The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
Last night, at an event hosted at the Mental Health Foundation in Auckland, Google announced to 70 representatives from 50 Kiwi not-for-profit organisations that it will give eligible New Zealand charities and community organisations free access to advertising and technology worth $120,000 in each case per year.
TVNZ is bringing a Netflix original to Kiwi screens in the shape of Orange is the New Black, in a move that will see all the episodes of both seasons of the popular prison dramedy, which recently won three Emmy Awards, streamed via the TVNZ Ondemand service for the month of September. PLUS: we look at how Netflix decides on which shows to invest in.
Spark Ventures’ Lightbox subscription video on demand service officially launched last night, and, not surprisingly, its arrival seems to have been the catalyst for a fair bit of activity in the streaming space, with TVNZ now offering online box sets of Orange is the New Black, Freeview’s Sam Irvine talking up an integrated broadcast and broadband offering, Quickflix claiming that more competition is a good thing and Sky, which recently announced another big profit increase, getting set to launch its own streaming service for non-Sky customers. So who’s got the best offer?
Comedian and actor Ricky Gervais, who currently stars in Netflix original Derek, has branched out and stepped into the lead roles of several of Netflix’s shows for a new campaign that aims to promote some hit programming available through the online streaming service. The 60-second spot sees the rotund actor stepping into House of Cards, Lilyhammer and Orange is the New Black as he becomes part of the storylines that he has followed on Netflix.
It’s no secret that football has become a massive business enterprise, which relies on the appeal of handsomely paid sports stars to drive revenue. And while Cristano Ronaldo’s abs and Neymar’s consistently changing hairdos are successful at attracting interest from fans, Italian playmaker Andrea Pirlo has something that no other player has: a sullen face that seems incapable of being pleased. And in a move that shows it’s possible to even capitalise on things conventionally considered undesirable, Pirlo’s Turin-based club Juventus has now launched a campaign that encourages viewers to send in videos that might be able to impress the player.
According to Quitline, Māori and those in high deprivation populations care less about the cost of cigarettes, or their health, compared to how much they care about their children. Māori Television’s advertising head of department, Toni Urlich developed the creative for the ‘Crayons’ campaign, which uses children, mimicking their parents’ smoking behaviour. The campaign was created inhouse at Māori Television and in a first, will also be rolled out across other channels.
Barnes, Catmur & Friends has taken some time off torturing pizza eaters and giving RTD drinkers “Woodies” to ask Kiwis some important questions. In a new print and online-based campaign for its client Boundary Road Brewery, the agency has compiled a series of questions for an initiative called ‘ The Unauthorised Beer Census New Zealand 2014’ in an effort to find out more about the nation’s beer drinkers.
Last night, the launch of the third season of The Block NZ kicked off a ratings war that will see the DIY-themed show take on TVNZ’s My Kitchen Rules over the next few months. And the overnight figures seem to indicate the first battle has gone to the side of DIY porn, with The Block NZ winning the lion’s share of the audience in the key demographic categories.
Marty Neumeier, best-selling author, designer and renowned business adviser, is on a mission to “revolutionise the way business does business in the 21st century”. And you can find out how he plans on doing that at an event on Friday 29 August where he will share his insights on modern brands and the importance of being credible in an age of transparency.
Some brands might find it morally wrong to piggy back on a charity campaign but this doesn’t seem to have been an issue for Samsung in the UK.
There are so many ways to pay these days, and MYOB is aiming to draw attention to its new mobile card reader in a fairly unexpected way: by showing how it would benefit sex workers. But there’s a bit of a twist.
This month the New Zealand Transport Authority turned to the social media channel, Snapchat, to warn drug drivers of the effect that Marijuana use has on their driving.
Hallenstein Brothers has managed to add a bit of cool factor to its brand in recent years, with some raunchy ads, some trippy ads and some cheeky stunts. Now, on the anniversary of Burt Munro’s land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, it’s released an extreme ad that has called on Crusty Demons legend Carey Hart and his crew to put its new high performance suits through their paces.
The store wars still rage. While New World comes back for round two of Little Shop, Countdown’s tactic is not to fight like-with-like (there’s no round two yet of Dreamworks Heroes 3D collectable cards), but instead offer something tried and true: tableware.
Holden, Toyota, Lotto NZ and Anchor bask in the warm glow of victory this week.
Back in 1903, C.M. Coolidge was commissioned by cigar makers Brown & Bigelow to create 16 paintings of dogs acting like humans that it could use for advertising and giveaways. Nine of them were of dogs sitting around a table playing cards and one of them, ‘Looks Like Four of a Kind’, ended up becoming a classic that has been referenced, copied and parodied relentlessly over the years (here in New Zealand, artist Ivan Clarke and Weta Workshop’s Richard Taylor were obviously inspired by the anthropomorphic, gambling canines and created The Lonely Dog series). And now Lotto NZ and DDB have joined that club for a new Keno campaign.
Radio Hauraki has fully embraced its 13th most-listened to breakfast show tag in recent months, with Jeremy Wells’ brilliant ‘Like Mike’ section being born out of a desire to replicate Mike Hosking’s morning success and a new online video series showing the team heeding memos from on high and doing a few things guaranteed to move them up the rankings, such as using t-shirt cannons and adding some sexual tension to the mix. And, as per usual, they’ve done it in slightly unusual, self-deprecating and moderately NSFW fashion.
