The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
Nielsen has released its figures for the top ten advertisers in the calendar year for 2015, and it’s again a lineup of the usual suspects, with the nation’s major retailers taking seven of the positions on the list. And while the figures are still high, there was a clear year-on-year drop in the overall contribution of nation’s biggest advertisers.
The Swedish Institute has released a promotional clip aiming to inform people about Sweden ‘as is’, bare bums and all.
Google has taken a stance and shown its thoughts on the problematic timing of Australia’s national day by using a painterly artwork of Aboriginal Australians on its homepage.
Experiential players Brand Spanking and Fluxx this week announced a merger, which will see the companies trade under the Brand Spanking banner at the Eden Terrace office from now on.
Mention the NutriBullet, the Transforma ladder or Thin Lizzy in conversation, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a Kiwi who isn’t aware of at least one of these products. Such is the enduring power of the infomercials, which continue to grace our free-to-air screens during off-peak viewing times, that these brands have essentially been embedded into the Kiwi psyche through brute force. At a time when buzzphrases such as ‘transmedia storytelling’, ‘digital disruption’ and ‘omnichannel marketing’ are habitually thrown around conversation, the infomercial is made to seem anachronistic, a living fossil of a bygone era on the verge of extinction. But this isn’t the case at all… Look at Nielsen’s ad spend figures from 2015 and you’ll notice the presence of Brand Developers in sixth position, behind the big-spending retail giants Progressive, The Warehouse, Harvey Norman and Foodstuffs.
Nike has gone the content marketing route by creating an original web series to get more women into fitness (and buying its shoes).
The traditional perception of golf usually evokes images of diamond-patterned shirts, cheese cutters, pastel sweaters, loafers and affluent white men. This long-standing myth is so entrenched that it even led to the urban myth that the word golf was in fact an acronym for ‘gentleman only, ladies forbidden’. This, of course, isn’t true, but the stereotype has long prevailed in golfing, leading to it being seen as a rich man’s sport or a hobby for retirees.
Whittaker’s is showing its support for our national bird, and Kiwis (mostly of the human persuasion) across the nation are spreading the word by ‘beaking’ themselves for the cause and posting the images to social media.
Since the craft beer industry started booming over the past few years in New Zealand, we’ve seen some beautiful labels adorning supermarket shelves and bar taps. These labels are often less about trumpeting the brand and more about celebrating the distinctive personality of the beer, often expressed through creative illustrations and inventive names. We had a chat with The Wireless’s Toby Morris about his experience illustrating for beer brands, and look into why illustration has become a popular promotional tool.
A thunderous roar of applause goes to Lewis Road Creamery, Mount Franklin, Flick Electric and Air New Zealand.
Air New Zealand is on the hunt for Kiwis who like the idea of travelling for work with the launch of a new a recruitment video that gives potential candidates a glimpse of what it takes to be an Air New Zealand flight attendant.
Saatchi & Saatchi NZ sent out a release this afternoon announcing the resignation of chief executive Nicky Bell, who will hand over the reins to current general manager Paul Wilson (promoted to managing director) in March.
French publication La Croix (translating to The Cross) struggles with the perception that its publication doesn’t cover serious issues and instead focuses only on religious topics. Admittedly, it is a Roman Catholic publication, and religious content certainly takes up some of the column inches, but the paper is on a mission to show that it might not be exactly what people think it is. Here’s a look at the ad campaign it’s using to spread this message.
We’ve all been unemployed at some point in our lives and probably will be unemployed again. And sure, when we’re younger it’s socially acceptable. But as we move through our twenties and beyond there is more expected of us, and when in between jobs (or just.. without one) it’s never fun to be asked what you do to pay the bills. That’s what these ads for Careers 24 address.
We are all big kids when it comes to milk according to Lewis Road Creamery, whose latest campaign leaves no time for table manners when enjoying dairy products. Problem Child and Exposure have created two 30-second TVCs that share the stories of individuals caught in a moment of indulgence with the dairy products.
In celebration of Quentin Tarantino’s latest film The Hateful Eight, and coinciding with the launch of a beer dedicated to the film, a Ponsonby pub transformed itself into a rendition of the film’s set, a Wyoming log cabin in post-Civil War America.
The Briscoes Lady, known to her loved ones as Tammy Wells, has become something of an advertising legend, appearing as the face of the retailer for over 25 years. And despite spending so much time in front of the camera, it appears she hasn’t lost her touch, winning the latest round of Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact Awards.
