Consider it done
David MacGregor on the passing of his dear friend Linds Redding.
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Browsing: News
The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
Redcactus grabs a triple at Pentawards
There were 1200 entries from 46 countries for this year’s Pentawards, which celebrate outstanding packaging design, and three projects by specialist consumer branding and packaging agency Redcactus made the final cut and were announced as winners.
New York? Pffff. Speight’s introduces the modern Southern Man
The Southern Man has been a feature of Speight’s advertising—and a prominent feature of Kiwi pop culture—for many years, so any major change to the much-loved advertising figure is obviously fraught with danger. But times have changed. And, while New Zealand might not have too many skyscrapers, the new Speight’s campaign aims to show that we’ve got our priorities right.
Desperately seeking cutters and thrusters
Mother always said not to dwell on the past. But what would she know? She doesn’t even have an iPad. So, once again, we will soon be flying back through the mists of time for our ever-popular Year in Review series on StopPress. We’ll be lining up some of the industry’s most vigorous cutters and dastardly thrusters and asking them a few questions about the goods, bads and uglies of 2012. But we thought we’d ask our dear readers who they wanted to hear from most. So add your suggestions in the comments section and we’ll see what we can do.
Agencies urged to grow for a cause
Two days in to November and the lip hair of males around the country is already sprouting. The Movember industry challenge also kicked off yesterday, and while there are a few publishers stepping up to the mark, it could do with a few more contenders from agency land. But there’s still time. And all those who enter will be up for some tasty beverages, with Mo of the Week sponsored by TVNZ, which is putting four $150 bar tabs up for grabs, and Most valuable Mo sponsored by iSite, which is putting up a $300 Libertine voucher. Robert Dunne, the Movember country manager, will be picking the winners. So if you’re up to the task, register now, join your agency team and the Movember agency challenge (or become a team captain for your business) and show the industry just what kind of incremental growth you can deliver.
Traveller, your journey starts beneath a pimped out newzealand.com website
Tourism New Zealand’s marketing strategy is all about convincing ‘active considerers’ to give New Zealand a go. And almost all of its budget is now spent on digital marketing to communicate directly with consumers, with the award-winning newzealand.com website acting as the central hub to convert them to travel. And, with the help of TBWA\’s Digital Arts Network (DAN), the latest iteration of the site has been launched.
Jesus wept
Whatever St Matthew in the City can do, Chapel Bar can do better. To celebrate seven years of Almighty Nights at the Ponsonby Road institution, it enlisted the sacrilegious services of Ogilvy, which created a great (unless you’re a devout Christian) ad that’s bound to appeal to the secular customer base.
Localist ditches print, hitches wagon to mobile recommendation engine
When Localist launched as an Auckland-only print directory, plenty of questions were raised about the rationale behind the creation of a new product that went head to head with a dominant player in what many saw as a dying industry. 18 months on and it’s still here and, confounding the sceptics, it’s still growing. But as of next week Localist will be very different and 100 percent digital.
Contact Energy tries its luck elsewhere—UPDATED
As Genesis, the country’s biggest spending energy company, gets set to announce the results of its recent pitch, Contact, the country’s second biggest spending energy company, is also searching for some new agency partners, although, judging by the number of go-to industry gossips who didn’t know about it, it seems to have been a slightly more exclusive affair.
Middle-earth in mid-air
Air New Zealand became the official airline of Middle-earth a few months ago as part of a marketing deal struck up between Tourism New Zealand, New Line, MGM and Warner Bros. And, after plenty of teasing, including a countdown clock on its Flying Social Network site, it’s released a classy new Hobbit-themed safety video.
Mission accomplished as Saatchi & Saatchi’s war games take IAB award
Last year’s impressive Step Up campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi for the RNZAF offered users the chance to experience four live simulated challenges that tested their skills against some of the everyday situations they’d encounter if they took up a career in the Air Force. This year’s version, ‘Virtual Missions’, follows a similar path and it’s been deemed good enough to win the IABNZ Online Creative Award for November 2012.
Esquires refuels with Y&R
Esquires Coffee Houses is moving on to its third different agency in as many years, with Y&R picking up the business following a review of several local creative agencies. Media buying will be retained by Mediacom.
Kiwibank greases up to local SMEs with some useful largesse
There were plenty of naysayers when Kiwibank was launched, but, after ten years, few would argue it has done a stellar job of facing up the big Australian-owned banks on the personal banking front (it announced a tripling of profits recently and now has around ten percent of the retail market). But now it’s aiming to bump up its business banking credentials with a campaign by Ogilvy and Ikon that aims to demonstrate how the bank can save SMEs time and money and let them get on with running their businesses.
