The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
The latest series of zombie horror show The Walking Dead has just kicked off in New Zealand, while over in the US Hyundai has for some time been milking an association with the show to good effect. Its Chop Shop series is offering another crazy-looking armoured vehicle fit to help you survive any zombie attack.
Back when I was a young lad, I went to the supermarket with a couple of my older cousins. They kept throwing jars at me. And I, of course, kept catching them. When I tried to retaliate and threw a jar back at them they, of course, moved aside and left it to smash on the ground, leaving me to deal with an angry manager. So you can imagine the painful memories that came flooding back after seeing NZTA and Clemenger BBDO’s latest anti-drink driving ads, which show a good—although slightly wasteful—way for responsible chaps to say no to another beersie from their mates.
Auckland City-based Animation College has turned its brand into an action hero with its first agency partnership. The 25 year-old organisation worked with Origami to overhaul its logo and introduce a new tagline, ‘the art of emotion’.
Red Bull knows how to milk a stunt. And the Stratos project was one of its biggest. So now it’s released some amazing multi point-of-view footage of the jump that shows Felix Baumgartner spinning like a top as he plummets to Earth at about 800 miles an hour.
Kiwibank has added business functionality to its consumer mobile banking app in an offering that lets users switch between accounts when they’re using mobile banking.
As part of last year’s Battle of the Ad Bands, the winning band, Barnes Catmur & Friends’ Friends Electric, ate the 50 gallons of personalised ice cream and drove the Audi slightly above the speed limit. They were also given a recording session at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios and had a music video filmed. So, as the industry gears up for this year’s musical showdown tonight at the Kings Arms, what better time to reveal the fruits of that labour.
Canterbury development shop Mogeo – run by a trio that came together shortly after the February 2011 quake – has followed in Ikea’s footsteps with an app similar to one recently released by the European giant to help furniture buyers.
Made Movement is a new US agency that claims to have redefined the ad agency model, is run by ex-Crispin Porter + Bogusky brains Dave Schiff, John Kieselhorst, Scott Prindle and, more recently, Alex Bogusky and focuses solely on promoting American-made products. So can such a model exist in New Zealand? Are we seeing a similar consumer shift to locally made, craft focused and sustainably driven products? And how is this affecting where global brands are going? AUT is giving Kiwi marcomms folk a chance to hear Made’s creative chief Dave Schiff answer those questions with a free live-streamed event on Friday 18 October.
In the hyperbolic arms race that is advertising and marketing, this ad for Palmolive Ayurituel—and the ‘innovation’ itself—is right up there as one of the worst we’ve seen. As if the petro-chemicals used in such products weren’t bad enough, we also have to listen to lines like “this isn’t your shower, this is your sanctuary”, see corporates co-opting spiritualism and put up with the yet another example of the nude-but-sneakily-not-showing-any-naughty-bits shower scenes featuring a woman who’s enjoying her shower way too much. Excuse us as we scrub ourselves down—with lemon juice and white vinegar.
Yellow has launched a new mass advertising campaign – the first in four years – to help Kiwis find what they’re looking for, no matter what platform they use.
Kathmandu is responding to growing use of its site on mobile devices with its first website optimised for those devices. Online sales make up four percent of sales across the retail group and in its 2013 financial year presentation it said online sales had grown 55 percent year on year.
The US government shutdown is finally over, but while the chaos was continuing angry drunk diallers in the US got a legitimate outlet for their frustrations with a website that let them call to vent their frustrations. The site was for furloughed workers, those being forced to work for free or just “fed up at Capitol Hill”.
Call of Duty fans gear up for a new version of the game franchise every November and this time the campaign is giving unsuspecting victims a fright in the most unlikely places. That’s because fanatics in the Faboom spot show their colours on the job.
Nine Entertainment Co recently announced it would take full control of Mi9 (ninemsn Pty Ltd), acquiring Microsoft’s 50 percent share in the joint venture. However, Mi9 will keep representing Microsoft’s suite of ad products under a long term strategic partnership.
Kiwis are using internet plans with bigger data caps and better connection quality, with a high fibre diet and the mobile web driving growth in online. That’s according to Statistics New Zealand, which says more than three quarters of broadband connections now have data caps of 20GB or more.
Kiwi businesswomen are outpacing other business owners in their use of tech marketing tools like social media, cloud computing, online payments and SEO, says MYOB – and it’s these tools that are enabling women to start up small and medium enterprises and balance work and life as they grow.
After a fairly controversial 2012, CAANZ and a bunch of senior ad folk engineered a few big changes to this year’s Axis proceedings to make the awards, as Colenso BBDO’s Nick Garrett said, a more collegial, more credible and more celebratory event that aimed to show the business community how influential creativity could be. And now CAANZ has announced some more changes to the programme for 2014.