Mark Weldon has been busily shaking MediaWorks’ tree since taking over the role of chief executive and some of that shaking—from the decision to can Campbell Live and 3D Investigates to the creation of Scout to the most recent decision to rebrand all of its news operations as Newshub—has earned the ire of viewers, commentators and, in some cases, his own staff. Despite the fact he’s doing what a whole bunch of other major media companies are doing and integrating like his life depends on it, he seems to have received an inordinate amount of negative press for his efforts so far and some competitors appear to be joyously dancing on the grave with their coverage. We aim to provide a mix of light and shade here at StopPress, so we’ve covered plenty of positive MediaWorks stories during his tenure, but we can’t resist a good lookalike and, while we don’t mean to link their ‘management styles’, we couldn’t help but notice the facial similarities between the charismatic wine-making media chief and the charismatic assassination-loving Russian dictator.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
TVNZ is looking to offer advertisers a means by which to reach male audiences through a new free-to-air TV channel. We chat to the broadcaster’s chief executive Kevin Kenrick about why it’s made this move.
It took creative minds from 10 different agencies across the Coca-Cola marketing network to develop the global campaign for 2016. The result is a collection of 10 TVCs, over 100 campaign images, a new visual identity system and the introduction of a new tagline: Taste the Feeling. But some argue that this global approach may alienate local audiences that are already disengaged from the brand?
The All Blacks have again stripped down for Jockey, but this time they’ve invited a flabbier friend along for the fun. PLUS: Gatorade signs on as the new “hydration partner” for the team.
The Edge has had a facelift, with a bright new logo and brand refresh to better suit its modern position as a multi-platform brand. The move comes only a week after its parent company MediaWorks had its own revamp.
360-degree video, which has been described as the next big thing in tech for 2016, is slowly gaining traction in New Zealand as brands begin experimenting with it in creative ways. Here’s a rundown of how a few of them have been using it so far. PLUS: a first-hand account of Augusto’s experience with the technology.
While the encyclopedia has been banished to conversations starting with “back in my day…”, Wikipedia is still going strong as it celebrates its 15th birthday. Here’s a quick look at how it’s celebrating the event.
In 2015, the maturation of New Zealand’s SVOD market was tracked in the column inches of media journalists across the industry. And this trend has already continued this year with Netflix making headlines by extending its service to 130 countries across the world and then saying that it was looking into clamping down on VPN users to ensure they can’t log into global content. We chat to Lightbox chief executive Kym Niblock about what’s likely to happen in the SVOD market in 2016.
For many, choosing an internet service provider (ISP) is about ensuring streaming will not be interrupted by buffering. And to help consumers make their decision, Netflix releases a monthly ISP leaderboard that tracks how the various providers are performing in the local market. However, as the numbers indicate, the difference between the top six players isn’t all that significant. In fact, the average users should be able stream quite comfortably regardless of which provider they use. So, we ask Bigpipe’s Oliver Smith why his ISP continues to focus on speed in its marketing.
Microsoft’s combined offerings topped Facebook in last month’s website rankings, with Google unsurprisingly coming out on top according to a Nielsen report that tracks unique audience across all web browser usage, but does not include the use of mobile apps. Further down the list, Stuff retained its lead over the NZ Herald.
Over the last two years, TVNZ has invested significantly in large-scale campaigns to keep Shortland Street fans engaged with the show during the summer hiatus. And as was the case last year, the strategy has paid off with the latest campaign resulting in over 410,000 interactions. PLUS: Shortland Street fan dresses in black to mourn the passing of Dr Wendy Cooper.
Since last year, MediaWorks has been on a mission to pull together the disparate departments of the business to offer a fully integrated service across the various available channels. And this will be continued with the launch of Newshub on 1 February.
Imagine Rocky without ‘Eye of the Tiger’, Apocalypse Now without Wagner, Saturday Night Fever without the Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive’. It all looks so good visually might look nice visually, but there’s just something missing. Using this as its premise for a series of idents in the lead up to its soundtrack-themed movie lineup, on-demand platform UPC illustrates that the scene Ghost, Foot Loose and 2001: A Space Odyssey become quite different without their brilliant backtracks.
Bauer confirmed today that Cleo magazine and its associated website will close after the April edition. And the media company has also shifted its distribution from Netlink to Gordon & Gotch. We chat to publisher Brendon Hill and chief executive Paul Dykzeul about these moves.
MediaWorks has announced via a release the appointment of Mark David as chief commercial officer (centre), a position that will see him oversee the commercial remit of the group. This appointment follows on from last year’s unexpected departure of head of revenue Liz Fraser to Air New Zealand, which left an empty seat around the executive table at the media company. In addition to announcing the appointment of David, Weldon also comfirmed that Paul Hancox (previously commercial director – pictured right) has shifted into the vacant group head of revenue role and that Alana O’Neill (with MediaWorks since 2013 – pictured left) has taken a new role as head of the newly merged integration and branded content areas.
AMI Insurance is looking to win over the young’uns with a new campaign challenging the stereotype that younger drivers are reckless behind the wheel.
V has jumped on the 360-degree video bandwagon and created one of its own in a promotional video featuring drifter Cole Armstrong via Augusto.
Following on from the recent controversy regarding Lion’s funding of research conducted by anthropologist Dr Anne Fox, we take a look at whether we can trust research funded by coroporations (or anyone for that matter).