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More stories than there are sticks to shake at them

Another day, another dollar, another story, another story after that, and then a few more stories to finish. Who said story-telling is dead.

Prize fighters

Just a few weeks after being named Australasian Design Agency of the Year, greedy old Alt Group has picked up another international design prize, with the company being awarded a Merit at the 89th Annual Art Directors Club (ADC) Awards in New York, yet another set of awards touted as the ‘Oscars of something else’.

The ADC Awards honours the best work of the year in print and broadcast advertising, interactive media, graphic design, publication design, packaging, photography and illustration. And Alt Group took out the Corporate and Promotional Design Merit for their work on the ‘We Make Light’ booklet for Selecon, an Auckland-based theatre and architectural lighting design and manufacturing company that exports around the world.

“The Art Directors Club Awards are judged by a panel of the world’s foremost design experts and attract thousands of entries from some of the biggest and best design firms around the globe, so for one of our designs to be singled out as among the best in the world is a real achievement for our team,” says Dean Poole, creative director at Alt Group.

The booklet,which was developed as part of a broader brand identity project for Selecon, has won last year’s supreme graphic design prize at the Designers Institute of New Zealand’s national BeST Design Awards.

DDB go poaching

After three and a bit years at Colenso, senior creative pairing of Lisa Fedyszyn and Jonno McMahon have moved down the hill to DDB NZ, a big score considering the team has worked on Fonterra, NZ Book Council, Alzheimer’s New Zealand, Vodafone, Mars, New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation, TVNZ, TV3 and Frucor and have been recognised extensively in New Zealand and overseas at Axis, D&AD, Cannes, Clio, London International Awards, The One Show and Young Guns.

“We’re excited by the new brands, challenges and, of course, the chance to work with Toby, Adam and an amazing creative department. We’re blown away by the work being done at DDB across all clients and all teams. We can’t wait to be a part of it,” the team said in perfect synchronicity. “During our time at Colenso we’ve been lucky to work with and learn from not only Nick [Worthington] but also Steve Cochran, Brent Smart and many others. We are very fortunate to move from one great creative agency to another.”

And DDB has also been playing a bit of switcheroo with Saatchis: Joanne McDonald is DDB-bound as group account director on ANZ, while Simon Wedde went to Saatchis last week.

McDonald has been group account director for Westpac since 2006. She also worked for four years at Singleton Ogilvy & Mather and was company director at Mio Limited.

DDB Group New Zealand chief exec Sandy Moore says her depth of experience in banking will make her an invaluable addition to the DDB team.

“Her wealth of experience, strategic skills and dynamic approach to banking will be a huge asset to our team.

DDB’s brand TVC relaunch campaign for ANZ Bank went to air last week.

Plastic fantstic

Glass lovers suffer in your jocks: Full Circle by Yealands Estate, New Zealand’s first wine in a plastic bottle, has won a silver medal at the Royal Easter Wine Show 2010. Yealands won a few golds at the show, but owner and founder Peter Yealands is particularly chuffed with the silver for Full Circle, as it proves the naysayers wrong.

“Wines entered into competitions are all tasted blind, so the judges who tasted Full Circle did not know they were trying wine from a plastic bottle. This award proves that the oxygen scavenger technology works and the only flavours coming out of the PET bottle are those true of our unique Awatere Valley characteristics. We’re keen to push the boundaries in our quest to be green but not to the detriment of the quality of our wines.”

And the consumers seem to like it too: the initial Full Circle pilot has been so successful that Yealands is about to start the fourth round of bottling, with the product to be stocked in New World and Pak n Save supermarkets nationwide.

The plastic bottles weigh just 50gms compared to 500gm for a standard glass bottle and is easier to recycle which makes it better for the environment. It’s also found favour with campers, boaties, and festival-goers.

“When you look at the energy used in moving heavyweight glass around the world and within New Zealand, there is a lot of energy wasted that could be minimised with plastic bottles like Full Circle that are 89 per cent lighter than a traditional glass bottle,” he says.

AIA, eh

American Insurance assurance (AIA) New Zealand has announced the appointment of Darrin Franks as the head of distribution and marketing. He will be responsible for the strategic direction of the company’s marketing programme and leading the sales and distribution channels, working alongside the company’s national network of 1,500 advisers.

One of his major priorities will be identifying retention and growth opportunities in the New Zealand market for the company. Franks has run his own business, Conetworkz Management Solutions Ltd, for the last six years, providing strategic consulting services to private and institutional clients in the financial services sector. And he has over 23 years experience in the field and is widely known within the insurance industry in New Zealand.
“We are extremely pleased that Darrin has decided to join AIA New Zealand”, says Wayne Besant, AIA New Zealand chief executive. “Darrin’s experience and leadership across the sector will be of enormous benefit to the company as we all work towards achieving our corporate goals and building the success of AIA in New Zealand.”