After announcing a pretty bold move away from paid banner ads towards content marketing, nzgirl.co.nz is now about to unveil a new brand that aims to help turning your “blogging for a living” dream into reality. If making money out of writing about things you love is what you’re into.
Anti-capping, pro-holidaying and station swapping make it onto the dais this week.
The most important night on the advertising calendar looms once again. And if the Battle of the Ad Bands registration poster is any gauge, it looks like it’s going to be a twerk fest this Thursday at the Kings Arms Tavern. So make sure you get your tickets.
Digital screens and mobile technology offer a range of new creative opportunities for the outdoor industry and Johnson & Johnson-owned brand Neutrogena has employed the services of a special hi-tech Adshel in Auckland that takes photos of punters, does a bit of whizzbangery and spits out an image that makes them look younger.
Energy drinks—and other terrible sugary, sciencey concoctions hoping to attract young customers—have long focused on extreme sports and mad stunts. Red Bull kicked it all off and has gradually morphed into a media company; V has created a few new crazy pastimes; and Monster has a penchant for boganic pursuits like drifting. But the Coca-Cola-owned energy brand Nos has decided that’s all a bit hackneyed, so it’s mocked its competition in the form of four fake interviews with a hyped-up ‘marketing expert’ who recommends ‘blasting the logo all over everyone’s faces’.
We’re big fans of doppelgangers here at StopPress. And while there’s been a lot of talk about Lorde’s Royals featuring in Samsung’s new ad, ‘The Developer’, no-one’s mentioned the important fact that Lionel Messi is a dead (but beardless) ringer for Y&R NZ’s managing director James Hurman.
Military dictatorship? What military dictatorship? Tourism Fiji has sent its new global brand campaign into the wild and, in an effort to differentiate it from its Pacific competition, the island nation is focusing on the fact that its happiness is likely to rub off on visitors.
DNA creative director Grenville Main and Formway Design Studio joint manager Kent Parker have been awarded the Black Pins as the Best Design Awards celebrated the cream of Kiwi design talent on Friday night. While Special Group won the top packaging award for an unprecendented third time in a row with its Karma Cola work and Clemenger BBDO took the Purple Pin in digital for its Flash driving game for NZTA.
Dedicated followers of advertising will get to peak through a keyhole into the headspace of one of the world’s leading small agencies, Mistress Creative, at the Semi-Permanent stage-show in Wellington this week.
A family member affected by illness or injury, or dying, are among the worst scenarios imaginable. That makes insurance for families a hard sell, but AMP, partnering with DNA, Running with Scissors and Bloodhound Media, want to remind Kiwis to protect what matters most.
Qantas and agency Droga5 in Australia have created a replica of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity to explore New Zealand and show off different ways Kiwis can use the airline’s Frequent Flyer scheme.
Colenso BBDO’s impressive winning streak continues to roll on and, after adding Volkswagen, Samsung, a few extra Fonterra brands and another yet-to-be-announced client to the roster recently, it’s also working with Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development (ATEED) and Heart of The City (HOTC) and will put its mind to luring more domestic travellers to the region and more Aucklanders into the central city.
There’s been a range of brands playing the absurd advertising card in recent years, from Old Spice to Skittles to HTC. And Aussie loan company Nimble has joined that club and pushed the boat a long way out with three weird—and weirdly compelling—ads from Clemenger BBDO Brisbane and The Sweet Shop’s Steve Ayson.
While the major topic of conversation in agency land today will presumably be last night’s Effie results, the Cannes Lions have released their report on the 2013 festival. And it makes for pretty good reading from a New Zealand perspective.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Spark’s casting of comedic pranksters Jono and Ben for the local versions of Heineken Dropped have paid off in YouTube views and effective Kiwi-fying of the international franchise.
DDB and DraftFCB continued their winning ways at the Effie Awards last night, with DDB holding on to the most effective agency crown and DraftFCB taking the supreme Effie for its work on the Health Promotion Agency’s depression initiative.
Air New Zealand has created an expectation that its safety videos won’t be boring. But travellers can only handle seeing a fake plastic fish bouncing around in Bear Grylls’ backpack, Lord of the Rings gags, or a lycra-clad maniac so many times before the novelty wears off. So Air New Zealand and True have launched another new—but old—safety video starring ex-Golden Girl Betty White and a cast of oldies.
It’s often said people browsing the web have little appetite for long videos, but Tui’s proved that wrong with its viral beer prank. The beer plumber stunt created by Saatchi and Saatchi, featuring a builder and his tradie mates launched on 17 September. The 90 second version has had about 2.65 million views while the seven minute version has had more than 3.5 million.