ASB is the latest brand to bask in the reflected glow of the All Blacks after its partnership with New Zealand Rugby was announced today. And, in celebration, the bank has rebranded for a day.
So risky is Twitter that Wendy Thompson, the founder of social media agency Socialites, advises clients not to dabble in platform. And while this might sound counter-intutive coming from someone who pays the bills thanks to social media, Thompson’s company has already generated some impressive results for major brands such as Mitre 10 and Spark, and she has just penned House of Travel into her ledger. So is this a case of digital smoke and mirrors or is a social media agency something that more businesses should think about bringing onboard?
NZME’s flagship lifestyle brand Viva comes as a separate magazine inside the Herald. And now it also comes as a separate website, viva.co.nz.
Samsung put on a big show for the launch of its new phones early this week. But just a few days before that showoffery we heard a story from the BBC about the environmental problems of a throwaway culture, the mining of rare earth minerals—and the mining of old phones—and the unwillingness of manufacturers to give plans to those who want to try and repair their broken products. So, rather than leaving a number of old phones festering in the bottom drawer, we decided to collect a few and hand them over to Starship. And this is what we found bursting out of an old Galaxy Note 2.
People who like new things were treated to the live-streamed unpacking of Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And, instead of referencing its main competition Apple with its long-running ‘the next best thing is already here’ campaign, it’s changed its tune slightly, backed its more stylish metal and glass-laden phones and gone with the line ‘next is now’ for its early promotional clips.
Adidas has released a new global campaign about seizing the moment, which features some of the world’s top athletes, including All Blacks Richie McCaw and Sonny Bill Williams. The campaign features 30-second TVCs of top athletes from around the world who are at the top of their game in their respective sports, delivering short monologues about why they “take today”.
In an ongoing series, StopPress chats to a few cerebral types in the industry on the expanding influence of digital technology and how agency life is changing in response to this. Last week, in the first edition of ‘Rise of the Machines’, we featured the creative perspective, and we now shift attention to the media side of the industry as we ask Jane Stanley, the PHD group strategy director and managing director of PHDIQ, a few questions.
The collection of screeds of data offers seemingly limitless possibilities, from lights that flash when your favourite teams scores to fridges that can order more milk to services that can tell us where a free park is. And many companies are trying to show what can be done with it all (GE’s Datalandia was one of our favourites). Sid Lee Paris has joined that club and, in conjunction with Arduino, set up 17 sensors that show exactly what goes on in its office.
Yesterday, Tinder launched its new paid version of the app, called Tinder Plus, which includes new features. But it isn’t showing the love to ‘older’ users, charging over-30s more to use the app.
Peruse enough mainstream news sites and you’re likely to eventually see the Getty Images label tagged to the photography featuring on some of the stories. This is because the company today serves as an image provider for many publications throughout the world. Due to this affiliation with news, it’s important for Getty to provide imagery that accompanies current affairs suitably.
This week, a stoic nod of approval in the general direction of Bauer Media, Meridian and Speight’s.
Rather than developing capabilities from the ground up, acquisitions provide an effective means by which companies can incorporate new skills into their offerings. This has been seen internationally in purchases by the likes of Google and Facebook. But this trend is by no means exclusive to the residents of Silicon Valley. On this side of the world, Bauer Media, Designworks and Accenture have all recently acquired businesses to consolidate their offerings.
With cricket excitement reaching an all-time high in New Zealand, plenty of commercial parasites are trying to make hay while the sun shines (top prize goes to Calendar Girls for its classic plane-based ambush advertising at Eden Park). Even golf is getting in on the act, with Lydia Ko and Israel Dagg reuniting to drum up interest in the sport—and support for the Black Caps.
With the proliferation of subscription video on demand services, some have started to suggest that the traditional paid-for TV model will come crashing down. However, in its interim report for the first half of 2015, Sky included an interesting graph that illustrates why the service might stick around for quite some time.
Whether they’re fast-walkers or slow-walkers (Simon Pegg’s preferred option), zombies will stop at nothing to get at braaaaiiiinnnnnnsssss. And, in this German Audi ad promoting its reliable—and reliably expensive—servicing options, dodgy mechanics will stop at nothing to get your business.
