Over the years, the Valspar brand of paint products has expanded into countries throughout the world, and New Zealand was recently added to this list. And to announce its arrival in the local market, the paint company has commissioned FCB to produce a campaign capable of cutting through to consumers who already have many other choices in this category.
Whether it’s paying stars to show off diamonds in public, paying stars to mention a brand in their latest song, paying stars to talk up your new product to their fans, or paying for the host of a podcast to read out your ad, brands have been using the power of endorsement to influence perceptions since ages ago. In the world of hospitality, having the right people at your establishments is important if you hope to lure the crowds. And it’s no secret that Skycity ‘incentivises’ a range of famous Kiwis to do just that. But now it’s taken that one step further by getting them to write—or at least put their name to—long copy ads that wax lyrical about the company’s assets and its impact on Auckland.
We have cars that can drive themselves, fridges that know when we’re out of milk and sensors that can tell if your elderly relatives have taken their pills. Now, for those who also want their binge watching smartened, Netflix has given the world a button that can turn on your TV, dim your lights, silence your phone and even order food.
Spanish clothing and accessories retailer Paul & Bear has launched an innovative that has been created through the musical efforts of six bands across the world. To kick off the initiative, Paul & Bear approached Australian band Sheppard to create an exclusive song to feature in the campaign. Thereafter, the retailer commissioned six different bands, all in different locations, to produce covers of the song—and this content was then spread through social media.
Until now, retargeting campaigns have proved challenging on Apple Safari browsers because cookies are disabled by default. So, in a bid to overcome this issue, AdRoll announced a new product earlier this week that the company’s managing director for the ANZ region Ben Sharp says will give advertisers the ability to retarget via Apple devices.
There’s a whole heap of money flowing into digital media at the moment—and that pot just seems to keep getting bigger. But there are a fair few concerns being raised about whether that money is being spent wisely, whether it’s due to bot fraud, dodgy metrics or viewability issues. Recently, one of the world’s most powerful ad men, Sir Martin Sorrell, said he thought the pendulum had swung too far towards digital and it was time for marketers to reconsider the effectiveness of traditional media (which seemed to warm the hearts of many harried publishers and broadcasters). And in New York during Ad Week celebrations, the US outdoor industry body has launched a clever campaign making the same argument by pointing out that digital has a reality problem.
Earlier this month, Instagram kicked off its local ad offering with launch partners Burgerfuel, Air New Zealand and Sky TV, which have each been running campaigns through the platform. And now, following on from a relatively short testing phase, Instagram has extended its advertising options to all Kiwi brands. And Spark has joined the fun by launching a campaign that uses 3D technology.
In a multicultural city like Auckland, Chinese New Year is an important and anticipated event for many. And Skycity saw this as an
opportunity to attract visitors by working collaboratively with its range of businesses.
Earlier this month, Bauer Australia confirmed it would be shutting down Zoo Weekly, due to rapidly declining sales. And though some celebrated the demise of the publication as an ethical victory, lad culture is stronger than ever in the online space.
The 2015 Newspaper Advertising Awards last night saw DDB head home $10,000 richer for nabbing the top award for its BMW ‘reverse April Fool’s’ ad, with Ogilvy & Mather’s ad for Rebel Sport’s ‘Big Kahuna’ coming in as the runner up.
For the last 16 years, Serato has been at the forefront of DJ culture and technology. Its ground breaking Pitch ‘n Time time-stretching algorithm and flagship audio mixing software product Serato DJ are industry standards. Kanye West rapped about them on one of his tracks. Eminem did the same. And now it’s releasing its first mass-consumer app, Serato Pyro, a music player that beat-matches and mixes song playlists. Chief executive AJ Bertanshaw explains the company’s evolution—and its Kiwi style marketing approach.
Ads for real estate companies have long been filled with happy families, keys and smiling real estate agents and while these same tropes still apply, recently real estate companys’ ads have become a lot more heartwarming. A campaign for Harcourts via Contagion called ‘With you all the way’ illustrates this, and follows a young family and their experience as time passes and they move from house to house through a longstanding relationship with Harcourts.
In celebration of the launch of 236 episodes of Friends on streaming service Stan, New York’s most famous coffee shop Central Perk is heading to Australia. The real-life pop-up café will be opening in Hyde Park, Sydney for over two weeks.
Shouting out random things in a public space isn’t the best conversation starter in real life. And TRA’s Colleen Ryan argues the same applies in social media.
There’s automation for almost every aspect of marketing these days. So is there still room for human creativity? Damien Venuto ventures into the ad tech factory.
There’s automation for almost every aspect of marketing these days. So is there still room for human creativity? Damien Venuto ventures into the ad tech factory.
