB activates a rising star, Komli launches its mobile ad network, Ngage gets its FIX and Steve Price spruiks Panasonic’s smart TVs.
Back in 2007, Radio New Zealand kicked off the Sounds Like Us campaign, which entailed creating ten radios in the style of iconic New Zealand cultural expressions, from wool sheds to gumboots to pavlovas (2007 was also the year its funding was frozen). Another five models were added in subsequent design contests in following years, constructed by the sharp tacks at Weta Workshop, and then exhibited at galleries around the country. It was a nice branding exercise on the part of the public service broadcaster, and it won an Axis Award last year, and now the concept is being extended into the wearable arts, with RNZ selling t-shirts at its new online store for $34.95.
Anyone who doesn’t use a high-rigidity 165g competition quality disc deserves to be ridiculed. And that’s exactly what Paul Henry has done in the local—and, in our humble opinion, slightly underwhelming—execution of Snickers’ ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ campaign.
Steph Pearson from DraftFCB and PHDiQ’s Brendan Hewitt have been named winners of the inaugural Yahoo! New Zealand Digital Stars Awards, beating out 16 other young digital media exponents.
Studies have shown and experts agree Friday is the best day to show infographics. And Air New Zealand has come to the party with a selection of stats to celebrate 30 years of flying to LA and London.
The newspaper industry is certainly not without its naysayers, but in spite of dwindling numbers and organisational shake ups, it’s also full of people that will gladly proclaim the ongoing vitality of the medium. In fact you can expect newspapers to emerge stronger from their current circulation woes and enter 2020 as a leaner, more valued and trusted medium than at any time in the past 50 years, according to Peter Thomson, founder and former chief executive of M2M International. And you can find out for yourself why he’s so sure when he arrives to our shores in September as a keynote speaker at the revamped News Works NZ Advertising Awards.
It’s estimated that tablet use will triple in New Zealand in the next six months, which bodes well for publishers hoping to find a way to distribute their content electronically without giving it away for free. But while apps and jabscreens are all well and good, you still can’t beat the feeling of wood pulp in your hands, especially if it features a quality cover like Idealog’s design issue.
Telecom’s Tommy and Boris campaign has been going great guns but while the masses are busy fawning over Tommy and his cute turtle, elsewhere Telecom is busy rallying up young’uns in school to spread the word on the potential of ultra fast broadband (UFB). Its Amazing Ideas Search (AIS) was launched last month, inviting pupils across the country to consider what UFB will make possible in the future and what that future may look like.
While New World is busy trying to win shoppers’ hearts with nostalgia, and Pak ‘n Save with stickmen, Countdown is once again tugging at the most powerful of consumer heartstrings, free stuff. Off the back of its popular knives promotion, which saw more than 700,000 free Thomas Knives snapped up by customers, the supermarket has launched its Royal Worcester glasses promotion, and it’s confident this one will be just as successful as its predecessor.
Stories about ASA complaints that weren’t upheld are generally the marcomms equivalent of ‘there was no accident on the bridge today’. But in the case of an advertisement for Carefree Acti-Fresh Panty Liners, otherwise known as vagina discharge-gate, we’ll make an exception, because none of the 18 complaints received will get to have their day in court.
When it comes to inspiring fear, public speaking is up there with spiders, heights and getting stuck in the lift with John Banks. But a Kiwi app development company called Sush Mobile hopes it can reduce the number of sweaty palms, dull thuds in the chest and embarrassing stutters with a new iPhone app called Speak Like a Pro. And it’s already proving popular, with the app reaching No. 1 in the iTunes entertainment app charts and, within 48 hours of its launch, No. 9 in the iTunes business app charts.
Spark PHD welcomes back an old friend, CAANZ announces its international Effie judge, Healthy Life Media’s allergic reaction, Adshool students have something to crow about, The PR Shop goes corporate, TEDx announces its speaker line-up and Adobe appoints a new communicator.
The Rock is certainly no stranger to controversy. The radio station is aimed squarely at men, and, more specifically, 18-35 year old male bogans, so on-air hijinks like win a divorce and un-PC promotions like win a wife (after some mild outrage the comp name was changed to ‘WIN A TRIP TO BEAUTIFUL UKRAINE FOR 12 NIGHTS AND MEET EASTERN EUROPEAN HOT LADY WHO MAYBE ONE DAY YOU MARRY’) are often the order of the day. Such activities don’t always go down to well with, for example, those who listen to The Breeze or Concert FM. But rather than shy away from these complaints, the station has embraced it as part of a new campaign.
As the numerous press releases attest, the launch of the “smaller, but smarter and deeper” weekday New Zealand Herald is seen as a pretty important step for APN NZ. And along with the new format, readers can expect to see a new masthead on 10 September—and, in the future, a bill for the content they consume online.