Danny MacAskill is a phenomenon on two wheels and, along with his sponsor Red Bull, he has created some amazing films like Imaginate, Industrial Revolutions, Epecuen and Way Back Home in recent years. And his latest one, The Ridge, which sees him and filmmaker Stu Thomson return to their homeland on the Isle of Skye and face up to the 1000 metre drop of The Cuillin Ridge, is one of the craziest and most beautiful yet.
UK artist Simon Beck does some remarkable things with his feet. And Icebreaker has hooked up with him to launch its new season collection and, at the same time, raise money to fight climate change.
New Zealand lags behind a number of other developed counties on the recycling front, but it’s slowly getting its act together, with the Love NZ campaign’s big mission starting to bear fruit and the vast majority of New Zealanders now having access to kerbside recycling. But there’s still a long way to go when it comes to reducing waste and, judging by the angry all staff email sent out to the StopPress yesterday about banana skins being left in the recycling bin, some are still in need of education. This is a problem the Auckland Council also faces, so it’s employed the services of two animated characters rather prosaically named Tin Can and Plastic to teach Aucklanders what goes where.
The internet is very good at bringing different groups together. Google, Trade Me, Ebay and Amazon have brought buyers and sellers together. Uber has brought drivers and passengers together. Airbnb has brought owners and renters together. And now a New Zealand website called madam.co.nz hopes to bring ladies of the night and those willing to pay for them together.
What works on Netflix also works for TVNZ. Or at least that’s what the recent on-demand statistics for Orange is the New Black suggest. Over the month of September the first and second seasons of the hit dramedy, a Netflix original, were streamed by Kiwis via TVNZ Ondemand over a million times.
Movies like Titanic, Lion King and Top Gun get an interesting makeover … or is it a makeunder?
As well as expanding around the world, Burger Fuel is expanding into online ordering in New Zealand. And to celebrate, it’s come up with a beautiful poem and some naff pick up lines.
Paul Mant took over the role of general manager at New Zealand’s biggest digital sales house/ad network Adhub almost two years ago. And as ad spend continues to head online, the business has grown at around 20 percent per year. So is the banner dying? What’s so great about native? And are brands that use ad networks destined to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time?
Several weeks ago, Spark released the latest iteration of its ‘Never Stop Starting’ positioning via a 30-second spot that depicted a protagonist using Spark’s mobile payment technology across a varied range of jobs in different locations. And the telecommunications giant isn’t the only one dabbling in this space. We take a look at some of the recent moves made the major players.
On election night, MediaWorks collaborated with SparkPHD and digital media agency Ngage to feed live election results onto APN Outdoor’s digital billboard network around Auckland, making TV3 the latest brand to adopt a digital approach to outdoor advertising. So given all the hype centred on the versatility and effectiveness of digital OOH advertising, where does this leave traditional outdoor advertising? And is the growth of digital also starting to affect other industries?
There’s so much talk about innovation today and at Spikes Asia held in Singapore last week, innovation and technology were overwhelming seminar themes, says FCB’s James Mok. But what is the relationship between innovation and creativity? And is innovation always creative? What should come first?
As Whittaker’s proved, having a famous endorser can be good for business. Sealord has also gone down that path in its latest campaign to flog premium frozen hoki fillets, but its collaboration is a little more surprising: MTV reality TV star Heidi Montag.
After a few years running The Radio Network, Jane Hastings took over as chief executive at APN in May and she’s shaken things up since her arrival, hiring a new exec team, embracing cross-selling and cross-promotion across its channels and launching a new brand for the multimedia beast called NZME. Here’s her take on what’s been a whirlwind few months.
GoPro’s promotional videos have largely focused how users can film themselves surfing, jumping off mountains or generally laughing in the face of death. But it’s increasingly showcasing how it can be used in many other areas of film-making, whether it’s clips of kittens that have been rescued from fires, golden eagles in flight or ridiculous lion encounters. And its latest clip to launch the new Hero 4, ‘The Adventure of Life in 4K’, is a thing of audio-visual beauty.
Ad creep—where commercial messages are placed in previously uncommercialised zones—has been on the rise for years as consumers increasingly turn away from traditional media. There have been ads on Japanese schoolgirls’ thighs, on foreheads, on lakes and practically anywhere else a pair of human eyes might be forced into seeing an ad. Product placement is one of the biggest areas of focus and big bucks are spent to get brands into movies, TV shows and, increasingly, games. So, given the music industry’s relatively parlous state, it’s not entirely surprising to see that Universal Music is doing everything it can to get some extra cash, including letting brands pay to be retroactively included in its previously released music videos.
