Following on from Nicky Bell’s recent resignation from Saatchi & Saatchi, we revisit Ben Fahy’s 2012 story of how she helped to turn the agency around after picking up the reins.
You didn’t ask. But we answered anyway. So, to celebrate the last day of the StopPress season for 2015, we’ve looked back on the year and compiled an extremely definitive list of the big pitches, the big ideas, the big balls, the big stoushes, the big moves and the big whoopsies. So long, and thanks for all the clicks dear readers. We’ll be back destroying lies and spreading truth on January 11. May your leisure be unbridled.
For innovation to be successful, it needs to solve problems and make life easier. Wayne Pick believes there are three major tech trends doing just that and ushering in ‘the internet of me’ era. And, given the future is where the profit is proven to lie, brands should be paying attention to them.
Mitre 10 and other home improvement brands like Bunnings have similar offerings, and most consumers would be happy to visit one or the other. Mitre 10 knew it needed to get an edge over its competitors so it got digging for ideas and pulled the Mitre 10 Gardening Club out of the ground.
Breast cancer is the third most common cancer in New Zealand. And given the pain it causes to Kiwi families, Farmers decided to fight back.
Following the global financial crisis, mortgage lenders sought to introduce more stringent lending criteria. But rather than viewing this as a problem, Data Insight saw it as an opportunity to commoditise its market research.
The modern radio audience has become divided, with streaming services and websites flooding onto the market. The Edge knew it needed to keep up, so it made its audience an offer it couldn’t refuse.
MediaWorks’ announced its unified news brand Newshub last Friday and, in the eyes of chief executive Mark Weldon, the multi-million dollar, nine month project to give its radio, TV and digital news assets more coherence is a big step on the journey to create “New Zealand’s leading integrated multi-media company”. He talks to Ben Fahy about how he intends to do that, why it needs to move past selling airtime and why collaboration is the answer.
To launch a new Unilever product called Persil Ultimate in New Zealand, Bauer was briefed to help show busy mums how using it could save them time to focus on the important things. To do that, it combined editorial endorsement from Woman’s Day, offered advice from food columnist Chelsea Winter and created an online hub where readers could share time saving tips. And, as Ben Fahy writes in the final instalment of the Beyond the Page series, the Moments that Matter campaign worked a treat for all parties and took out the best sales solution at the Magazine Media Awards.
In the first of two stories, Ben Fahy talks with MediaWorks chief executive Mark Weldon about the thinking behind its unified news brand Newshub, which has required a multi-million dollar investment, is modelled on the BBC and is set to kick off in Q1 next year.
As a still-nascent format, digital video can be a confusing realm for brands to navigate. So is it all it’s cracked up to be? And if it is, then what? Facebook video or YouTube? Long form or short form? DIY or through a publisher? Pre-roll or standalone? Fortunately, Lynda Brendish has done some of the legwork for you.
Landing a major deal is never easy. But turning that deal into a viable business opportunity can often prove more difficult than winning it in the first place. Fortunately, Westpac excelled in both these regards which was why it won the Financial and Banking categories.
The Syrian conflict had raged on for so long that the Kiwi public had become numb to it. So World Vision partnered with the New
Zealand Herald to remind the public of the human side of war.
A year ago, Mitre 10’s aisles were in disarray, with a plethora of its proprietary brands scattered throughout. So, the company did what any DIY enthusiast would do and went back to the drawing board.
Sam Forrest has quickly moved up the ranks at Frucor, establishing himself as one of the most promising performers in the industry. And if the last 20 months are anything to go by, there will be more to come from this young tyro.
In the third instalment of a series created in conjunction with the MPA that shows how some of the winners from this year’s Magazine Media Awards are adapting to the modern era and helping advertisers grow their businesses, Holly Bagge talks to the brains behind the winners of the Best Brand Community category, New Zealand Geographic and Dish.
If you’re in the business of selling internet connections, you’d better have a damn good website. And in 2014, Slingshot set out to have the most user-friendly web service in the cluttered ISP market.
This year marked the last that Land Rover’s Series One Defender was to be produced. Luckily the brand stumbled across the perfect love story to spread the word and won the Innovation and Automotive categories.
With a career spanning almost 25 years at some of New Zealand’s biggest and best brands, Jules Lloyd-Jones, group brand director at Foodstuffs NZ, has already proven herself as one of the country’s most successful marketers. But 2014 and 2015 have been halcyon years.
For the next few weeks, we will be showcasing all the winners of the 2015 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. First up, Chorus’ Gigatown, which, after more than a year of parochial hashtags, press and Instagram videos, effectively informed Kiwis about UFB, drove interest in the economic and social benefits it could offer, generated millions of dollars of media value for the brand and came away with wins in the Supreme, Utilities and Technology categories.
Following the news that one of the ad industry’s most loveable rogues David Walden went to, as his good friend and rival Mike Hutcheson said, “the big restaurant in the sky” over the weekend after a short battle with cancer, we’re republishing a story that originally ran in the March/April 2012 edition of NZ Marketing. When Walden opened Whybin\TBWA in 1997, Vincent Heeringa wrote an article predicting its swift demise. At the time, the big man joked he’d sue unless he was taken out for lunch. So Heeringa finally did the honourable thing around 14 years later and chowed down on some (typically expensive) humble pie.
In the second instalment of a series that showcases how some of the winners from this year’s Magazine Media Awards are adapting to the modern era and helping advertisers grow their businesses, Damien Venuto talks to the team behind the owned media title of the year, Habitat.
There’s automation for almost every aspect of marketing these days. So is there still room for human creativity? Damien Venuto ventures into the ad tech factory.
There’s automation for almost every aspect of marketing these days. So is there still room for human creativity? Damien Venuto ventures into the ad tech factory.
Guess what’s projected to be the fastest-growing business in the US? Apps? The ‘sharing’ economy? The internet of things? Big data? It’s actually … (imagine you hadn’t read the headline or seen the accompanying images) marijuana. So how far away is it in New Zealand? And what opportunities might there be for savvy entrepreneurs and marketers? Henry Oliver gets the rub of the green.
In an ongoing series, StopPress talks to a range of newsmakers to find out how those trying to shine lights into dark places are keeping their own lights on and whether commercial realities are leading to editorial compromise. Next up, Ben Fahy talks with TVNZ’s chief executive Kevin Kenrick.
In the first instalment of a series that showcases how some of the winners from this year’s Magazine Media Awards are adapting to the modern era and helping advertisers grow their businesses, Ben Fahy talks to Kate Coughlan, editor of the supreme magazine of the year, NZ Life & Leisure.
In an ongoing series, StopPress talks to a range of newsmakers to find out how those trying to shine lights into dark places are keeping their own lights on and whether commercial realities are leading to editorial compromise. Next up, Ben Fahy talks with Bauer Media’s chief executive Paul Dykzeul.
With networks financing audience surveys independently, broadcasters selling advertising packages across multiple media channels, streaming services selling video ads and national radio striking commercial partnerships, radio has gone gaga recently. Damien Venuto finds out if there’s method in the madness.
Research by the US Wine Society has shown the single biggest thing you can do to help people enjoy wine is to tell them it’s expensive. And while we like to believe we’re rational creatures, a huge number of our decisions are made unconsciously. So, as our understanding of the way the brain works improves, Ben Fahy looks at whether marketers and agencies are effectively making use of this knowledge.