The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority’s rulings on complaints can be a good litmus test for what the New Zealand public can stomach these days—and an entertaining insight into the beliefs of the nation’s easily offended wowsers. We’ve looked at some of the decisions of the last six months and compiled a handy tutorial for those in New Zealand media.
Increasingly, big businesses need to start acting like start-ups, writes Simon Wedde. And that means being brutally honest about how customers experience your products or services—and then improving it.
The New Zealand Breast Cancer foundation has launched a new campaign via Colenso BBDO that features actress Geraldine Brophy displaying pictures of a series of women’s breasts to illustrate what changes are likely to take place in the event of breast cancer. The ad, which is based on a successful Scottish campaign featuring Elaine C Smith, was initially meant to run last year, but the Commercial Approvals Bureau blocked this move on account of the rule that female nipples are not allowed in television advertising. However, the Bureau has now backtracked on this decision.
World vegetarian week kicked off last week and ends tomorrow. And while many meat-dodgers are seen as peaceful types who don’t eat creatures because of concerns around animal cruelty, Hell has twisted that stereotype to promote its vege pizza deal.
DDB and Dynamo will lead the new creative strategy for Beaurepaires after winning the automotive repair company’s advertising and media planning account, following a competitive pitch thought to have involved several unnamed agencies. And this announcement also coincided with news that Vince Martin, the face of Beaurepaires for the last 30 years, would no longer be the brand ambassador.
In a recent segment, John Oliver aimed his verbal barbs at corporations who attach their commercial Tweets to serious issues. He leads the discussion by referring to US-based DiGiorno Pizza, which used the #WhyIStayed (created to raise awareness of domestic violence) without reading what it was about. The consequential ‘#WhyIStayed You had pizza’ Tweet was met with instant outrage from the online community, and resulted in various reports on mainstream media. But Oliver doesn’t restrict his criticism to corporations that make online faux pas. He also condemns those that make seemingly innocuous and thoughtful Tweets, such as those published on the 13th anniversary of the 11 September attacks. In his typically scathing style, Oliver makes the point that corporations should really just “remain respectfully silent”.
As part of our series with the One Percent Collective that’s dedicated to celebrating good work and inspiring a bit more generosity, David Thomason, FCB’s head of planning, lavishes praise on NZTA and Clemenger BBDO’s ‘Mistakes’.
The radio survey is generally a competitive affair, which pits the two commercial radio networks against each other and invariably results in the liberal use of superlatives. The latest edition was no different. The releases from the respective networks read like pages torn out of a motivational speaker’s speech, drawing attention to all the positives that the result served up. MediaWorks used its release to draw attention to the fact that it overtook NZME in terms of overall station share in Auckland for the first time. And on the other side of the divide, NZME highlighted the continued dominance of Newstalk ZB, and singled out Mike Hosking for again having the number one breakfast show in New Zealand. PLUS: Matt Heath and Jeremy Wells celebrate Hauraki moving from 13th to 12th.
Small businesses are all about the people, right? The owners, the manufacturers, the clientele. There’s a story at every turn, so why aren’t they being told? Well, at an event organised by Good magazine, London-based designer and technologist Jessi Baker, the founder of social enterprise Project Provenance, will be sharing her experience around storytelling in small business marketing and creating user-centred experiences in the e-commerce sphere. So grab yourself a ticket.
Our weekly collection of good things, funny things, weird things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Contact and Genesis have been trying their best to up the love with recent campaigns involving cute kids trying to explain family life and My Kitchen Rules sponsorships respectively. And now Nova Energy has added to the melee with the launch of a new rhyming campaign via Clemenger BBDO and Taika Waititi.
Typically, Toyota focuses on the toughness of its Hilux ute, something clearly demonstrated by Top Gear’s unsuccessful attempt to kill one. Australia has also embraced that strategy with its Unbreakable positioning, but now it’s decided to focus on the toughness of the men who choose to drive one. PLUS: Toyota’s tie-up with Modern Family.
As mentioned in recent stories about Special Group’s collaboration with Anna Funder for Papsaley, Microsoft’s work with BMD and Icebreaker’s Simon Beck Collection, art and commerce are regularly intertwined in the world of marketing. Creative agency Fly has a long history of doing just that and creating objects that “act as a trojan horse for the delivery of meaning and emotional connection”. And recently it collaborated with artists to help launch Spark’s subscription video on-demand service Lightbox and a new range of charitable drinks for Phoenix.
The ninth edition of the annual awards show was hosted at AUT and again organised by the industry body News Works. And this year, the attendees from DDB left with the biggest smiles as the agency picked up the most coveted award: the Newspaper Ad of the Year. Illustrating that the greatest ideas don’t always have to be complicated, the judges awarded the gong to DDB for its simple VW print ad that drew attention to a Beetle sale.
Danny MacAskill is a phenomenon on two wheels and, along with his sponsor Red Bull, he has created some amazing films like Imaginate, Industrial Revolutions, Epecuen and Way Back Home in recent years. And his latest one, The Ridge, which sees him and filmmaker Stu Thomson return to their homeland on the Isle of Skye and face up to the 1000 metre drop of The Cuillin Ridge, is one of the craziest and most beautiful yet.
UK artist Simon Beck does some remarkable things with his feet. And Icebreaker has hooked up with him to launch its new season collection and, at the same time, raise money to fight climate change.
New Zealand lags behind a number of other developed counties on the recycling front, but it’s slowly getting its act together, with the Love NZ campaign’s big mission starting to bear fruit and the vast majority of New Zealanders now having access to kerbside recycling. But there’s still a long way to go when it comes to reducing waste and, judging by the angry all staff email sent out to the StopPress yesterday about banana skins being left in the recycling bin, some are still in need of education. This is a problem the Auckland Council also faces, so it’s employed the services of two animated characters rather prosaically named Tin Can and Plastic to teach Aucklanders what goes where.
