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.
In May, New Zealand Post and its subsidiary Kiwibank announced that they would merge their media accounts and appoint a single agency to take care of the media side of the business. This announcement came with the consequence that at least one of the long-time account holders for the respective businesses—Ikon (Kiwibank) and Starcom (NZ Post)—would lose its account. And now, after a pitching process, Kiwibank’s head of marketing communications and content Regan Savage has confirmed that OMD has won the account, leaving both incumbents’ ledgers a little barer.
After losing the BMW account earlier this year, FCB Media has successfully orchestrated a switcheroo and landed itself behind the driver’s seat of not one but four automotive brands by winning the European Motor Distributors (EMD) media account after a pitching process, which involved two separate media briefs.
Just when you thought there was no such thing as an ad hung off the homoerotic relationship between a giant ear and a single overgrown German headphone, along comes Sennheiser.
Foodstuffs obviously isn’t conducting too many drug tests on the staff in its marketing team, because after New World and Colenso BBDO went full gonzo for their two latest brand ads, it’s launched another mad spot promoting its sponsorship of netball that shows it would do ‘almost’ anything to show their love of the sport.
Our weekly collection of good things, funny things, weird things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Industry happenings at DB Breweries, Dynamo, Coca-Cola Amatil, BrandWorld, The Sweet Shop, Jericho, Kiwa, Data Insight, and Touchtech.
Almost 300 people from the magazine and media industry ventured to the Auckland War Memorial Museum last night to celebrate the best writers, designers, photographers, editors, sales folk and titles in New Zealand. And it was one of the country’s most popular mags, Bauer Media’s Woman’s Day, that left with the biggest haul.
Since taking over as the chief executive of APN New Zealand in May, Jane Hastings has been pulling together the discrete threads that make up the conglomerate in an effort to create a seamless entity that can be used to deliver commercial partners’ messages across all the available media properties. And all new things require a name, so for this reason APN sent out a release this morning saying that its print, radio, digital and e-commerce brands will from now on be unified under the moniker NZME (pronounced ‘en zed me’), which stands for New Zealand Media and Entertainment.
Oreo’s new ad looks at a novel new way of using the iconic cookie: to make sweet, sweet music.
Rapper, producer and sound-based entrepreneur Andre ‘Dr Dre’ Young has just been named by Forbes as the 2014 Hip-Hop Cash King. And it’s the sale of Beats Electronic to Apple that put him in the top spot. PLUS: Beats by Dre’s celebrity-heavy advertising.
While Google messes about with a self-driving car, BMW is bringing the digital world to the driver in its newly released Connected Drive system. Already available in many parts of the globe, the onboard internet and SOS service comes standard with all new beemers in New Zealand, with optional subscriber services such as a 24/7 concierge phone service and a series of apps for integrating the car with your phone and home computer. But, um, why? Many of the features, such as GPS navigation, phone, internet and digital radio are available on all smart phones. So are AA, tow trucks and ambulances. So why not just bluetooth your brick and flick on the hands free?
Volvo Trucks and its agency Forsman & Bodenfors had the world eating out of their hands last year after Epic Splits and a few other entertaining live tests showed how easy the trucks were to drive—and how B2B didn’t necessarily have to mean boring to boring. And, to show off its new i-Shift dual clutch technology, it’s continued that trend with a complicated stunt on the Italian Riviera featuring a rather confused-looking valet who gets a big shock during his first night on the job.