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Yahoo! New Zealand has announced the arrival of a new awards baby called the Digital Stars, an initiative that aims to find and reward the best young media planners and buyers in New Zealand.
There are many differences between New Zealand and Italy. We’re more likely to have milk with our coffee, our menfolk generally only wear budgie smugglers at the beach if they’re triathletes or surf lifesavers, and our prime minister’s parties are pretty tame in comparison to Silvio’s. But as Publicis Mojo’s latest campaign for Subway’s Italiana range shows, there are a few similarities between the two laid-back countries, including a striking upside down geographical resemblance.
Two Auckland-based digital creative agencies have flown the Kiwi flag at the 2012 Communicator Awards, with Gladeye taking home three golds for Moa Beer, Collette Dinnigan and the agency’s own portfolio website as well as another two silvers, and Method Studios winning gold for a custom Xbox Kinect Game for Smith&Smith that was aimed at insurance brokers.
Just four Kiwi agencies were in the running for Clio Awards, one of America’s most prestigious ad industry awards ceremonies, and only one ended up taking anything home, with Alt Group winning a silver for Fisher & Paykel’s Social Kitchen in the environmental design section.
May the fourth be with you as Contagion announces a creative promotion and a new piece of business, McDonald’s adds two to the grill, Rawdon Christie makes it an English breakfast, nzgirl finds its new general manager, Datamine welcomes a new geek, Sir Dryden Spring steps down and Phantom Billstickers crows about a new Auckland site.
Independent Liquor’s craft beer division Boundary Road Brewery, along with the creative assistance of Barnes, Catmur & Friends, has done a stellar job of spreading the word since its launch—and all with a pretty miniscule budget. And now, in addition to welcoming new US brewer Spike Buckowski to the fold to whip up a a few new variants, it’s also welcoming two new brews into the family: the Mumbo Jumbo, a 5.2 percent ABV India Pale Ale that was selected by 500 tasters recruited to try two variants, and the Chocolate Moose, a 4.5 percent ABV full-bodied chocolate porter. We’ve got four prize packs to give away, so conjure up some beer-related punmanship and tell us what Boundary Road Brewery should call its next version.
Many of the world’s award shows require client approval, the dates campaigns ran and minimum media spend to ensure scam ads aren’t honoured. But The Chip Shop Awards are “about fostering and recognising creativity with no boundaries and no rules”. The work does not need to have been broadcast, printed or mailed, the clients don’t have to be yours, and you can even make up your own categories. So, since its launch in 2002, the website claims the awards “have produced some of the cleverest, funniest, worst taste advertising and design ever seen”. Some, like M&C Saatchi’s Dave King think they’re grubby and worthless; a blight on the industry. Others like Leo Burnett’s John Jessup embrace the unrestrained creativity on display. Here’s a collection of this year’s finalists (including .99’s Safe Distance), so you can make up your own mind.
The Simpsons is celebrating the screening of the 500th show and Special Group is doing a bit of celebrating itself because the newspaper ad to promote the milestone that was filled with famous moments from the show has been awarded the NAB ad of the month.
The Commerce Commission’s 2011 telecommunications annual monitoring report shows competition among telcos is heating up—and consumers, who doubled their consumption of mobile data since last year, are getting better and more diverse deals as a result.
The RadioLive interview and 3 News clip featuring John Banks make for rather comical, cringe-worthy viewing. And, as the anonymous donation saga continues to unfold, the contextual humourists at Saatchi & Saatchi and Tui have jumped on board the Banksy train with a new billboard.
Fresh from its gobbledeegook-heavy global brand relaunch, the local branch of ZenithOptimedia has announced it has won the Puma New Zealand media account from incumbent Lassoo, which will continue to work with the brand in a PR capacity.
For 150 years, New Zealand’s Merino fibre was largely invisible, as it was sold into a world commodity market that was dominated by high-volume producers and then diluted into blends. But in 1995, the growers decided to take a stand and Merino New Zealand was set up. And in 1999, it was awarded the Supreme Marketing Award and Business-to-Business award for lifting the fibre out of the commodity basket and positioning local merino at the highest end of the international market.
First they gave the All Blacks a sausage and now Brandspank has brought a new meaning to the term digital marketing with a campaign to launch Sky’s new Android mobile app.
The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a church billboard proclaiming “Jesus Heals Cancer” that was erected by the Equippers’ Church in Napier and an ad for Waikato Draught that linked itself with the Chiefs in a Waikato Times supplement have crossed the line.
Droga5 appoints bcg2’s Chris Long, production house 8com opens up in New Zealand, three agencies fly Kiwi flag at Asian Marketing Effectiveness awards, APN announces its new motoring editor, The Sweet Shop welcomes award-winning UK director to the family, Yahoo! adds two to its sales stable and Aegis Media appoints a shopper marketing specialist.
