Author StopPress Team

One of the perennial bug-bears of the marketing industry is the fact that it’s often seen by the bean counters as a cost to be cut in times of economic hardship, rather than an investment that will pay off when things pick up. And, according to the research of a top marketing professor who’ll be speaking in Hamilton on Friday March 30 as part of the Excellence in Practice seminar series offered by Corporate and Executive Education at Waikato Management School, billions of dollars of shareholder value are destroyed each year by companies that tie their marketing budgets to the business cycle. 

The results of a survey into value perceptions of some of New Zealand’s leading brands were released yesterday at Westfield’s Retail Breakfast Seminar in Auckland. And Pak ‘N’ Save was deemed to be the best value brand in the country, followed by TradeMe, Bunnings and Mitre 10. 

Fairtrade schemes typically aim to help end child labour, address child poverty and give producers in developing nations a fair shot at a good life. All Good Bananas has been doing just that by helping kids in the El Guabo cooperative in Ecuador, but it decided it was time to try and help out some of the local young’uns in need by giving away 5,000 bunches (25,000) bananas this year. 

Local ad network Adhub is claiming first place in a couple of eyeball races, with new sites Gloss, Beauty Bible, GardenNZ, FashionNZ, My Netball, The A List and View New Zealand soon to be added to its existing list of online properties like FLICKS.co.nz, Realestate.co.nz, allblacks.com, BBC.com, Lonely Planet and E!Online. The new sites come online on April 1 and, according to Adhub’s managing director Josh Borthwick, create the largest household shopper (1,486,335 monthly UBs) and entertainment/lifestyle (618,570 monthly UB’s) channels in New Zealand.

NZ Post certainly doesn’t like the trend towards receiving bills electronically, but it makes a lot of sense in these digital, environmentally conscious times. And RAPP Tribal and Telecom tried to bump up their numbers by dangling a philanthropic carrot with the Bills to Storybooks campaign, what they’re calling ‘the country’s first ever storybook written by New Zealanders for New Zealanders’. 

If the Mr Vintage t-shirts are anything to go by, Jermaine Kerehi of Masterton unwittingly became something of a New Zealand cult hero last week when he uploaded a video of some “motherfucking eels” slithering around in the gutter outside his home in Jones Place. And, as a result of his enthralling YouTube clip, he has been handed the latest Alcohol Sponsorship Press Award (ASPs), beating out a virtual who’s who of the New Zealand media scene.

This year, digital advertising turns 18, and it’s come a long way since the blinking banner ads of the early web. Google is a huge part of that today, of course, so it’s not surprising that the company has taken it upon itself to remix four iconic ad campaigns from the 1960s and 70s from Alka-Seltzer, Avis, Coca-Cola and Volvo.

Otis Frizzell recently put his hand to the wall to brighten up Ponsonby’s Sohole and promote the new Samsung Galaxy Note, a very cool piece of kit that sits somewhere between a phone and a tablet and harks back to the golden age of cellular technology by being massive and rocking a stylus. And now some other talented Kiwi artists are using their skills to help launch another fancy gadget, with Cut Collective transforming a couple of billboards in Auckland and Wellington for Nokia’s new Lumia.

Since it entered the New Zealand mobile market, 2degrees has been running regular cinema advertising and offering deals like two tickets for $22 on 2degrees Day every month. And it’s continuing that trend with a new exclusive sponsorship that was brokered by Carat, features a fairly strange ad by TBWA\ about a well-moisturised, hibernating blue bear and aims to get moviegoers to turn off their phones before the flick starts.  

Every year young girls lug boxes of biscuits around suburban neighbourhoods, knocking on doors and smiling sweetly as they try to raise some much-needed money by feeding what could be seen as a longterm national addiction. This year Assignment enlisted the help of Yukfoo for the fundraising campaign and, with the voice talent of three Guides and netball star Maria Tuta’ia, as well as a dose of Yukfoo’s typically impressive animation, it’s hoping the charm offensive will help boost the number of Griffin’s biccies being dunked around the country (if you want to avoid the grey sludge at the bottom of your cup, you’ll be pleased to know that mechanical engineers in the UK have devised a mathematical formula to ensure the perfect technique).

Online revenue figures show no signs of abating at the moment, and one of the newer players in the local ad network scene, PostClick, is aiming to get a bigger slice of the pie by launching a new multi-unit online video product called Play, which national sales manager Ben Osborne says simplifies the fragmented online video industry and makes it easy for agencies to buy pre-roll ad space. 

‘Just do it’, ‘The best a man can get’, ‘Show us your crack’ … They’re all slogans that have in some way captured our attention, seared themselves into our consciousness and given us a powerful catchphrase to remember a brand by. And this year marks the 40th anniversary of another successful catchphrase, L’Oréal’s ‘Because I’m Worth it’, which was thought up by a 23-year-old copywriter in New York in 1971 “when a new spirit of feminism was in full swing”. We’ve got a hamper containing an assortment of L’Oréal Paris skincare for both men and women, hair care products and cosmetics worth more than $420 to give away to one lucky StopPresser, so add your favourite slogan of all time to the comment wall and the best effort gets the goods. 

Know someone in your office with Hobbit feet, someone who’s a bit pasty after the cloudiest summer on record, or some hot babe and/or hunk who simply deserves a little extra pampering? Well, nominate your Flossie of the Week by emailing [email protected] or putting a comment on the comment wall telling us why they (or, if you’re greedy, you) deserve it and we’ll give a lucky someone a $100 Flossie voucher and a bottle of French Champagne every week. Entries close Friday morning. 

“Ideas worth spreading” is the TED mantra, and, after searching the globe for ads it deemed worthy of spreading, the judges have chosen a L’Oréal Paris spot featuring disabled American athlete, actress, and fashion model Aimee Mullins as the most spreadable.