We started it: battle of the interesting inflight videos
Standard inflight safety videos are in danger of extinction, with Delta and Virgin America the latest airlines to follow in Air New Zealand’s quirky footsteps.
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Browsing: News
The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
Fresh Taste website as another Bauer title makes digital strides
Taste magazine is following in the footsteps of its Bauer stablemates Cleo and Metro with a new web presence. The new site is set to tap into the growing global hunger for information about food and cooking.
Bauer confirms acquisition rumours, takes a few mags off APN NZ’s hands
The worst kept secret in the New Zealand magazine business was confirmed this morning when Bauer announced it had added APN-owned magazines The NZ Listener, NZ Woman’s Weekly, Simply You, Simply You Living and Creme to its roster, subject to Commerce Commission approval.
Pagani debuts new direction, tells visual summer story
Pagani, one of the oldest New Zealand-owned fashion chains, has been given an overhaul with the help of Running with Scissors. And the changes stretch from the instore experience to the advertising.
‘Buy it—or I’ll come looking for you’: NZ Rugby World brings out a big gun for digital push
NZ Rugby World has made significant advancements in the digital space this year, launching its iPad edition, increasing the frequency of its eDm to weekly and growing its Facebook fan base to over 20,000 friends. And its latest promotional piece features one of the sport’s most promising players, Steven Luatua, who encourages viewers to buy a copy—or else.
Pie Face mans up with mo and mushroom pie
Moving away from their standard, clean-shaven pastry visages, Pie Face has added a cartoonish moustache to their pies in an effort to help raise funds for men with health issues.
The Block NZ final smashes viewership records, part three to follow – UPDATED
Alice and Caleb Pearson were crowned the winners of the second edition of The Block NZ, and the husband-and-wife team took home $261,000 for their efforts over the last 10 weeks. And they weren’t the only winners, with TV3 recording its highest primetime share in 25-54 since records began in 2005.
Radio New Zealand aims to get down with the multimedia kids with launch of The Wireless
Radio New Zealand is pretty popular with the oldies and, according to Nielsen, it was the top rating station in the country last year. But its role is to appeal to all New Zealanders, so it’s aiming to do just that with the launch of its new youth-focused multimedia brand, The Wireless.
The Warehouse harnesses second screening, lets the public in on its challenge campaign
With mobile devices practically fused to modern hands these days, dual screening is becoming increasingly popular—and broadcasters and advertisers are acknowledging that shift, with The Warehouse and DDB joining the fray in the local market by offering viewers of the TVC a chance to win some of the items featured in it.
TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards: Boston Digital Transformational, Stihl
In just four years, Stihl has added a suite of new products, started targeting the residential market, changed its approach to comms and vastly improved its retail network. And now it’s reaping the benefits.
Six of the year’s best Halloween ads
Our American counterparts have turned Halloween into a huge commercial resource that can be tapped into annually. This year, the ad agencies across the Pacific have once again illustrated how far the simple premises of horror, costumes and bucket loads of treats can be stretched.
Pandora rounds out its repertoire with Android tablet version
Radio streaming service Pandora has brought the functionality it introduced in its 5.0 app for iOS devices earlier this year to a new version for Android tablets. The interface of Pandora 5.0 for Android tablets has also been optimised for the larger screen size of these devices.
Recruiter targets a new breed of leader for the digital age
Recruitment company Hourigan International wants to get creativity a seat at Kiwi boardroom tables and embed it into senior leadership roles. It’s targeting the ‘creative leadership tribe’ of agile, commercially-literate people who can help firms become more consumer-centric.
Kiwi marketers still not convinced by Halloween – UPDATED
According to Yahoo Finance, Americans spend about US$8 billion on Halloween every year, with the biggest chunk spent on costumes. And while Kiwis are yet to fully embrace the trick or treating culture, there’s definitely a buck to be made. PLUS: MOTAT’s Halloween event lures the ghoul lovers.
Hospitality brands missing chance to market to mobile-addicted Kiwis
Kiwis are can’t switch off when they’re away getting R&R, with a TripAdvisor survey showing we use our mobiles to shamelessly brag about our holidays on social media, look for places to stay and things to do. But a significant number of our hospitality companies aren’t meeting traveller demand.
Newspaper readership and circulation continue their downward slide, but don’t mention the D word
Nielsen’s readership and the ABC’s circulation results do not bode well for the print versions of New Zealand newspapers. Most of the major publications recorded significant drops on both reports, leading to suggestions from some that it might be time to adapt the way statistics are collected so that readership can be measured across all platforms.
From digital to dollars: gaming gets serious
The burgeoning games industry is making money for Kiwi exporters – and an increasingly diverse gamer audience with more devices than ever is force to be reckoned with. Two pieces of new research highlight strong growth in gaming, with a local survey showing mobile games made in New Zealand have been downloaded more than 130 million times in the last year.
TVNZ bolsters growing Media Solutions department with new general manager and additional customer insights resources
As the rise of content marketing changes the way some clients are choosing to advertise, integration/media solutions/native advertising/branded content/advertorial/*insert another buzzword here*, is a big growth area for TV networks—and other media. And TVNZ has referenced that shift by appointing Lyndsey Francis as general manager of media solutions and customer insights and adding some more research firepower to the team.
