Sky’s History channel and DDB have teamed up for a unique Anzac activation in which fake trenches were set up in Auckland and Wellington with actors dressed as soldiers re-enacting what it would have been like during WWI.
A meaningful slow clap goes out to NZTA, Mitsubishi, Tasti, Spark and Coca-Cola this week.
During the Cricket World Cup, Hyundai promoted its new Genesis sedan by putting cars on plinths—and in the path of some sixes—inside the grounds and trying to get people to answer a few questions about the car’s various features in its animated TV ads. But they do things bigger in the US, so it used a few of them to send a message from a girl called Stephanie to her astronaut father.
A big part of GoPro’s marketing strategy is to promote great footage captured by its users. And that often just proves how dull your own life is. Or is it? One office worker who strapped on a camera and made the footage into “an exciting GoPro commercial” doesn’t think so.
Industry happenings at Adhub, NZTE, NZME, Vodafone, Socialites, Anthem, Beat Communications and Contiki.
NZTA has been talking about the perils of distraction for a while now. And Auckland Transport is on the same page. So it’s released a new campaign that calls dangerous distracted drivers out—and asks witnesses to do the same.
Back in December, the blood alcohol limit was lowered from 80 milligrams to 50 milligrams per millilitre, and while every human is different, that equates to about two standard drinks over two hours before drivers blow the bag. NZTA and Clemenger BBDO announced that change with a simple informational campaign. But, as they have been doing for years, they’re now playing the emotional card. PLUS: How the changes have impacted the booze business.
Pascall has changed the recipe of its Milk Bottle lollies and removed the milk. And as is the case with most changes like this, customers are unimpressed with the new taste—and the concept.
Growth HQ’s James Kemp ran 65 of New Zealand’s top sites through Google’s Mobile Tool to see how ready they were for the algorithm changes introduced today. And there were quite a few surprises in the mix. Plus: what Google says about the changes.
The Campbell Live saga has shown that commerce and current affairs often make uneasy bedfellows. But across on a different medium, the publicly funded Radio New Zealand and the commercially minded NZME are jumping into bed, with iHeartRadio now streaming Radio New Zealand National, Radio New Zealand Concert and Radio New Zealand International. And both sides think it’s a win-win.
Mitsubishi and Clemenger BBDO have had a fairly good run on the advertising front, with the retro campaign for the Mirage and the humorous take on hybrid technology to launch the MPEH Outlander standing out. Now it’s released an ad promoting the just released Triton ute that talks up its reliability with the tagline ‘You can bet on it’.
Where brands used to simply advertise, now they’re regularly ‘creating content’—and often hoping to inspire warm fuzzies. Vodafone and True nailed it, Air New Zealand did it over Christmas, Samsung made a very special delivery in Australia and to show how it is helping to preserve our national icon, Tasti has got in on the act with ‘Project Nest’.
Digital innovations might be proliferating and making communication easier, but Chemistry Interaction’s Joseph Silk argues that how we use these new tools will determine how successful they are in marketing.
Burger King has cut toys from its kids’ meal options and stopped television advertising of its kids’ meals, and it says it’s the first burger chain in New Zealand to do so.
Earlier this year, in an effort to encourage the entrants of the Winston Fletcher Fiction Prize to write freely, the competition organisers released a quirky campaign that places typical client feedback alongside the covers of three famous works of fiction. The targets of client dissatisfaction in this case are Salman Rushdie, Scott F Fitzgerald and Joseph Heller, and the comments in each instance criticise the very aspects that make their books so enduring.
Last week, Coca-Coca Life hit Kiwi shelves, giving Kiwi consumers their first opportunity to purchase the stevia-based variant. But long before anyone in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington or Dunedin was able to taste the drink, the Coca-Cola team headed south to the rustic setting of Otira to give the 87 permanent residents living there the first sampling rights. The proceedings that unfolded were captured on film and then edited into Coke’s new TVC, which carries the ‘Let Life surprise you’ slogan.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Last month, Fairfax announced some more changes to the structure of its newsroom, with a big focus on becoming a digital first media company. And Nielsen numbers show its hub stuff.co.nz continues to move up the top ten most popular site rankings while the majority have gone down year on year. But is this digital growth translating to dollars?
The Make-A-Wish foundation has made history by releasing its first ever TVC, with TVNZ Blacksand’s Our Little Heroes campaign celebrating the heroic nature of children suffering life threatening medical conditions in the hope of gaining further reach to grant more wishes.
With the rise of smartphone photography, it’s tough out there for most camera manufacturers. The experienced and enthusiast photography market is the logical place for them to play and Canon is doing just that in a new campaign to show off its lenses and the difference they can make to telling a story. PLUS: how Apple, Samsung and other mobile manufacturers are changing the industry.
As we’ve seen with the Campbell Live debate, fans believe the importance of the show can’t be reduced to ratings because it also serves an important social function. And broadcasters seem to be saying something similar when quantifying the success of reality shows that include a high level of sponsorship integration because they are leading to commercial results for advertisers. So is that also the case for the inaugural season of Our First Home, which wrapped up earlier this week after three live auctions?
Automotive brands are pretty keen on ambassadors. Audi has Simon Gault and Steve Dunstan, BMW has Jeff Wilson, Josh Emett and Kathryn Wilson and now Jaguar has joined the club and teamed up with the founder of Crane Brothers, Murray Crane, to launch its new XF and continue its sales momentum.
The 2015 TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards are ready to be collected. So if you feel you’ve performed heroic feats of marketing over the past year, get ready to submit an entry and show us what you’re made of. PLUS: how to win two tickets to the awards and a night at the Langham.
Imagine being able to travel to a destination simply by imagining it. Well, with Russian Airline S7, you can in a sense with the Imagination Machine (created by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam in collaboration with Tellart), a unique installation that uses EEG-technology to turn participants’ minds into game controllers.
CallPlus Group and ByPass Network Services Limited (BNSL) yesterday responded to the cease and desist letters sent out by Global Mode opponents Sky, MediaWorks, TVNZ and Spark. And rather than bowing down to the corporate juggernauts, the pair of organisations instead responded with a level of competitive enthusiasm that rarely makes it through the corporate PR force field.
The Webby Awards, which the New York Times has described as “The internet’s highest honour” and referred to by others as the Oscars of the internet, has come around again with nominees being announced last week. And there are a few talented Kiwi contenders, including Colenso BBDO, DDB, Special Group, Springload and Clemenger BBDO.
Since its inception, Skype has served as means by which people living on opposite sides of the world could see and hear each other. For some time, it was the market leader and functioned independently without too much competition from other players. However, Google’s move into online calling when combined other services such as Whatsapp and Viber have placed pressure on Skype to evolve its offering—and the service has done just that.
Kiwi retailer Paper Plus and its agency FCB have enlisted the help of a goofy-looking alien character to bring excitement and imagination into the in-store experience. FCB’s general manager of retail Kamran Kazalbash and head of planning David Thomason talk us through the rebranding journey.
NZME recently helped to raise in excess of $300,000 for children caught up in the Syrian strife through World Vision’s ‘Forgotten Millions’ campaign, which was fronted by journalist Rachel Smalley. And now, the company is turning its attention to another good cause by using all its available channels to raise funds for the RSA in the lead up to the centennial anniversary of Anzac Day.
The frisson of live musical events is what makes them so appealling, both for musicians and fans. And while video games aren’t likely to replace that sensation, the latest iteration of Guitar Hero is offering a dose of reality by allowing gamers to play in front of live crowds.