Inanimate objects often seem to be having quite a lot of fun. And now Lotto and DDB have anthropomorphised some of those weird inflatable tube people that used car salesmen often put outside their yards to show what it might feel like if you won the Christmas Triple Dip.
Good to see Mazda’s sponsorship of Campbell Live is paying dividends, as this Christmas card that John Campbell received from ‘Alice’ proves.
Shayne Currie, editor of the New Zealand Herald, will be able to put his feet up for one day as former All Black and anti-depression campaigner Sir John Kirwan steps in to take over the editorial responsibilities for the 10 December edition of the paper.
Whybin\TBWA’s Digital Arts Network and Assembly have brought Middle Earth to life online for Tourism New Zealand. The tourism organisation is making the most of content developed for the Book of New Zealand, a digital installation in Los Angeles that promotes four locations used in the filming of The Hobbit sequel The Desolation of Smaug.
Auckland’s Rush Digital Interactive, specialists in games, graphics, augmented reality and apps, has teamed with Saatchi & Saatchi to create an arena that pits players from Auckland against rivals more than 1000km away. The game will be played out at Auckland’s ASB Tennis Centre and Christchurch’s Wilding Park as the ASB Classic tournament approaches.
It’s that time of year again, when lists and predictions come spewing forth. So here’s Bka Interactive’s chief executive Barb Anderson on the digital trends she sees prevailing and developing in 2014.
The voices that were sent to the Moon as part of Dr Who’s 50th anniversary celebrations have made a safe return to planet Earth and can now be heard at the Moonbouncer website.
In his former life in adland, Online Republic co-founder and president Mike Ballantyne was part of a like-minded creative team, all pulling in the same direction to take on Auckland’s big agencies. That made him a big believer in assembling and locking in key talent — something he credits for the success of his current e-commerce venture Online Republic.
Aegis Media will bring its digital brand Isobar to New Zealand from next February under the leadership of current Isobar Sydney general manager Grant Henderson. The introduction rounds out the network’s local offering and will include expansion of the Kiwi team.
It seems the travellers and the aviation industry weren’t the only ones captivated by British Airways’ recent #lookup campaign, which used surveillance technology to hook billboards up with its planes passing overhead. Domino’s Pizza in the UK has followed suit with a ripoff that asks up to #lookdown at a large pepperoni.
Colenso BBDO has created an ad campaign featuring 64 unique videos that calls out pre-roll ads for being a nuisance. Each ad is linked to the video that the viewer originally searched for and comes with a customised line that mentions the desired content.
TV and movie streaming service Netflix has gone all warm and fuzzy with the story of a Christmas tree-topping ornament who’s seen it all. As the porcelain decorated character says, it’s hard not to smile when a happy expression is painted on your face.
This year Positively Wellington Tourism is targeting Kiwis who take to the road for the Christmas holidays, not just locals, with its online advent calendar. And it’s the first time it’s harnessed the social crowd to find out what the calendar should showcase.
Growing numbers of Kiwis are using social media to share job opportunities and secure new work, according to a recent Kelly Workforce Index survey of more than 3500 Kiwis. And employers should know staff expect to be able to use company tech to get social.
We’ve always thought runners are a bit of a mad bunch, and a new TVC for Nike by Wieden + Kennedy in Shanghai is further evidence. Let The Run Tell You Why, it says. Better yet, let the guy in the hotdog costume explain himself.
Kiwi IT company Crossware sees global opportunity to get more companies making the most of the prime real estate at the bottom of their staff’s emails. It’s a space the firm says many local firms don’t use to brand themselves.
AJ Park patent specialists Anton Blijlevens and Jillian Lim touch on some of the interesting patents to look out for on the shelves.
The sporting banter between Andrew Mulligan and Mark Richardson is no longer restricted to weeknights on Prime. Since 25 November, The Crowd Goes Wild, the popular television show the pair co-host, has also moved into the radio realm with a morning show on Radio Sport. Plus: find out who’s coming back to Radio Sport.
Humans are strange, simple and irrational creatures, as evidenced by the huge excitement generated by New World’s Little Shop promotion. And while this miniature fervour obviously worked in Foodstuffs’ favour, it also worked for the brands involved in the promotion.
Fonterra is putting its media account up for pitch in New Zealand, with incumbent OMD and MediaCom thought to be battling it out for the spoils.
Jeff Bezos, the mastermind at Amazon, is planning to give online shopping an Orwellian twist by introducing a squadron of unmanned drones to deliver products purchased on the website.
From 2014, Sacha McNeil will be swapping her late-night TV slot for early mornings, as she steps in to co-host Firstline with current 3 News business editor Michael Wilson. And there will also be key staff changes elsewhere, with Mediaworks announcing that Janika ter Ellen will be brought on as the news anchor for The Paul Henry Show. PLUS: read about additional changes behind the scenes.
It’s supposedly better to give than receive. But tell that to the capitalist hordes trampling on their fellow humans in order to get 50 percent off some crappy goods they probably don’t need. So as the scmaltzy Christmas ads about family and generosity and animated animals come thick and fast, upmarket UK department store Harvey Nichols has taken a different, possibly more honest approach and launched a campaign that promotes cheaping out on gifts for others and spending all your money on yourself.
Today’s internet world feels like the Permian period, the disastrous era more than 250 million years ago when a vast number of species became extinct. This time the species facing extinction is the niche website, says Dan Robertson.
In 2013, the students enrolled at Media Design School and AUT Adschool caught the attention of several leading agencies with work that was not only creative but also commercially viable. So impressed were the bigwigs in attendance at the end-of-year shows that they swooped in and hired several of the young bloods shortly after the event.
Mobile advertising company Snakk Media has notched $3.02 million revenue for the six months to 30 September, its first unaudited half year result since since listing on the alternative exchange in March. The amount is 83 percent of the revenue it posted for the last full reporting year and a 147 percent jump on the previous half year.
Many of those who work in this industry have skeletons in their closets. But nothing could prepare us for the revelation that TBWA’s chief creative office Toby Talbot…
It hasn’t been the best of years for DDB. But after parting company with longtime client VW recently, it didn’t have to wait long to find a replacement and it will be starting next year on a good note with a different German car-maker—BMW—on its roster.
The lucky few travellers who were at Auckland airport this morning became the first people in the world to see Peter Jackson’s take on the dragon Smaug, which has been emblazoned across a Boeing 777-300. The 54-metre rendering of the creature, which was designed by Weta Digital, gives Kiwis a taste of what they can look forward to when The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug is released in cinemas on 13 December. But this wasn’t the only Hobbit-themed campaign to appear yesterday. Tourism New Zealand also unveiled the ‘Book of New Zealand,’ a giant pop-up book that showcases four of the film’s filming locations.