A harvester that converts vibrations from city traffic into electricity, handles that turn sticks into sophisticated tramping poles and a 3D printed anchor to affix prosthetic noses to have been named as the three finalists in the New Zealand leg of the annual James Dyson Award global product design innovation contest.
A fat kid eating a burger, Prince William ogling a breasty statue, and Miley screaming out on her Bangerz tour … This is Seven Sharp’s new campaign and it’s all about what Jens Hertzum, Blacksand’s executive creative director, calls witty interpretations of provocative pictures.
Slingshot has shaken a few trees in recent months with its legally dubious Global Mode, which makes use of a workaround and lets Kiwi viewers access sites like Netflix and Hulu, and it’s fully embraced the Streisand Effect to get some more attention after a few major broadcasters decided not to show the ad. Now it’s continuing on that quest in a slightly different way by backing a new website called frontup.co.nz that shows how much Kiwis pay for goods and services in comparison to other markets.
Media folk have long been renowned for their love of a tipple. And, if the StopPress Towers are any gauge, many of them seem to have a penchant for the tasty, interesting and expensive beers emanating from some of the country’s numerous craft breweries. Every year, those two things are combined at Beervana’s Media Brew competition, which sees adventurous beer-loving journalists from around the country paired up with a craft brewer to develop a special, one-off brew. And Dish’s recently departed editor Victoria Wells and Hallertau Brewery took out the title with a NZ Wild Ale with Horopito. Plus: ANZ report suggests potential growth of 300 percent in the next decade for Kiwi craft beer companies as demand ramps up overseas.
As part of our series dedicated to celebrating good work and inspiring a bit more generosity, Mark Easterbrook, executive creative director at Goodfolk, plumps for Vodafone’s Mother’s Day tear-jerker at a Warriors game.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
There’s nothing better than a good venn diagram. Nothing. But it’s fair to assume the designer who made this ad for Thomson Reuters probably wasn’t going for it to be perceived that way.
One Weather’s introductory ident has been given a makeover—and it comes with an impressive combination of sideburns and a monobrow so seamless that omnichannel marketing campaigns would applaud it. Rather than simply running into the weather report with the usual “proudly brought to you” phrase, Saatchi & Saatchi have instead opted for a quirkier activation of its sponsorship deal with TVNZ by having the pie-loving protagonist from the elaborate 2011 Hilux ad introduce the daily weather report. PLUS: we also look at some other funny weather-related clips.
Around the world, advertisers are trying to involve their audiences in the marketing, whether it’s Wendy’s love songs, Airbnb’s Hollywood & Vines, Newcastle’s crappy crowdsourcing or, locally, Give it a V and Feel Tip Top. TV shows have long talked about doing the same, and many of them have taken fandom into the realm of social media. But increasingly it seems broadcasters are not content with audiences passively absorbing content and are trying to convince them to get involved. So how’s that working out for them?
It was officially announced yesterday that Bauer had made some major structural and staff changes. So we had a chat with chief executive Paul Dykzeul and commercial director Paul Gardiner about the thinking behind that strategy.
A Facebook page that popped up on June 24 aims to expalin New Zealand politics with the wise words of Mr Kanye West.
APN’s first half figures for 2014 for the six months ended 30 June show that the company’s overall revenue across its Kiwi and Australian offerings climbed three percent, rising from AU$394.6 million last year to A$405.9 million this year. Statutory net profit after tax followed the revenue trend rising 77 percent from A$12.8 million from the previous year to A$22.6 this year. But it wasn’t all good news, with several of the Kiwi categories suffering year-on-year dips. PLUS: we look at Fairfax’s figures and the News Corp debacle.
Just as spring follows winter, so too do parodies follow election ads. There’s been plenty of billboard ‘art’ (some of it quite funny). There’s been a song about John Key (that’s been banned from being broadcast by the Electoral Commission). And there’s been a satirical Colin Craig website (that can’t be shut down because it’s outside New Zealand jurisdiction). And now YouTube user Gabriel Page has tweaked National’s first campaign TVC to show a slightly different type of rowing.
It’s been a big year for Bauer. The APN titles have been brought in to the building, it’s canned Creme and passed on Little Treasures. And now it’s announced a restructure that will see a host of staff changes and the creation of a new brand solutions division.
Transvestites singing in the rain? Full grown men playing with phones in paddling pools? Sony’s new waterproof phone has a set of quirky ads for apps that only work when the phone is submerged.
At a time when Spark’s Digital Ventures unit is currently trialling a SmartHome system with a view to launch it in the market in early 2015, we are stepping ever closer to a time when our homes become automated entities that respond to what we are doing and where we are. So, in an effort to see what all the hype is about, Vanilla Brief director Ben Slater recently underwent a smarthome trial.
Interactive advertising has just had its biggest quarter ever according to the latest IAB/PwC report – total spend in New Zealand was $142.37 million, the second quarter up 24 percent year-on-year.
There are a few brands that are excellent at taking the piss. Newcastle Brown Ale is most definitely one of them. In their latest campaign for the US market, the beer brand is asking fans to send in their mediocre photos because they blew their marketing budget on “paying celebrities to pretend to drink our beer”.
As part of an experiment to gauge the utility and efficacy of the technology, Vanilla Brief Director Ben Slater has had an NFC-enabled RFID chip inserted into his left hand. PLUS: see what other tech-related project he is currently involved with.