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].
Titan Media Group, a relatively new player in the Australasian outdoor advertising and media market that focuses on small format media panels, has established a New Zealand arm and will launch on September 1 with 300 sites installed into mall car parks at grocery entrances and trolley bays, with installations continuing to approximately 1400 nationwide.
Back in June, UK’s Campaign magazine published a Ltd Edition Emerging Talent Portfolio that showcased “the world’s best young creative talent, as chosen by the world’s best, er, old talent” and sold it at Cannes this year for 20p a copy. And two Kiwi entries made the top 50, TBWA\’s Agency Plankton and North Shore animation house Cirkus.
The three-day CAANZ/AUT Communications School Strategic Thinking Course is kicking off this month, and there are still places left. And for all those non-CAANZ member companies, you can get your tickets at the CAANZ member’s rate.
How do you make vodka that much more fashionable? Absolut has an idea or two and it’s strutting those ideas around as part of the upcoming New Zealand Fashion Week. The vodka brand has announced plans for its 2011 Absolut Fashion campaign, which includes the unveiling of its own Absolut fashion studio, along with some fashionable cocktails courtesy of top Kiwi designers Adrian Hailwood, Huffer and Lonely Hearts.
Synovate has announced some big changes to its senior roster, with Debra Hall announcing her early retirement effective October 29 and long-time independent researcher Duncan Stuart joining the team in a “suitably loose role”.
In the last edition of NZ Marketing, DDB’s experiential creative director Steve Kane said about sponsorship: “What brands need to remember is the audience is not there for them, however vital their role in making the event happen.” adidas obviously pays a pretty penny to the NZRU for the privilege of sponsoring the All Blacks, but the launch of the new jersey, the debate over its hefty pricetag and the lack of action in response to calls to drop the price has pegged it as a brand that is trying to hijack ‘our’ team. And just when you thought the PR poop couldn’t get any more pungent, it’s getting some more stick for choosing a slightly galling location to hold its Black is Beautiful party.
As any good lifeguard will tell you, struggling against the rip is futile. Often the best approach is to go with the flow and embrace it instead. And DDB NZ has done just that with the surprisingly entertaining—and self-deprecating—contacts page on its new website.
Everyone who’s anyone in the research biz will be heading to Auckland’s Orakei Bay on September 2 to spread their gospel and/or expand their minds as part of the Market Research Society of New Zealand’s conference. And the organisers have zsushed proceedings up a bit this time round.
When it comes to misusing statistics, the media has been guilty of its fair share of whoppers. And the Stats Chat blog wants to hear some of your best examples for a new weekly competition.
Last year, Wellington digital agency Heyday embarked on a big project to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the nation’s connection to the internet with www.downtothewire.co.nz. And the boffins are baying for blood after DraftFCB got its facts wrong for the latest Orcon campaign, which claims the internet arrived in New Zealand 18 years ago.
We love a good loophole here at StopPress. And despite the strict MEMA rules that aim to protect sponsors’ investments, there are still plenty of them available to savvy marketers hoping to make some hay while the Big Rugby Event shines. Official sponsor Heineken is already slightly aggrieved with Steinlager’s nostalgic white can campaign because of its focus on the tournament rather than the All Blacks and now Independent Liquor and Barnes, Catmur & Friends are getting in on the act with a cheeky billboard at the Auckland Airport.
When Saatchi & Saatchi launched its ‘Get What It Takes’ campaign for the New Zealand Army in September last year, the campaign ended up becoming the most watched branded or sponsor channel on YouTube. Now Saatchi’s is at it again, this time with a unique, crafty and pretty entertaining interactive online game for the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF).
The NAB Newspaper Ad of the Year awards have rolled around once again and, with the first Great Advertising Debate, advertising legend Neil French coming on board to help choose the big winner and a new digital category, it looks like it could be a good’un.
When co-founder and creative director of AmbientX Mark Pickering bought the company from Australian-owned Ambient Advertising Group, he announced he’d be re-branding the company to Fluxx and focusing on making it “the best agency in New Zealand dedicated specifically to experiential marketing”. But now it looks as if Pickering has another competitor in the Kiwi market, none other than Ambient Advertising itself. The company has decided it’s not quite ready to part with experiential and managing director of Ambient Advertising NZ Chris Monaghan has announced the launch of a new experiential and events arm of the agency.
… as Colenso group account director Lou Kuegler heads for Asia, DraftFCB makes a surprising hire, Los Angeles calls for one of the Resn crew, Kiwi copywriter Cam Brown joins Arnold Furnace and Sunday Star Times reporter Jonathan Marshall leaves Fairfax.
A gentle prod from CAANZ to remind all those clamouring for recognition in one of the most sought after awards of the year that the extended Effie deadline arrives on Monday 8 August. So you’ll have the whole weekend to sweat over your entry. Aren’t they kind.
