The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
It’s full speed ahead for Rugby World Cup orientated advertising in this latest round of Ads@6, with Coca-Cola, TV1 and the Warehouse all taking a piece of the rugby pie. Elsewhere, fat green monsters make an appearance for Mucinex, Mini Countryman cars multiply and take over a city, and Pak’nSave pulls out its stickman star once again to help celebrate its birthday.
Back in June, Boundary Road Brewery, the newly rebranded Independent Liquor, launched a campaign to celebrate the launch of a ‘craft range’ that asked Kiwis to be the arbiter of taste and choose their favoured variety of beer, with the winning brew eventually released commercially. The print campaign asking for tasters took out the NAB ad of the month award and now it’s followed that up by acknowledging the 999 humans who tasted and chose the Chosen One beer with an ad in The New Zealand Herald that listed every one of them by name.
Rugby World Cup (RWC) sponsorship activity is already rampant and as some visitors get set to make the most of the tournament by heading along to the games or watching them at Party Central, they’re being given a taster of what they’re in for, quite literally by way of taste. RWC sponsor Brancott Estate, in conjunction with EYE and creative agency Pim, has created a virtual vineyard at Auckland International Airport that stretches across both arrivals halls and extends onto travelators, walls, floors and ceilings.
Who’s it for: Smirnoff by Leo Burnett Sydney and Curious Film
Why we like it: It was a bit of a coup for Darryl Ward to get this shoot. But, as you’d expect from a chap who won two Cannes Grand Prix awards in one year …
Curious Film’s co-founder Darryl Ward has obviously got a thing for musicians. First it was Iggy and Orcon. Now he’s ventured stateside once more to work on a big project with musician and producer Pharrell Williams for Smirnoff’s ‘Start Pure’ campaign, which was conceived by Leo Burnett Sydney.
Just as we celebrate birthday milestones by perusing through old and embarrassing photos of ourselves, Mac’s Brewery is likewise harking back to the past as it gets set to celebrate its 30th birthday in November with a touch of 80s.
… as Federation adds both staff and clients, Designworks appoints an experienced business campaigner to the new role of client strategist, Magnum hits double figures, Eleven adds two new accounts, Mike O’Sullivan to pass judgement in London and video and social/casual gaming network VENA adds an Asia Pacific COO.
On 4 September 1991, a classic Kiwi slogan was born. 20 years later and, love it or hate it, the Absolutely Positively Wellington brand is still doing the business. So, to celebrate this auspicious anniversary, the good folk at Positively Wellington Tourism and Touch-Cast created a video charting the brand’s history.
After a record 3647 entries, the 55 jury members for Spikes Asia have released the shortlists for Print, Outdoor, Media, Direct, Promo & Activation, Design, PR, Radio, Digital, Mobile and Film. And DDB NZ is at the front of the Kiwi pack with 15 nominations, with Colenso BBDO close behind on eight.
ASB had Goldstein. ANZ has The Mentalist. The National Bank has a Black Stallion. And now, thanks to Special Group and The Sweet Shop, TSB Bank has an old alien.
Every man and his dog is trying to get a piece of the rugby pie at the moment, some officially, some not so officially. Barkers is the official formalwear supplier to the All Blacks, and to leverage its sponsorship it’s just launched the ‘Not Any’ campaign. But wait, there’s more: Barkers has also been named as the only New Zealand finalist in the Australasian Online Retail Industry Awards (ORIAs), the only awards in Australasia that recognises and rewards excellence in ecommerce retailing.
Photo by Paul Statham
AUT became a university just ten years ago and while its compelling consumer-facing brand was doing the business, its 14 Research Institutes had grown organically until 2009 and had no overall marketing, brand or strategic direction—even though research success plays a big role in establishing a good reputation. Enter 30-year-old Max Woodhead, who worked in marketing for sport and recreation and applied sciences and whose job it was to help build a research brand from scratch, unify the view of these disparate research strands, get the notoriously headstrong academics and institute directors to believe in the project and eventually build AUT’s overall brand, attract better post graduate academics, foster better research outputs and bring in more funding.
