The latest agency news, campaigns and client wins (and losses) making headlines across Aotearoa.
Who it’s for: TSB by Special Group and Robber’s Dog
Why we like it: TSB Bank has been at the top of the banking customer service charts for a while now. And, as a result of this solid reputation, it’s also New Zealand’s most …
Comforting economic performances and improving consumer confidence in the Asia Pacific region should bring a smile to the collective dial of the New Zealand media and marketing fraternity, with media advertising spend in the 12 markets followed by Nielsen growing by 18 percent from the same time last year, although New Zealand spending across TV, newspaper and magazines is at the back of the regional pack, recording an increase of eight percent.
Despite our apathetic streak (or, perhaps more accurately, a national belief that if you just keep moseying on things will probably come right eventually), new research has showed that New Zealand consumers are actually fighting back against poor customer experiences and voting with their feet when businesses don’t meet their expectations.
With a record haul of Lions under his (and his company’s) belt after this year’s Cannes accolades were dished out, Colenso BBDO executive creative director, handyman of the land and Titanium and Integrated Lions juror Nick Worthington is sitting pretty. And in this clip, he’s also sitting with Our Maan in Cannes in a loud French restaurant.
Our Maan in Cannes gets up close – and personal – with Chris Schofield, creative director at DraftFCB and one of just six Kiwis to be chosen for jury duty at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, to find out about his Cannes experience. He was judging the Radio Lions and, interestingly, while DDB NZ managed to take home a gaggle of Lions for its Sky TV Arts Channel campaign, this category was the only one to go ‘Grand Prix-less’.
After their combined bacon and dairy victories earlier this year, the dream team of Naked Communications and Josh&Jamie has snaffled another one, SBS Bank.
All the Lions have been delivered at Cannes and Colenso BBDO has easily topped the Kiwi agency list, bringing home a record haul of ten leonine friends (three Gold, four Silver and three Bronze), out of a total of 25 for Kiwi agencies.
ASB has scratched its 12 year itch, after long-time incumbent TBWA\ was ousted by new (but old) boys on the block, Droga5.
Colenso BBDO will be hoping that the 10-man Cannes Lions jury will perform a feat of advertising alchemy and turn their ‘Yellow Chocolate’ campaign for Yellow Pages into a Titanium Lion after it was named on the Titanium and Integrated Lions Shortlist at the 2010 Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.
Our maan in Cannes caught up with Barry Williamson, media director of Mediaedge:CIA over a seriously expensive breakfast at the salubrious Carlton Intercontinental Hotel.
Colenso BBDO’s award-winning work for the New Zealand Book Council has been shortlisted in the Film and Film Craft categories at the 2010 Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Clearly not content to rest on their laurels, or indeed these other laurels here, Colenso has been shortlisted in the Sound Design and Animation sections of the Film Craft Category, whilst also making the cut in the Public Awareness Messages section of the Film Category.
There is so much that could be written about last night’s Magazine Publisher’s Association gong-fest, but StopPress has a headache, so instead let’s just say that Healthy Food Guide took out the Supreme Magazine award, NZ House & Garden’s Kate Coughlan took out Supreme Editor of the year and Paula Ryan, resplendent in an impractical yet presumably highly fashionable ensemble, was handed the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Having only just recovered from Bieber Fever, New Zealand is now firmly in the grip of Football Fever. And Les Mills Auckland has embraced the ‘new national colour’ ahead of the football fest against Paraguay, with chief executive Reece Zondag and gym service director Norm Phillips donning some excellent upper-lip disguises and, in the dead of night, transforming its prominent CBD billboard into a super-sized supporters message for the All Whites with the help of a few cans of paint, some spraycans and a cherry picker.
Idealog and her ugly sisters NZ Marketing, StopPress and Celsias have given birth (by C-section) to Design Daily, a daily news site for Kiwi architects and designers. Launched today, the site covers projects, people, events and politics in the design industry. And it will also send out a weekly free email newsletter that you can sign up for here.
Last night, at a secret location thick with the smell of cognac and cigars that must never be spoken of (unless the secret handshake is given and you sacrifice a virgin), some of radio’s biggest personalities gathered to eat things on sticks, eat things on spoons, drink things in glasses and take the piss out of themselves, their competitors, the medium of radio, the Auckland media, New Zealand politics, TV newsreaders and, the guests of honour, agency folk.
Alt Group may need to call in structural engineers to reinforce the mantelpiece in their Ponsonby office: the design superstars, who have taken home more than 50 international design awards in the last few years, can now add a Cannes Gold Lion to the list.
Big news came through yesterday that Kingsland indie agency Special Group had picked up the extremely coveted Grand Prix award in the Direct category at the Cannes Lions. Sadly, the Special Groupies were too busy doing actual work back in New Zealand and couldn’t get to Cannes to pick up the trophy, wallow in glory and revel in the fact that they were among the world’s best. But Our Maan in Cannes was.
This week on Ads@6, Sam Neill dresses up in traditional garb and avoids getting spat on by a South American beast for Kiwibank; Primo rewards those who choose the right fridge with a choir of soothing angels; and the Toshiba Heat Pump door snakes come clean and apologise for extravagant credit card use while overseas.
