Brands are now beginning to realise the true value of good content and how it can be used to increase sales/exposure/PR, says Robett Hollis. But now the big brands have a very big problem and a very big decision to make.
For many years, one of the primary tourism marketing strategies has been to pay for high-profile humans to come visit. Generally, that’s been in the form of travel writers. But as social media democratises publishing and individuals gain huge audiences through various social channels, that’s changing quickly. Tourism New Zealand has been embracing this for a while now (as has Contiki, which recently announced local YouTube star Jamie Curry would join its fourth roadtrip) and Tourism Wanaka got in on the act recently with its first official #instameet last weekend.
In the lead up to the official release of his book Private Vegas, James Patterson made available a single edition of the book that would self-destruct after 24 hours. But it came with a pricetag of $300,000, making it exclusive one super rich fan. So, to appease his equally faithful but poorer fans, he commissioned the digital wizards at Resn to develop a website that provided 1,000 electronic copies of the book, each of which also self-destructed after 24 hours.
For many, getting ink on your fingers after reading a newspaper is probably a rather quaint notion. But SparkPHD, NZME and ANZ embraced it for a Cricket World Cup supporter’s ad and came away with the win in newspaper ad the Ad of the Month.
Yup, it’s that time of year again (already?), when FOMO-suffering tech lovers get all wound up about another new gadget. And this time it’s Samsung’s turn, with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge released in New Zealand over the weekend. Here’s how Samsung and the main telcos are ensuring the upgrades continue. PLUS: the environmental perils of obsolescence and the idea of modular phones.
We’ve seen Tweeting sharks and honey badgers, driving dogs, armed dolphins, soothsaying cows, live streamed eagles and even erotic cats. And now we’ve got an octopus photographer—AKA Octographer—after Sony and FCB gave ‘Rambo’ a camera and taught it how to take photos of visitors to Kelly Tarlton’s aquarium.
Nielsen data from 2014 shows interest in cycling is increasing across all our major cities, with Christchurch showing the highest interest relative to its population size at 32 percent (since 2010 Auckland’s interest in cycling has increased the most, at seven percent to 29 percent). This is leading to a few tense discussions about safety and appropriate infrastructure to inspire more of it. But Spark has decided to tap into that interest and, in another slightly surprising marketing initiative that it says aligns with its ‘Never Stop Starting’ tagline, has announced it will be helping to launch a public bike share scheme in Christchurch in June.
Through its ongoing ‘Easy As’ campaign, Mitre 10 has shown that the Kiwi appetite for DIY extends beyond home renovation TV shows. In September 2013, the first phase of the intiative, which consisted of 27 clips, reached one million YouTube views. But general manager of marketing Dave Elliott says that this is only small part of what underpins the company’s digital strategy.
A lost dog poster pasted onto a lamppost has become a standard part of the urban landscape, susurrating in the wind and serving as little more than a reminder of the dog owner’s longing. This rudimentary approach has served as the solution to an all-too-common problem for generations, and the continued prevalence of these posters in even the most advanced cities stands as testament to the fact that there is little else available to pet owners who find themselves in these situations. So, in an effort to facilitate a solution more in line with modern technological capabilities, Pedigree has launched an app that enables users to use their smartphone to find a lost dog.
With driverless cars seemingly written in the automotive stars, those who get a thrill out of controlling their own vehicle might soon be forced to do it in private, rather than in public. And VW has riffed on the joy of driving with a great spot about a man with a very unusual dilemma.
Gold stars for Monteith’s, Air New Zealand, Burger Burger and TVNZ this week.
Whether it’s a set of knives, tiny groceries, a free coffee, a toaster, fuel discounts or Airpoints, reward schemes and collectables campaigns are so hot right now in marketing land. In conjunction with TRA, we’ve asked normal humans what they think about the various schemes on offer and now we want to hear from you in the industry, so help us out, fill in this survey and you’ll go into the draw to win your own reward in the form of a Timex Ironman Move x20 Activity Tracker Band valued at $180.
.99 has secured the creative account for Carpet Court, one of the biggest players in the New Zealand flooring sector, after a competitive pitch.
Lightbox has released two new TVCs by creative agency Consortium and production company Kontent in a continuation of its campaign, which has been rolling out since March with the aim of drawing attention to some of the SVOD provider’s more popular shows. But the Spark-owned SVOD service is by no means the only player in the market eager to get viewers’ attention, as Netflix, Quickflix and Neon also running campaigns that showcase their respective shows.
