The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
FCB Media, OMD, SparkPHD and Mediacom have taken a large number of finalist placings in the CAANZ Beacon awards, for which winners will be awarded on 1 May. Mediaworks, TVNZ and iSite Media are in the running for the Media Brand of the Year.
For several years now, studies have shown population growth rates in the world’s developing nations have slowed down to the extent that populations are getting older, resulting in a growing strain on healthcare systems. And while the governments of the nations affected by this trend have not yet found a viable way to coax citizens into procreation, Denmark-based travel agency Spies is offering a solution via a cheeky new campaign that encourages couples to go on holiday to heighten the levels of passion in their relationships.
Sports, flags and eggs get the nod this week.
In this series, we talk to Kiwi keyboard tappers that have managed to shift from the personal realm of blogging to create online media brands that are widely read (and in some cases profitable). In the latest segment, we chat to Russell Brown, the owner of Public Address.
Direct and digital agency Twenty already has a sizeable insurance client, and it’s added another after winning the Asteron Life account after a competitive pitch.
A couple of Auckland’s major private schools have dabbled in billboard advertising, but private Christchurch girls school Rangi Ruru has taken things up a notch with its first ever TV ad, which has been launched to promote the school and its 125th anniversary.
Around the world, media owners are making changes to their commenting policies, with Google enacting a controversial real name policy on YouTube and Popular Science removing the comments section altogether because it felt ill-informed views “can be bad for science”. StopPress has plenty of great, insightful commentors. But many of them prefer to stick the boot in and push their own pseudonymous agenda, so, in the interests of transparency, the real identities of anonymous commentors can now be revealed with the click of a button.
Radio New Zealand stalwart and “probably New Zealand’s best-known voice” Geoff Robinson gets his gold watch today, after almost 35 years in the host’s chair of Morning Report. Today’s show went back over some of the big stories he’s covered in his time, like 9/11, the Rainbow Warrior and the Christchurch earthquakes, as well as some of the lighter moments, like struggling to talk into a recorder while riding a rollercoaster in Texas. And a number of the country’s best-known broadcasters—including some of the more than 30 co-hosts he’s worked with in his time—were there to pay tribute to the man Kim Hill called “continuity at its best”. Radio New Zealand put together its own tribute to his remarkable 44 year career at the national broadcaster and created a short clip featuring some of his and his colleagues’ reflections.
If you don’t mind giving your colleagues the appearance you have an awkward tic, Trade Me’s new way browse and bid by blink is just the ticket. Of course, the beta release date of 1 April could be a coincidence, we’ll let you decide about that – and what could be veteran broadcaster Geoff Robinson’s next move, internet radio morphing into the world of the fax machine, Gmail takes the wraps of shelfies and other hijinks.
Last year, after releasing a spot that featured Neal McDonough lecturing viewers on the superiority of the American way, American automotive-producer Cadillac provoked the ire of many viewers, who felt that the self-celebratory promotion typified many of the negative connotations that people often assosciate with American consumerist culture. And now, in what could be seen as an effort to assuage some of the reputation damage done by its competitor, Ford has released a new TVC that parodies Cadillac’s version and shows that not all Americans are simply preoccupied with accumulating unnecessary material items for selfish purposes.
If the results coming in from the international awards shows are anything go by, then New Zealand clearly enjoyed a strong year in terms of creativity in 2013. In addition to winning several nominations toward Yellow Pencils at the D&AD Awards, Kiwi agencies also appeared consistently across most categories at the 35th edition of the AWARD Awards, which are held annually to honour the best creative communications work in the Asia Pacific region.
New Zealand is in line for a 1500-strong network of out of home mobile interactive sites thanks to Adshel and joint venture partner Clear Channel Outdoor. The sites, to include bus stops and free standing units in metropolitan centres, let mobile users get interactive brand messages via near field communication or QR code.
It was a case of the usual suspects with last week’s announcement of the D&AD Awards nominations, as most of the recent winners at the Axis Awards were also honoured with nominations for the international show. At past events, New Zealand has confirmed itself as a creative hub, and this year’s shortlist of nominees served to reiterate this point. Here’s a breakdown of who’s in contention for the coveted Yellow Pencil awards.
Nosh founder Clinton Beuvink says his new venture, Sample Co Black Box, is a combination of old school in-home sampling and a real time digital relationship with consumers. The service aims to make sampling more targeted and overcome the increasing difficulty marketers have in getting their message across via traditional media.
Stock imagery is sometimes criticised for presenting little more than over-used clichés, which offer little in the way of original brand representation. So, in an effort to illustrate that this criticism doesn’t apply to its offering, Getty Images has just released a new video montage that showcases the broad range of imagery across its catalogues.
