The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
In both surfing and skateboarding culture, a harmonic groan often accompanies a wipeout. Whether it’s a group of pros waiting in the channel at Teahupo’o or a few mates just having a bowl session at the local skate park, this groan serves as a salute to the fallen. And the more severe the wipeout, the more animated and pronounced the reaction from the specators on the sideline.
Barbara Miller, a spokeswoman for the US National Candle Association, told The New York Times last year that 35 percent of the $2 billion of annual candle sales happen in last three months of the year. And, in an effort to get more of its candles in stockings this year, Ecoya has released a beautiful festive film that celebrates the joy of giving and getting.
Colenso BBDO and Assembly have borrowed a few tips from The Incredible Hulk in a new Just Juice campaign that shows a series characters drinking juice and then transforming into different, more colourful versions of themselves. But rather than turning into a massive green monsters with temper problems, the black-and-white, 2D characters simply change into happier, colorful 3D versions of themselves.
It’s not often, especially not in the digital age, for a trailer to accompany the publication of book. However, for the release of ‘Surviving Middle School,’ a tongue-in-cheek guide for young girls, writer David McGrail has gone all out by commissioning the production of a three-minute clip, which gives a hyperbolic glimpse at what happens when school girls make the wrong choices.
In recent months, Sky TV has been very active in the digital channel with a variety of promotions, including several Facebook campaigns and a pair of Buzzfeed-based efforts. And this trend is now continuing with the launch of a new competition called GameFace, which is designed to drive interest in the upcoming Cricket World Cup. Update: this campaign has been put on hold in respect to the passing of Philip Hughes.
Hyundai launches a customer platform that acts as a rewards system, entertainment centre, and Hyundai community hub all in one.
After Apple announced the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Samsung came out firing (once again) with a comparative print ad that pointed out the next best thing was already here in the form of the Note 4. And its approach to promoting the Galaxy Tab S is similarly comparative.
The Rumpus Room, the UK-based sister company of The Sweet Shop, recently completed a mobile activation to commemorate Lewis Hamilton’s victory for this season’s Formula One World Championship. The activation was set up to lead into the final race in Abu Dhabi , and featured footage sourced from the driver’s seven million fans, who often share their support via social media. The Rumpus Room invited fans to share their experiences via a mobile web app, and this content was then cut and edited into a video dubbed #TeamLHmovie, which was released only hours after the race.
The programmatic bus rolls on, with Magna Global predicting a 31 percent annualised growth rate through to 2017. And with Google’s latest consumer barometer showing Kiwis use an average of 2.7 devices each, a new Kiwi agency called Made Media—a collaboration between sales manager and partner Michael Buhagiar and Latch Digital—believes it’s found a gap in the market for a locally owned and operated demand side platform that brings those two elements together.
With a total of 1.2 million subscribers across the world, the Kiwi vlogger Jamie Curry (of Jamie’s World) is one of only two New Zealanders to meet the YouTube star threshold of having more than a million subscribers. And her resonance with 13- to 24-year-olds recently caught the attention of Coca-Cola Australia, leading the drinks company to collaborate with the teen on the ‘Colour your summer’ campaign.
As we wrote last week, DDB is on the hunt for a tinge of ginge to spruik Speight’s new alcoholic ginger beer. An excited and then dejected Karl Burnett featured in the first spot and now, in what could be seen as the exact opposite of Sky’s Casting Tapes campaign, it’s released a second clip showing off the auditions.
A new B2B app allows businesses to sports-pick outside the immediate workplace, with a view to “cut through the clutter” and inspire commitment from customers who are inundated with deals.
Following on from the recent launch of ShopViva, NZME is continuing down the online retail path by announcing the 2015 launch of ShopGreen, an online shopping hub for ethical products.
Airbnb has made some quality ads in its time, with everything from the charming and inventive crowd-sourced film Hollywood & Vines to the rather enticing spot for its recent—and slightly controversial—rebrand. And now it’s made another stunner with the help of Kiwi animation house Cirkus.
According to research conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry in London, one spoonful of ice cream could stimulate an immediate and positive effect on the brain’s orbitofrontal cortex. What this means is that ice cream makes eaters feel better and this is reflected in how they treat others and how productive they are. Ever the skeptics, Tip Top’s creative agency Colenso BBDO decided to put this theory to the test by conducting some uncontrolled and scientifically questionable experiments on unsuspecting Kiwis.
One of the major struggles for news publishers is that the rise in online audiences and revenue has struggled to make up for the loss of print advertising and subscription revenue. And a new feature on the Herald seems to give readers another reason not to pay for paper.
In what has become an annual tradition, the students at Media Design School have developed a quirky campaign to encourage the nation’s ad folk to attend their end-of-year show. In the latest iteration, a series of cut-out headshots of the nation’s admen are accompanied with some humorous sound effects.
What’s in your fridge at the moment? According to Smirnoff’s new campaign, ‘Pure Potential’, it can see the potential in any ingredient to make a great drink.
