The industry has been buzzing with speculation as to who would replace outgoing MediaWorks group chief executive Sussan Turner, following the announcement of her resignation at the beginning of July. The rumour mill has however been brought to a halt by a MediaWorks release, which has confirmed that Mark Weldon would step into Turner’s role on 11 August.
Val Morgan has launched a new audience measurement platform called CineTAM, which uses the demographic data from a sample of over 80,000 cinema goers to give advertisers a better indication of who is watching a film.
The Sweet Shop’s Joel Kefali has done his fair share of ads (often along with Special Problems cohort Campbell Hooper), but he’s gaining a reputation for his music videos, having got behind the camera for Lorde, Tame Impala, The Presets and The Naked and Famous. Now he’s done the same for Katy Perry.
Getty Images takes a look at how online publishers (whether brands or bloggers) can use images to help tell stories that move audiences.
Telecom and Designworks unveiled Telecom’s new spark logo in 2009, and the move to fully rebrand as Spark—and change the orientation of the business from home phones and dumb pipes to a technology company and business enabler—has been out in the open for a few months. But now it actually has to make the change, and it’s taken the first, very symbolic step by removing the name from its HQ in Auckland.
The country’s last major teaser campaign aimed to get people talking about the pros and cons of money in the lead up to the launch of BNZ’s ‘Be good with money’ brand. And we’ve noticed another one recently, with a few unbranded Adshels featuring a man standing in a field surrounded by mountains popping up around Auckland. At first, it looks like another ad for a male clothing brand. But it’s not. So in the spirit of teasing, we’ve decided to let our dear readers guess who it might be for. The first to answer correctly will receive a copy of yesterday’s Herald and a 70g packet of Wattie’s Spicy Pumpkin Squeeze and Stir soup.
In a release sent out earlier this afternoon, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand’s chief executive Nicky Bell announced that executive creative director Antonio Navas would be returning to the States, bringing an end to a stint that started in June 2011. Taking the Venezuelan-born creative’s place are Corey Chalmers and Guy Roberts, who will be promoted to the positions of joint executive creative directors, effective 1 September.
Social creativity is becoming increasingly important in the world of marketing, with a number of brands trying to convince punters to either come up with ideas for ads or submit content to create them. Last year, Unilever’s Rexona brand got its pound of sweaty flesh with the treadmill of devotion. And now, as part of its Do More brand platform, it’s asking them to submit clips to support the All Blacks and help create a special film that will be written by, directed by and star everyday New Zealanders and be curated by director Taika Waititi.
It seems that unconventionality extends beyond the title of iSite Media’s head of freshness Rupert Fenton. To celebrate the company’s update of its ‘Highly Targeted Outdoor’ offering, Fenton took the bizarre step of undergoing a Botox treatment in a quirky move that coincides with the announcement that the company has recently added the latest census data to its award-winning tool.
Brands have seen the opportunity to shake themselves free of the tyranny of paid media and embrace content marketing. But it pays to look before you leap, writes David MacGregor.
As part of our series dedicated to celebrating good work and inspiring a bit more generosity, Nick Worthington, Colenso BBDO’s creative chairman, gives some props to two great campaigns and one burgeoning brand.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
He’s certainly no Christopher Walken, but Jude Law has shown he’s got a few sweet moves in an impressive branded film for Johnnie Walker Blue Label. PLUS: David Duchovny sides with the Russians.
It’s tough for brands and agencies to compete with the plethora of amazing GoPro surfing footage, but Samsung and 72 and Sunny Amsterdam have done a bloody good job with this two-minute film to promote its partnership with The Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour.
In an open letter sent to Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler, YWCA Auckland is calling for Kiwi suffragette Kate Sheppard’s image to be removed from the ten-dollar note and replaced with that of a man. This request, which comes as part of a new campaign developed by DDB, aims to draw attention to the fact that a woman remembered for fighting for equality would not be pleased to have her face on the note at a time when for every ten dollars men earn, women only earn nine. PLUS: we take a look at whether the 10 percent reference is accurate.
During the global financial crisis, the amount spent on research in New Zealand declined significantly, and the industry has struggled to gain back that ground after the recovery. But The Research Agency has grown at around 120 percent per year since it launched in 2007 and it has big ambitions to maintain that. Managing director Andrew Lewis discusses the reasons behind the company’s recent rebrand to TRA, the importance of embracing different disciplines, and why consumers need to be brought into the heart of the business.
