When in-car tape and CD players were first released, various analysts predicted the possible demise of the radio industry on account of the fact that people could customise their own playlists to personalise the listening experience. And while the industry managed to survive the tape deck and CD shuttle, the digital age is posing a new threat to radio’s continued dominance of in-car listening.
Jason Delamore took over as general manager, marketing and communications at Auckland International Airport around four months ago and his appointment marked the first time that marketing earned a place at the executive table. Here’s how he sees it playing a big role in achieving some of the airport’s bold 30-year goals.
To those of inferior palate, the world of taste-testing seems wildly pretentious and filled with descriptors that have little to do with food or drink. So, in an effort to expose how laughable this tends to be, Scotch whisky company Laphroaig recently launched a campaign, via UK agency White Label, that invites common folk to share their opinions—however scathing—on its spirit.
The University of Canterbury Futures communications team has reigned supreme in its campaign to reinvent itself after the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, taking home the supreme honour at the 40th annual Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ) Awards.
Newcastle Brown Ale’s ‘No Bollocks’ campaign is a true gem and shows that there is some truth left in advertising (“now we handcraft the same delicious beer using huge, giant machines”). And it’s continued to give traditional marketing practices a ribbing (and stock footage companies a boost) with its latest promotion, which offers punters a cheque for $1 when they sign up to its Twitter account.
The New Zealand Institute of Management has bought New Zealand Management magazine from McDonald Vague, the receiver appointed to the magazine’s previous publisher, MediaWeb. Following this acquisition, the new owner struck up a publishing partnership with Auckland-based Adrenalin Publishing to resume publishing of the magazine, which is in its 60th year of circulation. PLUS: While McDonald Vague receiver Tony Maginness wouldn’t comment on how much the magazine had been sold for, he did admit that it was less than initially hoped for.
If Sharp Suits was the visual representation of the difficulties faced by those in agency land, this piece by Mike Larcher that’s based around giving God client feedback on the creation of the Earth, is the textual.
Drones are often associated with remote-controlled killing and maiming in war zones, but they’re starting to find a more peaceful, playful place in the real world, whether it’s taking a selfie with a difference, delivering a pizza or, potentially, dropping off your online purchases. And to announce its arrival in the Auckland market, Energy Online has put one to good use to get punters chatting about a mysterious UFO.
To some degree, the quarterly results of Nielsen’s readership and ABC’s circulation surveys have become predictable in showing the newspaper industry in decline. And while this was largely the case with the latest figures, there were also a few surprises in the mix. Updated: statistics for provincial papers removed.
The growing popularity of facial coverings among certain sections of the male populous has led some to predict we have now reached ‘peak beard’, where the more beards there are, the less appealing they become. If so, that’s good news for the razor makers who sell the tools required for proper beard maintenance. And Schick and Y&R have attempted to push that anti-beard agenda by showing a series of men who have quite literally gone feral as part of a campaign for its new Hydro Groomer.
Once again, the latest readership and circulation figures didn’t make for particularly good reading for any of the major newspaper publishers, but online portals are still a shining light, at least in terms of audience numbers, so Fairfax is aiming to shine more light upon stuff.co.nz with a new campaign via Shine and Open that shows how it gives its audience the full spectrum.
How does the media industry reconcile the age of programmatic buying with a strategic, long-term view of effectiveness? By setting appropriate goals—and not eating the marshmallows—writes Kate Thomas.
After picking up agency of the year in the inaugural Asia Pacific Effie Awards earlier in the year, Colenso BBDO has followed it up with a good haul at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness and Strategy Awards (AMES) in Singapore. And Saatchi & Saatchi was hot on its heels.
Nielsen and ABC have released the latest quarterly results for magazine readership and circulation and, to a large extent, the figures indicate a continuation of trends that have been taking shape over the last few quarters. There was however a shift in the sense that some special interest titles—which have until now have performed well—also showed signs of weakening.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
To launch its new Hatch, Mini New Zealand recently embarked on a mission to bring a slice of Kiwi cinema history back to life. And after asking Kiwis to show their true Blondini colours, participate in a few challenges and compete to win a place in the passenger seat during the reshooting of Goodbye Pork Pie’s classic chase scene around Lake Hawea, it’s now moved on to the second phase of the campaign and released some behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot.