The internet is very good at bringing different groups together. Google, Trade Me, Ebay and Amazon have brought buyers and sellers together. Uber has brought drivers and passengers together. Airbnb has brought owners and renters together. And now a New Zealand website called madam.co.nz hopes to bring ladies of the night and those willing to pay for them together.
What works on Netflix also works for TVNZ. Or at least that’s what the recent on-demand statistics for Orange is the New Black suggest. Over the month of September the first and second seasons of the hit dramedy, a Netflix original, were streamed by Kiwis via TVNZ Ondemand over a million times.
Movies like Titanic, Lion King and Top Gun get an interesting makeover … or is it a makeunder?
As well as expanding around the world, Burger Fuel is expanding into online ordering in New Zealand. And to celebrate, it’s come up with a beautiful poem and some naff pick up lines.
Paul Mant took over the role of general manager at New Zealand’s biggest digital sales house/ad network Adhub almost two years ago. And as ad spend continues to head online, the business has grown at around 20 percent per year. So is the banner dying? What’s so great about native? And are brands that use ad networks destined to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time?
Several weeks ago, Spark released the latest iteration of its ‘Never Stop Starting’ positioning via a 30-second spot that depicted a protagonist using Spark’s mobile payment technology across a varied range of jobs in different locations. And the telecommunications giant isn’t the only one dabbling in this space. We take a look at some of the recent moves made the major players.
On election night, MediaWorks collaborated with SparkPHD and digital media agency Ngage to feed live election results onto APN Outdoor’s digital billboard network around Auckland, making TV3 the latest brand to adopt a digital approach to outdoor advertising. So given all the hype centred on the versatility and effectiveness of digital OOH advertising, where does this leave traditional outdoor advertising? And is the growth of digital also starting to affect other industries?
As Whittaker’s proved, having a famous endorser can be good for business. Sealord has also gone down that path in its latest campaign to flog premium frozen hoki fillets, but its collaboration is a little more surprising: MTV reality TV star Heidi Montag.
After a few years running The Radio Network, Jane Hastings took over as chief executive at APN in May and she’s shaken things up since her arrival, hiring a new exec team, embracing cross-selling and cross-promotion across its channels and launching a new brand for the multimedia beast called NZME. Here’s her take on what’s been a whirlwind few months.
GoPro’s promotional videos have largely focused how users can film themselves surfing, jumping off mountains or generally laughing in the face of death. But it’s increasingly showcasing how it can be used in many other areas of film-making, whether it’s clips of kittens that have been rescued from fires, golden eagles in flight or ridiculous lion encounters. And its latest clip to launch the new Hero 4, ‘The Adventure of Life in 4K’, is a thing of audio-visual beauty.
Ad creep—where commercial messages are placed in previously uncommercialised zones—has been on the rise for years as consumers increasingly turn away from traditional media. There have been ads on Japanese schoolgirls’ thighs, on foreheads, on lakes and practically anywhere else a pair of human eyes might be forced into seeing an ad. Product placement is one of the biggest areas of focus and big bucks are spent to get brands into movies, TV shows and, increasingly, games. So, given the music industry’s relatively parlous state, it’s not entirely surprising to see that Universal Music is doing everything it can to get some extra cash, including letting brands pay to be retroactively included in its previously released music videos.
After taking over Tower Medical Insurance in late 2012, Nib launched into the New Zealand market in October last year with short-lived rugby convert Benji Marshall fronting the campaign. But now, just like the Blues, it has put him on the bench and released a new brand campaign that celebrates the joy of being human—and shows the need for adequate protection. Plus: a look at the launch of another overseas insurance company, Youi.
Staring at computer screens for extended periods of time has become an inescapable part of living in the digital age, condemning office workers to red eyes and artificial air. Interestingly, rather than attempting to escape the glow of a digital screen after office hours, we substitute our work laptops with mobile phones, smart TVs and tablets in our spare time.
Jeff Goldblum is a beautiful man, even when he’s half fly. And he’s also very successful. But, as this new ad for GE’s Link shows, it’s good lighting that got him to where he is today. So he’s obviously the perfect frontman for two minutes of Tim & Eric-inspired fake infomercial madness.
Shredded money, a superhero of the environmental persuasion and netball-mad retailers get top marks this week.
After major hits like the Walkman and Playstation, Sony has been struggling to compete recently. It has recorded losses for six of the last seven years and it’s been all but left behind in the smartphone race by Apple and Samsung. Some analysts say its major issue is a simple one: it’s just not cool enough. So it will be hoping a few brightly-lit snowboarders and smoking skaters aimed at promoting the Xperia Z3 might go some way to changing that.
Special Group has announced its presence in the Australian market by collaborating with award-winning author Anna Funder, Warm Bodies actress Teresa Palmer and fashion photographer Derek Henderson in a campaign for luxury pearl brand Paspaley. At the centre of the campaign is a bespoke short story, called ‘Everything Precious’, written by Funder, which will be released to Paspaley subscribers daily in seven serialised instalments via email between 1 and 8 October. So is this a case of a writer selling out for commercial gain?
Who should we believe? Is Kate ashamed of “off-the-rails and out of control” Pippa, as New Idea suggests? Or is she in fact proud of the fact that Pippa’s getting married, as the country’s recently crowned supreme magazine of the year, Woman’s Day suggests? Due to a pictorial whoopsie in this week’s women’s mags, you can take your pick.
In the world of marketing, oneupmanship is a powerful motivating force. And Domino’s one-upped itself last week by delivering a pizza via a skydive. PLUS: other pizza-related stunts.