Digital out-of-home is a big growth area for the outdoor sector, with significantly reduced hardware costs and growing awareness of the benefits it has to offer putting some major wind in its sails in recent years. It’s coming off a low base and it’s still in its infancy in New Zealand, but the investment is starting to flow from owners and advertisers. Here’s what some of the main players—APN Outdoor, oOh! Media and Adshel—had to say about the state of DOOH in New Zealand and what they have planned for the future. PLUS: OMANZ announces a new billboard audience measurement system.
Industry happenings at TRN, Radio New Zealand, Lightbox, Bauer Media, Reactive, Designworks, iProspect, MediaWorks, DDB Group Sydney, TEDx and Spikes Asia.
Ford and JWT are currently aiming to draw attention to the Focus range with the help of five ‘precision drivers’ and a campaign tagline of ‘Move your senses’. It’s been running its ad in the immersive environment of the cinema, as well as on TV, and it has also launched a version of the ad that was recorded in holophonic or 3D sound, so punters can hear the cars moving around them.
The correlation between digital marketing excellence and revenue is on the rise, says Adobe’s Tamara Gaffney. And New Zealand and Australia are doing well when it comes to engagement and conversion rates.
Banking is becoming increasingly mobile, with all the major banks offering apps and a whole range of different ways to pay, from Bump to Facebook to NFC-enabled stickers. And now The Co-Operative bank has joined the fray, albeit slightly belatedly, with what it’s calling “a ground-breaking new mobile banking app”.
The classic Mac vs PC campaign was a master-class in comparative advertising and helped cement the impression of Apple as a brand suited to those striving to be cool and Microsoft as a brand suited to those who wore cardigans. But Microsoft is fighting back with a bit of comparative advertising of its own and showing that its Cortana system is smarter than Siri.
Last week, Vodafone released its Fantastic Fridays TVC, a creative effort that stoked the dying embers of hate that viewers still held for Rebecca Black’s 2011 viral song while simultaneously introducing the telco’s new reward programme. And while the spot was greeted with revile from some quarters, there were few complaints from the Vodafone customers who stand to receive rewards as part of the programme. Here’s a breakdown of how Fantastic Fridays has been incorporated into Vodafone’s existing MyVodafone app.
Interacting with a government department is not something most normal humans look forward to. But a new website www.govt.nz hopes to make those interactions slightly less wrist-slitty.
TRN has launched Kiwi Kids, a new iHeartRadio radio station that continuously plays songs and rhymes written for Kiwi Kids and performed by the nation’s top children’s musicians. And while, to some parents, this might sound like a scene borrowed from Dante’s Inferno, iHeartRadio’s artwork accompanying the launch carries the promise that the new station “won’t drive mum and dad crazy”.
Consumers—especially the younger ones—are increasingly checking out whether companies have been naughty or nice. And research shows an average of 55 percent of global online consumers are willing to pay more for products and services from companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact. So, as Kath Dewar writes, it pays to keep it clean.
When it comes to the idea of self-driving cars, there are plenty of concerns over safety, primarily because the first stage of robot acceptance among humans is that “a robot/computer cannot possibly do the tasks I do”. But Dutch car insurance company Centraal Beheer is predicting other dangers from the rise of automation.
Amazon has launched a new 3D printing store that offers a catalogue of around 200 different designs, which range from a crane skeleton to a skull with a tree growing out of it. While most products can only be customised in terms of size and colour, the 27 products carrying the phrase ‘create your own’ offer greater flexibility. When it comes to these products, customers can log into Amazon’s personalisation hub and then alter the design in accordance to their preferences.
FCB’s ad for Air New Zealand’s new seating options blew “most of our norms out of the water”, says Harriet Dixon, account director at Colmar Brunton. The ad has stolen the Ad Impact Award for June.
Scandinavia is so hot right now. So hot, in fact, that when Lion decided to launch its new range of low-sugar sodas, the company chose an old Skaldic word thought to mean ‘connected’ as the name of the product. Dubbed Hӧpt and sold in bottles that that seem more suited to beer or cider, Lion’s new range of non-alcoholic drinks is currently being advertised via billboards as a soda alternative that “contains less than half the sugar of leading regular soft drinks”.