Five Kiwi apps have floated above the rest in Apple’s pick of this year’s best in the New Zealand App Store.
Five Kiwi apps have floated above the rest in Apple’s pick of this year’s best in the New Zealand App Store.
2012 was a comeback year for the Whybin\TBWA Group after something of an annus horribilis in 2011. It put Middle-earth into New Zealand, oversaw the biggest thing in banking with the surprisingly smooth National Bank/ANZ fusion, launched the Digital Arts Network by merging Shift and Tequila\, and its PR arm Eleven won a couple of PR agency of year awards. So chief executive David Walden, who sold a few shares and began the hunt for a successor, ended the year a pretty happy chappy.
While MediaWorks’ ownership and debt issues continued to bubble away this year, there were plenty of positives for those working at the coalface, including Four’s media brand of the year award and a very successful first run of The Block. Liz Fraser, who moved from MSN and chair of the IAB to take up the role of director of sales and marketing at Mediaworks TV, has her say.
With a new office in Amsterdam, a host of awards, some massive international clients, a few stroke-inducing side projects and a cause-based cat telethon to promote internet freedom, Resn has further cemented its well-earned reputation as one of the world’s best—and most experimental—digital agencies in 2012. Kris Hermansson and Steve Le Marquand log on.
Tourism New Zealand and Whybin\TBWA’s 100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand campaign has been the subject of much discussion recently, plenty of it based around the perceived gap between the fantasy of the slogan and the reality of the country’s environmental situation. But after some negative media coverage, it’s put one in the plus column by winning the World’s Leading Destination Marketing Campaign in the World Travel Awards 2012.
New Zealanders really enjoy a catchy tune mixed with a bit of schadenfreude, a fact demonstrated by the most searched for ad on Google this year.
After saying goodbye to BNZ, ‘recalibrating’ the agency and adding a couple of ex-Ogilvy chaps to its creative arsenal, Sugar&Partners had plenty to contend with this year. But it took it in its stride and released some quality campaigns for TAB, new challenger telco Flip and, slightly controversially given its similarity to a popular cat video, Mammoth Insulation. Dave Nash and Damon O’Leary sum up their 2012.
Creative ideas increasingly need to be media ideas—and specifically social media ideas. And OMD recognised this earlier this year by hiring social strategist, self-proclaimed ‘askhole’, opinionated mofo, treasure hunt lover and enthusiastic supporter of the Herne Bay Local Anthony Gardiner. So get these opinions down ‘ya gullet.
Following up from a win in August for Consumer NZ, Ogilvy Wellington duo Nigel Richardson and Steve Cooper have taken the November ORCA with their ‘Silly Season’ ad for Consumer NZ.
Once again, online advertising continued its steady rise in New Zealand in 2012, hitting its high water mark in the last quarter. And as the head of Yahoo! New Zealand (which recently launched its year-in-the-making new homepage and mobile site) and the new chair of the local Internet Advertising Bureau, Laura Maxwell-Hansen is well placed to see where it’s heading next. Here’s her take on 2012.
Dow Design is on a mission to prove the commercial value of good design. And with a win in the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards for Fonterra, a finalist in the new Best Effect Award for Hellers, a number of big redesigns for big FMCG brands, it seems to be doing a good job of it. Founder Annie Dow and business development director Jenny McMillan speak their piece.
‘Twas a big year for Barnes, Catmur & Friends, with plenty of success and international attention for the sado-masochistic Pizza Roulette, a long-awaited BOTAB victory for Friends Electric, one of the country’s best hauls at the EFFIES and some consistently good low-budget work for Independent Liquor’s Boundary Road Brewery, which is now thought to have gained 20 percent of the ‘gateway craft’ market after its launch last year. Say hello to managing creative partner Paul Catmur.
Fresh from Rapp Tribal’s hiring of ex-BMF Sydney creative director Tim Wood, DDB Group NZ has made it a double, with Shane Bradnick, the current executive creative director at BMF Sydney, joining DDB in February 2013 as creative director.
With a newish chief executive, a switch to Saatchi & Saatchi without a pitch, a rejigged marketing team, record profits, a new HQ being built, a couple of awards, a few more impressive innovations like Facebook payments and a classy if comparatively subdued response to the National Bank’s departure (something big might be brewing, however), ASB had a fairly eventful year. Executive general manager marketing and online Roger Beaumont shares the love.
It’s been a watershed year for APN NZ, with the Herald’s shift to tabloid and the resulting campaign by DraftFCB, a new nzherald.co.nz, the launch of The Listener’s digital subscriptions and restructures of the IT, editorial and marketing departments. Chief operating officer Todd McLeay, the man who swapped the comparatively easy job of selling Lotto tickets for positioning a newspaper for the rather uncertain future, looks back on an eventful 2012.
