NZME has announced an extension to its deadline for the 2015 NZME Advertising Challenge, with nominations for the annual challenge showcasing the best and brightest media and creative ideas extended until midnight, Friday 19 June.
“The response to our inaugural challenge last year was fantastic with the outstanding quality of entries,” says NZME group director commercial Sandra King. “This year, entries received so far shows the bar is rising with exceptional talent showcasing why our media and creative minds are world-class.”
8th May: Last year, as part of the Herald Advertising Challenge, NZME asked agencies to come up with a big media idea for a client that used its assets in an interesting way. FCB Media came out on top with Sony’s Sideline Challenge, a campaign that saw the Herald relinquish editorial control to a handful of passionate photography readers and publish weekend sporting highlights captured on the Sony a6000 DSLR camera (it went on to win three Axis Awards and four golds in the Beacons this year). Since then, the many media strands of the company have come together, so this year it has renamed the competition the NZME Ad Challenge—and it’s calling for entries.
“Last year was the first time we’d run the challenge and the response and quality of the entries was a tribute to the quality of both creative and media planning being produced in New Zealand,” says NZME’s commercial director Sandra King. “Our media and creative agencies are world-class … Collaboration is what the challenge has at its heart; it’s about fostering great partnerships between NZME and creative and media agencies across our channels – digital, radio, events, print, experiential and eCommerce. It’s about teams being uninhibited and creating what you have always wanted to do for a client but have never been able to because of restraints or budget limitations. Ask yourselves what’s the one big idea you could really bring to life across NZME’s assets?”
Agencies are asked to come up with an idea that makes use of NZME Publishing, NZME Local Network, NZME Digital, NZME Radio, NZME Events, NZME Experiential and GrabOne and the winning entry will be rewarded with $400,000 rate card media value across its properties to implement the campaign (last year it was $250,000), plus a trip for two team members to the Festival of Media Asia Pacific in Singapore on 20-22 March, 2016.
The winning team will also get their hands on the NZME Advertising Challenge Cup. And NZME will get its hands on some good campaign ideas that might push its team further—and, of course, add to its coffers.
All the information on how to enter—including a handy FAQ—is available at www.nzmeadchallenge.co.nz (no, it’s not a mead challenge, although readers may be interested to learn that the mead industry is booming at the moment, largely due to what pundits are calling the Game of Thrones effect).
