To succeed in the digital world, you need to focus on what the audience wants as well as what your business needs. And editors straddle that line well, says Mark Glenn.
Smirnoff’s #PurePotential campaign via Special Group was pretty slick, with some good lookin’ billboards and a clever Instagram Bar that saw ‘mixologist’ Dickie Cullimore creating bespoke beverages based on pictures of punters’ fridges. The Lion-distributed vodka brand claims to see the potential in everything around us, “from sidewalks as dance floors, paint cans as drum kits and now a concrete truck as a drinks mixer”, which it wheeled out to a few festivals over summer.
Newcastle Brown Ale has long been know for taking the mickey with their advertising. So much so that it has become a central part of their brand identity. Now they are taking another stab at their favourite target, Super Bowl ads, with possibly their weirdest idea yet.
After more than a decade as managing director at SC Johnson, three years in the same role at Lion Breweries, then nearly 20 years as the boss of Fonterra Brands, there’s not much Peter McClure doesn’t know about how to launch a product. As he steps down from the role he tells Amanda Sachtleben about grabbing shoppers’ eyeballs in eight seconds, why that lightproof milk bottle wasn’t actually a flop and the reason entrepreneurs have a marketing jump on the corporates.
Back in 2009, ACP, now Bauer, took the opportunity to rub Fairfax’s nose in the sand when NZ Life & Leisure featured an image on its cover that Kia Ora had used on one of its earlier editions. And late last year, Woman’s Day and New Idea both featured the same image of Pippa Middleton (although very different words were used alongside). And Mindfood has pointed out that Next magazine can add its name to that list after it used a cover image of Angelina Jolie for a recent issue that had been used back in 2011.
McDonald’s, fresh from launching a new brand that ups the love and aims to halt sliding sales, launched a new ad during the Golden Globes that showed how the signs outside its restaurants in the US “have been used to spread messages of love, hope and respect”. Of course, whenever there is a sign, there will be those who manipulate them for comedic effect. And College Humour has put together a different, more puerile version.
New season ranges at Fairfax, Nielsen, Bayleys, NZME and CAANZ.
The average speed of Kiwi drivers has come down considerably over the years. But NZTA and Clemenger BBDO released a new campaign early this year in an effort to drop those numbers even further.
The internet loves animals. According to CBS, a remarkable, nigh-on unbelievable, 15 percent of internet traffic is cat-related. And dogs probably aren’t far behind. Chuck in a celebrity or two and a well-made video and you’ve got all the ingredients required for modern-day marketing gold, as ASB can now attest after its promotional stunt for the ASB Classic tennis tournament received plenty of love.
If you believe the doomsayers, print is dead. But for UK-based company Novalia, which has just helped DJ Q-Bert release what it’s calling the world’s first interactive DJ decks on an album cover, its technology is bringing it back to life.
2014 was a good one for the New Zealand automotive industry, with Motor Industry Association figures showing over 126,000 new vehicles registered. This beat the 30-year record of 123,247 units sold in 1984 and it was ahead of the 113,294 sold in 2013. And it was a particularly good year for Ford, which took New Zealand’s top selling ute title off the Toyota Hilux after a 32 year run.
Whether it’s a BMW skidding on an aircraft carrier, Volvo’s Live Test series, Hyundai’s empty car convoy or, closer to home, Holden’s Heartracing or Mini’s Driving Dogs, there’s no doubt automotive brands love a good stunt. And you can add Ford to that list after it launched a two minute clip featuring a host of Falcon fanatics who were recruited to line up along a custom-made racetrack in fetching blue overalls as Mark Winterbottom tried his best to avoid them.
Getty Images’ annual top searches reflect a mix of the year’s events, news, sports, popular celebrities and other major stories and trending ideas. Here’s what 2014 looked like.
Back in 2013, ANZ’s summer cricket spot was about as naff as you could get, with a few of the bank’s sporting ambassadors watching Eric Murray get a tennis ball beamer from Shane Bond. This year it’s taken a more serious approach for its naming rights sponsorship of the Sri Lankan series and its sponsorship of the upcoming Cricket World Cup by launching a campaign called Dream Big.
As scores of dejected New Zealand humans shuffle back into their workplaces after their unbridled leisure, it’s important to have a regular fill of pointless but moderately entertaining content to fill in your day while brain functionality slowly returns to normal. And here’s a quality example of that: 1650 mousetraps and 1840 ping-pong balls creating a non-explosive chain reaction to ring in the new year for Pepsi Max.
We asked some stalwarts a simple question. Here’s what Jane Hastings, chief executive of NZME, had to say.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Juanita Neville-Te Rito, chief executive of Hotfoot, thought about 2014.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Maud Meijboom-van Wel, DB’s marketing director, had to say.
We asked some stalwarts a simple question. Here’s what Claudia Macdonald, managing director at Mango, had to say.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Jeremy O’Brien, head of sales and marketing at TVNZ, had to say about 2014.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Jens Hertzum, executive creative director at TVNZ Blacksand, thought about 2014.
We asked some stalwarts a simple question. Here’s what Lorraine Breheny, general manager of marketing at The Warehouse, had to say.
Niue Tourism is putting its public relations and advertising agency work to tender for 2015 and beyond, with submissions closing 31 January 2015.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Julian Andrews, creative director at Whybin\TBWA, thought about 2014.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Campbell Gibson, the ad/media reporter at the NBR, thought about 2014.
We asked some stalwarts a simple question. Here’s what Mike Tod, chief marketing and customer officer at Air New Zealand, had to say.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Paul Hancox, commercial director at MediaWorks, thought about 2014.
In keeping with an ongoing tradition, a few industry players gave us their take on the year for our annual opinion harvest. Here’s what Corey Chalmers and Guy Roberts, executive creative directors of Saatchi & Saatchi, had to say.
We asked some stalwarts a simple question. Here’s what Simon Tong, managing director at Fairfax Media, had to say.
