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Browsing: News
The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
Contagion laces up the boots for Number One Shoes
After a competitive pitch, Contagion has been chosen as the full creative and media partner for New Zealand’s largest shoe retailer, Number One Shoes.
Save it for later, says NZ Herald with its new website features
Browsing the New Zealand Herald website this morning for Pope stories I noticed a few new buttons that weren’t there the day before. Overnight the NZ Herald has added features to make sharing on the site a little bit easier.
A quick look inside Google’s New Zealand HQ
A year ago Google New Zealand consisted of three people who would fly back and forth from Sydney to manage sales over here. Now there’s about a dozen sales staff working in Auckland.
StopPress@SXSW: The digital revolution with Sean Parker and friends
Sean Parker, founder of Napster and an early investor in Facebook and Spotify, is a figurehead in the digital revolution of the past 15 years. In the wake of his new documentary Downloaded, which tells the story of the controversial music sharing service, Contagion’s Tom Bates pulls up a chair to hear his view on how we got to where we are now, how the world has changed and how to move forward.
DraftFCB’s top digital dogs
DraftFCB has already won a fair swag of awards for its Driving Dogs campaign, and the accolades keep flowing, with the most recent addition being the Q4 Yahoo Digital Strategy Award.
Colenso, Barnes Catmur, and justOne take home top prize at Fairfax AdMedia Agency of the Year Awards
Agencies celebrate financial stability and single-minded focus at this year’s Fairfax AdMedia Agency of the Year Awards. Colenso BBDO, Barnes Catmur & Friends, and justONE come out on top – although DraftFCB CEO in the mix.
TVCs of the Week: 12 March
Monteith’s time traveller, Westpac’s human ATM and Dulux’s DoC hut love FTW.
Dulux and DoC go bush
Some see the National Government’s ‘Conservation for Prosperity’ mantra as oxymoronic. But whatever your thoughts on the approach, it’s clear that public/private relationships will become an increasingly common funding model for the Department of Conservation. And Dulux has followed on from Air New Zealand and signed up for a three year $1.5 million deal that will see it provide a total of 54,000 litres of paint to keep the department’s huts, buildings and assets looking their best.
Pead PR’s My Food Bag blitz raises questions on ads versus #ads
My Food Bag delivers bags of ingredients to the door for customers to create meals designed by Master Chef-winner Nadia Lim. However, if you went by the buzz it created on Twitter alone you’d be forgiven for thinking Lim would show up and cook the meal too. Updated with comments from Pead Pr’s Deborah Pead.
StopPress@SXSW: Trend spotting
What’s been happening at SXSW so far? Here’s a little recap courtesy of the people soaking up the vast array of topics—from humanity innovation to brand engagement in new media.
StopPress@SXSW: Mashable Variety Show
Tom Bates fought his way through the throngs of hipsters taking photos of their food to attend Mashable’s Variety Show at SXSW. And from transparent screens to native advertising to Nyan Cat, he got a taste of the future.
Old Spice dances with wolves (and marketing)
It’s become something of a tradition to post the latest Old Spice ad, and while there have been a few misses, there have many been more hits in recent years. And Mr Wolfdog, Old Spice’s new predatory director of marketing, is definitely in the latter.
ASB heads for home, starts focusing on meatspace
It hasn’t been a particularly good day for the banks. Westpac seems to have unintentionally offended a few Greeks with its latest ad and a massive class action suit over “the unlawful overcharging of Kiwis for many many years” was also announced. But that hasn’t stopped ASB from continuing on its empowering, successful path with the first product-specific ad after the launch of its Succeed On campaign.
BNZ tries to relate to youth to get them on YouMoney
BNZ Bank launched its YouMoney online banking service last month, now the company is pushing a new ad campaign across TV and online to attract the youth to what is seldom considered cool: a bank.
Westpac gives those who hand out a hand up, unintentionally offends a few Greeks
‘Hand Outs’, the next instalment in DDB’s ‘Start Asking’ campaign for Westpac, puts the spotlight on the ‘sandwiched’ generation. But the ad, which puts a humorous spin on the group’s endless plight to keep their family financially supported and uses the Zorba the Greek track, has managed to rile up a few Greeks who believe the ad is racist.
Memes and Mao collide as Powershop goes Gangnam Style
David Cameron, Barak Obama and John Key have all been seen dancing Psy’s Gangnam Style and Ban Ki-Moon has hailed it as a “force for world peace”. Now Powershop and DoubleFish are using it to sell electricity, with hot new band Mao Tse Tung and the Great Leap Forward performing Gangnam For Freedom as part of its long-running ‘Same Power, Different Attitude’ campaign.
