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Comparison shopping site PriceMe asked 460 of its registered users a range of questions about their online shopping habits as part of its annual survey recently. And, in the slightly surprising/unflinchingly honest words of PriceMe’s marketing director Chris Palmer, the results are “not exactly riveting reading”.
A galaxy of industry stars gathered at Sky City on Friday night as the country’s most important and highly sought after print media accolades were dished out at the Canon Media Awards. And there were a few sore heads among the APNers on Saturday morning after they walked out with what they’re calling the ‘Grand Slam’: best website, newspaper of the year, best daily newspaper and best weekly paper.
Rumours that Groove Guide lives to fight another day are entirely … true.
BMW’s Summer Sale 2011 campaign by DraftFCB has been awarded top spot in Yahoo! NZ’s first quarterly Digital Strategy Award.
They’ve been gaining plaudits and raking in awards for DDB New Zealand for a while now with campaigns like ‘Mexi-Doug’ for Instant Kiwi, Sky TV’s ‘Que Sera Sera’, ANZ’s ‘Perfect World’ and the internationally heralded Sky TV Arts Channel print and radio campaign. But it appears the grass is slightly greener across town, because creative team James Tucker and Simon Vicars are saying goodbye to the Death Star at the end of June to take up roles at Colenso BBDO.
The first issue of the new high-brow rural title Primary has just been launched and it’s kicked off in style with The Farm 40, a potentially controversial list of the top ten leaders, entrepreneurs, thinkers and up-and-comers in the Kiwi agricultural sector, which was chosen by a panel of experts.
The Media Design School has just moved into a new swanky building in the Auckland CBD and to celebrate it’s launched a new series of weekend workshops for busy design professionals looking to upskill or add a few new strings to their bows. But the learning doesn’t stop there: the ever-popular—and free—NZ Post Direct Marketing Workshops are back again, with Rapp/Tribal’s creative director Aaron Goldring and Federation’s creative director Ben Chandler set to spread their words of wisdom.
They say everyone’s got a book in them. And most of them should stay there, say others. But to encourage entries into the 2011 BNZ literary awards and get in front of different kinds of people, Sugar brought writing to life with a nice little ambient media stunt that projected real-time stories onto buildings in Aotea Square. And they did it all with a budget of around $10,000.
As the recent CAANZ research shows, experiential marketing is so hot right now. And AmbientX, which is part of the Australian-owned Ambient Advertising Group, has long been at the forefront of that scene in New Zealand. Now, in an effort to distance itself from the obvious associations with ‘ambient’ and specialise in experiential, co-founder and creative director Mark Pickering has bought the business and will be re-branding the company as Fluxx beginning in June.
More than a few eyebrows were raised when Netlink shacked up with Fairfax and Courier Post recently and became the dominant player in the distribution market. That departure left a big hole in Gordon & Gotch’s books, but it’s found a replacement fairly quickly after signing up APN’s NZ Magazines, which will move distribution of its consumer titles from Netlink from 1 July following an agreement with PMP NZ Limited.
Everyone loves outstanding examples of printing. So here’s a rundown of the esteemed and talented winners of the Pride in Print awards.
To celebrate 60 years of the Landcruiser in Kiwiland, Toyota embarked on a quest to take a newly launched FJ Cruiser from the top to the bottom of New Zealand, but, unlike many length of New Zealand excursions, there was a point of difference: the whole journey had to be done off road. It was put on hold after the Christchurch earthquake, but it’s kicked off again and it’s going great guns.
It’s tough out there in production land at the moment. But there’s a new boy on the block and it’s name is RedYeti.
The nominations were up considerably in comparison to 2010, but the medal hauls were similar this year, with local agencies taking one gold, four silvers and three bronzes at the Clio Awards and two bronzes at the One Show. And in other awards news, Traffic Group won a gold, silver and bronze at the Summit Creative Award competition and AUT Adschool grads take home the Aussie edition of the Cannes Young Print Lions.
More music media closures? Maybe not. After announcing yesterday that Groove Guide is producing its last issue, it appears several life lines have been tossed towards Tangible Media.