When it comes to comedy, the Kiwi cultural cringe seems to have steadily departed and many of our local humour mongers are now popular drawcards, both on TV and in person. MediaWorks has focused heavily on comedy with its programming on both 3 and Four, and it continues to sponsor and broadcast the New Zealand International Comedy Festival (it is showing last week’s sold-out comedy gala tonight from 8.30pm-10:30pm). To celebrate this year’s edition, it’s put a few of its seductive stars in front of a well-vaselined camera and created some channel idents around the theme ‘Comedy is Sexy’. But if that’s not enough comedy for you, we’ve got a 7 Days VIP Prize Pack to give away, which includes 2 x tickets to 7 Days LIVE at SkyCity Theatre on Thursday 3 May. So tell us a joke and we’ll give the funniest one the booty.
In a world where political correctness often seems to rule, taboos are plentiful. Thankfully, busting them is still an integral part of good comedy. But there’s still potential for embarrassing social mishaps with every attempt at edgy humour. So, to help provide some guidance as to what is and what isn’t appropriate, the NZ International Comedy Festival gathered together an elite team of stand-up comedians, sit-down mathematicians and Colenso BBDO digital folk to try and solve a riddle that has plagued mankind for centuries: when is it too soon to joke about something?
Special Group won a couple of AXIS awards this year for its ‘Most Creative Country on Earth’ awards theme in 2011. And when Colenso BBDO was handed the reins for this year’s awards it ran with the idea of a metal detector and tapped into the rich vein of science-based humour seen in shows like Look Around You. So for those who weren’t there on the night, or for those who were there but were seeing how many breadsticks they could fit in their mouth, here’s the ’70’s-inspired opening sequence.
Tomorrow sees the launch of the first “broad-appeal” free-to-air TV station in more than a decade in New Zealand. And Choice TV is taking a slightly different approach to its programming by featuring shows based around a different theme each night—and trying to align sponsors with them.
POS material for the new campaign
There’s a long history of using animals in advertising, from Saatchi & Saatchi’s geese, to Telecom’s meerkats to Toyota’s Bugger to Cravendale’s Cats with Thumbs and thousands of others inbetween. And Visique and Republik are tapping into that rich vein—and aiming to inject some light-hearted relief into the somewhat clinical New Zealand optometry sector—by launching a new advertising campaign using bespectacled animals to encourage people to look after their eyes.
Contagion welcomes a new, very experienced partner, merger she wrote as Method Studios and Magnet Design join forces, Suzanne Dale says adios to Taste magazine, glossy mag ME adds a new partner, and Let’s Travel editor-at-large Gary Dickson picks up an international writing award.
The IAB recently dropped the Bolly from its awards and renamed them the IABNZ Creative Awards in an effort to bring them in line with other international IAB competitions. And the first winner of the newly modified awards is Special Group, with the Mash-up banner for Four.
There was joy, despair, controversy, awkward humour and even a foil-wrapped baked potato that was removed from the host’s pants. So now that you’ve digested and discussed all the winners, here’s your regular helping of visual evidence from AXIS 2012.
12 years ago a bunch of mates who loved good beer got together in a modest brew house and packaging line that was built from scratch in a disused crocodile farm near Fremantle, Western Australia, and created a pale ale. Now Little Creatures is expanding its range in New Zealand with three new brews – Little Creatures Pilsner, Bright Ale and Rogers’ Beer. So tell us what the coolest real-life little creature is (Pistol Shrimp all the way) and we’ll send out a few six packs to the best efforts.
In keeping with the burgeoning–and some would say, worrying—trend for the Department of Conservation to align itself with corporate benefactors (as outlined in a story about ‘Conservation for Prosperity’ in a recent issue of North & South), and in keeping with Air New Zealand’s environmental push, the national airline has signed up for a three year partnership with DoC worth the equivalent of $1 million annually.
Billy McQueen goes back to the brush, ZenithOptimedia launches its new global positioning, Duncan Garner heads to RadioLive, Crossmark gets its teeth into Cadbury, two new toys for Toybox, Phantom welcomes ‘Queen of the Flyers’, Pluk closes in on 50,000 users and Ideas Shop makes it a double.
The massive pile of magazines filled with Post-It notes stacked up on the StopPress desks (which are, of course, made of rich mahogany) indicates the April round of The Glossies is now open. And we need your votes. So get in there and choose your favourite.
Mobile advertising in New Zealand is very much in its infancy. But, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s new global mobile anthology, which provides insights into different countries’ experiences with mobile media, it has enormous potential for growth and with the significant increase in smartphone penetration in recent years to around 30 percent of all handsets and the increase in mobile internet usage, the local IAB office is predicting more media dollars being spent on this channel in the near future.
It might not have done as well as many expected at AXIS last night, but NZTA, Clemenger BBDO and The Sweet Shop’s ‘Legend’ well and truly made up for it by nabbing a very hard to win Yellow Pencil in the earned media section at the D&AD awards, the only New Zealand work to receive the nod this year. Legend also made it In-Book in the Writing for Advertising category.
Sam RB, writer and performer of NZ's Olympic song
Former prime minister Helen Clark
As is customary at this time of year, StopPress is suffering from some serious AXIS-related brain functionality issues today. And not even early morning sausage rolls have been able to help. So, in honour of last night’s winning Doggelganger campaign–and to fill some space without really having to think—here’s a lookalike.