The last few TVCs from DirecTV has introduced to some remarkably creepy variations of Rob Lowe. And adding to this catalogue of weirdness is a new character called Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe, whose sofa scene might be the creepiest of the series thus far.
Stuff.co.nz has launched a new web series on its site, after running a campaign to source real content for the show from its readers.
Disappearing cars, perfect mascots, not-so scientific research and dad dancing entertain in this week’s edition.
DDB and Dynamo were recently appointed as the lead agencies for Beaurepaires after a pitch, relieving Clemenger BBDO of its duties. The company’s new owners, Beau Ideal, promised the brand would move in a different creative direction, meaning the long-serving Vince Martin would be put out to pasture. And that’s exactly what it’s done, with a canine mascot talking up—literally—its offer and categorising different types of New Zealanders based on their vehicle choices.
Powershop Australia has been forced to pull a billboard campaign, featuring a power socket as Darth Vader, due to a complaint from LucasFilm. This is the second time Powershop has used the Dark Lord’s image in vain – in 2011 they also pulled an ad referencing Darth Vader after copyright scares.
On 25 November 1989, only 25 years ago, TV3 had no viewers. The station was only set to launch the next day following a four-year period of legal wrangling to get government approval to introduce a commercial television station. Now, as the channel celebrates its quarter century, its parent company MediaWorks has a reach of 3,759,247 and has established itself as a respected competitor against the state-owned broadcasting stalwart TVNZ. And to coincide with the celebrations, MediaWorks is already looking to the future with the launch of a new brand expression called ‘For me it’s 3’ that places empahsis on the modern trend of social viewing.
Back when TV3 turned 20, Sarah Lang wrote a great piece in the Herald about the trials, tribulations and successes of the channel. Or, as the first paragraph says, how it grew “from an insecure infant into an assured adult”. The intervening five years have seen plenty more action at MediaWorks, which went through its second receivership, brought popular shows like The Block NZ, X Factor NZ, 7 Days and Jono & Ben at 10 to New Zealand screens and continued to focus on the reach its varied suite of media assets can offer advertisers (occasionally through the medium of music). But everyone knows the best thing about media anniversaries are the blooper reels. So here are some gems from the evening and morning news shows.
0-100 is a much-used metric to show how powerful a car is. But Holden and Ogilvy & Mather NZ have flipped that on its head to promote the limited edition Commodore GTR, of which only 100 have been made for the New Zealand market.
Kiwi Steve Ayson won plenty of awards for his role directing Old Spice’s completely mad Momsong ad, including gold at Cannes and Clio and, most recently, TV commercial of the year at Shots. Now another Kiwi, Bret McKenzie, has got involved in the follow-up by writing the music for Dad Song.
TV3 celebrated its 25th birthday a little bit early last Friday night with a one hour special from the Jono and Ben at 10 (or, in this special case Jono and Ben at 7.30) crew. And, as per usual, there were a few gems in there, with its throwback to 1989-style media, pies in faces and entertaining questions for some of the channel’s media personalities from Guy Williams.
Sam Finnigan, a polite accountant hailing from Kohimarama, has won back at least some of the nation’s pride by defeating super villain and defending America’s Cup winner Jimmy Spithill in a Samsung smartphone-controlled sailing race.
Hell’s pizza-and-fireworks campaign has proved to be sales dynamite, with the company recording its busiest week ever over Halloween and Guy Fawkes.
After worming its way into the pockets of well over one million New Zealanders, 2degrees has been focusing on adding the more lucrative business and post-pay customers to its ledger in recent months, with its latest campaign featuring endorsements from Geoff Ross, Dion Nash, Al Brown and Kate Sylvester. But in keeping with the other major telcos and their various marketing partnerships, 2degrees has struck up a deal with Google Play and its long-serving mascot Rhys Darby is promoting it through the wonder of dad dancing.
Earlier this year, Bruce ‘Pic’ Picot’s one-millionth jar of peanut butter came off the production line in Nelson, serving as statistical proof of the love the Kiwis have for his product. And since good news travels, it comes as little surprise that the Aussie supermarkets have signed a deal with Picot to stock his product on their shelves. We chat to the purveyor of nutty goodness about expanding his empire, combining poems with peanut butter and being a Kiwi success story.
Google’s Chrome experiments are generally cause for nerdish celebration as they push the browser to strange and creative places. And now, as The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies gets sets for launch, it’s updated the interactive map of Middle-Earth it launched around one year ago with a host of new tricks.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Sinead Boucher, the group executive editor of Fairfax, has confirmed that the last digital edition of Unlimited magazine will be released in December this year.
On 15 October, The High Court at Auckland placed The Magazine Marketing Company (TMMC), which was founded in 2008 by Stuart Shepherd, into liquidation for failing to meet payment obligations, which included overdue GST, PAYE, KiwiSaver employee deductions, KiwiSaver employer contributions, student loan employee deductions and income tax. KPMG, which was appointed as the company’s liquidator, released its first report on 19 November, revealing additional details about the process thus far.