A look at the Facebook News Feed redesign
Facebook is a chronic tinkerer when it comes to design and its latest News Feed facelift last week shows the company wants more to offer its advertising partners.
The Rock’s mother fu…nny billboards
Swearing is funny, as evidenced by ‘tourettes karaoke’. And MediaWork’s hero station The Rock has tapped into that with some cunning wordplay in its latest outdoor campaign.
StopPress at SXSW – Al Gore on the future
Our intrepid honorary reporter Tom Bates of Contagion is at SXSW in Austin, Texas – looking into what trends from the world of marketing, media and advertising might affect us in New Zealand this year. Former US vice president and climate change activist Al Gore is up first, talking about the forces shaping the world today. Join us at 10:30am for the liveblog.
Top Gear Magazine NZ folds, ceases publication
Top Gear Magazine New Zealand has ceased publication after seven years in the game, with this month’s issue its last.
Kiwi jurors announced for Cannes Lions
Seven New Zealanders are amongst this year’s jurors for the 60th year of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Air NZ Bears all for safety video behind the scenes, full of “epicness”
Behind the scenes for TVCs are all the rage and Air New Zealand joins the fray showing the “epicness” behind its latest flight safety video, involving survivalist and renowned urine-drinker, Bear Grylls.
Monteith’s takes a leaf out of DB Export’s book with time travelling Colenso campaign
It worked pretty well for Morton Coutts and now Colenso BBDO is going back in time with Stewart Monteith, and a one take TVC (includes behind the scenes vid).
DDB nabs the ad of the month trifecta with winning VW classified
DDB took a summer quinella by winning both the December and January rounds of the newspaper ad of the month comp with its YWCA and VW ads. And now it’s claimed yet more Beetle/paper-related victory with a classified ad to promote its Beetling campaign.
Big three top Media Awards finalist list
After a record 290 entries across 21 categories, 99 finalists have made it through to the final rounds of judging for the Media Awards. And the usual suspects are on top, with OMD on 36 finalists (11 from its Wellington office), Spark PHD on 20 and DraftFCB Media on 16.
The power of good
In addition to the usual suspects of ‘market share’, ‘customer retention’ and ‘campaign ROI’, Dennis Kibirev found that warm-and-fuzzies such as ‘lives changed’, ‘worthwhile causes supported’ or ‘communities improved’ were cited at the Marketing Association’s first Not-For-Profit event last week.
Glossies announced: Special, Naked, Ecostore take home gold
The inaugural Glossies Magazine Advertising Awards kicked off last night to smoke, meat and unfurling banners. Ecostore, Special Group and Naked Communications take top prize.
Just $10 to Facebook message the Prime Minister? Sounds like a bargain.
How much would you pay to directly message the Prime Minister on Facebook? Ten dollars seems reasonable. Also, changes to Facebook news feed on the horizon.
Google Plus rolls out redesign, featuring giant cover photos
If you log into Google+ today you’ll notice a facelift on the social network and the addition of a few new features including reviews and juiced up cover photos.
The Urban Twictionary
Twitter, noun: A service for communicating in short bursts, typically up to 140 characters, which is creating a vernacular of its own. This infographic helps break down some of the jargon being created on the social network [ed: does anyone use any of these words in real life?].
Snakk mobile advertising startup lists on stock exchange
Snakk has become the first company to list on the stock exchange this year, with its addition to the New Zealand Alternative Exchange (NZAX). The mobile advertising startup is expanding its sales presence in Australia.
Trade Me sells Treat Me
Trade Me says it’s selling daily deal site Treat Me for an undisclosed amount, in a management buy out led by Treat Me head James MacAvoy.
The ultimate marketing machine: how BMW reclaimed premium pole position
In the battle of the premium cars, New Zealand is something of an anomaly, because unlike most markets around the world Audi has been top of the pile for the past six years. But by rethinking its marketing tactics, tailoring its products and comms to suit the New Zealand market, standing up to HQ and targeting new customers, BMW managed to reclaim the throne last year.
Circus attempts to break a few circuits
A few New Zealand marcomms folk will be making the trip to Sydney for AWARD later this month and, just as the speeches and seminars have become a major drawcard for the Cannes Lions, they’re also a big drawcard for the Circus Festival of Commercial Creativity. So the The Communications Council decided to remind the region’s most experienced chief marketing officers that when it comes to creative thinking we still have plenty to learn.
Sugar & Partners heats up with Daikin win
Daikin’s last big splash involved a surprisingly creepy Dan Carter hanging on a wall and plenty of come hither eyes. But the agency behind that campaign, The Works Sydney, has now been exchanged for Sugar & Partners, which won a two-way competitive pitch for the New Zealand business.