Fair Go gets remixed

Fair Go is getting with the times and going online: the newly made-over show released its ‘Lemon’ promos, which feature Fair Go’s new addition Ali Mau, as well as Kevin Milne, Gordon Harcourt, Stu the plumber and Jan the real estate agent, on its Facebook page before launching during Masterchef NZ later that night.

As well as the promo, you can also see some out-takes on the Facebook page.

The new look Fair Go debuts the week after the final of Masterchef NZ.

Youtube Video

Mack Daddy

Vodafone has taken its wares on the road and is driving its pet transformer around the country. Nicknamed “Optimus Prime”, the Vodafone truck has a hydraulic system onboard that doubles the floor space of the trailer at the push of a button, converting it to a mobile showroom, fully operational retail store and mobile cellsite with the ability to increase coverage at large events over Vodafone’s 2G and 3G networks.
From the initial concepts to the final build, the 28 tonne Vodafone Mobile Showroom on a Mack truck took eight months to complete and the whole unit is ‘transformed’ from truck to showroom in just 30 minutes.

Vodafone’s sales director Grant Hopkins says the vision was to allow customers the ability to experience the very latest technology and services from Vodafone at the same time allowing our staff to service our customers leveraging the same processes and systems as in our retail stores.

“For the same cost as a fixed store refit we are able to take our products and services to all New Zealanders in an engaging and consistent way. The truck, while very innovative, is a cost-efficient solution to increasing our retail footprint. It is a completely new way of doing business.”

The custom-built trailer project was been a collaboration between Vodafone, Toll NZ, who project managed the build and manage the on-road logistics of the truck and trailer, and Intertruck Distributors of Whangarei, who were tasked with figuring out how to build the transforming trailer.

Head engineer, Paul Christie, says it’s been the largest customised project he’s worked on in his 27 years in the industry. “It’s been a labour of love for the 8 Intertruck staff involved.”

The truck had its first outing in April at the V8 Supercars in Hamilton and will be hitting the road over the coming months attending events from Whangarei to Invercargill.

Country and Westin

Katie Donald has been appointed as the new director of sales and marketing at the Westin Auckland Lighter Quay, having held several senior level sales positions in the industry. She has just spent seven years in Flight Centre’s corporate division where she was most recently business leader (New Zealand) for CiEvents.

After starting her career in hotels back in 1991, Katie graduated from The Blue Mountain Hotel School in Sydney. She spent several years working in hotels around the world, including Four Seasons Sydney as executive club manager, in in Switzerland and the UK, and at The Ascott Metropolis Hotel in Auckland as business development manager, playing an integral role in the property’s grand opening in 1999.

Donald will report to general manager Marcus Reinders, who says: “She brings a wealth of valuable experience to the table, and we look forward to working with her. Katie is a complete natural when it comes to the hotel business and, combined with her impressive track record, we are certain she will be very successful in this demanding role.”

Donald: “I’m truly excited about the many challenges that lie ahead and doing my best to help drive the continued success of The Westin. We are undertaking several new initiatives over the winter months, across all areas of the hotel, and are looking forward to great achievements this year.”

Wammo, he’s got ya

Interested in advertising? Have ears? Eyes? A radio? A computer? Then you should tune in to Glen ‘Wammo ‘Williams’ advertising feature on Kiwi FM, a weekly look at some of the gems (or groaners) that have tickled the fancy of the Adshow’s resident sleuth Simon Pound.

“Simon joins me live via Skype video and rattles through ads or campaigns from New Zealand and around the world that have caught his eye that week. We mash up his chat with visuals from the ads he’s talking about. We do it every Thursday, so there’s fresh new vid every week.”

Youtube Video

Flamin’ Aussie falls into Pond

Australian creative Scott McClelland has joined The Pond collective, plugging a gap in the ‘senior art directors available for contract work’ market.

Last seen in a fulltime role at Bartle Bogle Hegarty (Tokyo), where he was a creative director, McClelland is an international man of mystery, plying his craft everywhere from Germany and South Africa to Hong Kong and, of course, Australia.

During that time he’s worked at top-line agencies including BBH, Hunt Lascaris and Strawberry Frog, with creative directors like John Hegarty, John Hunt and Steve Elrick. So it’s no surprise he’s picked up a few awards along the way, building a portfolio filled with work for global brands like Levi’s, Nokia, Johnnie Walker, Nike, Lynx, Fox, National Geographic, FHM, GQ, BMW, Land Rover and Nintendo.

McClelland is perfect for worldwide campaigns or ones that need a senior pair of hands. Although based in Sydney, he is available to fly in at very short notice.

