On an interweb awash with video, make a genuine connection with your audience and they’ll give you your eyeballs when you go out on a limb, two Kiwi experts reckon.
To connect with the growing Chinese community in New Zealand, some major brands are delving into Chinese social media by starting accounts on Weibo or WeChat, which combined have 800 million active accounts. The opportunity that exists in this cannot be overstated. However, in the same way that simply starting a Facebook business page offers no guarantee of success, placing your brand onto a social Chinese social media channel isn’t necessarily going to result in instant stream of new revenue. So to better understand the role WeChat and Weibo play in Chinese social media, StopPress chatted to James Shi of Bananaworks, a cross-cultural communications agency specialising in helping kiwi companies to engage with the Chinese community in New Zealand and abroad.
It appears romance is key when it comes to relationships and newspaper advertising, with February’s Ad of the Month taken out by DDB for its Lion Red’s Valentines Day inspired ad.
In what appears to have become a bit of an industry trend as of late, as agencies have increasingly been sucked into one another, Bcg2 has announced it has acquired Shirtcliffe and Co, with the move going live on 1 March.
TV’s reign as the biggest contributor to annual ad spend has come to an end with news from the IAB today that advertisers spent more than $800 million on interactive advertising in 2015.
Peer-to-peer lending site Harmoney has appointed Contagion to its advertising account after a pitch understood to have also involved Goodfolk and Problem Child. This news follows on from a period of relative polygamy for Harmoney, with the company taking its marketing business in-house last year and handing out project work to a range of agencies, including True, Goodfolk, JustOne and Latch Digital.
Having ‘the talk’ with their children is a much stressed over point in a parents life, but how should agencies approach the issue? British police and Project Consent show there’s two very different ways to do it.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
It’s a difficult climate out there for New Zealand’s biggest media players, which is reflected in their latest financial results. Though on a positive note, they all seem to be staying above water for now as their structures are changing to adapt to a multi-channel environment. Here’s a look at results from Fairfax, NZME, TVNZ and Sky.
Instead of standing out as an example of a small independent nation standing on its own two feet, the call for new flag has descended into a prolonged and unnecessary design debate. And this leads Michael Goldthorpe to wonder how often things like this happen in the industry.
Industry happenings at Fairfax, The Business, The Pond, 3rdeye, Pead PR and HMC Communications.
Sovereign’s brand platform ‘Life. Take Charge’ was about moving away from simply being a health insurance ambulance at the bottom of the cliff to becoming a company that could help make Kiwis healthier. And to achieve that goal, it worked with Bauer to conduct research, uncover insights and create bespoke health and wellbeing content that ran in print and online.
Ad world has been disrupted by some friendly fast-food fire between McDonald’s and Burger King.
FCB digital strategy director Dan West believes our love affair with AI might lead to a very banal existence for humans.
The StopPress editorial team recently took a tour of the new NZME offices and chatted to the NZ Herald’s managing editor Shayne Currie, editor Murray Kirkness and NZME digital audience engagement general manager Lauren Hopwood about why the move made sense.
There’s been another big step towards virtual realty as Getty Images and 360Cities partner to make 360-degree photographs of the moon, and beautiful locations on earth accessible to customers while McDonald’s happy meals gets a VR makeover in Sweden.
The advertising landscape is changing constantly as marketers need to come up with new ways to attract an audience that will no longer respond to your classic 30-second TVC and a billboard. The AdRoll 2015 ANZ State of the Industry Report is out and reveals what marketers think of their ever-evolving profession as well as what their views are on the future of digital advertising.
To ensure beer and cider lovers find the perfect bevvy to suit their tastes, Monteith’s is offering a ‘beer back guarantee’ for this month only, where unsatisfied customers can trade in their brew for one that pleases the taste buds. And to promote the initiative, it’s released an ad featuring a very unsatisfied-satisfied customer via Colenso BBDO.
Google driverless cars have suffered the first significant blow, with one of its fleet making headlines for a crashing into a bus.
Toyota and the Department of Conservation launched a campaign this week via Saatchi & Saatchi to get Kiwi kids away from their iPads and out into the wilderness to not only find joy in nature, but to get kids caring and thinking about the environment from a young age.
Digital advertising entrepreneur and founder of Uprise Tim Pointer has been voted in Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” list of young innovators and leaders in media, marketing and advertising in Asia.
Sovereign Insurance is encouraging young people to ‘take action’ through the launch of the next chapter of its ‘Life. Take charge’ brand campaign via J. Walter Thompson in an effort to tap into the millennial market. Though, the action taken in its latest ad is somewhat questionable.
As counterfeiters step up their game around the world, the need to verify products and their accreditation logos is increasing. So, in a bid to counteract the counterfeiters, and to promote New Zealand and its premium products to the world in a unique way, FernMark has incorporated augmented reality into its logo.
There are few things quite as inviting as the smell of freshly baked bread as you walk past a bakery. And while scent is not yet the easiest thing to incorporate into advertising, Bakers Delight’s ‘Labour of Love’ spot gave us a visual reminder of the freshly baked goodness available in their stores.
Shortly after his appointment as the new president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino* proudly announced that the third annual CAANZ Agency Football Tournament would be held at the end of April.
During last night’s Academy Awards broadcast, Google pulled at the heartstrings with a heartfelt spot for its Android product. And what’s interesting about this is that the big G isn’t the only major tech company tapping into TV to get its messages to the people.
Each year 50 people are killed in workplace incidents in New Zealand, with hundreds more dying prematurely due to work-related ill health. Worksafe New Zealand is aiming to reduce these incidents and raise awareness of work safety with its new campaign called ‘Home time’ via Assignment Group.
As the internet pulls audiences in all sorts of directions, and brands risk losing touch of their market, Motion Sickness Studio and Latch Digital have responded by creating The Social Club, a platform which aims to create meaningful connections between brands and influencers – and it’s not as exclusive as you think.
The Dentsu Aegis Network today announced that it had acquired a majority share in Barnes, Catmur and Friends (BC&F), an agency which has over the last two decades become one of the most prominent indies in the industry. PLUS: BC&F wins a bigger piece of the Jetstar business.
Southern Cross Health Society has appointed Contagion as its lead agency. The appointment means Contagion will now help develop and implement Southern Cross’ marketing strategy, creative, social and media work. Southern Cross Health society head of product and marketing Chris Watney says that Contagion will now be responsible for the day-to-day agency tasks and that Barnes, Catmur & Friends (the lead creative agency for the last eight years) “would be taking more of a backseat.”