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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].
Along with industry specialists traditionally seen in the judging line-up for the RSVP and Nexus Awards, the Marketing Association has confirmed several new faces for this year’s panel.
…as another senior Adshel staffer departs, Val Morgan welcomes a new national sales director, the Newspaper Publisher’s Association announces a new business and marketing manager, and GrabOne adds to the family.
It’s that time of year again, where the pros of today get to come and have a gander at some of the things the pros of tomorrow have been up to over the year. So if you want first dibs on some of the fresh talent or you just want to see how the yoof are being shaped and moulded, then head along to 1885 at Britomart on Tuesday November 8 for a look at AUT’s Ad Creativity class of 2011. Industry folk are invited to attend from 5:30pm and friends and whanau will turn up at 7pm.
Special Group and Salt Interactive’s brilliant online banner for Orcon has already been acknowledged at the Axis awards, The Webbys, AWARD and elsewhere. And it’s also dominated proceedings at the Caxton Awards, which aim to showcase excellence in newspaper advertising across Australia and New Zealand, by taking home Best use of Newspaper Space, Best Rich Media, Best Rich Video and the Quinlivan Black award for Best in Show.
…as Telecom farewells a marketing doyenne, MediaWorks lures Richard Fenner away from the golf course, Terabyte Interactive opens a Sydney office and QGroup announces a couple of new digital hires.
Cameras flashed, glasses clinked and pink paperclip trophies were dished out as 250-plus gathered for the 2011 NZ Innovators Awards ceremony at the HP/Intel Winter Garden in Wynyard Quarter last week. And, among the marketing-oriented winners, DraftFCB’s The Journal added to its already healthy collection of accolades and cloud-based POS system Vend, which has recently expanded into the US, took out the supreme and ICT awards.
…as More FM welcomes a new breakfast trio, Christchurch mayor Bob Parker gets something to smile about, Young & Shand add two more to the growing flock, Adshel appoints an interim chief exec, ZenithOptimedia sends one of its own to China and Phantom Billstickers moves its HQ north to Grey Lynn.
From a marketing perspective, the battle between All Blacks sponsors Steinlager and RWC sponsors Heineken was one of the most enthralling. Steinlager played the local card very well with its savvy ‘We Believe’ and Heineken played the international card with ‘This is the Game’. And both parties are keeping the marketing momentum going.
Given the unexpectedly small one-point gap on Sunday night—and the fact that the final was the biggest ever event in the TAB’s betting history with over $3 million wagered—the TAB will probably do quite well out of the RWC final. But, much more importantly, its ‘prediction chicken’ has been shown to have verifiable soothsaying skills.
Despite the modern world’s waning interest in news via paper, print is still the best way to create contextual ads. And, as you’d expect, various brands—whether official sponsors of the tournament, teams or players or not—went riding on the coattails of the All Blacks and the success of event itself. There will undoubtedly be a range of different rugby-related commercial communications on their way, but the host of ads that ran in the New Zealand Herald on Monday show print’s main benefit: speed. Top marks go to Weet-bix, Mastercard and Steinlager, with a campaign that also formed the basis of the day’s cartoon.
Last week he was talking about Lotto’s new digital signs. But, as of January, New Zealand Lotteries Commission chief executive Todd McLeay will be talking about publishing in the new role of chief operating officer of APN News and Media in New Zealand.
Put 16 November 2011 in your diary folks, because the Marketing Association reckons the list of big brains on the bill means the Marketing Today conference is shaping up as the biggest marketing event of the year.
Years of pain, suffering and putting up with calls from antagonists who try to dull the throbbing hurt by saying ‘it’s only a game’ might—and should—all be forgotten on Sunday night. And, from a marketing point of view, what a ride the RWC has been. There have been enthralling PR disasters with the likes of MasterCard, Adidas, Telecom and the IRB; there have been PR masterstrokes, like getting the whole NZ-based Tongan community behind their team; there have been great campaigns and stunts that sit somewhere between sneaky and savvy from the likes of Steinlager, NZ Pure, Vogel’s and KFC; there have been more than three million Tweets about the tournament and the teams involved in it; and, despite many doubters, Martin Snedden and his gang of RWC 2011 optimists managed to reach their massive ticket sales target and, with 87 percent of tickets sold, showed that marketing and fulfilment don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Hopefully that ride comes to an appropriate conclusion in Auckland, which, as one cad said, has looked like an artist’s impression for the past six weeks. And hopefully Richie McCaw gets to lead the ticker tape parade down Queen St in Telecom’s pink fist car, perhaps with the injured Captain Underpants riding shotgun.
Vodafone and Smudge Apps launched what being called New Zealand’s first large-scale augmented reality smartphone app recently to celebrate its sponsorship of the upcoming Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards. We’ve got two of the fancy e-shirts to give away and all you have to do is invoke the spirit of Keanu Reeves and tell us which part of reality you’d most like to augment in the comment wall.