Further shortlists have been announced for the Design Lions and Cyber Lions categories, with spokesperson and Professor of Listology at Cannes University, Dr Jean Luc Baguette saying the announcement of the contenders has significantly reduced the danger of passers-by being crushed by debris falling from the shortlist mountain. Helping minimise the peril to the general public are Alt Group and Colenso BBDO, both shortlisted for Design Lions. Colenso was shortlisted twice in the Cyber Category, with TBWA\Tequila\Digital\Shift and Tribal DDB receiving single nods.
DDB and Liquid Studios hit it for six at Cannes last night, taking home six Cannes Lions from six finalist placings for their Arts Channel radio campaign for Sky Television. And Yellow has yet again turned to gold for Colenso.
The fingernails were being bitten feverishly late last week as the New Zealand marketing community used every last second at its disposal (and a few more on top of that) to get the entries in for the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. But all’s well that ends well: the number of entries has swelled to more than three times that of last year.
The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation (NZBCF) has seen the light – and the dark: its new Girls’ Night In fundraising campaign, which launched today, 22 June, and runs for two weeks, is putting a new, more contextual twist on the outdoor medium, with 20 of Adshel’s Create sites delivering a different image depending on whether the ad is seen during the day or at night.
Who it’s for: Pams by Barnes, Catmur & Friends
Why we like it: Quirky, cute and catchy, this rhyming foody animation tells the tale of Pams and manages to bring a dose of personality to a brand that many assumed was of the ‘house’ variety. Neither Tim Burton …
The finalist announcements have been made for the Press, Outdoor, Media and Radio categories at Cannes. And the Kiwis have continued their good run.
It’s not just the grizzled old leaders of the advertising pack that can be found wandering the halls and corridors of the Palais des Festivals. Slinking along in their shadows, sniffing the air for any sign of weakness are the Young Lions. Our maan in Cannes (or, depending on your pronunciation, our mans in Cannes), Martin Bell risks his personal safety in pursuit of Leonine quarry.
“Let’s take a ride and see what’s mine” sang Iggy Pop on his seminal 1977 track ‘The Passenger’. For Special Group, who co-opted the track and the man himself for their ‘Orcon + Iggy’ campaign, what’s theirs is a Grand Prix Award in the Direct Category at the 2010 Cannes Lions Festival.
Diana: pipped
At last, a rival to match the spectacular unifying experience that was Diana’s funeral: All Whites v Slovakia.
The ink, sweat and tears of New Zealand’s print industry were honoured on Friday night at the Pride in Print awards held at Sky City in Auckland. And Fonterra Canpac of Hamilton was judged the best of the best, taking out the most prestigious award for a metal baby food can.
The 57th Annual Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is underway with the announcement of the first three shortlists in the Direct Lions, Promo & Activation Lions and PR Lions categories. And, in keeping with the theme de jour (that’s French, don’t you know), the Kiwi contingent are off to a flying start, with 13 campaigns making the grade. Choosing another similar long skinny country as a random point of comparison, Italy has nine campaigns shortlisted in the same categories.
Pressure, as they say, makes diamonds (it also makes heart attacks and oil spills, but in this case, let’s stick with diamonds). And the pressure is on to get your entries in for the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards, with the gates officially closing at 5pm today. But, if you require an extension, break glass, call Sylvia Devlin on 361 7763 or email [email protected] and plead your case.
Ah New Zealand, what an egalatarian paradise you are, a place where you can shake hands with the Prime Minister without fear of being tackled by secret service agents, where anyone can play golf, squash or tennis without being harrassed by bogans for being an aristocrat and where an All Black can deliver your mail and make you a cup of tea.
MEC is first cab off the rank in Yahoo!Xtra’s new quarterly Digital Strategy Award, taking the inaugural trophy for its Caltex with Techron online campaign. And, in other digi-news, the Interactive Advertising Bureau is on the hunt for Bolly Award entries and has also secured the services of a couple of digital gurus to discuss the importance of online advertising in the automotive industry.
As The Day Today so famously said: “Facts times importance equals news”. Here’s some now, and this time it’s about various industry comings, goings, movings, shakings, to-ings and fro-ings.
Harrington’s small goods is setting out to spread the meaty truth and destroy the sausagey lies with New Zealand’s first official Sausage Awareness Week. Of course, every week is unofficial sausage week in New Zealand, but the real one will run from 5-10 July and aims “to help Kiwis recognise that ‘what goes into the sausage goes into you'”.
If they haven’t been washed away by the flash floods, six lucky New Zealand bastards are currently swanning about in the South of France. Of course, business is being mixed with pleasure: they are there in a professional capacity as judges for the Cannes Advertising Festival awards, which, as the world’s biggest and best advertising event, invites the world’s biggest and best advertising brains along to do the deciding. So here’s to them.
As someone (it’s usually Einstein) may have once said, perception is nine tenths of the marketing law. And the results of the third Attitude New Zealand survey, which delved into the strange and mysterious world of the Kiwi psyche, have shed some light on the perceptions around the nation’s brands, as well as revealing plenty of other interesting consumer and social trends that may have implications for marketers.