The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
Who’s it for: Mercury Energy by TBWA\Tequila
Why we like it: It’s the talented Tiki Taane, and with profits from his song going to Starship Children’s Hospital what’s not to like? That and the goofy Footrot Flats-esque mixture of animation and reality.
Youtube …
Global integrated PR and communications agency Hotwire has rebranded its New Zealand operation Creo to bring it under the family name.
UK-based Aegis Media, “the world’s fastest growing marketing communications group”, bought Mitchell Communication Group in June last year for AU$363 million. And Carat and Mitchell have now officially been brought together in New Zealand, with around 70 staff from a variety of businesses now beavering away in a new Parnell office.
Mercury Energy is celebrating New Zealand’s “good energy” in its latest TVC. Tiki Taane has that in spades, and has happily lent his talent to the ad, which was made by TBWA\Tequila, with the Always On My Mind singer recording a new version of Over the Rainbow and donating all proceeds from the sale of it to Starship Hospital. What a good country!
One of the great ironies of the advertising industry is the fact that advertising agencies, despite dispensing plenty of advice to their clients about the need to continue spending up large (especially during a recession), rarely advertise themselves. But DraftFCB has been the exception to that rule in New Zealand in recent years and it caught our attention with a campaign that showed off some of its remarkable powers of persuasion in Air New Zealand’s Koru lounges.
As an array of talent shows fill our screens, the sound of wannabes is nigh-on inescapable. But whatever your opinion on the worth of such content, there’s no denying they’re popular. And TVNZ is planning to add to the melee with a multi-million dollar local production of NZ’s Got Talent that will screen on TV ONE.
TV3 has matched rival TVNZ’s talent show announcement with an ace card of its own. The much anticipated local version of hit renovation show ‘The Block’ is one step closer, with the ‘fab four’ sponsors announced. Bunnings, Kiwibank, Mazda and Wild Bean Café are the inaugural ‘foundation partners’ of this long awaited local series, and the call has gone out for contestants. Three million Aussies watched the final live show, of the most watched series in Australia, where it consistently out-rates Masterchef.
Andrew Kordek is the co-founder of Trendline Interactive, a market research agency based out of Chicago. Before that, he was responsible for strategy at Groupon, the first ever group-buying start-up, and fastest growing company of all time. With nearly 20 years marketing experience, Kordek knows his stuff. He’s an avid blogger, and advocates responsible email marketing. He was in New Zealand for a few hours last week, so we nabbed him, and made him spill the beans…
With the current popularity of Kate and Wills, Sherlock Holmes and Downton Abbey, the English aristocracy is so hot right now. And Griffin’s and Assignment Group have harnessed the zeitgeist with a brilliant new campaign that pokes fun at British stereotypes and aims to make consumers think differently about Huntley & Palmer’s crackers.
DraftFCB was told it had won the Vodafone account on Friday afternoon. And as if that wasn’t enough good news for one day, it also won the Grand Prix at the RSVP and Nexus Awards that night for the Electricity Authority’s What’s My Number? campaign.
Beck’s recently launched a series of limited edition art labels on all its beer bottles. And to celebrate, Beck’s are giving away a swish prize pack, which you could win by sharing your artistic bent.
It took a bloody long time, but DraftFCB has won the Vodafone account ahead of Ogilvy and .99, and AffinityID, which has done some project work for the company in the past, has won the CRM business, bringing a long-awaited end to the uncertainty—both for the agencies involved in the pitch and for the local Vodafone team thought to have been waiting on a decision from global HQ.
adidas New Zealand will be showing off one of the latest in marketing technology to its head office in Germany, all thanks to a Hamilton print company. Last November we told you about Print House in Hamilton’s new integrated multi-media technology that allows ultra thin video screens to ‘show-and-tell’ about a product. adidas New Zealand tried it, loved it, and are taking it to the company’s HQ in Germany.
Grabaseat’s ambassador Ron Rowwdy will be sharing his exclusive reports every Thursday throughout March on grabaseat.co.nz and Grabaseat’s Facebook page. His weekly reports reveal the very scientific formulas Grabaseat use to discover each week’s ‘nice price’. The campaign was developed in conjunction with Rowwdy Productions, the Grabaseat team, and the agency Contagion.
Around 450 industry folk turned up for APN Outdoor’s Friends in High Places event last night at Mantells to hear Tiki Taane, Sola Rosa, PNC, DJ Sambora and State of Mind. So if you were there—or you want to live vicariously through those that were—here are some glamour shots for your viewing pleasure. All the guests are invited to tag themselves in the album of party pics available on the FIHP Facebook page from this afternoon.
The country’s packaging heroes and villains have been unmasked once again thanks to the Unpackit awards, with the folks from Wanaka Wastebusters whittling down 200 nominations to the eight best and worst examples of packaging in New Zealand.
There were a few raised eyebrows in the industry when Corey Chalmers and Guy Roberts followed the ASB business from TBWA\ to Droga5. Now, after 18 months with the agency, the pair have upped sticks again to fill the role of creative directors at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ, while Droga5 has named Anomaly London’s executive creative director Nathan Cooper as a replacement.
Accessing government information can be a necessary evil, one often accompanied by much gnashing of teeth, wailing, and tearing of hair follicles. Why? The word bureaucratic springs to mind, followed swiftly by convoluted, unnecessarily intricate, and confusing. But that’s all about to change, thanks to a brand spanking new website The New Zealand Government Directory. Now, understanding the workings of government, and its key power brokers, has never been easier. The interactive new site, developed by Network Communication, brings together all publicly available information onto the one site. Hurrah.