In the latest example of the ongoing hostage swapping drama between DDB Group and Clemenger, DDB Group’s direct and digital arm Rapp Tribal has appointed AIM Proximity general manager, Colenso head of integration and ‘reality hacker’ Andy Bell as its new general manager.
A friendly reminder from the Marketing Association that entries for the 2011 RSVP and Nexus Awards close on Friday 21 October at 5pm. Busy folk, or those with poor time management, can apply for an extension until Friday 28 October, 5pm by emailing event manager Marilena Rosu and coughing up $50.
…as Jules Lloyd hangs up her McDonald’s apron, creative boffin Barry Low joins Image Centre, Desiree Doyle departs CAANZ to work on her tan, Adshel head honcho Steve McCarthy heads off into the distance, iSite names a national sales manager, Fairfax expands its network, Titan Media Group adds two to the crew, the MA’s Kelsey Waters goes digital and, after the sale of Synovate was approved, Ipsos comes to New Zealand.
The RWC semi-final was watched by 1.9 million viewers across the country, according to the official agency that monitors television ratings, AGB Nielsen. This means it took over as the number one TV event ever from the opening ceremony and All Blacks vs Tonga game, which lured 81 percent of all viewers.
The last time 180 Amsterdam’s creative sage Andy Fackrell visited New Zealand, it was as one of the fancy international judges wheeled in to decide who wins the Axis Awards. And soon he’ll be returning for a bit longer after taking up a one-year contract as executive creative director of DDB Group New Zealand.
Advertising agencies rarely advertise. But do we detect something of a trend? DDB put out a one-off ad to celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of one of its founders a while back, and M&C Saatchi attempted to clear up some confusion in the marketplace after ‘Pink fist-gate’. But DrafFCB takes the title of best self-promoter after sponsoring Mad Men on Prime and using some of its clients’ ads to show off a bit. Now, after a fantastic performance at this year’s Effies, it’s doing a bit more shouting with an entertaining, rugby-related full page ad that featured in the Business Herald on Friday.
Last week’s contribution from infographics.co.nz saw New Zealand at the bottom of the heap when it came to corruption. But being at the bottom of the heap this week for the most significant oil spill will be of little consolation to Bay of Plenty residents currently dealing with the fallout from Rena.
NZ Lotteries has given the digital signage sector a big fillip with the roll-out of LCD promotional screens to 600 of its top Lotto stores around the country, the biggest roll-out of its kind in New Zealand. And so far, the enticing new technology is doing the business.
Dr Obvious has diagnosed the RWC as being a pretty hot social media topic (recently released stats show there have been more than 1,931,215 tweets about the #RWC2011 over the past five weeks when you include all teams, hashtags and @rugbyworldcup). And, as this infographic shows, the All Blacks are winning the conversation wars ahead of Sunday’s trans-Tasman semi-final stoush.
We all know what happened with Telecom’s last attempt to leverage its sponsorship of the All Blacks. But its Backing Black roadshow has kept on trucking, the HQ was launched at the Viaduct a few weeks back and now TOUCH/CAST has launched a new online campaign in the lead-up to the semi-final that puts users at the centre of the All Blacks.
DDB has been on the hunt for a creative director since Adam Kanzer departed in mid-2010 and, just as it did when Justin Mowday shifted from DraftFCB to take up the managing director role, the Death Star has managed to secure the services of another senior DraftFCBer: creative director Chris Schofield.
While the Rugby World Cup doesn’t appear to have got the tills ringing quite as loudly as everyone was hoping, the out-of-home sector has certainly felt the positive effects of the tournament, with the Outdoor Media Association of New Zealand (OMANZ) announcing a Q3 gross media revenue increase of 36 percent over the same period last year.
As MC Alison Mau said at the Effies last week, those attending advertising events are always the best dressed *awww shucks*. And, as you can see from the glamour shots below, the gladrags were dusted off once more as revellers gazed in awe at the winners on Thursday night at Sky City. If these don’t satisfy your insatiable desire for event photos, you can also check out the best dressed award contenders here and some afterparty photobooth action shots here.[nggallery id=14]
RAPP Tribal Wellington recently said goodbye to its general manager Sean Keaney after he took up a position with AIM Proximity. But it’s balanced out that bit of bad news with some good after winning the Salvation Army business for the New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga territories after a competitive pitch against two other agencies.
Carlson Marketing, a proprietary loyalty programme company that has 27 offices in 15 countries, including branches in Auckland, Sydney, and Melbourne, and claims to be New Zealand’s largest loyalty programme provider, is soon to be no more due to a rebrand that will align it with global parent company Aimia.