This one is an interesting take on the drunk driving PSA. Instead of blood and guts, SAAQ of Quebec went with a subtle and more thought-provoking approach. Using a series of pulleys, this PSA explores the cause and effect relationship of drinking and driving.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Industry happenings at Touchcast, Waitemata Films and Reload Agency
The Red Bull Stratos campaign, which saw madman Felix Baumgartner jump from a capsule approximately 39 kilometres above Earth, was one of the most watched brand-sponsored events in history. And Lion and DDB are attempting to do something similar, with a new campaign for Steinlager Pure that aims to drum up interest in Kiwi free diver William Trubridge and the upcoming effort to break his own world record of 101m.
In the new Kia Sportage spot by Work Communications, New Zealand’s green landscape and pristine waters serve as a foil to office-based captivity and the screen-staring that often comes with it. And while driving to a desolate swimming beach and diving in seems like a liberating idea, it probably isn’t quite as pleasurable as what it seems. What the footage shot by TVNZ’s Blacksand fails to tell the viewer is that the spot was shot at the onset of winter and that lead talent Sophie Baragwanath had to endure frigid swims during one day of shooting.
While the problems at troubled retailer Postie Plus, which is currently searching for a buyer, are causing a few headaches for Y&R at present, it’s continued its winning ways elsewhere after being appointed as the creative lead for the 2015 Sevens Wellington campaign following a competitive tender process involving five Wellington agencies.
Inspired by a conversation with Al Brown on the new-found optimisim surrounding Auckland, James Hurman set out to discover why people were feeling so good about the city. Then, after speaking to 50 leading Aucklanders, he compiled a report that aims to create a shared understanding of ‘New Auckland’. These are some of the main insights.
Over the last week, Heart of the City has been promoting its ‘Where Next?’ app, which was first announced in May. Designed in collaboration between VMob and Colenso, Where Next? puts VMob’s platform to work with a free iPhone and Android app designed to personalise the information visitors get about events, attractions, retail and hospitality, venues, deals and places to find out what’s on.
Mercury Energy has confirmed via a release that it has selected FCB as its integrated partner across media, creative, digital and direct. In May, when StopPress first reported on the Mercury Energy pitch, it was thought several agencies—including FCB, DDB-owned RAPP, Contagion and Chemistry Interaction—were simply vying for the energy company’s direct business, but this announcement confirms that FCB’s win includes both above- and below-the-line aspects.
Last week, iHeartRadio broke the 200,000-subscriber threshold and this certainly isn’t bad going given that it was only launched in August 2013. Since hitting the Kiwi market, the online radio platform has been used to stream over 10 million hours of content, and it has proved particularly popular among young listeners, with 38 percent of the audience aged under 25. Given the success of the online listening platform, we decided it was time to pick the brain of Mike Lane, TRN’s head of branding engagement.
Following on from its win of the Agency League, Ogilvy & Mather have taken another Newspaper Ad of the Month award with its WWF Maui’s Dolphin ad, with the judges—Andrew Davidson, Big Communications; Brad Stratton, Barnes, Catmur & Friends; and Phil Hickes, Saatchi & Saatchi—all agreeing it was a “good idea that packed a punch, with art direction that won’t get lost”. Plus: News Works’ announces a few changes.
Snow in May never stays. Snow in June still too soon. Snow in July, it will lie. That old adage seems to have been true this year, and the snow lovers are getting their wish this week with some big dumps around the country. So Air New Zealand, Host Sydney and content creators Diaries Downunder have decided to celebrate the welcome arrival of the white stuff with a spot of synchronised snow sliding on Isobel Glacier. Plus: Tourism New Zealand’s snow-related efforts to tempt the Aussies.
The Associated Press recently revealed that it would be automating its business reporting through a series of algorithms that compose 150- to 300-word stories in lieu of actual humans. Powered by technology developed by a company called Automated Insights, these algorithms pull data from readily available statistics and are already used by the New York Times for its wedding announcements and by Forbes for its earning reports previews. According to Mashable, the technology resulted in 300 million automated stories last year, a number that’s higher than that produced by all the major media companies combined. And in 2014, they’re setting the bar even higher by aiming to produce over a billion stories.
Nielsen’s latest online retail report has found the number of people shopping online increased by over 100,000 in the last year, which equates to growth of six percent. That means there are now 1.9 million New Zealanders shopping online, or 56 percent of the total online population. Plus: what BNZ’s online retail figures show.