Channel Four in the UK has a fairly impressive in-house creative team, as evidenced by its magnificent Paralympics campaign from a few years back. And now, to launch its new ondemand platform All4, it’s peered 100 years into the future and predicted a same sex royal wedding, robotic horse racing and a series of mutant hosts.
Extreme close-ups can cause everyday items to look virtually unrecognisable as the characterising details are magnified under the photographer’s lens. And this serves as a reminder that though these tiny details might not be immediately apparent to the naked eye it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. So, in an effort to draw attention to the design details that went into the new Kia Sorento, Work Communications has launched a new spot that gives viewers a close-up look at the various sections of the vehicle’s bodywork.
The Effies Worldwide Index was released last week and, after tallying up the points earned through finalists and winners in the local Effie awards shows, FCB New Zealand and Colenso BBDO were ranked fifth and eighth respectively in the individual agency rankings, with Barnes Catmur fifth in the independent agency rankings. PLUS: all the Kiwi wins from the Asia Pacific Effies.
Yesterday, Sky was again reminded of how intense and instantaneous online outrage can be when advertisers don’t deliver on what’s promised. In this case, the promise involved simulcast streaming of the new season of Game of Thrones at the same time as viewers located in the United States. Sadly, as 1pm rolled in, the stream failed and the online fury ignited. And while it wasn’t difficult to find scathing comments about Sky’s streaming mishap, it was quite entertaining to see Slingshot engage in a bit of corporate banter.
According to a story in Digiday, The Onion makes 90 percent of its ad revenue through content creation, with a number of big brands looking to infuse a dash of the site’s humour into their commercial messages. And this series for Honda about an unassuming office worker who is convinced by a stuffed wolf to pack in his job, buy a motorbike and ride the road “righting wrongs and making wrongs right” is one of our favourites.
In 2012, Dave Schiff started ad agency Made in a coffee shop in Boulder, Colorado with two friends. They had no money, no clients and no idea how to run a business. Just three years later Made has more than 40 employees with a client list including a host of internationally recognised brands. And this week, Schiff is in Auckland to speak at Project15 on modern disruption and cause-based advertising.
In 2013, the long wait for a Thunderbirds are Go revamp finally ended with the announcement that ITV Studios and Pukeko Pictures (in association with Weta) had agreed to remake the show under the title Thunderbirds are Go—and last night Kiwis watching TV2 got their first taste of the CGI-powered live-action model sets coming to life during the first episode of the 12-part first series. PLUS: Brains introduces the new show.
The Air New Zealand lollies are something of an institution in this country and many a Kiwi kid has had the pleasure of delivering them at the end of a flight. Now it’s planning on adding a new rugby-themed flavour to the roster so it played a bit of an early April Fool’s day prank on a few All Blacks in the form of a taste test.
Advertising veterans George Logothetis and Graham Clifford took part in a bit of blasphemous product placement over Easter, with their Product Placement Bible. The result is a humorous (or not so humorous depending on the individual) website which imagines scripture sponsored by some of the world’s top brands.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Awards season is chugging along, and earlier this month Caanz announced the finalists for the 20015 edition of the Beacon Media Awards, which are set to be hosted at the Viaduct on 23 April this year. Last year, at the inaugural edition of the rebranded Beacon Awards, FCB dominated proceedings, taking to the stage more frequently than any of the other agencies in attendance. And this time round the agency looks poised to repeat its 2014 performance on account of having picked up 20 awards nominations (two of which are in association with Running with Scissors).
The idea that Campbell Live is, to use the often emotive language of the media, ‘on the chopping block’, seems to have been popping up for a few years now, and that’s not entirely surprising given the changes to the free-to-air TV market and media in general. But it was officially confirmed yesterday when MediaWorks management said it was undertaking a review. The Herald’s John Drinnan wrote about that decision and alluded to a rumour that Jono and Ben could be taking over the slot, but MediaWorks has taken the unusual step of responding to that story by issuing a clarification and saying it’s a “complete fabrication”.
The Canon Media Awards 2015 finalists were announced yesterday, setting the stage for the awards presentation dinner scheduled to occur at Auckland’s Pullman Hotel on 22 May.
Netflix has finally arrived on New Zealand’s shores, and naturally one of our first responses is to parody the service in true Kiwi fashion, with the help of Taika Waititi.
Following a creative pitch understood to have involved several agencies, Z Energy has made the decision to retain Assignment group on its account.
Tim Murphy, the editor-in-chief of the NZ Herald has decided to step down after a 30 years with the publication. This announcement brings an end to Murphy’s three-year stint in the role that he took on after serving as an NZ Herald editor for ten years.