Author, creative and eccentric innovator Jimi Hunt founded depression charity Live More Awesome to try to give other sufferers of depression the help he didn’t feel he had received. And while he says it has been hard to find large brands willing to be linked to the charity, that’s starting to change, with Spark Foundation and the ZM radio network recently coming on board as sponsors and Samsung releasing a clip via Augusto showing Hunt putting its Galaxy Note 4 to good use. PLUS: get your tickets to the next edition of the World’s Biggest Waterslide.
In the lead up to the release of Netflix on 24 March, Vodafone has become the exclusive communications launch partner for the company in New Zealand and is trumpeting the arrival via a promotion that will give Vodafone subscribers on one of the available 24-month Red+ mobile plans six months’ access to the subscription video on-demand (SVOD) platform.
Late last year, Meridian shifted its advertising account to Barnes Catmur after a four-ish year relationship with Assignment. And the new couple have released their first ad to promote its moving house offer—with Jeremy Wells reprising his role as the entertaining spokeshuman and becoming a very literal embodiment of the brand.
Auckland Museum has launched a weekly Twitter game to engage its followers and educate people about its collections, and Te Papa, Waikato Museum and The Nelson Provincial Museum are getting involved too.
Tourism New Zealand has 100% Pure. Wellington has its Absolutely Positively. What’s Auckland’s story? ATEED’s Vivien Bridgwater is tasked with opening the book.
As the t-shirt says, Jono and Ben at Ten is like Hamish and Andy for people who hate Australians. Now the band of merry pranksters has been moved up the Friday night batting order from a half-hour slot at 10pm to an hour slot at 7.30pm. And they’ve celebrated the promotion with a clip showing some of the Facebook feedback that decision has generated.
Technology was meant to make life so much easier. Paperless offices. Cheap communication tools. And, of course, robot vacuum cleaners. But instead we’re lonelier, more stressed and getting our hair eaten by our electronic assistants. Woman’s Day has noticed this shift as well, so, as part of a big—and quite rare—$1.5 million campaign via FCB, it’s foisted a Zsa-Zsa Gabor-esque character upon the nation in an effort to give its readers permission to take a break without feeling guilty about it.
As a quintessential challenger brand, independent, family owned oil company Gull has tried a few things to get noticed, from themed toilets, to aggressive pricing (and criticism of the pricing structure of its national competition), to road rage reduction tools to docking wages of staff for customer theft. And, in an effort to draw attention to its biofuel, Gull Force 10, it worked with Contagion to create an edible billboard as part of its sponsorship of the Splore music festival.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
You don’t have to look far to find a joke about Justin Bieber. Just about everyone has dropped a line about the tantrum-prone singer. And given the enjoyment people derive from laughing at the expense of the baby-faced one, Comedy Central has organised an official roast of the Biebs.
Last week’s report on magazine readership and circulation figures once again reiterated that print is undergoing a period of transition as audiences shift their media consumption online. And looking at Nielsen’s readership and ABC’s circulation results, it’s more of the same. However, there was some good news for the rural and community publications.
Since launching its ‘Do your thing better’ brand a few years back, Vodafone has generally looked for laughs rather than warm fuzzies (although it managed to tug a few heartstrings with its Warriors stunt on mother’s day). But it decided to focus on the emotional power of connection for its Christmas push and it’s taken Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact Award for its efforts.
The radio industry isn’t alone in this bid to provide more accurate information to clients. Recently, the Magazine Publishers Association (MPA) announced the launch of a new Nielsen-provided methodology that quantifies the total audience potential (TAP) of a magazine by incorporating pick-ups into magazine reach and frequency schedules.
Last night, the New Zealand Direct Marketing Awards again celebrated the best examples of direct marketing in the industry. And it proved quite a fruitful night for the Clemenger Group as JustOne/.99 and Colenso BBDO/Proximity walked away with impressive hauls. PLUS: JustOne/.99 managing partner Amy Watson breaks her toe during over-zealous celebration.
Typically, agency folk harness their creativity to help clients’ businesses. But occasionally that creativity is put towards their own projects. And that’s exactly what globally recognised young creative and burrito aficionado Ben Polkinghorne has done with the Bangerrito, a burrito-flavoured sausage that’s made its way onto a few high end supermarket shelves and, all going to plan, might soon be seen in other markets.