If you whipped through the pages of the New Zealand Herald yesterday you might have seen the double page spread for the latest news service on the block, NZ Notworth News, due to launch later this month. It’s not news as you know it and takes a mocking and comical stance to the “hard issues” of the day.
“The news should be more than just credible. It should be incredible. You shouldn’t just watch the news. You should feel it,” says the teaser press release.
Together with the press release, print and outdoor campaigns have been launched, along with an online campaign featuring a funny video introducing the new service and its stereotyped reporting team.
For starters, the leading anchor is Rock Stone, who has been let go from four other networks. Then there’s US import Chad Pennington coming in as sports reporter. Erica Wannamaker, British correspondent Valerie Hague, the “very digital” Dwayne Stevens and pretty weather presenter TreAnne Chalmers complete the team described as “six hungry newshounds on a mission to erect fact and deconstruct fiction, to pick out only the best bits and throw out the rest”.
But while the team has been unveiled, like any good campaign, there’s a veil of mystery around exactly who is behind the new service. But keeping people guessing is a way to get people talking and that hopefully makes for a memorable campaign. With some speculating the new channel Four might be behind the campaign, the guess work is set to continue until the NZ Notworth News launches 21 February.