Golden Apple keeps growing, but Android also makes inroads in Kiwi phone war
Findings from InMobi’s Mobile Insights Report Q3 show Apple remains the dominant force in the New Zealand market, with 42 percent of total impressions, a nine percent increase from last quarter. But there are also positive signs for Android, climbing five percent to take 34 percent of the total market share. PLUS: infographic action.
JML put out to pasture by PR Partners
After nearly eight years in business, PR agency JML Communications is shedding its moniker and rebranding as PR Partners.
As VodaClear gets the go ahead, Telecom takes its opportunity
We’ve seen the banks gunning for new customers after a big merger. Now, after Vodafone’s $840 million takeover of TelstraClear was cleared by the Commerce Commission yesterday, it’s time for the telcos to have some fun, with Telecom running a full-page print ad today riffing on TelstraClear’s slogan.
AA Insurance fixes up, looks sharp
Insurance is usually a very low involvement category; a grudge purchase if ever there was one (although it’s become a very high-involvement category for some in Christchurch, and not in a good way). As a result, the service it offers is often taken for granted until it’s needed. So, perhaps rather bravely given the current feelings towards the industry, AA Insurance has decided it’s time to promote the positives of its business with a big multi-media campaign by its new agency Special Group that spans TV, digital, DR, outdoor and radio.
Resene masters the art of test pottery
Andy Warhol’s iconic image of Marilyn Monroe, one of the most influential pieces of modern art ever, can now be seen at Queen Elizabeth II Square in downtown Auckland. As part of Art Week, 3,944 Resene test pots in four specially chosen colours – Princess, Smitten, Shooting Star and All Black (actual Resene paint names)—were commandeered to create a 4x4m mosaic.
NZ Marketing goes on Assignment
The table. Pretty much every office has one. And they’re generally not the most exciting of objects. But the table that sits in the offices of Assignment Group—and the table that features on the front cover of the November/December issue of NZ Marketing—is surprisingly interesting and has become a rather fitting symbol of how the agency began and how it still likes to work.
Happy Kiwi snappers show their stripes in New Zealand Geographic photographer of the year comp
The winners of the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year competition were named in an awards ceremony at the Auckland Museum last week and Bruce Mercer, a Cambridge-based photographer, took out the coveted photographer of the year award, as well as the photo story category, for images taken after the MV Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef in the Bay of Plenty on 5 October last year.
TVCs of the Week: 30 October
Westpac’s ode to asking and Barkers’ slow motion All Blacks earn their keep this week.
Amnesty and Colenso put the shoe on the other foot with Trial by Timeline
There have been some impressive campaigns harnessing social data in recent years, with Intel’s Museum of Me and Me the Musical coming to mind. Now Colenso BBDO is putting that information to good use for Amnesty International with Trial by Timeline, a Facebook application that shows users what some comments or behaviours might have cost them if they lived in different, less tolerant countries.
Speight’s gets a crafty, modern makeover
It’s pretty tough going for the mainstream beers at the moment, with all the growth coming from the craft category and the old stalwarts struggling to keep up as palates change and new tipples tickle fancies. Speight’s Gold Medal Ale is still the country’s most popular beer brand by volume, however, and the brand has recently tried to become more craft-like and even branched out into—block your ears Southern Men—cider. So, in an effort to create a more cohesive family unit and ensure the flagship variety continues its reign, the brand has been given an overhaul by Dow Design.
Westpac’s Martine Jager on asking questions, getting answers and New Zealand’s dire financial literacy stats
As the centrepiece of Westpac’s new ‘Start Asking’ campaign shows, New Zealanders can talk about almost everything these days, whether it be politics, religion, war, sex, existential issues and, of course, Rugby World Cup wins. But, as Westpac’s general manager of marketing and customer experience Martine Jager says, we’re still not comfortable talking about money. So can the bank actually change that?
About face: Trilogy’s print principles earn Glossie honours
The final instalment of The Glossies for this year had one of the biggest responses yet, with over 800 votes. And it was Trilogy and Special Group’s all-natural campaign in Woman’s Day that came out on top, beating out Taste magazine’s Homebrand takeover by Progressive and Ogilvy and DB Export and Colenso BBDO’s The Wine List in Metro.
Love NZ uses mobile karma bank to show that rubbish that comes around, should go around
Recycling really should be second nature by now, but it doesn’t take much more than a look around to see there’s still plenty of work to be done in terms of education. So in an effort to fill up those 1000-odd recycling bins all around the country, Love NZ has just pushed play on a six-week campaign by McCann Melbourne and its direct and digital arm MRM called It’s A Karma Thing, which exhorts Kiwis to ‘do the right thing’ and earn points they can then redeem for prizes.
