Kiwi-born Mark D’Arcy, the chief creative officer at Facebook, has spent the last week in Cannes attending a series of meetings with the advertising community that has converged at the French Riviera. As a veritable Facebook evangelist, his objective has been to encourage creatives to continue experimenting with the platform to see how far it can be pushed.
State Insurance, famous for its eye-catching and dramatised advertisements has drawn influence from the comic-book realm for a new TVC which promotes its online services with the help of Colenso BBDO and FINCH.
The average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has decreased from 67 years in the 1920s to 15 years today, and technology is the main reason for that change. Not surprisingly, the big consulting firms have been helping companies deal with this for a while now, but PwC has officially launched its new digital consulting arm, PwC Digital, in New Zealand and it went with a couple of indies—Sugar & Partners and MBM—to help do it.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
DDB Paris went dark for this commercial, introducing a poor type-casted actor who over the course of his career is “The Man who Died the Most” in movies, for a commercial about organ donation.
Craft beer drinkers can be a fairly precious bunch. If it doesn’t have a weird name and hints of passionfruit or coffee or goat meat, it’s basically not worth drinking. But one man is hoping to solve the problem of tasteless beer forever.
Earlier this week, NZME announced it would not be renewing its contract with Pagemasters and that it would be taking its sub-editing requirements for The New Zealand Herald titles and regional papers in-house, bringing an end to a partnership that stretches back to 2007.
To keep their show in the public consciousness before its return to television, Jono and Ben have reached out to their Facebook fans to choose the show’s new motto. Suggestions have been pouring in on their page with a good mixture of the hilarious, the sweet and the outright offensive. They also asked some school children what they think should be featured on the show, their answers are priceless. PLUS: fellow MediaWorks comedian Dai Henwood adds L’Oreal Paris to his list of endorsers.
Ogilvy & Mather has been appointed the lead agency for the trans-Tasman account for Sealord, following a period of working with the brand on a project basis. And to coincide with this announcement, the brand has now released a new brand platform called ‘Savour the little wins’.
Electronic and dance music station MediaWorks-owned George FM has released a shiny new TVC in conjunction with its roll out as a national network.
In the past, much of the emphasis at advertising awards events has been placed on television advertising on account of the fact that this has traditionally been the area that attracts the biggest chunk of ad spend. But as more money shifts to the digital, the categories that have a digital element are attracting more attention. One such area is the cyber Lions category, which encompasses branded online, digital, and technological communications.
Social@Ogilvy has been “reinvigorated” with Mike Watkins now heading up the agency and Oliver Maisey jumping on board as executive creative director.
An advert for a feminisation-suit was recently fed onto Idealog writer Jonathan Cotton’s Facebook newsfeed, leading him to ask some serious questions about what the social media site thinks it knows about him.
Google has unveiled an ‘undo send’ browser extension that users can activate to give them ability to delete a recently sent email within five, ten, 15 or 30 seconds of sending it. To initiate this godsend, users simply need to click on the cog icon, head to settings and then activate the option.
While there has been a lot of focus on digital advertising lately, sometimes you just can’t beat the traditional. But instead of the classic billboard, Denver Water is going the extra mile, drawing inspiration from the craft world for these exquisite handmade ads, which look like they belong in a gallery.
Many of us remember the story some of our parents spun to us when we were young to avoid the truth of “where we came from”. A stork delivering soft plump babies to new mothers is a much nicer tale to tell young’uns than what really went on. Well, those storks might well be out of a job, as it looks like drone delivery services might be the future after a parcel delivering drone successfully completed a flight in Auckland. And while we’re all familiar with airmail, this is something else.
Jacqueline Bourke, global creative insights lead at Getty Images, shares stats, trends and examples of mobile marketing in New Zealand.
As more marketers and agencies embrace content, Neville Doyle says they need to remember what they’re up against and make sure it’s meaningful.
Billions of dollars are being funnelled into digital advertising. But where there’s money, there’s usually crime. Damien Venuto investigates the issue of ad fraud in New Zealand and finds out what the industry is doing about it.
Live streaming app Periscope is relatively new on the scene, but already some big brands are finding creative ways to use the platform to market themselves. After finding some good examples of brands using it abroad we’ve had a hunt around for some New Zealand examples, and the feedback so far is promising. We also take a look at some of the dangers of live streaming and how the content is monitored.
Colenso found itself among the winners at Cannes again overnight, picking up a pair of silvers in the Radio categoy for the ‘Lottery’ and ‘Whack job’ spots produced for Mars.
In a recent opinion piece by Duncan Garner he said he strives to find more of a work-life balance and prioritise the important things after the loss of his father and realising Parliament was “a ridiculous place to work”. He might find that a bit difficult now, as it was announced today he will be a co-host on Campbell Live’s replacement Story alongside Heather du Plessis-Allan while continuing to present his RadioLIVE drive show from 3-6 weekdays. But no doubt the show will be welcomed with open arms after Come Dine with Me has failed to deliver in the ratings department as TV3 hits an all-time low.
A recent Reuters report of 20,000 people in 12 countries shows the way we digitally source news is continuing to evolve globally, with main findings being an increased use of Smartphones, a decreased use of desktops, a higher number of people looking to social media for news, and digital-born brands rivalling traditional players in domestic markets, sometimes beating them internationally.
Each day in Cannes brings fresh batch of awards winners—and inevitable rosé-induced hangovers—as gongs in the various categories are distributed to the agencies that have over the course of the last year produced the best creative efforts. And this continued overnight as the winners in the Outdoor, PR, Media, Creative Effectiveness and Glass Lions categories were announced. This time, Colenso, DDB and FCB were among the winners.
In a new series, StopPress talks to a range of newsmakers currently trying to shine lights into dark places while also keeping their own lights on and looks at whether commercial realities are leading to editorial compromise. First up, Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson chats about why it’s unlikely—and important for journalism—for the state-funded broadcaster to go fully commercial.
A pat on the back for The Co-operative Bank, Air New Zealand and Farmstrong.
Author, Seven Sharp reporter and dashing raconteur Tim Wilson discusses his fondness for Kanye West backing tracks, his addiction to Twitter and his wife-based media.
Fashion Quarterly has released a new campaign through FCB raising the profile of its recently launched site FQ.co.nz for which seven of New Zealand’s top designers have stylistically come together under one roof to promote.
McDonald’s may be struggling globally as fast casual chains and the popularity of premium burgers eat into its share, but the Kiwi arm managed to lift sales by two percent last year. And, as part of its mission to be more transparent with the Our Food, Your Questions campaign, it’s got comedian Guy Montgomery to take punters through the patty manufacturing process.
An art project on the nature of Tinder, named Tender, cleverly (or very grossly) plays on the expression “Treated like a piece of meat”, and given we’ve had a bit of a dating focus lately, we thought we’d better feature it.