It’s been a cracking year for the crew of Clemenger BBDO Wellington, with the agency winning four Cannes Lions, three Gold Effies, New Zealand’s only D&AD Yellow Pencil for Ghost Chips and securing more work in The Work than any other Kiwi agency. Here’s what caught the attention of the lads at the helm, Philip Andrew and Andrew Holt.
With five golds at the Media Awards, a host of Yahoo DSA gongs, big campaigns for Vodafone, Instant Kiwi and ANZ, a re-signed agreement with Unilever and a new gamified planning system about to come onstream, Spark Group has had plenty to crow about this year. Chief executive Louise Bond takes the wheel.
Haven’t had your daily dose of The Hobbit? Then head on over to newzealand.com and take a look at New Zealand redrawn in the spirit of Tolkien thanks to WHYBIN\TBWA and Weta Workshops.
Fresh from winning more Caples metal than any other agency in the world over the weekend, Colenso BBDO followed that up by winning Campaign Asia Pacific’s New Zealand creative agency of the year award ahead of DDB Group and DraftFCB, with creative chairman Nick Worthington named as the Australasian region’s best creative director. DDB Group also backed up a good year on the awards front, with Rapp/Tribal winning digital agency of the year ahead of Colenso BBDO and TBWA\DAN, while Spark PHD was rewarded for an impressive year with the media agency of the year title, ahead of Naked and OMD.
It’s official; Instagram and Twitter are no longer BFFs.
After several weeks of thrusts and parries, Instagram no longer allows images from its 100 million users to be displayed on Twitter, according to a statement made by Instagram to AllThingsD.
With a new chief executive, a new joint venture with Sky, the highest rating show of the past ten years for New Zealand’s Got Talent, plenty of interest in branded content, and the march of mobile seeing new Ondemand apps on the horizon, it’s been a big year for TVNZ—and, after knocking newspapers off the top ASA spot and charting ten year highs for viewership, TV in general. Head of sales Jeremy O’Brien talks.
2011 wasn’t a particularly memorable year for Saatchi & Saatchi, with the pink fist debacle casting a major pall. But the new executive and creative team has shaken things up and, after winning ASB without a pitch earlier this year and releasing some of the best work of 2012, the confidence—and the quality—appears to have returned. Creative directors Corey Chalmers and Gus Roberts speak up.
While Volkswagen dominates overseas, research showed that Kiwis thought the brand was too cold, too bland and too European. So to change that, it invested heavily in indigenous research and advertising, launched some very successful new products and quickly went from ‘niche street to main street’. National marketing manager Denise Goodwin opines on the year that was.
With some quality work, a fresh management team, an amazing new office in the Cityworks Depot in central Auckland and an almost but not quite moment in the recent Genesis pitch, a few agencies might be looking over their shoulder at Y&R next year. James Hurman and Josh Moore go for a hoon on 2012.
Unitec has pushed the educational marketing envelope over the past couple of years with some novel and risky campaigns and helped change the perception of the institute among potential students—and their parents. And Jeanette Paine, the executive director of marketing and communications, was rewarded for her efforts after being named as a finalist in the TVNZ-NZ Marketing marketer of the year award.
It’s been a rough ride, and with the whiff of restructure in the air, there will undoubtedly be a bit more roughness to come. But Telecom has steadied the ship in 2012 and, with Jason Paris at the helm and a resurgent Saatchi & Saatchi helping to create one of the best campaigns of the year, it is starting to get back on the goodfoot from a brand and storytelling point of view. Head of brand and insights Charlotte Findlay takes the stage.
Steve Bayliss had the Midas marketing touch at Air New Zealand and he seems to have transferred it to his role as group general manager of marketing at Foodstuffs, with the Pak ‘n Save brand continuing its top form and New World getting a long overdue—and almost universally applauded—refresh.
After the blessing/curse that was losing Vodafone, 2011 wasn’t the best of years for Colenso BBDO. But it’s been a strong 2012 for the “awesome bunch of bastards” at the agency, which has achieved more creatively than ever before in its 43 year history. It’s currently the #5 agency in the world according to the Big Won Report, the #5 ranked agency globally in the international Effie rankings and it brought home a big load of metal at Cannes, Axis and, most recently, Caples. Here’s what the Nicks—Worthington and Garrett—had to say about it.
Rob McGregor accentuates the positive, Jane Guthrie and Gregor Whyte chosen as the University of Otago/NZ Marketing Magazine Outstanding Marketing Students for 2011 and 2012, Tamati Coffey departs Breakfast, and Goldie joins LIVESport.
Auckland agency Contagion has taken out the latest Yahoo! Digital Strategy Award for its ‘Not Quite As Kiwi As’ campaign for New Zealand snack brand Tasti.