Ponsonby, Auckland is home to what may be a first for New Zealand’s advertising industry – a hand knitted 6 x 3 special build billboard for Trustpower.
The concept for the billboard was developed by Trustpower’s long standing agency partner, Art & Industry.
Carolyn Schofield, Trustpower’s Head of Brand explains: “Trustpower has been supplying broadband to New Zealanders for 15 years. We have built our own carrier grade ISP network and supply over 100,000 broadband connections. But because Trustpower’s origins are as an electricity company there are some people who think our expertise are still just in power. One phrase we’ve heard regularly in consumer research over the years is ‘Stick to your knitting’. We wanted to find a fun way to show these more sceptical consumers that ‘Broadband is our knitting’ too and so that’s how the idea of a knitted billboard developed.”
The production of the billboard was handled in house with a dedicated team of staff, plus a few Mums of staff, volunteering hundreds of hours during the last two months to bring it to life.
“We’ve had an amazing team working on this, ranging in skill from expert knitters to complete beginners who learnt to knit just to contribute to the project,” says Schofield.
Trustpower was the first major brand to bundle energy and telco services in New Zealand, offering customers the convenience of having multiple services with one provider. Over 50 percent of Trustpower customers have two or more services with the brand and over 80 percent of new customers now join for a multi-service bundle.
Credits
Client: Carolyn Schofield, Head of Brand, Trustpower
Agency: Art and Industry
Creative Director: Daniel Crayford
Media: Independent Media NZ, Mark Reekie
