After the earthquake New Zealanders everywhere quickly reached into their pockets, but many wished they could do something more practical to help. Well, small Tauranga-based advertising agency Flame had a stroke of inspiration after realising it had valuable assets lying around in the form of old billboards skins that would otherwise go unused, so a few quick calls to clients and billboard operators like iSite and Oggi and Flame’s Zak Lassey says it managed to round up a few hundred skins that were easily utilised as tarps for roofing, long drop covers, tents, or wherever else they were needed in Christchurch. And, as they’re still needed, he thinks other, larger agencies, clients and media owners should follow its lead.

In the wake of the Christchurch quake and the intense international media coverage that followed, many businesses—and plenty of individuals—have been trying to let the world know that New Zealand is still able to be toured and explored. As you’d expect, Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) has been leading that charge and has launched a campaign called New Zealand is Open, which saw ads run in Australian and United Kingdom national Sunday papers last weekend.

Inboxes are groaning under the weight of the emails sent out by daily deal sites at the moment. And successful Australian group buying site Cudo and MediaWorks will soon be adding a few more. But while new collaborative buying sites seem to be a dime a dozen at the moment, the newest boy on the increasingly crowded block claims to have a big point of difference: the deals will be promoted regularly on television by a real live human.

At 8.30pm this Saturday lights will be going out—or so it’s hoped—to help draw attention to climate change. And as this fantastic new ad shows, those who ignore Earth Hour do so at their peril.

In this round of Ads@6, Expedia taps into our frugal Australasian sensibilities with its ‘New York on $50’ spot; Westfield and Moccona continue to push their  big travel promotions; Countdown continues its TV domination; P&O’s ads somehow make going on a cruise seem like it would be enjoyable; Persil hits the spot with its Small Whites ad; Rexona gets uber fashionable for its ‘fragrance collection’; Burger King puts bourbon in its burgers; TV3 embraces comparative advertising; Hyundai gets bucolic—and patriotic—with its Country Calendar promotion; and if Harvey Norman’s shouting, the ITM 400 Hamilton promos and the Protex ‘wash wash’ jingle are just too much to handle, Maxalt and The Low Down are here to help.

Eric Hertz

The last time 2degrees released its customer numbers in February 2010, it had managed to attract 206,000 New Zealanders with a combination of attractive pricing, smart marketing, a much-loved frontman and a giant ‘log-oh’. Just over one year later—and 19 months since it first opened its doors in August 2009—that figure has more than doubled to 580,112. 

Air New Zealand’s suave yet moderately offensive travelling mascot Rico has already laid down some beats with a couple of Wellingtonian musos. But he’s taken his music career up a few notches recently after recording his debut track ‘Hello Sunshine’ in Los Angeles. And it features a pretty special guest who’s also earned a reputation as something of a ladies man: Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. AKA Tha Doggfather AKA Snoop Dogg.

One of the unintended consequences of a natural disaster like the Christchurch earthquake has been a reaffirmed belief in human decency. There were, of course, the expected low-life opportunists trying to take advantage of the situation, but the vast majority of New Zealanders seem to have dug deep and tried to do what they could to help. While claims of ‘quake washing’ have already surfaced, it’s difficult to criticise members of the marcomms community who have decided to harness their communications skills to launch and run a range of worthy fundraising initiatives. And the Bands4Hope campaign is a good example of this industry cohesion.

Oktobor’s managing director Bruce Everett told Stuff in September last year that the company’s commitment to advertising was still deep, despite the fact it was steadily being transformed into “visual effects, animation and digital creative convergence studio”. Well, the connection to advertising wasn’t that deep, obviously, because Everett has announced that Oktobor won’t be offering TVC and VFX services to the advertising and commercials market on a day-to-day basis anymore and will instead shift resources across to the relatively recently christened but obviously very successful animation arm, Oktobor Animation.

The research business is pretty damn tight at the moment as clients cut back on ‘luxuries’ and agencies increasingly take the work in-house. But that hasn’t stopped Edentify, a specialist online market research agency that was started in Australia 11 years ago, from opening its doors in Auckland.

It was a mixed bag for DDB New Zealand last week. The team were forced to drown their sorrows late last week after the agency realignment everyone was talking about saw it say goodbye to the big ANZ account. But, on the plus side, it dominated the Fairfax Admedia agency of the year awards and it’s continued its run of hot form with another good awards haul, this time at Adfest in Thailand.

The last adidas campaign featuring a galaxy of stars was largely deemed to be an expensive, cringe-worthy flop. But the German apparel behemoth is aiming to make amends for that misfire with a massive new global campaign called ‘adidas all in’. And while it doesn’t quite reach the giddy heights of Nike’s ‘Write the Future’, it comes pretty damn close.

The numbers have been crunched by the Advertising Standards Authority and an overall advertising revenue increase of $92 million for 2010 is welcome news for an industry that has grown accustomed to big declines over the past few years.

The Axis Awards are just around the corner. And Andy Fackrell of 180 Amsterdam (quite possibly the most successful ex-pat Kiwi creative), Bryan Rowles of 72 and Sunny in Los Angeles and Dejan Rasic of Colman Rasic in Sydney are the three international boffins doing the judging. All three will show their work and wax lyrical at the Axis Creative Function on Wednesday 30 March (tickets are on sale at www.caanz.co.nz), but in an effort to limit the awkward silence that almost always eventuates after Kiwi crowds are asked if they have any questions, we want you to add yours to the comment wall. The best ones will be read out on the night by MC Oliver Driver, leaving you to focus on your drinking.

Mini’s advertising has been consistently good in recent years, both here and overseas, and it’s undoubtedly one of the automotive industry’s most innovative brands. In New Zealand, DraftFCB’s creative and media strategy during the Soho campaign was top notch and the experiment to get rid of car yards and see if people would buy new cars online was a particularly brave retail strategy (although the MINI Garage on Ponsonby Road does look suspiciously like a car yard). Well, now it’s got another hit on its hands with the Carmonica.

It’s been seven years since we started Customer Experiences and two things became very clear to me back in 2003: one was that businesses struggled to find a competitive advantage in a market that was fast becoming “a world of sameness”, and two, the future success of a business was going to be very much tied to the quality and consistency of its customer experience.