Soon the nation will be bombarded with Rugby World Cup-related ads, whether from the tournament’s family of sponsors, the national sponsors, the ambushers or even the teams themselves. And MasterCard is one of the first of the bunch to get in on the act, bringing back its long-time mascot Tim for his fourth run.
Special Group has announced the appointment of ex-Ogilvy employees Angus Hennah and Sandra Daniel as creative director and business director, respectively.
One of the bedrocks of being a good sportperson is the ability to work well in a team, and this shines through in Rebel Sport’s new commercial created by Ogilvy & Mather and The Sweet Shop for its winter campaign.
FCB head of studio Simon Pengelly runs one of the largest agency studios in New Zealand. And despite having a schedule with very few gaps, he recently took a few minutes to chat to Creative Store founder Louise Lawton about what his high-pressure role entails.
The official deadline may have passed, but you can still submit your entry to the 2015 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards. So if you feel you’ve performed heroic feats of marketing over the past year, request a late entry and you could also be Mighty Marketing material like Fonterra’s Tim Deane.
It was a record night for New Zealand agencies at this year’s D&AD awards in London with a standout moment of the night for Colenso BBDO/Proximity, when K9FM became the first ever New Zealand campaign to win a highly coveted Black Pencil, one of only five awarded globally this year.
A piglet named Piggy Sue and a Southern Mail courier driver Keith will replace James Rolleston as the face of Vodafone on Sunday night when the telco launches a new brand campaign developed by FCB.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Safety has long been a major focus of car companies. And VW has shown how important its safety features are with a powerful, shiver-inducing montage via Ogilvy Cape Town that zeroes in the most most important moment of one girl’s life.
Dunedin-based agency Brandaid and young production company ‘Two Bearded Men’ have created a new video for Enterprise Dunedin, and unlike many other videos about Dunedin, has steered well away from student life (and student revelry), focusing instead on the people and gems of the city.
A number of ads featuring top sports stars often revolve around them needing the very best to perform at their peak (even if it is rugby players needing the very best deodorant, hair care products or, most ridiculously, batteries). But George Weston Foods, Colenso BBDO and Finch have given that advertising cliche a bit of a nudge by focusing on a hardcore four square warrior for the launch of its new Tip Top Hi-Protein Bread.
They say the children are our future, which is at times a worrying thought. But the way the world is changing, it’s certainly true in advertising and a few of the young’uns from Media Design School have impressed some of the world’s biggest creative brains and made the shortlist of the Future Lions.
Yesterday, at the Radio Rewired conference hosted in Auckland, the industry announced that Colenso BBDO’s ‘K9FM’ campaign for Pedigree had won the Grande Orca for 2015. And the creative team at Colenso received additional good news overnight in that the campaign has also picked up a coveted black pencil at the D&AD Awards (it also won a yellow pencil).
News from Fairfax, Tourism New Zealand, Marketo, Film Construction, TVNZ, Colenso BBDO, Exposure, Pure SEO and Countdown.
Kurt Vonnegut is now seen as a counter-culture icon. But before that he worked in PR for General Electric before he hit the big time. And he can teach people in this industry something, says Kelly Bennett.
At a time when radio is being disrupted by digital technology, one thing that has remained consistent is the importance of the personalities that produce the content on a daily basis. The executives across both commercial networks have on numerous occasions posited the local voices behind the microphones as key point of difference that traditional radio still has over its digital counterparts. And at last night’s New Zealand Radio Awards, the industry commended those who have over the last year kept the airwaves alive with their voices, quirky promos and, increasingly, video clips. StopPress looks at who won what on the night. PLUS: see a gallery of snapshots from the night.
MediaWorks is revisiting the West household with an Outrageous Fortune prequel called Westside, which follows the infamous Grandpa back in his hey day. In the lead up to the series MediaWorks has released all seasons of Outrageous Fortune online for free online to get fans excited, and in terms of streaming numbers it seems to be successfully rekindling interest.