In recent years, Fly Buys has been on a mission to expand the range of things card holders can use their points for, whether it’s music, flights or toasters. And BNZ has been promoting some fairly innovative products lately as part of its ‘Be Good With Money’ brand strategy. Last year, the two collided, with BNZ announcing its KiwiSaver scheme members would be able to redeem Fly Buys points to make contributions to their or another person’s BNZ KiwiSaver schemes. And it’s released an ad via Colenso BBDO to trumpet that point of difference and show that its customers can be good with your money, even when they’re spending it.
Earlier this week, TVNZ caught 12 staff members off guard by announcing that the current affairs show 20/20 would no longer be airing local content from the end of June this year—giving those working on the show just over a month’s notice of the change in direction. PLUS: see what TVNZ had to say about the NZ Herald article by John Drinnan.
Changes at Assignment Group, Sovereign, the MPA, Bauer, Shine, Sky, Icebreaker, More FM and PRINZ.
In the past few years, the innovative marking teams behind Coca-Cola’s campaigns throughout the world have put our names on cans, created bottle-powered arcade games and taken a cheer-collecting bus across Argentina. And this inventive trend now continues with Bogota-based Leo Burnett’s introduction of the friendly twist bottle, which features a unique lid that can only be opened when paired with another.
Numbers can be spun to prove almost anything, something this industry often seems to be guilty of (thanks, percentage change!). And, in an effort to show that correlation is not causation, ‘statistical provocateur’ Tyler Vigen has created a brilliant data-rich, graph-heavy website.
Did you know that since 2011, traffic accidents have increased by 300% in China? A big reason for this is that pedestrians listening to music are drowning out ambient noise and getting run over. Thankfully Saatchi & Saatchi and VICE have come up with a clever little solution.
APN recently sent out a release pointing out that Nielsen had been undercounting audience to the Herald’s mobile site for about nine months—meaning that the battle for mobile eyes was inadvertently skewed in favour of Stuff. This error has now been corrected, so we decided to have a look at which publication is winning battle for mobile eyes.
Since Marissa Mayer took over as chief executive at Yahoo, it’s acquired a whole heap of businesses (largely in the social and mobile space), started creating more of its own content and launched a new, less cluttered homepage in early 2013. And, after a bit of wait, New Zealand consumers and advertisers will get the benefit of that development with the rollout of the ‘new’ homepage in June.
On 25 May, after screening the first episode of the second season of House of Cards, MediaWorks made all the episodes for the show available for online viewing via its on-demand service, 3NOW. The new season of the popular Netflix show will be available for 28 days from the release date, giving binge viewers four weeks to squeeze in all 13 episodes. But does this move make sense, given that television has traditionally relied on keeping viewers hooked all the way through? And what is TVNZ doing in this area?
Having dominated the digital scene and helped to organise a big chunk of the world’s information, Google is now attempting to connect the dots with the tangible (and then possibly sell relevant ads around that, as evidenced by its recent filing with the SEC that shows its desire to show ads in cars or in the home). Its self-driving car project is among the most impressive uses of Google’s innovative collective brain (and massive warchest) and it’s launched a clip showing volunteers in a prototype vehicle.
A recent article in Fast Company documented the transition of Domino’s from a struggling pizza chain to a technology company. And transparency, data and utility played a major role in that evolution. As such, online ordering has become increasingly important for the company, as evidenced by the likes of the pizza tracker and various mobile apps (its iPad app even features a 3-D pizza builder). And the same focus on digital customer service obviously exists in New Zealand, because it’s walking its ‘people powered pizza’ talk and investing in 24/7 resource to monitor customers across all social media platforms. Plus: Domino’s domain name stoush.
The online realm offers some innovative ways to raise money and Boosted.org.nz, which claims to be only tailor-made philanthropic crowd-funding platform for arts projects in the world, is among them. And the site recently took home the Innovative Technology for Good Citizenship gong at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Awards.
In a move that could cause a slight tinge of Orwellian panic in some, Telecom Digital Ventures (TDV) has confirmed that it is trialling a SmartHome prototype called DigiLife to determine if it has a place in the Kiwi market. Headed by Will Farrell-Green, the DigiLife team will over the next month monitor 20 to 30 Kiwi homes using the technology.
