The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
The great Kiwi campervan adventure is a right of passage as old as time itself. New Zealand-based camper rental Jucy is giving New Zealanders (and our Australian and American cousins) the chance to haggle down the price by tweeting.
As this news report shows, being able to read an entire newspaper—aside from ‘the pictures, ads or comics’—on a computer was a giant technological leap back in 1981. While this development has certainly been good for the readers, it hasn’t been too beneficial for newspapers. And you can see where it started to go wrong. As David Cole from the San Francisco Examiner says in the clip: “This is an experiment … We’re not in it to make money.” Some might say the same strategy holds true 34 years later.
Long gone are the days when writing a ‘to do’ list involved a piece of paper, a pen, and not much else. Toodledo is just one of many iOS apps that allows you to not just create a task, but to detail every intricacy of it.
Many thousands of people from the global comms industry descend on Cannes every year to judge, learn and drink. But why? This film, which was produced as a collaboration between Lions Festivals and Jack Morton Worldwide to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the festival, explains what happens, how it inspires creativity and why it’s become so alluring.
The ’80s were a time of big hair, bright clothes and bold claims. And they don’t get much bolder than the ones uttered in a rich velvety voice in this glorious piece of automotive advertising for the very advanced 1984 Chevrolet Corvette. Look at those wonderous LCD displays, listen to those epic synths and sound effects and take a trip into the future.
Mainstream rock radio station Radio Hauraki has released a new app for iOS and Android, called Hauraki, with an optimised player for streaming the station live.
Some saw the feverish excitement—and feverish media attention—over the arrival of the royal baby as a sad indictment on humanity. Others saw it as evidence of the rising appeal of the British monarchy in New Zealand and around the world. And more than a few local media outlets and their advertisers saw it as a chance to capitalise on all the extra eyeballs, with Bauer Media pulling out all the stops to get its ‘Souvenir Issue’ onto the shelves five days earlier than usual.
The 2013 Global Effie Effectiveness Index has just been released, with Colenso BBDO maintaining its position as the fifth most effective agency in the world based on 2012’s award haul and Barnes, Catmur & Friends punching well above its weight to be recognised as the fifth best independent agency in the world and the leading independent agency in the Asia Pacific.
Men, show your dedication for your significant others by using DB Breweries Facebook app to let them know – with a video.
There’s been a whole heap of industry chatter about the proposed merger of Publicis and Omnicom, a merger that would create the biggest holding company in all the world (but would still pale in comparison to Google). And, in true modern style, there’s already a parody Twitter account (‘This is a parody. But then again, isn’t the ad industry’) that’s skewering the combined entity.
Audi, Warehouse Stationery, Sony and a Vietnamese hospital get a gold star this week.
Warehouse Stationery has embarked on its biggest brand transformation in 22 years, and it’s all about the new, with a new logo, new colours, new instore environments and a new brand campaign from its new agency .99.
While newspaper circulations continue to decline and the media companies behind them face massive upheaval, research from industry body News Works suggests that pulp and ink still play an important role in New Zealand current affairs – especially when it comes to credibility and trustworthiness.
Advertising largely exists to draw attention to products and services. But communications can also help foster social change, and DraftFCB, an agency with an undoubted strength in this area, is aiming to do just that by offering 1000 hours of comms expertise to an organisation that’s focused on reducing child abuse in New Zealand.
Since launching on 17 June, the Love Your City campaign has resulted in over 4,000 user-generated photos of Auckland on Instagram – and counting.
Elliot O’Donnell (aka Askew One) is a Kiwi street artist who’s transitioning between “just tags on a wall” to legitimate art. And with paintings of Ralph Hotere in Kingsland, work on Queens Wharf and his impressive creations in the Wynyard Quarter, he’s trying hard to turn his passion into a viable business.
Remember when the prudes got all wound up after Carefree busted a few feminine hygiene taboos and used the word vagina in its ad? If you were among the complainers, then you definitely don’t want to watch this video for Hello Flo, a tampon subscription service that features a 12-year-old girl who fully embraces the arrival of her ‘red badge of courage’.
New Zealanders love nothing more than hearing their country get a mention, especially if comes from the mouth of a foreign celebrity. Facebook pages, articles both real and satirical, and TV segments have been devoted this strange and thrilling phenomenon. And we can add another one to the list, because the The Herald has made it into The Onion’s brilliant story about the birth of the royal baby.
The global ad industry has moved closer to a duopoly with the proposed merger of Publicis Group and Omnicom set to create the world’s biggest ad network, beating out WPP. But, according to DDB Group’s executive chairman for Australia/NZ Marty O’Halloran, the creation of a company valued at US$35 billion with revenues of US$23 billion is unlikely to have much of an impact on the local agency landscape.
Last year, after six years in second place, BMW knocked Audi off its perch and reclaimed the top selling premium car mantle in the New Zealand market. But Audi isn’t far behind, it’s still growing and it’s decided to tap into the nation’s patriotic fervour with one of the German brand’s first locally shot campaigns.
It shrunk its weekend edition back in 2000 and it joined an exclusive club when it implemented a paywall late last year. Now The Ashburton Guardian has continued to forge ahead and made the switch to a compact format for its Monday to Friday paper after 134 years in broadsheet.
TVNZ is scrapping TVNZ U, just over two years after first launching the youth-centric channel.
If every Chinese citizen purchased just one pair of NZ wool socks we would be right’ is a genuine quote I have heard more than once from those in the industry.
Big Data—or more specifically, Big, Bad Data—is coming in for plenty of scrutiny at the moment, with some calling Edward Snowden’s revelations about government snooping a precursor to the death of the cloud and many Kiwis protesting about changes to the controversial GCSB bill around the country over the weekend. But GE isn’t worried about such trifling issues around civil liberties and democracy. It’s worried about how big data can be used to stop zombies and alien cattle snatchers, with its Datalandia campaign.
A new look Sunday News will hit the newsstands this Sunday, the Fairfax paper’s re-launch sees a shift in both design and content strategy.
Ever wondered what happened to the Ted’s kids on How I Met Your Mother?
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
TV3 is replacing its 5:30pm staple Home and Away with Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals cooking show.
While others are looking apprehensively towards the world of print publishing, the company behind New Zealand Geographic magazine is taking the opportunity to expand its stable. From 5 August, Kohwai Media will publish a bi-monthly photography magazine called Pro Photographer, publisher James Frankham says it’s catered towards those in the photography business.
Most people can think of a lot of things they’d rather do than hear people talk about how good their night sleep was, but bed manufacturers Sealy Posturepedic want exactly that. And they’re willing to pay handsomely for it.
The New Zealand Herald’s weekly lifestyle and fashion lift out Viva is getting a makeover, along with it a brand new website and a Newsstand app.
Those smart screens are the best thing to happen to broadcast news since the introduction of colour.
The Digital Arts Network is just over a year old and TBWA’s digital arm is making strides into New Zealand’s interactive advertising scene. Siobhan Keogh sits down with managing director Che Tamahori to talk about the challenges and opportunities in New Zealand’s digital sector.
It’s no hyperbole to say IFTTT has saved the world on multiple occasions from assured destruction … well perhaps it’s a slight hyperbole, but this deceptively simple productivity service has become integral to my digital universe – and without it much of it will fall into a black pit of forgetfulness.
More than half of New Zealanders now own a smartphone (54 percent), a lofty feat in technology terms which puts us almost on par with the US which is sitting on 56 percent, according to research commissioned by Google.
One of the key contributors to Auckland’s transport and planning debates has reaped a reward from grateful users.