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After three years as the chief executive of CAANZ, Rick Osborne has announced he will be stepping down from the role to take up the job of group general manager, external relations at Fonterra, which is responsible for government relations, trade strategy and regional relations.
Much like logos, slogans are one of the most accessible parts of the marketing process, which means the general public often feels compelled to pass judgment on them. At StopPress we have an unashamedly unhealthy obsession with town slogans and spend most nights and some weekends devising new ones (for example, Christchurch: Unexpectedly Dangerous). Judging by the response we usually get when we ask our readers to come up with slogans, the marcomms community likes to have a bit of fun with them too. So we got fairly excited when we saw the local Tauranga newspaper had started a campaign to come up with a new slogan for the town in time for the Rugby World Cup, simply because it didn’t have one and obviously felt like it was missing out.
DDB was recently crowned the YoungGuns agency of the year (primarily on the strength of the Sky Arts Channel campaign) and Media Design School is also beaming, with recent Adschool graduates Ed Knowles, frontman of Kiwi band The Checks (wanna see a cool music video?) and Charles Twaddle taking home a Silver Bullet for ‘Reflections’, an ambient outdoor advertising campaign that plays on famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Sydney Opera House for HSBC.
New Zealand’s (mostly) two horse international awards race between DDB and Colenso has continued apace and this time it’s Colenso in the lead, after it made Advertising Age’s ‘Agency A-List’—”the pick of the top advertising, digital, media, direct and PR agencies around the world”— and was named “international runner up agency of the year”, a spot it shared with Mother (London) and TBWA Hunt Lascaris (Johannesburg). Argentina’s Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi won the category and Wieden + Kennedy took out the agency of the year title.
2010 was a pretty damn good year for Air New Zealand and, whether it was picking fights with magazines, dreaming up the next borderline marketing campaign or collecting one of its many prestigious awards, there was certainly never a dull moment. Having recently snapped up a sizable stake in Virgin Blue, won a Wallpaper Design Award for its snazzy premium economy spaceseats and, after more than four years of design and development, taken delivery of the first big Boeing bird to be fitted with the much-drooled over economy sky couch, dullness has been avoided at the start of 2011 as well. But what about that strange furry Count von Count-esque spokesbeast Rico, we hear you ask. Well, he has been busy travelling the world, offending and delighting in equal measure. And his latest polarising performance for Australia Day, once again created by .99, seems to have continued that trend.
Being ranked 18th best agency in the world last week in the Big Won directory obviously wasn’t enough for DDB New Zealand, because since then it’s gone on to claim the prestigious Young Guns Agency of the Year title, it’s taken out the top spot on the Young Guns creative rankings and it’s also placed as the 28th most awarded agency in the world according to the recently released Gunn Report.
The world is going gaga for social buying sites at the moment: Google was rumoured to have put in an offer of $6 billion for Groupon, Yahoo!7 just purchased Spreets for $40 million, APN has had a fair swag of success with its 50 percent stake in GrabOne and now Yellow has jumped on the bandwagon by snapping up group buying site www.groupy.co.nz.
Who’s it for: Warehouse Stationery by M&C Saatchi and Flying Start
Why we like it: How could you not like an ad that features post-it note balloons, scooters made of briefcases, cardboard buses or sellotape skateboards? It’s fun, it’s cute, it’s crafty and …
PR and experiential marketing have long been valuable tools for marketers. But are these disciplines gaining prominence in the marketing mix? And if so, how is this affecting more traditional channels? The CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group and the Marketing Association, with the help of online research company Buzz Channel, decided to find out. But they need the help of New Zealand’s marketers.
… Saatchi & Saatchi brings in a big gun to fill a creative void, Wellywood digital agency Resn takes the piss and, at the same time, enhances its hygiene, Tourism NZ announces some fresh blood and Breeze DJ Kerry Smith leaves to fight a health battle.
In slightly surprising news, New Zealand’s banks are leading the way when it comes to customer service, with one-third of respondents to the Colmar Brunton Distinctive Customer Experiences Survey of 1020 New Zealanders saying they had a particularly good experience when dealing with their bank in the past 12 months. And, in slightly less surprising news, telecommunications companies still have plenty of improving to do, with one in five Kiwi consumers claiming to have had a negative experience when dealing with their telco provider in the same period.
Much like Julie Andrews, the Outdoor Media Association of New Zealand has been seen bursting into song to express its emotions recently after the revenue numbers for 2010 were announced. And fair enough too, because with a year-end total of $62.1 million, gross media revenue for the year was up 7.3 percent over 2009, with the second half of the year delivering a 12.2 percent increase on the same period of 2009.
FOUR, TVWorks’ great mainstream entertainment hope for 2011, launches in February and, with a 15 percent boost in ad revenue since the changes were rung to C4 last year, chief executive Jason Paris is pretty excited about what the year might hold for the network. Much to the relief of those who pleaded with MediaWorks to enlist the services of an agency instead of doing its creative inhouse, Special Group got the nod last year and proceeded to get stuck into the promotional work for the launch. And this is what the talented gang have come up with (yes, that is the real number for the BSA).
PR and communications specialist, past National Party president and general woman-about-town Michelle Boag has been hired to fill the newly created role of executive director at Ogilvy NZ and will take up the role from February.