Kids on candy
Kiwi ads have used many visual metaphors to illustrate the power of fast telco networks. Telecom had coloured flares and exploding balloons in their 4G ad, Vodafone took us back to the future in a speedy Delorean. US provider AT&T’s new spot sympathises with parents everywhere whose kids have been on a candy-induced sugar high.
TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards: Fairfax Media Marketing Leadership, Unitec
By being bold, innovative and inclusive, the Unitec marketing team, led until recently by Jeanette Paine, has played a major role in the institution’s marketing-led transformation over the past three years.
Chameleon Partners, Waxeye kick ultrafast broadband contest into high gear
Chameleon Partners has released the first of several new TVCs, along with a new website, spreading the word about Chorus’ Gigatown contest that gives a Kiwi town the chance to win speedy internet.
Shopping mall puts analogue spin on Pinterest marketing
Pinterest is a winning channel for brands to show off their products in splendid technicolour. Now a Kiwi shopping mall is marketing itself with has a very analogue take on the social media channel.
XBox’s invitation to a life less boring
Ever been stuck in a boring board meeting? We can’t help imagining that’s where someone was when they dreamed up XBox’s new Invitation campaign.
VW keeps it in the family
DDB Sydney’s ‘Welcome to the family’ campaign to celebrate VW’s 60th year in Australia kicked off this weekend with a TVC that showcases the full range of models on offer—and, with an ad hoc cricket match, a helium-breathing grandfather, a nana meeting Bradley’s ‘special friend’, tree peeing and copious tea drinking, it also showcases the diversity of modern Australian family life.
TVCs of the Week: 29 October
Fresh Up’s all-too-powerful thirst quenching, perception shifting from The Warehouse, more moving personalisation from NZ Police and NZ Golf’s entertaining coattail riding.
Inconvenient ‘ahhhhhs’: Fresh Up rings in a new sound
Fresh Up, the 51-year-old juice brand, has had its first makeover in nearly 10 years with new spots from Colenso BBDO. The two TVCs show Kiwi blokes in situations where roaring your appreciation over the drink’s thirst quenching properties are seriously inconvenient.
Beyonce does haka, goes viral—UPDATED
After her October 19 show, Beyonce was treated to a haka performed by a local crew. Rather than cowering in fear like an international rugby opponent, Beyonce enthusiastically joined in and even gave a great Miley Cyrus impersonation at the end.
Young Kiwi doodlers vie for a spot on the Google homepage
Four thousand initial entries from across New Zealand have been stripped down to 20 finalists for this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition.
Magazine readership and circ numbers a mixed bag, industry aims to change the conversation
Once again, Nielsen’s latest readership results and the ABC’s circulation numbers don’t make for particularly pleasant reading for the magazine sector, with all weeklies charting declines deemed significant on the same time last year, plenty of other significant declines and a rare few increases. And, perhaps not surprisingly, the MPA and the various publishers are hoping to change the conversation from a one-dimensional discussion about quantity, to a multi-dimensional discussion about the quality of engagement across a number of platforms.
Saatchi & Saatchi puts twist on iconic Kiwi drop
It’s lemon, Kiwis, but not as we know it. Saatchi & Saatchi has given the drink brand made famous with a giant bottle in Paeroa a twist by showing a new side that’s more fierce than fruity.
Running with Scissors aims to ensnare men with F. Whitlock & Sons rebrand
No longer afraid of having their masculinity questioned, modern Kiwi men are following the likes Gordon Ramsay, Manu Feildel and Michael Van de Elzen into the kitchen, and this has created a gap in the market that Cerebos Gregg’s hopes to exploit by giving their F. Whitlock & Sons range a distinctly masculine appeal.
TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards: Colmar Brunton Marketer of the Year, Mike Cunnington
In a career full of successes, leading the transformation project that brought together the National Bank and ANZ was one of the sweetest for Mike Cunnington.
The Compendium: 25 October
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
The devil knows its own
How many of these 15 ‘Work Wankers’ do you know, agency folk?
Vodafone and Telecom pull out all the stops for iPhone launch, grease up FOMO-suffering Apple acolytes
Sometimes you just can’t escape lining up. The portaloo at the festival, the cashier at the supermarket, the coolest new bar. But no-one really likes doing it, so it is fairly hard to fathom why anyone would do it for a new phone. Plenty do, of course (even though they don’t actually know why). And the companies selling them go to great lengths to butter these strange tech fiends up and ensure they don’t get queue fatigue, as evidenced by Vodafone and Telecom’s launch festivities for the new iPhones.
All Blacks continue to aim global with first-ever YouTube broadcast
New Zealand Rugby conducted something of an experiment last week when the Bledisloe Cup test between the All Blacks and Australia was streamed live and made available on-demand on www.youtube.com/allblacks to more than 45 countries where the digital rights hadn’t been allocated exclusively to a broadcaster. So how did it go? And should Sky be worried?