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Year in Review: Ben Goodale, JustOne

Every year, StopPress asks players in the local industry for their reflections on the marketing year that was. Here’s what Ben Goodale, managing director at JustOne, has to say.

1. Favourite local campaign that isn’t yours

Heart Foundation – The Journey of a Donation; any fundraising advert that can actually demonstrate that your money does make a difference has to be applauded. The fact that this year’s ad had the survivor of a heart attack whose life was saved because of the previous year’s ad campaign, is pretty amazing.  

  • Check out the StopPress picks of the year here.

2. Favourite campaign that is yours

I’m loving our new Virtual Fishing Competition for ITM. VR headsets, a leaderboard, the game itself, wrapped up with a fun engagement campaign.  

3. Favourite international campaign

Christmas ads are getting more and more interesting. John Lewis have done us a real favour in leading the charge here. Marks & Spencer’s ‘Mrs Claus’ ad this year is a fun, frothy knowing ad, and well worth watching.  But my personal favourite is H&M’s ‘Come Together’. With Wes Anderson combining elements of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Adrian Brody, John Lennon’s ‘Merry Christmas’, and trains, it really doesn’t get a lot better than this.  Not an ad as we know it, but a great piece of cute film.

4. Least favourite campaign

In a time with fragmenting media and the ability to fast forward, mute etc, I’m still staggered by the amount of screechy ads which just make you want to switch off. 2 Cheap Cars seem to have come from nowhere and appearing far too often for my liking, fundamentally having a screeching girl telling you how cheap cars are over a range of Lichtenstein’esque visuals smacks of either the brand owners, the agency, or both having dropped far too much LSD in their student days. At least Hyundai worked out how to balance their screaming kid.

Really, grow up.

5. Your own biggest success

We’ve had a whopper year with New World and the New World Clubcard. First, a big night at the NZ Direct Marketing Awards winning five golds and Foodstuffs winning organisation of the year. Then, the Clubcard launch in October in the North Island. Despite all the noise with Air NZ and Fly Buys ‘uncoupling’, and Onecard’s marriage to Smartfuel and big bucks promotion of that, it’s been a smash.  

6. Most significant launch/innovation/thing of the year
Pokemon Go. Reinventing everyone’s view of AR. As far as sensations go it was a real phenomenon. It tapped into the ‘mob mentality’ by genuinely being a craze that built and created real atmosphere where the players were gathering.  

I was traveling when it was launched and started seeing all these news articles. By the time I reached New York a few days later, like a virus, it seemed everywhere. Reaching Central Park there was a Pokemon ‘training ground’ around the statue of William Sherman and there were literally hundreds of people staring at their phones. Weird but in an exciting way.

7. What should be un-invented?

Frosé. How can you do that to a perfectly good wine variety?

10. Best stoush

The New Zealand media and Michael Cheika – he really shouldn’t have risen to it. But it was funny when he did.


11. Heroes

I’ve always quite liked Alec Baldwin’s performances. A knowing sort of comedy acting.  But he has taken it to another level with his Trump performance on Saturday Night Live. Absurd, OTT, self mocking, so true. The line for me was when he said (as Trump) “And I have the support of the best Baldwin brother – Stephen Baldwin”. Summed the whole thing up for me.

12. Villains

Trump. A bit like the Joker, Trump is sort of a love/hate villain. Part of me applauds the way he has stuck it up the US establishment. And his first steps in international diplomacy are already proving of great comedy value. However, the flipside is the baggage he brings, how he won, his attitudes on nearly everything, and the danger he potentially poses.  

13. What died in 2016?

Hope about a united Europe. Having grown up in postwar Britain, and having studied history, anything that starts to unravel European unity is not a great thing for stability. So, Brexit was one of those things that certainly made my feeling of connection with the land of my birth feel pretty tenuous.  

14. What’s the biggest mistake marketers will make in 2017?

Forgetting that normal advertising works.
Trusting programmatic too much.

15. Will the robots become sentient and kill us all (asking for a friend)?  

Not yet.
Until they can make programmatic advertising deliver on the promises I don’t think we have too much to worry about.
Although maybe that’s the problem – they could nuke us all and still not be able to tightly market accurately.

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