After taking over Tower Medical Insurance in late 2012, Nib launched into the New Zealand market in October last year with short-lived rugby convert Benji Marshall fronting the campaign. But now, just like the Blues, it has put him on the bench and released a new brand campaign that celebrates the joy of being human—and shows the need for adequate protection. Plus: a look at the launch of another overseas insurance company, Youi.
Staring at computer screens for extended periods of time has become an inescapable part of living in the digital age, condemning office workers to red eyes and artificial air. Interestingly, rather than attempting to escape the glow of a digital screen after office hours, we substitute our work laptops with mobile phones, smart TVs and tablets in our spare time.
Jeff Goldblum is a beautiful man, even when he’s half fly. And he’s also very successful. But, as this new ad for GE’s Link shows, it’s good lighting that got him to where he is today. So he’s obviously the perfect frontman for two minutes of Tim & Eric-inspired fake infomercial madness.
Shredded money, a superhero of the environmental persuasion and netball-mad retailers get top marks this week.
After major hits like the Walkman and Playstation, Sony has been struggling to compete recently. It has recorded losses for six of the last seven years and it’s been all but left behind in the smartphone race by Apple and Samsung. Some analysts say its major issue is a simple one: it’s just not cool enough. So it will be hoping a few brightly-lit snowboarders and smoking skaters aimed at promoting the Xperia Z3 might go some way to changing that.
Goodman Fielder has picked up August’s Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award for its spot featuring a baker attempting to evade a horde of villagers desperate to get their hands on a freshly baked loaf of Freya’s new low carb bread. PLUS: Reactive appointed Goodman Fielder’s digital agency.
Special Group has announced its presence in the Australian market by collaborating with award-winning author Anna Funder, Warm Bodies actress Teresa Palmer and fashion photographer Derek Henderson in a campaign for luxury pearl brand Paspaley. At the centre of the campaign is a bespoke short story, called ‘Everything Precious’, written by Funder, which will be released to Paspaley subscribers daily in seven serialised instalments via email between 1 and 8 October. So is this a case of a writer selling out for commercial gain?
Who should we believe? Is Kate ashamed of “off-the-rails and out of control” Pippa, as New Idea suggests? Or is she in fact proud of the fact that Pippa’s getting married, as the country’s recently crowned supreme magazine of the year, Woman’s Day suggests? Due to a pictorial whoopsie in this week’s women’s mags, you can take your pick.
Copper’s Megan Clark recently judged the promo & activation and direct categories at Spikes Asia. And here’s what she learned.
In the world of marketing, oneupmanship is a powerful motivating force. And Domino’s one-upped itself last week by delivering a pizza via a skydive. PLUS: other pizza-related stunts.
For most of the year, research agencies are the unsung heroes of the industry, with their insights outshone by the creativity that usually takes centre stage. However, last Friday, the limelight shifted and drew attention to examples of the most effective research conducted over the course of the last year. Hosted at Auckland’s Hilton hotel and attended by a full house of well-dressed researchers, this year’s edition of the biennial Research Effectiveness Awards was hosted by comedian and sausage ambassador Leigh Hart. PLUS: a brief look at the merger between the Market Research Society of New Zealand and the Association of Market Research Organisations (AMRO).
In an effort to give a more tangible representation of the statistical fact that Kiwis who hold mortgages pay $6 million in interest every four hours, BNZ has launched a new campaign via Colenso BBDO in which that amount of money will be shredded and put on display in Auckland’s Aotea Square from 29 September to 1 October. This outdoor activation is being supported across various channels, with a TVC, a Facebook campaign and YouTube clips that all use the shredded money as a provocative reminder of the amount of money that Kiwis burn through their mortgage repayments every day.
Finding the right agency partners is essential to all clients and it can be the difference between adding millions to your bottom line. But Sovereign’s Ben Rose believes most marketers employ a process that has become outdated, does not give the best result and costs both them and the parties involved significantly in time and money.
Samsung has been giving Apple uppercuts for a few years now with its The Next Best Thing is Already here campaign, and it has taken the attacks up a notch after the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus with a series of ads calling bollocks on the ‘innovation’ of its main mobile competitor (it doesn’t seem to have made too much difference, as Apple’s sales were still off the charts, although glitches with the operating system and bendy phones may have hindered that). And now the local arm of the Korean electronics behemoth is getting in on the act, running a print ad in some of the weekend papers showing a list of features from the soon-to-be-released Galaxy Note 4 that Apple should be taking note of for its next release.
DDB New Zealand has had a few good account wins recently, including Icebreaker and the Auckland Council. And it did pretty well at Spikes Asia over the weekend too, winning enough trophies to be placed second in the agency of the year category behind Dentsu Tokyo.