Auckland mobile marketing company POCKETvouchers has a bit of a spring in its step after signing deals with global payment processor ePay and local daily deal site GrabOne recently. And chief executive Todd Wackrow says the new partnerships have streamlined the voucher process for marketers and allow the business to expand into other markets.
We could tell you about the e-gremlins that meant Fairfax failed to deliver some of its papers yesterday, or the bombshell that Tourism New Zealand’s PR company in the US helped get John Key on the David Letterman show. But we decided this supposed world-first from Wellington digital agency Resn, which brought a whole new, ridiculous and very interactive meaning to the term Twitterfeed, was much more important.
The chance to bathe in the Maggies limelight of award-wining cover design is quickly passing with entries closing this Friday 5 August. And, as long as you are in possession of a snazzy cover and can operate a mouse, entering is easy, “just choose a cover, tell us why, and press go”.
Rarely has a client portfolio switched back and forth like this one. After announcing only in March this year it was moving its portfolio from JWT to Ogilvy following a competitive pitch between the two agencies, Pharmacybrands has performed another switch. In a move based on recent strategic shifts combined with an internal review, the company has announced it’s reverting back to JWT.
Readers might not have been too complimentary when it came to the new packaging design for Bell Original tea, but the company’s marketing attempt to reach the kiddie demographic of tea drinkers has earned Auckland-based digital agency Method Studios a bunch of website-orientated global accolades.
The New Zealand office of Haystac opened for business in 2009 and two years on things are going rather swimmingly for the Aegis-owned PR agency, with TelstraClear, Jetstar, Sonos Electronics, Motorola and Next Generation Clubs recently joining SEEK, DB, GlaxoSmithKline, Mattel and Beehive and Premier bacon on its client list. They grow up so fast.
Ah, the food chain. It’s good to be on top. And .99’s creative interpretation of the marine pecking order in the ‘Predator and Prey’ Babushka doll print ad for Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World has also come out on top in the July NAB Newspaper Advertisement of the Month, with Saatchi & Saatchi’s Women’s Refuge Trade Me ad receiving an Honourable Mention.
… as Countdown’s marketing doyenne departs for the Aussie mothership, MediaWorks looks inside to fill the sales manager role in its integration department, DNA’s Aaron Carson changes tack, Miranda Gregg says goodbye to AJ Park, bcg2 welcomes a New York import, ecostore’s not-for-profit arm Fairground Foundation appoints its first employee, Tourism Australia finds a New Zealand marketing manager, Lily & Louis joins Kim Kardashian after winning the local Skechers business, and online/social media agency VeNa appoints a New Zealand country manager.
In May this year Mike Mizrahi, one half of the world-class, New Zealand-based event and production company, Inside Out Productions, presented an inspirational show reel of contemporary brand engagement to a packed marketing fraternity house at Orams Marine. And, due to popular demand, the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group has brought him back for a breakfast event at the Northern Club where he will enlighten those present about his experiences as a judge on the design jury at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
If you were watching the All Blacks vs South Africa test on Saturday, you may have noticed what appeared to be yet another earnest, borderline homo-erotic rugby-themed ad featuring bulging muscular thighs pumping away in slow-motion as the All Blacks presumably surge to victory. But this brooding, black and white number for Sky by DDB and Prodigy isn’t your typically serious World Cup year effort.
Apparently, 955,300 New Zealand music lovers can’t be wrong (although, judging by the quality of the music in the charts these days, that’s debatable), because that’s how many humans tuned in to Juice TV and 63 TV in the last four week ratings sweep, according to Nielsen’s T.A.M measurements. And, despite the parlous state of the music industry and the media that serves it, Juice TV’s managing director Daniel Wrightson says New Zealand’s music video channels have enjoyed increasing viewership all year.
A quick glance at Fonterra’s media site shows the dairy giant has quite a penchant for talking itself up. Last week it announced it was dropping the price of butter and cheese in line with international price decreases, but its decision to not drop the price of milk as part of a price freeze hasn’t won it any friends. Neither has news this week that it has gone after boutique cheese-makers, asking them to cease using the term “vintage” on their products, because it says it trademarked the term back in the 60s. Can you smell that? Like DB’s Radler, it’s the stench of a corporate attempting to wield its power. But will Fonterra’s case stand up in court?
Last year the PR and Experiential industry—and many from outside it—got into a rather heated debate about the merits of campaign measurement and, specifically, the controversial role of AVE (advertising value equivalents) in PR measurement. Now, after running a local survey, studying global trends and listening to a range of opinions, the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group has developed a guideline that sets out some clear parameters for measurement and offers a list of metrics for consideration, including our old friend AVE.
13 glorious days of advertising fodder for you in this edition of Ads@6. Of note: Vodafone shares a little too much information, split personalities via 2Degrees, Benadryl enlists the help of a creepy miniature monkey puppet and some dodgy special effects from Big Save Furniture.