Roped in

As the world of DM turns more and more toward eDM, it’s comforting to know you can now call on the experience of The Pond’s new senior art director, Stacey Roper, for some good old-fashioned ‘DM-in-the-hand’.

Roper has spent the past nine years honing her craft at agencies like RBR, Lavender* and Young & Rubicam, where’s she worked on a number of major accounts, picking up a Gold Effie, RSVP Gold, RSVP Silver and Caples Silver.

Apparently Roper is “a walking encyclopedia of folding things”. She’s also the personification of optimism, regardless of budget, as can be seen from her winning entry in the 50c category at the Art of the Envelope Awards. She also dabbles in low brow pop-up art.

Top of the dome

There were plenty of bald domes around the traps from 19-25 April as part of the Shave10 week, the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation’s annual campaign to raise awareness and funds for the estimated 10,000 people living with blood cancer or a related condition in New Zealand.

But there was one shavee in particular who stood out: Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) survivor Nardia Cooper auctioned off her head space for free advertising on TradeMe to three businesses, Little Pearls for Little girls, Freeshot.co.nz and Daisybaby.co.nz.

Her auction attracted 15,000 views during the week it was posted and raised over $500. She de-haired on Saturday 24 April and will wear temporary tattoos on her head for two weeks.

Live stock

Grant Lonergan has been appointed as Livestock Improvement (LIC) General Manager of Sales & Marketing.  Lonergan has more than 27 years experience in the banking and finance industry and previously worked for BNZ as its regional managing partner for the Central North Island.

Storytime

It took ten minutes to create, cost nothing, got over 2000 views and received a dose of online media coverage. This Google search story promo for Rhythm and Vines shows how easy it is to drum up some interest and engage the audience with a few emotional connections, even though there is no line up news to announce.

Youtube Video

Rex Appeal

Getty Images has managed to get its mitts on Rex Features, which includes Los Angeles-based Berliner Photography, benefitting existing and potential customers by making even more celebrity content easily accessible.

“Celebrity and entertainment content is a growing and vital part of the editorial imagery industry and this acquisition positions us to meet and exceed the demand for nearly instantaneous material,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and chief executive of Getty Images. “Growing our entertainment imagery business continues to be a key strategic focus. The real winners will be our customers, who can now expect to see greater choice and more easily accessible imagery.”
Getty Images intends to maintain Rex Features’ brand and, with their combined resources, will continue to generate new imagery for their respective celebrity and entertainment collections.

“Over more than five decades, Rex Features has built a strong heritage and reputation that Getty Images will build upon to the benefit of customers worldwide. Getty Images has always been dedicated to making strategic investments that will provide long-term value to our customers.”

Looksy around you

Looksy has just been relaunched and there’s now $10,000 prize money on offer for a film of three to four minutes that answers the question what does my digital world look like, with Telecom, Vodafone and Giapo have all put money into the project.
The film consists of lots of individual ‘looksies’, which will then create the big film which will be shown in October. And the objective is to get 64 entries by 31 July. There’s an incentive to get your A into G. If there are less than 50 entries the prize money drops to $1000. Entries open to anyone wanting to ‘give it a go’.

The film aims to be the anchor of an on-going collaborative project. And this is how it will run: 1) Create a community so that creative NZ talent can get confidence with a NZ-specific group. 2) Corporates will then be invited to ask this group market research questions which will be answered in the form of film in return for prize money or on going sponsorship. And 3) Looksy is a social enterprise the money raised from selling the film/on going money will be split 1/3 to the community 1/3 to lookksy volunteers 1/3 to reforestation of Kauri trees

Crouch, touch, hold, cast

After several weeks of pitching TOUCH/CAST has been awarded the above-the-line and digital work for cbm New Zealand, an organisation focused on improving the quality of life of the world’s poor and disabled in the most disadvantaged societies), after nabbing the digital and advertising work for Australasian independent tour company, Kirra Tours earlier this year.

“With the bulk of their funding coming from the general public, Darren and his team at cbm need a partner for acquisition who understands the importance of digital and can choreograph its many intricacies harmoniously with above-the-line channels and content partnerships, and work cohesively with their media partner, OMD. They also need a team that is agile enough to quickly respond from a creative perspective to the many natural disasters that they are involved in that may occur at any time.”

Darren Ward, national director cbm New Zealand says: “Having a partner on board that has shown an understanding of what is required to be an effective charitable organisation working with the world’s most disadvantaged people is critical for us. We are extremely excited that Andrew and the team so obviously share our passion for our work and understand the challenges we face in growing the funding for our work whilst managing to maintain local fundraising expense at the low levels we consider appropriate.”

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