The indies weren’t just nipping at the heels of the big boys last year, they were occasionally biting off their legs. And, with many clients recognising that the big shops don’t have a monopoly on creativity or international quality work, a number of sizable accounts ended up in unexpected hands. Friday O’Flaherty, one of the all-powerful leaders of Running With Scissors, wields his mighty pen on 2010.
With a combination of effective, unashamedly jingoistic advertising, a solid product offering and consistently high rates of customer satisfaction, Kiwibank has performed the role of challenger brand brilliantly and given the big boys plenty of grief since it was set up in 2002. Hell, ASB even took aim at it last year in the misguided ‘We’re a Kiwi bank’ campaign and Sam Neill signed on to be the bank’s mascot, so it must be doing something right. Sadhana Raman, Kiwibank’s general manager of brand and marketing communications—and a finalist in last year’s Marketer of the Year awards—goes back in time.
As the cheesy Telecom slogan says, from here we can do anything—including, as Barnes, Catmur & Friends can attest, making weird calendars for Berlin-based bag retailers.
Spark PHDIQ has taken out the third quarter round of the Yahoo!Xtra Digital Strategy Awards for its Unilever Sunsilk Co-creations campaign, which the judges—Yahoo!Xtra’s Laura Maxwell-Hansen, Mohawk Media’s Helen Baxter and guest judge Gavin Pook, Red Bull’s marketing manager—felt succeeded in re-launching the brand through a range of digital channels and firmly established it as an expert in hair care.
Hark! This is the first exciting instalment of Moving/Shakings for 2011, and there have been a few staff profits and losses at the Marketing Association, Insight Creative, The Research Agency, AWARD, MTV and The Pond.
Following the events of the past few years, most media have been busy licking their wounds—and, in many cases, focusing on survival rather than growth. But, after consistently good revenue results and signs that there is more growth to come, the Kiwi digital sector has developed quite the swagger. Liz Fraser, the chair of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of New Zealand and head of MSN NZ, opines.
Creative Review magazine called David Carson “the most famous graphic designer on the planet” and “art director of the era”; his first book The End of Print, is the top selling graphic design book of all time, selling over 200,000 copies; and he and his work have been featured in over 180 magazine and newspaper articles around the world, including a feature in Newsweek magazine and a front page article in the New York Times. Well, Kiwi design lovers rejoice, for you will be able to bask in his reflected glow when he conducts seminars Auckland and Wellington in February.
Ashburton isn’t a place that’s renowned for its marketing innovations. But, after the launch of Air Banners, it soon might be.
Perceptive has made more than a few waves in the marketing and research biz since it was established in 2004, having taken 24th place on the 2009 Deloitte Fast 50 list and signing up over 90 clients in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong. Here’s what Chris Pescott, the founder, big cheese and 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, thought about 2010.
Hardly a day goes by without someone announcing another journey that will see the protagonists walk/run/bike/kayak/forward roll the length of New Zealand to raise awareness for something (StopPress is considering driving half the length of New Zealand to raise money for McDonald’s). And, to celebrate 60 years of Land Cruiser, Toyota is getting on the bandwagon, taking the newly launched FJ Cruiser truck on an epic journey. But the difference with this journey is that it will all be done off-road, with Marc Ellis bouncing around in the driver’s seat.
After one particularly big staff shift late last year, Adshel has rung in the new year with a few more changes to its sales and marketing roster and, in what new sales director Nick Vile believes is testimony to the quality and performance of the team, all three of the new positions have been filled by existing staff members, with Raewyn Anderson promoted to sales manager in Auckland, Phil Lucy to sales manager position in Wellington and Rochelle Weaver moving into the reinstated national marketing manager position.
Creativity can come from anywhere. And the Media Design School obviously recognises that, because it’s calling for wildcard entries to fill two positions on this year’s creative advertising course.
Despite promising to make a decision by September last year on how far the advertising clean zones, clean transport routes and clean periods for the Rugby World Cup would extend, the Ministry of Economic Development is yet to formally announce its decision. And, as you’d expect, media owners, buyers and planners have been getting a bit titchy about it, because they want to get stuck into the RWC goldrush but can’t sell their packages. Well, we have it on good authority that all the outdoor assets 500m from the stadia and the main transport routes have now been sold to Rugby NZ 2011 for use by the RWC sponsors.
It’s been fairly tough going for the out-of-homers over the past few years. But, with the numbers now going in the right direction, the Rugby World Cup expected to up demand substantially and OMANZ starting to regain its teeth, there seems to be a bit of optimism—and even industry cohesion—afoot. Adshel’s new sales director Nick Vile, who took over from Pauline Hanton late last year, speaks his piece.
If you thought ad agencies were only in it for the accolades, then the Directory Big Won may lend a little bit of credence to that, because it’s an award show that gives out awards to agencies that have won the most awards. How post-modern. Anyway, after the numbers were crunched, DDB New Zealand and Colenso BBDO were the only two agencies from the Asia Pacific region to make the top 20 list for 2010, ranked as the 18th and 20th most successful creative agencies in the world respectively, the first time either agency has made the list.
It was heads down, bums up for M&C Saatchi last year. And the hard work obviously paid off, because the agency picked up nine new pieces of business, including Jetstar, NZTE and the new NZ Post-run directories service Localist. Darryn Melrose, who took over from Nick Baylis as chief executive in late 2009, puts in his $0.02 on 2010.