In case you haven’t noticed, the nation has fully embraced the Rugby World Cup, as evidenced most clearly during opening night festivities, when, according to a special survey of all the individuals (15+) in Nielsen’s 500-home TAM panel, the opening game was watched by 81 percent of all New Zealanders, with 11 percent of those watching it at a pub or outdoor venue.
The latest annual report from Fairfax painted a fairly grim picture for the Australian-owned media company, with a loss of A$401 million on the back of a A$651 million writedown in the value of its mastheads and a 40 percent reduction in the value of its share price this year. In an effort to raise capital, local teacher’s pet TradeMe is set to be partially floated and changes are also being made within both the New Zealand newspaper and magazine divisions.
There’s been some major consolidation in the outdoor sector of late. APN bought Oggi and submissions are currently open should you want to have your say to the Commerce Commission about iSite’s bid to buy OTW. But while the big two fight it out, the smaller guys keep trucking on and Phantom Billstickers has added one of the country’s premier street poster sites at the corner of Symonds and Alex Evans St in Auckland to its arsenal. And it’s kicked it off with a nice bit of creative self-promotion.
…as the Ogilvy juggernaut keeps rolling, SparkPHD hires an ‘Irish media maven’, The Radio Network’s long-serving chief exec gets set to step down, Fluxx welcomes the co-founder of the Beige Brigade, Naked nabs a new comms planner, International Rescue adds five newbies to the flock, Media Design School tastes glory in Los Angeles, Lily & Louis wins a couple of accounts, ActionActors takes to the stage and Mark Hanson sets up a new kind of PR agency.
There have been quite a few changes at AIM Proximity recently. Adam Good left for the bright lights of San Fran and 12 staff have been sent up the road to work at .99 on the Vodafone account, which is about to go to pitch after moving from Colenso. But there are obviously still enough inhabited desks to make this nifty wee stop-motion video, which was created in one night by using items from employees’ desks.
The News International phone hacking saga put the cosy network of media and government in sharp focus and showed how powerful media organisations can extert undue pressure on lawmakers and law upholders. And, according to a report by AUT University’s Research Centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy (JMAD), similar trends—and their associated dangers—are also evident in New Zealand.
Paymark figures show the country is already reaping the benefits of extra Rugby World Cup spending, with a surge in transactions even before the opening ceremony.
Per capita, New Zealand has the highest rate of banana consumption in the world. But, because we can’t grow enough of them ourselves, importing them is the only way to satisfy our voracious appetite. For All Good Organics, the problem was the wrong kind of bananas were being consumed, so it established a new socially responsible and sustainable banana brand that was, as the slogan says, good for the land, good for the grower, and good for consumers’ consciences—and they did it with an extremely limited budget and a challenger brand twinkle in the eye.
He switched from creative agency to media agency almost three years ago, and now Mitchell and Partners managing director Philip O’Neill is set to make another switch and will step down from the role in the next few months.
Shopping is one of the country’s favourite leisure activities. But for certain, usually non-female, demographics, the thrill of consumerism quickly wears thin. In response to this, Ikea has just developed a male creche in Australia called Manland. And, in New Zealand, as part of a programme to keep the kids entertained, Westfield BrandSpace, Persil and DNA have joined forces to create a series of new branded indoor playgrounds.
After around three years with JWT New Zealand, executive creative director Peter Ogden has resigned and will return to Sydney.
Some say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But if you work in advertising, marketing or media, you’ll know that’s not true. It’s lunch that’s at the top of the list. And Vinnies on Jervois Road in Auckland (bookings can be made online here) has referenced that with the launch of a rather enticing Friday lunch deal, where diners can get two courses and a glass of wine for just $45 (those with a meat tooth will be overjoyed to learn the lambshanks are back by popular demand). To celebrate this gastronomic arrival, we’re giving away two meals for four from the new lunch menu, one for the person who comes up with the best fictional slogan to advertise the new menu (add it to the comment wall) and one for the best rough sketch of a creative idea for a print ad (email it to [email protected] with Vinnies in the subject line).
