The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
Casper is the original ‘bed in a box’ – it’s a direct-to-consumer e-commerce company selling foam mattresses which are hydraulically compressed into boxes. The US-based company has yet to be active in the New Zealand market, but a handful of its many global copycats are already shaking up what co-founder Jeff Chapin refers to as “Big Mattress”.
Gone are the days of days of media monitors delivering clients a package of newspaper cutouts each morning, but that doesn’t mean monitoring is no longer required. Rather, it’s as important than ever clients have a pair of eyes on the news gaining attention across the expanding media landscape. Russ Horell, Isentia’s New Zealand country manager, talks to StopPress about the rise of social media, how it’s responding with AI and what the future of news and journalism looks like.
Sky TV and Hello have rallied the country to show support for hometown hero Joseph Parker ahead of his heavyweight title unification bout in Cardiff.
Sky TV, Go Healthy and TVNZ show us how it’s done.
John Fellet, chief executive of Sky Television, has advised the board of his intention to retire later this year.
VMO New Zealand’s workplace media and content network, VMO Work, has just broken another audience milestone with figures revealing the network now commands a cumulative weekly audience of over half a million professional workers.
The six-month interim results are out for our two largest print news media owners Stuff and NZME. It is no secret that print has battled with years of declining advertising revenue and departing audiences and there is no doubt the tough financial results have taken its toll. The key lowlights being Stuff’s subsequent closure of 28 regional print mastheads, and an obstinate Commerce Commission which has repealed repeated merger attempts by NZME and Stuff. However, in some quarters, the recent financial findings show that the fall in print revenue has slowed, with suggestions that the worst is over. We ask media experts and publishers what they glean from the financial findings – bearing in mind the unpredictable and circulating beast that is the media industry.
There’s no question design is having a moment. Fortune 500 companies are hiring chief design officers and investing in design and innovation centres, and even traditional corporates are getting in on the action. At the forefront of this is Silicon Valley-based Airbnb, the online marketplace for people to lease short-term accommodation. Founded by designers Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky and co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk in 2008, the company is now a behemoth, valued at US$31 billion and located in 190 countries. On a recent trip to Auckland for the Better By Design CEO Summit, Airbnb’s Jenny Arden (an IDEO, Google and YouTube alumni) chats with us all things design.
In the wake of losing one of its founding partners Rob Jack and the 2degrees work, Special Group has kicked off 2018 by being named Campaign Brief New Zealand Agency of the Year. Not only is it a sign of the innovation it’s giving to clients with its design-thinking, it shows how that thinking is being applied to the agency itself. We talk to executive creative director and founder Tony Bradbourne, creative director and founder Heath Lowe, and managing partner Michael Redwood about the last 10 years, the challenges it’s overcome and how it’s maintaining its momentum.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes
Supplement brand Go Healthy has revealed a new look and go-to-market strategy via Y&R encouraging people to ‘Go Be You’.
With the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games mere weeks away, the official New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ, with the help of Assignment Group and TVNZ Blacksand, has launched the first phase of its campaign.
2degrees, Samsung, Holden and Scapegrace by Rogue Society Distilling Co show us how it’s done.
Samsung has launched its new Galaxy S9 and S9+ by testing out the camera in a live video stunt via Colenso BBDO and Flying Fish.
FCB has announced that Blair Alexander will take over the reins as media managing director.
A video campaign to sell milk? In film noir? With slam poetry? Bold – which is precisely why Jonny Kofoed and Assembly didn’t back down when creating a campaign for Fonterra’s Anchor milk brand. He talks us through the campaign after picking up a Purple Pin for the effort at last year’s Best Design Awards.
In support of International Woman’s Day, FCB’s London branch, FCB Inferno, is using playing cards to change the way we teach children to talk about gender.
It’s fair to say the last two years have been a buzz for Mercury as it’s rolled out a new brand and mission to educate New Zealanders about the wonders of renewable energy. In doing so, Mercury has associated itself with e-bikes and most recently electric vehicles. Following the launch of its latest ‘Energy Made Wonderful’ campaign, we talk to chief marketing officer Julia Jack about giving energy a tangible identity, the association with electric transport and how the work is paying off for the company.
After a performance that could be compared to stalling in 2017, StopPress sits down with APN Outdoor chief executive James Warburton, and general manager for New Zealand Mike Watkins, to hear how APN Outdoor is tracking financially, approaching the digital rollout and where they see the industry heading in the future.
A new campaign by Rogue Society Gin, via Motion Sickness, declares they have ‘made a name for themselves’ and the New Zealand company doesn’t just mean figuratively. After an international scuffle with an American brewing company that had a beer called ‘Rogue’, the company has rebranded to be Scapegrace Dry Gin to better promote its product overseas.
This evening, 2degrees will be taking over the TV channels for 60-seconds as it rolls out a new brand campaign, via DDB, that shows how its services are an intrinsic part of everyday life.
To bring to life its ‘Armoured Truck’ TVC, Lotto New Zealand is giving Kiwis the opportunity to answer if they would split a Lotto win 50/50 with their best mate.
While Holden has earned a place in many New Zealanders’ hearts, news that the General Motors-owned brand was stopping manufacturing in Australia last year led some to believe the brand was also on the way out. And as that misperception continued to grow, Holden has decided to face up to it and set the record straight with the help of Aussie actor Michael Caton.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
A full rundown on what to expect from the latest issue of NZ Marketing.
JustOne have been appointed by ANZ Bank to lead relationship marketing strategic projects across digital and direct channels.
Today Y&R announced that Peter Bosilkovski has been appointed as regional chief executive officer for Australia and New Zealand.
Kiwibank and Banqer are on a quest to help Kiwi kids learn about the intricacies of financial literacy. The new spot on social shows kids disclosing their finances – talking mortgages, insurance and loans.
Bcg2 and sustainability specialists Go Well Consulting have teamed up to launch ‘Bags Not’, a campaign aimed to minimise and eventually eliminate single-use use plastic bags, non-recyclable plastics and other plastic waste from the New Zealand environment. We take a look at the aim of the campaign, speak to TRA partner Karin Glucina about its behaviour-changing features and see what other countries are doing to eliminate single-use plastic bags.
We sit down with Caroline Atford, executive director of media in Nielsen New Zealand, to get her thoughts on the changing media environment, how measurement products are working to keep up, metrics as a reflection of device use and how New Zealand sizes up to the rest of the world.
OMD has won a pitch to pick up the Simplot New Zealand media account, moving it from incumbent Vizeum.
Over the last week, the media agency commission model has been given the axe by the National Business Review. It’s a decision headed by publisher Todd Scott, who dished out plenty of heat to media agencies on social media, including declaring that the “gravy train reign is over”. StopPress asked fellow publishers and agencies if the model is in fact long in the tooth, or if Scott and the NBR have barked up the wrong tree.
A round of applause for Spark, BNZ and Bags Not.
IAB New Zealand has announced it has been working with major New Zealand publishers, agencies and tech vendors to implement ads.txt, a global IAB initiative designed to eliminate counterfeit inventory in the programmatic advertising ecosystem.
Cord cutting pundits have predicted the death of ye olde television for years. And while few would argue with Merja Myllylahti’s 2017 AUT Journalism, Media and Democracy summary when she said commercial television broadcasting showed signs of distress, the six-month interim reports released by New Zealand television heavyweights TVNZ and Sky TV had some surprises. We check in with the media owners and the media agencies to break down the facts and the figures.
The executive creative director at Colenso BBDO took home the accolade at the event at Shed 10.