Papers chart dual declines, but a rare few buck the trend
While the magazine sector recorded its third consecutive overall readership increase in the latest Nielsen CMI figures, the newspapers haven’t fared quite so well, with an overall decline in total readership for all dailies and metropolitan titles that has been deemed significant by Nielsen and almost universal declines in paid circulation. But there are a couple of diamonds in the rough—particularly The Herald on Sunday and The Waikato Times—and, for the optimists, the numbers are still holding up much better than they are in comparison to many other markets.
Westpac to nation: ask and you shall receive
Following the ANZ-National fusion decision, there has been a seemingly endless stream of bank ads vying for New Zealand’s affection. And while Westpac has dabbled with a cheeky green vs. blue = red number and a bit of sneaky teaser hijacking, it’s kept its biggest pile of gunpowder dry until now, launching a new brand campaign by DDB last night that’s headed by a 90 second TVC imploring New Zealanders to start asking questions about money.
Good things come in threes: Mag sector continues to confound sceptics with more readership gains
The quarterly number fest that is the Nielsen CMI Readership and Audit Bureau of Circulation data has been released, and while only a few magazine titles bucked the general downward trend in paid circulation, a majority of titles experienced readership increases, making it the third consecutive survey showing an improvement in total readership.
MasterCard space invader takes people’s prize, Lumino’s pashfest takes booby prize and Fair Go increases eyeballs for Ad Awards—UPDATED
There are some brilliant ads that bring joy to viewers and add to the pop-cultural landscape. And there are many more horrible ads that do the exact opposite. Either way, there’s no doubt humans have a love/hate relationship with advertising, as evidenced by the continuing popularity of Fair Go’s Ad Awards, which increased its audience from last year and crowned MasterCard’s All Blacks ‘Tight on Tour’ ad as the best and Lumino The Dentist’s ‘Love Your Smile’ ad as the worst.
Power takes Fast 50 glory, as Mediacom flies marcomms flag
For the second year in a row, an electricity company has topped the Deloitte Fast 50 list of New Zealand’s fastest-growing companies—though Pulse Utilities NZ’s 2637 percent revenue growth didn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of last year’s winner, Powershop, which clocked in with 5280 percent growth. And in the marcomms field, Mediacom came in ninth with 487 percent growth, Gopher was 17th with 304 percent growth, SnapComms was 30th with 222 percent growth, recently acquired SublimeNZ was 31st with 216 percent growth and Christchurch’s Plato Design Agency was 35th with 208 percent growth.
Alleged mag ad scammers fake it until they make it (to court)
Back in the heady days of the early ’80s, invoice scams were thought to be one of the reasons for the creation of the Magazine Publisher’s Association—and the implementation of a more robust approach to measuring circulation of titles. But despite these measures, such scams are still occurring today, as evidenced by Operation Edit, a major joint enforcement agency operation led by the Serious Fraud Office that has led to six arrests.
ASB loses a dame, gains a new home loan campaign
As one famous Brit hits our screens, another famous Brit departs, because Dame Judi Dench’s time is up as the voice of ASB. And while Saatchi & Saatchi has already presided over an online campaign, a cool Spotify app and some nice print work for Big Yellow, it’s just released its first TV push with a spring home loan campaign offering borrowers some cash, Samsung Galaxy tablets and a taste of ‘fully furnished’ domestic bliss.
Ngage and Boxtcode harness consumers’ digits
QR codes have slowly started to infiltrate the local scene, but it’d be a stretch at this stage to say they’ve rocked the marketing world. Enter Boxtcode, patent-pending smartphone technology that aims to resolve the limitations of QR codes, with location-based technology that connects consumers with brands via a four digit code rather than a barcode that requires scanning.
Flip jumps on the cheap broadbandwagon, talks up free* broadband offer
Following a story in the Herald over the weekend about increased competition leading to a drop in broadband prices and increases in data allowances, new player Flip, a business in the CallPlus group of companies, and its agency Sugar&Partners decided to take the opportunity to link itself with the news and promote its offer of free* broadband with an ad in yesterday’s Herald.
It’s a party on your chest: Vodafone ups the mobile ante for Music Awards sponsorship
The Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards are hitting stage and screen next week, and, just as it did last year, Vodafone has employed the services of augmented reality (AR) as part of its sponsorship push. But it’s gone a bit further in its seventh year as naming rights sponsor with a few innovative mobile additions, like tapping into the second screening phenomenon with Pluk functionality and claiming a New Zealand first with an interactive broadcast set to be screened via its app.