Looking for number-based sneakiness and selective/creative use of statistics comes with the territory in this job. Whenever audience data for magazines, newspapers, radio, TV or online is released, we can generally look forward to a host of releases from proud media owners that, understandably, aim to portray the results in a positive light—and, by extension, portray their competitors in a negative light. And, with the battle for online eyeballs heating up, MSN NZ and Yahoo! NZ are currently engaging in some data-related fisticuffs.
The Christchurch earthquake and New Zealand’s subdued economy are being blamed for Australian media beast APN News & Media’s full-year earnings sinking $45m into the red. The results come at the same time as APN announces an outdoor advertising joint venture with Quadrant Private Equity, allowing it to expand further into Australasia.
Kordia has delivered television and radio to our homes for the last 60 years, enjoying relative anonymity. But the switch to digital later this year leaves the state-owned telco competing with the likes of Gen-i, Telecom, and Telstra for slices of the telecommunications pie. So, Kordia and Silk Communications have come up with some novel ways to gain the attention of the people who count. Literally. The chief information officers (CIOs), by appealing to their inner geek.
CAANZ has rung plenty of changes to the awards programme this year. And, for the first time, it asked industry big brains to apply or be nominated for their positions on the judging panel in an effort to add a bit of gravitas. And after 96 applications and 20 nominations were received, the CAANZ Media Awards Committee has announced 89 successful candidates for the preliminary round of judging.
15-29 year olds make up 25 percent of New Zealand’s total visitors. And while they may not spend as much as the older folk, they stay here for a longer and are an important chunk of revenue for the industry. Due to a combination of new, exciting and probably cheaper destinations coming into fashion and a lack of activity directed at the youth market over the years, New Zealand has fallen off the radar slightly for this demographic, but Stories Beat Stuff, a digital campaign launched by Contagion last year that asks potential travellers to give something up in exchange for a trip to New Zealand, is helping to change that.
The Phantom Billstickers Poems on Posters initiative has seen posters of Kiwi poetry pasted up all over the world; in London, Glasgow, Paris, Austria, Australia and the United States. It’s the brainchild of Jim Wilson, who started the project in 2009. His aim is to use posters to share the heart of the Kiwi poet with people outside of New Zealand, and to that effect, eight Kiwi poets are flying to New York next week for a live poetry performance at Saatchi & Saatchi on 28 February. To help spread the word about the event, Phantom have put Janet Frame’s poetry poster, The End, up in bright lights on a billboard in Times Square.
Naked announced the appointment of Guy Cousins as its managing partner last week. And as he comes in the front door, highly regarded strategist and planner Simon Bird has snuck out the back for a role as the head of planning within Whybin\TBWA.
Life is tough. There are many undesirable situations in the world right now. The Greek economy, world hunger, Justin Bieber … Idealog doesn’t claim to have all the answers but its latest issue can help with some of the lesser details, like how to read your rival’s financial statements, shut down a dinner party bore, give a winning speech, get on the front page, self-publish and more.
Who’s it for: DB Export Dry by Colenso BBDO and The Sweet Shop
Why we like it: Everyone loves the ’80s. Or at least laughing at them. And this brilliantly-made piece of masculine nostalgia for DB Export Dry’s ‘say no to wine’ campaign is a gem …
I first met Harry in the late ’70s when he applied for a job at Survey Research (now called Research International). He was fresh out of university, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Despite his unpronounceable name, there was something about him that I liked and he was hired for his first job.
In the two weeks leading up to Christmas it’s no surprise most TVCs, including those from Harvey Norman, Briscoes, Telecom, Sky, Lotto, Farmers, Postie, Warehouse Stationery, and the Warehouse were Christmas themed. Cadbury came up with the most original one, building an enormous snow globe in the middle of Auckland, at the height of summer. Bunnings bravely went against the grain, not mentioning Xmas at all, instead showing just how much fun can be had with a few good chainsaws…
Heather Roy’s Education Freedom of Association amendment act brought an end to compulsory membership to student’s associations at a tertiary level. And while it would be easy to write off the effects of the legislation as minor, the loss of the small payment included with the usual student fees has led to some big changes to Massey’s student publications.
All around the world, things go a little bit green on St Patrick’s Day as token Irishfolk embrace the festivities and set about downing 13 million pints of Guinness. And, as part of a global effort to make March 17 officially the friendliest day of the year, Lion and Zephyr have put Guinness back on TV for the first time in 12 years with a campaign featuring very funny Irish comedian Jimeoin.
MSN’s recent investment in local news production and global news and video content is paying off big time, with latest Omniture figures showing a whopping 48 percent year-on-year upswing in unique browsers (UBs) visiting MSN’s news portal, up 250,000 to 771,000. In contrast, over the same period, UBs visiting rival Yahoo’s news offering dropped more than ten percent, from 1.7 million to 1.5 million. (Source: Nielsen MI).
It’s been a rough old time in the movie industry lately. The last few years have seen a general decline in ticket sales, partly from the competition of video-piracy and video-games, but also because some punters actually prefer watching the latest releases on DVD from the comforts of their own home. With advances in home entertainment rapidly evolving, cinema owners are having to up the ante, launching sophisticated technology not available in the average home. Synchronised motion effects built into cinema seats are the industry’s latest tactic to attract moviegoers—and they could offer some creative advertising opportunities as well.
As of yesterday, Kiwi FM could add “60 percent” in front of its name, as MediaWorks announced a new format that will see the introduction of 40 percent international music. But while the fully New Zealand playlist is set to be sacrificed, the government cash it receives won’t be.
In a move that creates the largest design group in all Australasia, Designworks has expanded its Australian presence by welcoming branding business Yello Sydney into the group.
The country’s favorite food magazine turns 25 years old this month, but Cuisine editor Sarah Nicholson isn’t resting on any laurels, in fact she’s set her sights even higher.