Publisher Vincent Heeringa is tightlipped about who and what and where.
“The announcement has flushed out a number of potential partners and …
Being in the South of France right about now sounds pretty good, but for NZ/Korean director Stephen Kang it just got even better with news his short film Blue last night won a Grand Prix at Critics Week (La Semaine De La Critique), part of the 64th Cannes Film Festival.
Tourism New Zealand’s 100% Pure campaign has come under renewed fire recently after our Dear Leader’s interview with Hard Talk. But as TNZ’s general manager marketing communications Justin Watson said in a recent interview with NZ Marketing, the campaign was never intended to be an environmental promise. It was about the whole experience. Recently, with the help of its agencies Razorfish and Assignment Group, it launched 100% Pure You to try and attract more ‘active considerers’ to the country and it’s just gone live with some new online trickery that’s being featured on popular German and Australian news and travel websites. See the birds, dolphins and underwater marvels here.
You’re all probably too busy putting the finishing touches on your entries for the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards to bother reading a story about the fact that it’s the last day to enter the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. But we thought we’d tell you anyway. And, if you’re not going to get it in before the cut-off at 5pm, never fear, for extensions are available until next Friday. You just have to ask the teacher nicely (and stump up with some cash).
Fancy becoming a copywriter or art director? Australia’s AWARD School is setting up shop in Auckland to help budding creatives do just that. Described as “the fast track way into the communications industry”, the 16 week course is a hub for ideas, creative thinking and processes involved in coming up with great ideas.
There were rumours of a few hearty celebrations at Ogilvy yesterday and while nothing has been able to be confirmed, it seems the frivolity is on the back of news that it has, in line with most predictions, retained the big Auckland Council account, beating out Colenso BBDO/.99 and DDB. Standby for an update.
The ASA’s annual report for 2010 is out and the always interesting top ten most complained about ads of the year has been released, with the Erotica Expo billboard, ASB’s IVF ad and a Durex condoms outdoor campaign taking the medals.
…as Fiona Woolley swaps postage for precision German engineering, Insight Creative hires a new strat man, Matt Shirtcliffe reprises a South African role, 3rdeye gets Pearced, Nicky Dunn swaps TV for shoes and Oktobor finds a new friend in Radiate Sound.
After a fair bit bureaucratic faffing, the clean zones for the Rugby World Cup 2011 have been announced, so agencies and advertisers now know where they can and can’t put their marketing during the tournament. And in some cases, the restrictions are quite extensive.
The organisers of the 58th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which kicks off on June 19, just couldn’t wait until the start date before handing out the first accolade, so they’ve given IKEA the prestigious Advertiser of the Year Award for distinguishing itself through inspiring innovative marketing of its products and embracing creative work.
It’s one of the publishing industry’s biggest nights and tickets to the 2011 Magazine Awards are now available. So pry open your wallet, air out your glad rags from the musty wardrobe and get ready to celebrate the best in the words and pictures business on Thursday 23 June at The Pullman Hotel in Auckland.
Megan Clark has been elected chair of the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group (MLG), replacing Claudia Macdonald, who is stepping down following her two-year term in the hotseat.
Entries for the 2011 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards close this Friday 20 May. But never fear, if procrastination, popularity or poor time management are hampering your entry efforts, extensions to Friday 27 May are available.
It was a cool idea. But yMedia, which mixed up a potent broth of industry professionals, tertiary students looking to add some experience to the CV and not-for-profits that needed some help with their comms efforts, won’t be held this year and has gone on hiatus.
DraftFCB may have missed out on the big NZ Post account after it was beaten to the letterbox by Clemenger BBDO, but it can take some comfort in the fact that it has just won another piece of guvmint business, taking the Maritime New Zealand account off Mission Hall after a four-way pitch.
…as Image Centre Group fills up some space with a few newbies, The Research Agency appoints an associate director direct from London, Pead PR prints out four new swipe cards, Interbrand adds an exotic foreigner to the mix and Spark PR & Activate wins the Dermalogica account.