Ernst & Young, now known as EY, is one of the ‘big four’ professional services firms, which, according to Wikipedia, handle the vast majority of audits for publicly listed companies. So, given its numerical nous, we couldn’t help but notice a rather ironic multiplication error on the back cover of EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year magazine, Exceptional (which is available here and features Rod Drury on the cover).
Although the release of last week’s ad spend figures by the ASA served to confirm trends that have been obvious for quite some time, a general consensus among those in the industry is that the figures don’t give an accurate reflection of changes that are occurring in the industry. Several senior industry figures share their thoughts on the structure of the annual ad spend report.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Sky’s fairly firm grip on sports broadcasting in New Zealand is one of the major reasons for its continuing success. And a new initiative called Sky Next is aiming to give some of that success back to help 18 of the country’s emerging athletes get to the top. Plus: DDB and The Sweet Shop offer a glimpse at the life of an athlete.
In an effort to lure New Zealand’s loyal fast food aficionados away from beef-based options on its menu, Burger King has just launched a cheeky campaign via Colenso BBDO that encourages Kiwis to cheat on beef by sampling something from its new range of chicken-based options. And to ensure that the cheating happens in private, the fast food chain has converted a motel into an extension of its brand.
Outdoor media owners often claim that one of the main strengths of their medium is that ads are not sandwiched between content and can’t easily be ignored. That’s undoubtedly a positive thing if it’s a good ad, but what if they’re not?
TUANZ CEO Paul Brislen will step down in June after more than three years in the role to join former Porter Novelli execs Jane Sweeney and Carolyn Kerr at their yet-to-be named agency. Brislen’s focus will be on much broader subject matter than the technology sector he’s worked in since the 1990s.
Kiwi players are trying different models to grab on demand eyeballs as the use of the platforms grows exponentially. TVNZ expects shows offered ‘first and fast’ will come to join its top on demand content, Sky
has its eye on more live streamed channels and MediaWorks is gaining traction with 3Now.
Republik and Flux Animation have gone pro-bono to produce a 30-second TVC promoting the inaugural Whittaker’s ‘Big Egg Hunt’ campaign for Starship Children’s Hospital.
Fairfax says its partnership with the team behind an app that brings together grass roots sports fans, clubs, live streams and content could be the first of other opportunities that tap into crowdsourcing in different verticals. The marketing and advertising partnership is with Waterboy, dreamed up by former All Black Kees Meuws.
At last year’s Moas, the motion picture Shopping picked up seven awards, making it the biggest winner of the night. And now, to promote the television premiere of the film on Sky’s Rialto channel, DDB launched an auction-based campaign with a humanitarian twist.
We’ve seen Betty White, Paul Henry, Alf Stewart and even Godzilla featuring in Snickers’ ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ campaign. And now, in one of the best recent efforts by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, we’ve got some rather progressive builders shouting out empowering statements to women.
What started as “drunken idea” between Kristian Barnes, Jason Williams and Michael Kean this year celebrated its 12th year, as the YoungGun Awards were again distributed to advertising’s most promising minds under the age of 30.
MEA Mobile has rounded out the platform suite for its iSupr8 app, which lets uers add vintage-style filters to video in a range of resolutions. It hopes to rival the likes of Vine and Instagram by catering to pro photographers as well as consumers.
Parodying corporate marketing cliches and generic stock footage is basically a modern day sport (and advertising knobbery regularly comes in for a skewering too). Now stock footage provider Dissolve has combined these two elements into one by adding some of its clips to the words of Kendra Eash and creating the world’s most generic brand video.
Heyday has given Z Energy’s Token Hunt game a spruce up this year, expanding it to six challenges and including a strong focus on Google Maps integration. And it’s made smart use of data to keep participants involved.
Johnson and Johnson in the middle East have a new campaign that taps into grandparents’ need to constantly see pictures of their grandchildren. The company is offering a frame and an app that lets parents send such images to grandparents daily, feeding seniors’ cute baby addiction.
HTC has thrown out the tech product ad rulebook, telling potential buyers to point their queries the internet’s way. It’s far from a lazy strategy and the silence as they wait for you to do your research is strangely compelling.
Plenty of car brands have ambassadors. But Audi has taken that a step further—and added in a Queen track—for its ‘Stay Uncompromised’ campaign, which features Ricky Gervais in the lead.
Samsung’s latest TVC for the Galaxy Pro tablet range has no qualms making digs at the opposition’s expense. The Microsoft Surface and Kindle aren’t spared and neither is the iPad, which apparently doesn’t cut it in terms of features despite its “retina thingy”.
BeIN Sports has a dream offering for football fans and men everywhere: a vuvuzela that with one blast changes the your cable TV channel to the big game. It’s not just the stuff of adland fantasty, it’s a real product fans can get line for.