Since 2008, Gianpaolo Grazioli, the owner of Auckland’s haute ice cream store Giapo, has combined experimental flair with culinary mastery to establish one of the most well-known ice cream stores in New Zealand. So what does it take to get Kiwis queuing for a frozen dessert all the way through winter?
The proliferation of digital technology has introduced countless features and applications. And with this progress has come a new vocabulary to describe everything that these digital innovations bring to the table. So, for the launch of its latest catalogue, Ikea has unveiled arguably the most ground-breaking innovation to hit coffee tables: the bookbook. At first glance, it might seem like nothing more than a print edition of the fancy furniture store’s annual catalogue, and this would be correct. It is simply a book. But in describing the latest edition in an over two-minute video, Ikea uses language that would be more suited to the latest rendering of the iPhone.
Following on from a global rollout at the end of last year, Yahoo New Zealand’s homepage too has relaunched in the new format, with personalised content for New Zealand users and sweet new functionality for advertisers.
PETA never shies away from controversy to get its point across—an approach that has even seen the organisation launch a porn site, in an effort to show that animals and humans share some body parts. And while the organisation’s latest campaign does include POV camera angles, it isn’t quite as salacious as what was done before.
Back in July, Canada-based Milk West, a dairy partnership consisting of Alberta Milk, BC Dairy Association, Dairy Farmers of Manitoba and SaskMilk, launched a bizarre YouTube-based campaign via DDB that featured a series of characters in a range of awkward situations. When StopPress first covered the story, there were only three episodes loaded onto the Snack Time YouTube channel, but over the last few months an additional six clips have been uploaded. And judging by the number of views, the series seems to be garnering a decent online following.
TVNZ has confirmed that it plans to require users to register with a username and password to access its on-demand service later this year. Thor Bayer, the broadcaster’s head of digital, says that the registration requirement is being introduced, because TVNZ plans to launch a range of new features that will enhance the user experience. Included among these is a feature that enables users to start watching a show in one channel and then pick it up at the same time on a different channel.
Photobombing has been given a V, with unsuspecting winery tourists having a homemade bomb packed with tempera powder exploding in their photos. The project is the latest in the “Give it a V” 24-hour series and was shot at West Brook Winery in Waimauku near Auckland last week, and posted on social media and the V website.
As brands realise they need to find better ways of cutting through in a crowded media landscape, more are turning budgets towards experiential marketing – and…
Roadshow Films has brought an ominous tremble to Kiwis’ smartphones with the launch of the mobile trailer of Into the Storm, the disaster film set to hit Kiwi cinemas on 4 September. The campaign, which has been running since 19 August and was pulled together by Snakk Media, takes over users’ smartphones by simulating a storm when certain websites are accessed.
Pandora’s commercial director for New Zealand Melanie Reece says there’s currently a lacuna in the law when it comes to the rules of mobile advertising. And this makes it important for mobile media owners to discuss the issue and share their insights, in the hope of forming a framework that benefits all the players in the industry.
Yesterday, New Zealand’s mainstream media was up in arms on account of the All Blacks having been snubbed in a World Cup 2015 ad that features Charles Dance—the actor who played Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones—giving a speech to group of fans in a locker room. Notably absent from this group is a fan or player representing the the current holders of the World Cup trophy. Fortunately, All Blacks Tours has filled this void with a new TVC (produced by Augusto) that depicts 2011 World Cup-winning couch Sir Graham Henry giving a team talk in a plane. But rather than having the aircraft filled with representatives from various rugby playing nations, the ad only features former player Stephen Donald sitting in one of the seats.
Ogilvy & Mather has claimed July’s Orca Award for placing an advertising message inside a music track. At 55 seconds into ‘I See Red’, Tim Finn interrupts the song urging people to go online and sign ‘The Last 55 petition’ to help save the Maui’s Dolphins. Joe Holden from BIG scored a merit award with the stories of Landrover’s origins told in a “true oldschool storyteller’s” voice.
Fairfax Media faces the same challenges as all media companies. Everyone is competing for the same thing: attention. Along with the speed at which technology is…
There are a huge range of new—and very popular—social platforms, and where consumers go advertisers will follow, says Neville Doyle. But brands need to focus less on being first and more on creating high quality, relevant content.