The Fire Service and M&C Saatchi recently launched a fairly unique campaign that features revellers after a big night out discussing the perils of drinking and frying—and, by extension, celebrating the joy of takeaways. Now, in another unusual step, it’s joined forces with Hell Pizza, which is putting the ‘Don’t drink and fry’ message on over a million pizza boxes and 100,000 scratch and win tickets that will be distributed in hospitality areas at night over the next two months.
More like a film launch than a traditional ad campaign, Kiwibank’s cheeky new EasySwitch campaign, which encourages consumers to switch banks via an interactive YouTube channel called ‘Green Ops’ that looks and feels like a first-person POV-style game, has taken out the Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award for August.
Special Group and MediaWorks TV took the non-rugby ball and ran with it for ‘The Home of Not Rugby’ campaign and their online ad that gave users the opportunity to ‘un-rugby’ an interactive banner has won the September IABNZ BollyAward, which aims to encourage great Kiwi-made online creative.
Who’s it for: NZ Lotteries/Big Wednesday by DDB NZ and Finch Company
Why we like it: The super rich, with their elaborate fountains, large mansions, fancy cars and salmon sweater/salmon polo shirt/salmon pant outfits, are actually quite comical. And the new Big Wednesday ad …
Asking the public to devise a campaign that best welcomes the world to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup might seem risky, but by the looks of this TVC, DDB’s Welcome the World campaign for ANZ Bank seems to have been successfully executed, even if it did take the help of hundreds of people and a copious amount of hours to get there.
There are 21,000 weddings every year in New Zealand, and each one costs an average of $32,000. Some have margarine sculptures and chocolate fountains, some have jandals on the beach and a few burnt snarlers. But whatever the format, all of them need to be planned and Tangible Media’s New Zealand Weddings is aiming to make that process much smoother with a new annual publication.
Every year the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Review (DJSI World) provides a global analysis of corporate sustainability leadership across 57 sectors, capturing the top 10 percent of the biggest 2500 companies worldwide. Following this year’s assessment, 41 companies will be added to the list while 23 will be deleted. Of note when it comes to the top ranked is PepsiCo, Samsung Electronics and BMW, which is the only company in the automotive industry to be listed in this family of indexes every year since it was established in 1999.
In 2009 entrepreneur Geoff Matthews and a consortium of mates purchased a struggling fish farm near Twizel and renamed it Mount Cook Alpine Salmon (MCAS). They knew MCAS was ten years behind the game, so just to catch up wasn’t good enough. It had to leapfrog the industry and play by its own rules.
You’ve marvelled at the winners, who each get to drive a new Audi A1 Sport Plus for a week, and you’ve seen the pictures from the CAANZ Battle of the Ad Bands. Now, thanks to Flying Fish and Audi, you can hear some of the ear/see some of the eye candy those there on the night got to lap up by heading to the Experience Audi website.
M&C Saatchi has been busy with its emergency services accounts this year, with a slightly controversial Police campaign after the earthquake that gained some international media attention and a very personal campaign for the Fire Service. And it’s continued that momentum with two more good efforts, one featuring a few well-lubricated folks at the end of a big night slurring away about the dangers of drinking and frying and another radio campaign to try and stop foreign visitors here for the RWC from having to call 111.
As part of Colmar Brunton’s inaugural New Zealand Dinner Plate Study, 1017 Kiwis were asked what they were having for dinner, who planned, cooked and shopped for the meal, what their attitudes and emotions were to cooking, and all the who with, what with, where and which day of the week questions you can think of. And while there were lots of findings that fit with what you’d expect, there were a few surprises too, chief among them that Kiwi blokes now make up nearly half of the growing ‘passionate foodies’ category and are generally more passionate about cooking.
As we’ve seen in the lead-up up to the Rugby World Cup, PR is very important—and, at times, very tough to control. But it’s not just about crisis management or pushing products. So in an effort to show what PR is actually all about—and how it can be used effectively—the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ) has released the first ever New Zealand Public Relations Case Studies eBook, which tells the tales of 26 PRINZ Award winners and entrants from 2011.