BNZ has released a depressingly confronting campaign called ‘Shred my mortgage’ via Colenso BBDO, which includes two TVCs of a man and woman in their twilight years who are still working laborious jobs to pay off their mortgages.
Lewis Road Creamery’s Peter Cullinane says the premium dairy brand he founded in 2011 has re-energised the white milk sector and now has over 50 percent of the organic milk market in New Zealand. Now Goodman Fielder has taken the cow by the teats and released its own range of three premium organic milks under the Puhoi Valley brand. But Cullinane has come out swinging, saying it is “pathetic plagiarism” and shows a “staggering lack of imagination”.
In addition to venomous fauna and teenage hoodlums, the chromatic pairing of black and yellow has come to typify Pak ‘n Save in the Kiwi retail industry. However, this year, in a show of support for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation (NZBCF), Pak ‘n Save will set aside its colour allegiance and turn its ‘Number 8 wire’ ad pink in the ten days leading up to the annual Pink Ribbon Appeal, which takes place on 9 and 10 October this year.
Judging by the numerous rugby-related office discussions and the blanket media coverage—from the above board chat on outlets like Radio New Zealand to the below board banter inside a giant scrotum as part of the Alternative Commentary Collective’s Champagne Rugby, you could be forgiven for thinking the nation has a collective ‘code boner’ over the Rugby World Cup at present. But is rugby losing its lustre in New Zealand? And is there a limit to the All Black appropriation?
It’s been a rough year for MediaWorks, with TVNZ reigning in the ratings department. And despite its hopes that its pick up of Masterchef NZ’s sixth season would pull a decent few pairs of eyes over to the network, the show has rated significantly lower than its preceding seasons. But, as Auckland physiotherapist Tim Read was crowned as Masterchef NZ 2015 last night, the show’s final episode went out on a ratings high. PLUS: Seven weeks on, Story’s ratings are no match for Seven Sharp’s.
Industry happenings at TVNZ, Spotify, Badger, Mango, Colmar Brunton, VantagePoint, YuDoozy and SureFire.
Vodafone, Whittaker’s and Pak ‘n Save win a solemn nod of approval this week.
The New Zealand Transport Agency has run various campaigns encouraging drivers to focus when behind the wheel. Much of the attention thus far has been placed on the distractions caused by mobile phones. However, a recent investigation conducted by Jono and Ben has found there might be a much bigger problem that’s being largely overlooked—namely, giant billboards featuring scantily clad All Blacks all over the nation.
Griffin’s recently launched an online competition campaign called ‘Super Little Bakers’ via Assignment Group, which urges kids (or rather, their parents) to submit recipes to a micro-page within Griffin’s Facebook to go in the draw to win prizes. An overall winner will be crowned Griffin’s Super Little Baker of 2015 by the end of the week, after over 170 recipes were submitted.
Mozart, the Egyptian goddess Ma’at, the Apollo 11 mission and ancient Greece were some of the subjects among the entries for Google’s ‘Doodle 4 Google’ competition. Young’uns from years one to 10 submitted entries for a Google logo design about where they would go and what they would do if they could go back in time.
Sealord has confirmed the appointment of Ogilvy & Mather NZ to its digital account less than a year after handing its business to The White Agency.
Emojis are on their way to global takeover. They’re appearing in all sorts of campaigns, including a recent spot by Spark for Morepork home security, which features a family of emojis that talk and think in emojis. Even the Pope has been emojified. Digiday asked ad creatives, strategists and account manage to describe a day in their lives with emojis, here are the results.
With the entire nation not necessarily willing to wake up ridiculously early to watch all games of the Ruby World Cup, daily highlight reels are playing an important role in keeping fans informed of the daily proceedings. And Whittaker’s is now getting in on the highlights action but it’s going about in a very different way. Rather than showing clips from the actual games, the chocolate company, recently chosen as New Zealand’s most trusted brand, is re-enacting key events with the use of All Blacks chocolates and an assortment of children’s toys and posting these to its Facebook page.
New Zealand is increasingly seen as two nations: Auckland and the rest. Unsurprisingly, the growth in Auckland is sucking up plenty of attention—and plenty of money. But ‘the rest’ is still crucially important to the nation’s prosperity and the regions remain the engine of the Kiwi economy. Marketing is all about understanding—and connecting with—your target audience. And when it comes to media habits, those in the marcomms sector, as last year’s Nielsen survey showed, can’t really be described as normal. As a result, city slickers who work in this industry are in danger of falling into an urban echo chamber and may not understand the important role newspapers still play in the regions (who’s going to argue with Warren Buffett and WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell?). So test—and improve—your regional knowledge by taking our quiz and all those who complete it will go into the draw to win a two night Air New Zealand Deluxe Mystery Break for two somewhere in New Zealand*.