AJ Park patent specialists Anton Blijlevens and Jillian Lim touch on an interesting patent to look out for on the shelves: self-sanitising door handles.
Industry happenings at Special Group, Colenso BBDO, Ipsos and Toybox.
A tip of the trucker cap to Pak ‘n Save, V Energy and Action on Smoking and Health.
Wanting to prove there’s more to Australia than theme parks, Tourism Australia and Air New Zealand have launched a content marketing campaign with Yahoo and Tangible Media to lure Kiwis for a holiday over the ditch. The campaign goes for a fresh, inspiring view of Australia beyond trips to the East Coast gateways – beginning with Western Australia.
Bulbous hairdos, inspirational pep talks and plenty of fireballs: The new Clash of Clans ads are out.
Stoptober’s lead up nationwide tour kicked off yesterday with a heartfelt recruitment event in Kaitaia. It’s part of a campaign targeting New Zealand’s 463,000 smokers to quit the habit with a smokefree October, by signing up to the Stoptober website. Satellite Media’s Piri Weepu TVC is also leading the charge.
Late last week, TVNZ sent out a release on its financials for the year ended 30 June 2014, showing an overall profit after tax of $18.1 million, up 25 percent on the figures posted the previous year. These results also came with the announcement that the company has sold its remaining stake in Igloo to Sky, which also took its financial report as an opportunity to reveal Igloo’s subscriber numbers for the first time.
Join Pandora Internet Radio’s head music analyst Steve Hogan in Auckland next Monday for a free, intimate, one off session as he describes the inner workings of Pandora’s groundbreaking Music Genome Project and why humans will always understand music better than machines.
Most marketers involved in comms work are becoming direct marketers by stealth, reckons Ben Goodale. So how can an old discipline be harnessed for these new channels?
Using the premise that innovative ideas can at first be ugly, intimidating or even scary, US-based technology company GE has released a new spot, via BBDO New York, that aims to show how that ugliness can be converted into something beautiful when placed in the right hands.
Forget the rowing world cup, forget the basketball world cup; the real action last week was at Yahoo’s Dodgeball Keg Cup. Eight agencies competed in the tournament for the honour of winning the moderately prestigious Keg Cup and the highly coveted 50-litre keg of beer.
Pita Pit has launched its first nationwide campaign via a new TVC conceptulised by Contagion, the agency which won the account for the food chain’s cross-Tasman business earlier this year. The 30-second spot, which was shot by Flying Fish and directed by Helena Brooks, features a middle-aged man, dressed in the garb of a stereotypical accountant, dancing awkwardly after having completed a meal from Pita Pit.
Samsung New Zealand and Colenso used the recently reported “black cats aren’t adopted because they look bad in photos” story to create a social campaign with renowned animal photographer Rachael Hale McKenna. The campaign created a solution for cat photographers, whilst at the same time highlighting features of their latest smartphone, the Samsung GS5.
You voted, and Steinlager Pure and DDB NZ’s Born to Defy campaign won the People’s Choice Award in the annual Stoppress/Mediaworks TVC of the Year. Co-op Bank Record Profits and Augusto’s Lydia Ko goes Pro were second and third.
Several weeks after kicking off its 60th anniversary via a nostalgic TVC by Ogilvy, Holden has now extended the celebrations to its website with a series of vignettes that aim to tell the stories of fans of the brand. The video compilation is currently being hosted on a microsite called ’60 Years Loyal’, and was created by Dentsu Aegis-owned digital creative agency Isobar, which launched in Auckland in February. Updated with further information on Ogilvy’s contribution to the campaign.
Last week, StopPress met with an estimable judging panel in an effort to determine which finalist in the StopPress/MediaWorks TVC of the Year competition was most deserving of this year’s title. Copious head scratching, contemplative groans and a fair bit of imbibing ensued as the judges weighed up the pros and cons of the campaigns over a lunch at Auckland’s Neighbourhood brew bar. And by the end of this highly scientific estimation of the effectiveness of the each campaign, the judges came to a final shortlist of three candidates: ‘Mistakes’ for the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) by Clemenger BBDO, ‘Devil’s Chair’ for NZI by FCB and ‘The People’s Film’ for VW by Colenso BBDO. PLUS: ‘Blazed As’ for the NZTA by Clemenger BBDO and ‘Born to Defy’ for Steinlager by DDB took out the top spots in the craft category.