Misplaced golf balls, unbalanced dominos, a fraction of a hair’s width short of hitting the basket – all the pitfalls of creating a Rube Goldberg Machine. They’re whimsical contraptions designed to complete the simplest tasks in the most complicated way possible, and one Kiwi’s made art out of it.
Facebook has become a hugely important traffic source for many publishers. And last week Facebook announced the launch of a new feature called Instant Articles, which allows users to view articles from other websites (particularly enhancing mobile experience) without leaving the site. This is hoped to make for a faster loading time, more data about what users like to consume and therefore an enhanced overall user experience. And there are also benefits for the publishers. It’s very early days for the scheme, but we thought we’d find out a bit about the initiative and whether New Zealand’s main media outfits are keen on the idea.
Ad-blocking software company Adblock Plus claims that its software has already been downloaded over 300 million times across the world, and WARC wrote a story last year showing five percent of all internet users used the technology (in the US, 41 percent of 18-29 year olds claimed to use adblock software). This means that millions of ads served throughout the world on desktops and laptops do not reach their desired targets. Now the German company has announced that it is currently trialling an update of its ad-blocking software that enables Android users to block ads on their smartphones. So what’s the industry doing about it?
Not quite two years ago, Ben Young, co-founder of Young & Shand, packed his bags and headed to New York to fill what he saw as a gap in the market for analytics around native advertising. Now its measurement tool Nudge has been given a major boost after entering a licensing agreement with one of the world’s leading native advertising software companies, Sharethrough.
Today, MediaWorks announced via a story published on 3News that John Campbell would be leaving Campbell Live and that the show would be replaced by an alternative current affairs programme in the 7pm slot. The new show is expected to start within the next six to eight weeks and will run Monday to Thursday, with a yet-to-be-announced entertainment show running on Friday evenings.
The fact that over 100 million web users across the world have already downloaded ad blockers to combat the annoyance of online ads stands as evidence of how much they annoy people. So rather than simply conceptualising another ad destined to irritate users, BBDO teamed up with Post-it to develop a campaign that uses digital technology to change banner ads into sticky notes and to-do lists.
This year, Red Nose Day will be hitting American shores via an NBC television event set to feature Julia Roberts, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jodie Foster, Jimmy Fallon, Neil Patrick Harris, Coldplay and others. And to announce the impending event, Coldplay and NBC have released a few teasers on YouTube featuring snippets from Game of Thrones: The Musical, an elaborate project developed by the British band with the help from stars of the TV show.
YouTube has been celebrating its tenth birthday this month by going through a letter a day and while the vast majority of viewing is still done on the main screen, there’s no doubt the video sharing has become a powerful cultural force since the first video featuring co-founder Jawed Karim at the zoo was uploaded. It’s also become a powerful marketing force, with four of the most-watched videos of last year made by brands and 16 million hours of ads watched. As such, YouTube has chosen the 20 greatest brand moments in its history and it’s asking people to vote for their favourite ad. PLUS: the tale of Old Spice.
The Register’s own Elly Strang donned one of the first sets of Samsung Gear virtual reality goggles to appear on our shores. This is what she saw when she headed along for a sneak preview at Noel Leeming.
Education New Zealand has released a new campaign to raise the country’s profile as a great study destination through an online competition where international students may enter for the chance to have a friend or family member flown over for a 10-day study adventure.
DDB’s Maker unit has created a bizarre online film that seemingly marries Dirty Dancing with Stephen King’s Carrie to announce the return of the McRib—and all the sauce that comes with it.
Real estate is regularly in the news, especially given the massive price increases in Auckland. But real estate conferences generally aren’t. That changed today because while the real Harcourts conference was going on at Sky City, its #harcourtsconference hashtag was hijacked by a range of Twitter users (led by Guy Williams) who all took their frustrations out on Australia’s third most dishonest profession. Here are some of the best.
Often when we travel abroad we tend to bring back some kind of gift or souveneir for our loved ones (for those who have children it is often unquestionably expected) but the ones who miss out tend to be our faithful canine companions, who are often first to the door. Colenso BBDO and My Dog channel this idea in a new campaign called ‘The one who misses you most’ which allowed travelers to purchase a bit of a treat for their dogs on the way home.