New Zealand marketers this is for you – the Web Rangers programme has provided you a pool of marketing talent for the years to come. The programme, backed by Google NZ, Netsafe and Y&R, enlisted 14-17 years olds from around the country to tackle the issue of cyberbullying and promote safer and smarter internet use – because who better to come up with a marketing campaign than the demographic itself?
AJ Park patent specialists Anton Blijlevens and Jillian Lim touch on some interesting patents to look out for on the shelves.
To launch the new Mini Hatch in New Zealand, Goodbye Pork Pie got an upgrade courtesy of DDB and director Matt Murphy. And in Australia, it tried to impress the cool, creative kids by creating a unique Mini-inspired interactive dancefloor.
Earlier this week Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye announced the adoption of a ‘Health Star Rating’ food labelling system, which uses a star rating scale from ½ to 5 stars to indicate the nutritional value of a food product. The Association of New Zealand Advertisers’ chief executive Lindsay Mouat looks at whether this will help consumers.
Like many media organisations, we get sent a range of commercial detritus to draw attention to various launches or promotions, many of which seem like they help to keep the overseas crap factories ticking over. And in the past couple of days we’ve been sent two very different animal-related products, one celebrating continued survival, the other warning of impending death.
Sussan Turner has brought her 30-year career at MediaWorks to a close by announcing her resignation from the group chief executive role.
When you come up with a good YouTube idea, it can go absolutely mad, as evidenced by the likes of Epic Rap Battles of History (which, strangely, took an ad in the recent Wired magazine), Bad Lip Reading, Will it Blend, Epic Meal Time and Honest Trailers. And there might be another one to add to the list: the very entertaining Musicless Musicvideo.
Industry happenings at Carat, FCB Sydney, The Paul Henry Show, RadioLive, Management magazine, Dish magazine, Ngage and MEA Mobile.
Monteith’s and Colenso BBDO showed us beer through the years in one of its recent campaigns. And Gillette is showing us hair through the years to promote its new male body razor, “our first razor built for male terrain”.
Where once social media was seen as a harbinger of doom for traditional media, the enthusiasm has been tempered somewhat in recent years as algorithms have changed and questions have been asked about the return on investment. But there are still plenty of success stories, often from a customer service point of view, and Amanda Sachtleben went along to the #NZSOMO conference to find out about a few of them from New Zealand.
July 4 is a day where Americans wave flags, set off fireworks and marvel at their immense power. Plenty of brands jump on that bandwagon and tap into this intense patriotism, but renowned cheeky bastards and advocates of ‘No Bollocks’ Newcastle Brown Ale have decided to go the other way and, with the help of Stephen Merchant, Elizabeth Hurley and Zachary Quinto, show everyone how much better America would be if the Brits had won.
As a story on Sunday recently showed, there’s a big debate about the role of screens in kids’ lives and whether they’re helping or hindering development. But Apple is looking at it in a different way, with its latest ad showing how the iPhone can help parents assist with child-rearing, whether it’s keeping tabs, finding the dog, teaching them maths or controlling the lights.
True opened its doors in 2011 after a few senior protagonists from .99 felt the need to go it alone and break away from the nurturing bosom of The Clemenger Group. Like any new business, the first few years were tough going and it focused on growth rather than profit, but it’s gaining momentum, it’s working with big brands like Air New Zealand and Vodafone, it’s moving into areas outside traditional advertising and it currently employs 25 staff. Managing director Matt Dickinson spills the beans on its philosophy.
Last week, shortly after the release of Telecom’s Lightbox offering, Quickflix announced an agreement with South Pacific Pictures that gave the veteran in New Zealand’s SVOD market rights to over 120 hours of local content via Go Girls and Outrageous Fortune. And given that Lightbox’s head of programming and local content Maria Mahony admitted to StopPress that she was currently in talks with local film distributors to secure a deal to screen several local shows, this announcement by Quickflix will no doubt be competitive blow to the newcomer.
What makes people do Dry July? Screaming headaches and lowered IQ, greasy breakfasts with two days’ worth of calories, smartphone picture evidence of bad nudity ….and maybe even a goat inexplicably resident in the kitchen? Or is it because they want to see what they could achieve without a hangover?
Toybox, Clemenger BBDO and many freelancers have created the mesmerizing animation for the 2014 Dry July launch video.
Forest & Bird’s interactive print campaign continues to forge ahead, and this time readers will be graduated from using a $5 note and asked to reach for their $10 and $50 note, to put the whio or the kokako back into the illustrated scene. Meanwhile, the $5 campaign is forging into uncharted territory for Forest & Bird: the readers of New Idea.