The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
Who’s it for: NZ Tax Refunds by Special Group and Finch
Why we like it: Everyone loves getting an unexpected windfall. And they’ve captured the difficulty of internalising such joy so you can spend it all yourself pretty well. Humour and tax, who would’ve thunk …
In an effort to get St Paddy’s Day in the Guinness Book of World Records, Zephyr recently enlisted the help of Irish comedian Jimeoin for its outstanding Guinness campaign. And it’s kept the star-studded momentum flowing with the launch of a new campaign for McKenna starring David Duchovny.
It took a while, but Kevin Kenrick, a well-known New Zealand business figure who has held a number of leadership roles with Lion Nathan, Telecom New Zealand, and most recently, House of Travel, has been named as the new chief executive of TVNZ and will take up the position in the middle of May.
Marc Ellis has carved out a good niche as a loveable Kiwi rogue and, as a result, he’s certainly not unaccustomed to working as a corporate mascot. Most recently that’s meant work for Toyota’s Top to Bottom and HRV and now Christchurch agency Simpatico has harked back to his mischievous laddish heritage in a campaign for classic Kiwi brand Swanndri.
Special Group won the NZ Tax Refunds account following a competitive pitch late last year. And it’s relaunched the brand with a campaign that celebrates the joy of an unexpected windfall and aims to differentiate it from the crowd of “me too” brands that now clutter the category.
Following in the footsteps of Jason Paris, who shifted from TVNZ to take up the role of MediaWorks TV chief executive, TVNZ’s director of sales and marketing Paul Maher has switched sides after almost two years to become the new chief executive of television at MediaWorks. But that’s not all he’ll have on his plate, because as well as leading TV3, TV3+1, FOUR and C4, he will also assume the responsibilities of the outgoing director of sales for MediaWorks TV, Linda Farrelly.
The latest ASA figures showed the radio industry grew its ad revenue by 2.5 percent and maintained stable share of all advertising at 11 percent. And it’s good news on the audience front too, with the latest six-monthly audience research figures showing that commercial radio in New Zealand has more listeners now that at any time in the past decade.
After a tough few months last year, Colenso’s on a bit of roll again, with some big campaigns launching, some good award results and the Tourism Fiji account thought to be in the bag. And ‘Bevan’ from DB Export Dry’s ‘The Wine is over’ print series has added to the joy by taking out the NAB’s Ad of the Month.
When it rains it pours and it’s certainly pouring in bankland at the moment because one of the most talked about agency bank relationships in the country has officially come to an end after ASB appointed Saatchi & Saatchi, effective 1 July 2012.
All the talk about Westpac at the moment is centred on which agency/agencies it decides to work with. But it might not need too much help with the PR, because Westpac NZ’s media relations team walked away with the Gold Award for Campaign of the Year at the 2011 Asia-Pacific PR Awards for the ‘Richie McCaw Chopper Challenge’.
.99’s had a very tough few months. It lost Air New Zealand and Vodafone to DraftFCB and, as far as we’re aware, it’s not on the pitch list for the brand work for Westpac, although whether it retains the retail business seems dependent on which creative agency the bank goes with. So a few alarm bells went off when we heard Colenso and Special Group were doing work for one of its remaining big clients New World.
Wellington is pretty proud of itself. And rightly so. But in a nod to its incessant capitalisation of things–and also to April Fool’s—the Positively Wellington Tourism folk decided to laugh at its own expense and the expense of some of its regional rivals by claiming a few more titles.
Who’s it for: State by Colenso BBDO and Ruskin
Why we like it: It’s either brave or foolish for State to trivialise accidents with a jaunty sing-a-long, especially after the events that have befallen the country in recent times and the role insurance companies have played …
We heard a dirty little rumour yesterday that recruitment companies were on the loose looking to place some of Ogilvy’s digital staff because its entire inhouse development team had been shut down. This got the spidey senses tingling, so we had a chat with executive director Paul Manning, who called BS on it and, slightly ironically, took the opportunity to announce the addition of experienced digital creative director Andrew Berglund to the team.
2011 was a big year for Adshel, with the Rugby World Cup helping to fill the coffers, the return of the Adshel Rally afer a long hiatus and the departure of Australian-based chief executive Steve McCarthy and marketing director Elvira Lodewick. And it’s keeping the changes coming in 2012, with a restructure of the local office that has seen sales director Nick Vile promoted to the role of general manager for New Zealand.
In February, TVNZ and NZ on Air announced they would be adding to the cacophony of reality talent competitions on TV with a multi-million dollar production of New Zealand’s Got Talent. NZ On Air committed $1.6 million in funding and TVNZ went hunting for commercial partners to add to its own $1.6 million contribution. And the first major sponsor has been announced, with Toyota signing up as a key commercial partner.
Dan Carter got a bit of grief when he was somehow turned into a slightly creepy wallflower for Daikin heatpumps. And Stephen Fleming is well renowned as the diving spokesman for Fujitsu. Now “New Zealand’s number one selling wood fire” Metro Fires has combined the two with a parody ad featuring Dai Henwood.
The digital boffins/idiot savants at Resn in Wellington work for one of the rare few Kiwi companies that can claim to be based in New Zealand and do work for big brands all around the world. But now, after what they say was a formal approach from the EU to “help bail them out of their fiscal conundrum”, Resn has decided to go global and set up its first satellite office in Amsterdam.
