All the news (about pyar, new baby food, ice cream, banned ads, loin tingling, non-profit organisations and green marketing) that’s fit to print â and now in handy meta format.
Ellis in Wonderland
Lwindi Ellis, the former DraftFCB PR manager, has been snapped up by capitalised backslash lovers ELEVEN\PR, part of the TBWA\ group. She will head up a number of key accounts and play a senior role in the agency.
ELEVEN\PR managing partner Kelly Bennett, who met Ellis on the CAANZ Marcomms leadership group, is absolutely delighted sheâll be joining the team.
âSheâs a really good operator who has done an outstanding job at DraftFCB and weâre looking forward to the prospect of her bringing those skills with her for the benefit of both our existing clients and the new ones that weâre keen to work with this year,â he says.
And Ellis: “I’m really impressed by what Kelly has achieved with ELEVEN\PR over the past four years and I’m looking forward to working with a great team and helping them develop the business even further.”
In addition to Ellis, Louisa Jones, one of the top graduates from the AUT communications studies programme, where she won both of the top team academic awards available, has also joined ELEVEN\PR.
âWeâre really excited about the lineup of new talent we have and the great work weâre delivering, so 2010 promises to be another big year. The recession is a long way from being over and smart marketers are turning more to PR and experiential activity as a way to get bigger bang for their buck,â Bennett says.
Alexander communications: constructive and charitable
In other pyar news, Alexander Communications (AC) will be doing some sweet talking for GHD New Zealand and Challenge Trust.
GHD, an engineering, architecture and environmental consulting firm that was formed in 1928 and employs more than 6,000 people around the world, is working on several large projects in 2010 and has asked AC to engage with media in support of its objectives and offer a nice helping of strategic of reputation management.
Challenge Trust, a charitable trust which set up shop in 1993 and now has 230 staff providing services to more than 1,500 people around the country has also enlisted the services of AC. Challenge Trustâs clients include people affected by mental illness, physical disability, intellectual disability, addictions, dual disability and dual diagnosis.
Co-owner Dwayne Alexander attributes the new appointments to the company’s use of the internet to transparently communicate, through case studies and specific examples, the work it does for clients.
âSince the companyâs inception in 2005 we have steadily built both our client base and the tools we use to promote their work and services and help clients engage with their markets. These tools include our online newsroom, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, which are together proving hugely effective.â
Barnes, Catmur, Pams and Friends
Foodstuffs New Zealand has awarded the advertising account for the Pams business to Barnes Catmur and Friends.
General manager for Foodstuffs Own Brands, Dave McAteer, says the company had been courting DDB for a while, but both companies decided that a working relationship was not tenable.
âAs a result, we have now selected Barnes Catmur and Friends as our agency. We have been impressed with them and their work and we are looking forward to building the Pam’s brand together.â
Daniel Barnes, creative managing partner of Barnes Catmur, says the gang are thrilled to get the account and a new campaign is expected later in the year.
âItâs a great brand, it has done great work in the past and weâre looking forward to being part of its future,” he says.
Natureland, enter me
Staying in the supermarket, Dow Design continues its good run (ahem and ahem), this time being employed to design the branding for a new baby food called Natureland, which will appear on shelves in New Zealand and Australia in the next few weeks.
Natureland, which is made in New Zealand by McCallum Industries, is made of all natural ingredients and hopes to capture a gap in the market between organic and mainstream offerings in both countries. It’s also the first mainstream baby food offering in both Australia and New Zealand that comes in the form of a Bisphenol A (BPA) free pouch.
Aimed at parents of infants and toddlers up to three years, Natureland faced the challenge of how to stand out from other baby foods in an already competitive marketplace. So Dow Design created an attractive and inviting design using nature imagery that gives the brand an eye-catching, trusted and contemporary look.
âNatureland needed to make a strong and positive impact in the visually busy baby food market,â says Dow Designâs creative director, Donna McCort. âWe chose simplicity â and white â to cut through the clutter.”
Dow Designâs strategic development director Andy Jaquet says the new brand launch had to hit the right mark with mums in both countries. âThis was a challenging Trans-Tasman brief. With new entrants and already established mega brands in both markets, finding the key insights and the right brand strategy was vital. Weâre confident we have achieved this.â
Natureland brand manager Dooley Crighton says the designs has succeeded in representing the taste through imagery and emotional brand packaging that is natural, light and distinctive and thinks the brand and pack design has great shelf stand out and tells our brand story.â
Natureland, which was released at the Ellerslie International Flower Show on 11 March, is now available in supermarkets throughout New Zealand. And the Australian launch takes place in May.
Nice cream
From babies to ice-cream (as the recent kerfuffle over the banning of Tip Top’s creamy yogurt ice cream ad shows, that isn’t always a particularly good combination): Much Moore has sent it’s shiny, quirky, Roald Dahl-esque new website into the wild. And it’s e-delicious.
It was put together by the folks at Method Studios and one can only hope the website also gives away shoes and diamond earrings like the last time the company’s sweet confections featured here.
Sam Ramlu, strategy and planning director at Method, says there will be “a whole lot of new content added to the site in the form of games and downloads, so watch this space”.
Avoiding Greenwash
Ever wondered if your green marketing might be breaking the law? Well, who hasn’t. The rules for marketing green promises are strict in New Zealand and many businesses break them by mistake, so a new short course by the University of Auckland, How to Market Sustainability, aims to help marketers of sustainable products and services stay inside the law and avoid greenwash. It includes helpful and inspiring ‘how tos’ for managers and marketers working in this area and case studies from here and overseas. The course is tutored by business owner and marketer of 20 years, Kath Dewar.
It’s scheduled for Wednesday 5 May, 8.30am – 4.30pm and it’ll sting you $548.00 + GST with group discounts available.
For more info or to book online go to www.cce.auckland.ac.nz or call 0800 864 266 or email [email protected]
Textual healing
Also, if you have any new or second-hand books that would be of more benefit to school libraries in the central Pacific, get in touch with Jeff Evans, who has just started up the non-profit organisation called An Ocean of Books.
“We want to see school libraries full to overflowing with books that will capture the imagination of children and inspire them as they progress through school. The books will be from both publishers and collected through schools.
And since you’ve read this far, you will now be rewarded with some funny ads, one from Snickers that makes fun of old people and one from a series of strange (and now banned) Carlton Draught numbers that sing about subjects like the weenis and tingling loins.