Amazingly, the Mayans predicted Marmageddon would fall in 2012 (even though an internet myth claims they didn’t factor in Leap Years). And, in keeping with the modern trend of ‘Flawsomeness’, Sanitarium and Saatchi & Saatchi haven’t let the opportunity slip them by and have launched a new campaign featuring Sir Graham Henry asking New Zealanders not to freak out about the shortage of black gold and promising concerned residents that the yeasty meat-substitute will be back.
Yesterday, the Fijian government banned inbound tourists as flash flooding wreaked havoc. But, after a global pitch thought to have received more than 60 submissions, it’s thought Colenso BBDO will now be responsible for trying to get more of them to visit after beating out agencies from New Zealand, Australia and the US to become the new global agency for Tourism Fiji.
The marcomms world has a reputation for knobbish behaviour. Throwing bread rolls at MCs, using middle initials, crashing luxury cars, making up ridiculous job titles, tricking people into buying things with shiny ads … the list goes on. So what better way to celebrate the launch of Knob Creek 9YO and 9YO single barrel bourbon than by asking our dear readers to offer an example of knobbishness (for example, wearing a tight salmon polo shirt and tight salmon pants with a salmon sweater tied around the neck). We’ve got four bottles of the good stuff to give away, so add your thoughts to the comment wall and you could become our Knob of the Week.
Ah, April Fool’s. Or as the LA Times calls it, Don’t Trust the Media Day. There is a long and established tradition of punking on the first of the fourth, as the Independent’s piece on classic April Fool’s stunts shows. And here’s a round-up of a few good’uns we noticed in 2012.
There are a few tried and true methods of catching the attention of fans of erotic content and they usually involve body parts and vaseline (on the lens). But Sky and DDB have taken a slightly more tasteful, self-deprecating and some might even say intelligent approach to promote its Adult Channel.
They’re renowned as tough awards to win. And that was apparent at the AWARD awards ceremony in Sydney late last week, with Colenso BBDO the only Kiwi agency to pick up a gold for its viral film for Levi’s Rear View Girls, which was one of just 16 golds handed out on the night.
For many outside the ad industry, arguing over who was the first to come up with an idea could be perceived as petty. But when ideas are the lifeblood of this industry and often have a tangible effect on an agency’s reputation—and, if it helps to win awards, momentum—provenance is important. Recently we’ve seen some controversy over the creation of personalised OHBaby! magazines for Huggies. And it looks like we can add another interesting case to the list: Colenso BBDO’s Doggelganger website for Pedigree and Whybin\TBWA Sydney’s Dog-A-Like mobile app for the same client in Australia.
The retirement industry isn’t the most glamorous, but with our ageing population and the ‘pig in the python’ that is the baby boomer generation, there’s plenty of brass to be found in the muck. Typically, the big sell is all about the facilities on offer. But Summerset Group, which listed on the stock exchange in November, has taken a slightly different approach with its first national marketing campaign and is buttering up its residents instead.
Colenso’s ex head of planning James Hurman sailed away to China recently, and Colenso BBDO has named Andy McLeish, who has been acting head of planning over the past month, as his replacement.
Beyoncé, Britney, the Beckhams… All around the world, celebrities endorse perfumes—and, increasingly, sell their own. We can’t think of too many Kiwi stars spruiking fragrances at present, but that looks set to change soon because we’ve learned the NZRU is set to launch its own scent called Scrummâge.
State Insurance went large in 2010 year when it launched its ‘Love your Stuff’ positioning with the ‘My Favourite Things’ campaign. And Colenso BBDO has taken that musical approach even further for the next iteration with a big new TV and radio campaign showing how quickly State can get things back on track.
AA Insurance has said adios to Ogilvy and appointed Special Group and direct and digital specialists Twenty following a competitive RFP and a rigorous two month pitch process.
Social media means friends appear to have turned into a commodity to be crowed about these days. And, thanks to an original 1974 Volkswagen Kombi van, Fly Buys managed to increase its Facebook fan base ten-fold in December, with a total of 55,000 likes in three weeks (up from 5,500) through its ‘Dream Machine’ promotion, a finalist in the 2012 CAANZ Media Awards.
A galaxy of stars/people with faces for radio gathered at Atico Cocina in Auckland yesterday to listen to the year’s best radio ads. And, like last year, when Murray Watt from DraftFCB took both the Grande Orca and the people’s choice awards, and the year before that, Publicis Mojo’s Hadleigh Sinclair and Jack Delmonte walked away with both prizes, a giant cheque and a trip to the Cannes Lions for a very funny Subway campaign that detailed fat-related afflictions such as double chins, cankles and bingo wings.
One of the best e-things we saw last year was If Historical Events had Facebook Statuses. And TBWA\ has taken a leaf out a similar book and embraced social media for St Matthew in the City’s ‘traditional’ Easter billboard.
As of tomorrow, New Zealanders will have another option for viewing, with Australian movie and TV subscription service Quickflix launching and ISPs Slingshot and Orcon unmetering the new offering.
Hallensteins has been trying valiantly to add some coolness to the brand in recent years. And, if the much improved first half results for parent company Hallenstein Glasson are anything to go by, that approach is working. But its latest ad, The Power of the Suit, which was made by Publicis Mojo and directed by new Thick as Thieves recruit Jae Morrison, is easily its edgiest yet.
Pak N Save’s Stickman is a cheeky wee chappy. And he recently peeved off a few militant vegetarians and upholders of political correctness with a recent Meat Week ad. But rather than bow down to the vocal minority, as often seems to be the case these days, DraftFCB and Foodstuffs had a bit of fun instead and decided to placate the flesh avoiders with a modified version.