Whether it’s free drinks, new mobile devices, early finishes on Fridays in summer or maybe even a share in the company, there are a number of strategies employed by agencies hoping to get a bit more out of their staff. But Barnes, Catmur & Friends has taken an old-school approach with a tongue-in-cheek employee of the month scheme. And the first winner is creative Brad Stratton, in recognition of “excellence in haircut”.
There hasn’t been much bad news for Colenso BBDO in the past few years, with a host of big account wins, some big hires and a regular stream of big awards. But managing director Nick Garrett has confirmed it has had to shuffle the deck and say goodbye to a handful of staff on account of what he says are changing client demands and a couple of projects that didn’t come to fruition.
Moves and shakes at IAB NZ, Fairfax, Cannes Lions, More FM, and Auckland Conventions Venue and Events.
In the first of an irregular series, Paul Catmur, the managing partner of Barnes, Catmur & Friends, shares his views on life, advertising and other annoyances, such as “the disproportionately high number of people with digital in their title who are talking out of their arse”.
All rise for Tui’s take on the handheld device, Ford’s woolly numbers and 2degrees’ probing questions.
Hamiton-based King St has won the University of Waikato account off the incumbent Republik, bringing its long relationship with the University of Auckland to an end. But Republik has balanced the ledger with the addition of Sierra Coffee to its roster. Plus: some new work from Massey, Canterbury and Otago.
Young & Shand has conspired with Telecom-owned Skinny Mobile to serve up a group dancing TVC that comes with a significant dollop of cheese. Playing out to Earth Wind & Fire’s 1978 hit ‘September’, the actors are shown lip-synching and dancing their way—sometimes awkwardly—through Owairaka Park in Auckland’s Mount Albert.
Despite the rampant adoption of social media and mobile technology, there’s been a bit of a backlash against that shift recently, with Gary Turk’s Look Up clip being watched 35 million times on YouTube (as pretty much everyone has pointed out, it is slightly ironic that it’s probably being watched on the devices he hopes to get humans to put down). And now State, a “global opinion network” that allows people to “quickly state about whatever matters to you, get counted, and connect to like-minded people around the world. No need for hashtags, followers or fame”, has added another clip to the growing oeuvre of anti-social media.
The ad world was in a bit of tizz last year when it was announced that the world’s second and third largest holding companies, Publicis Groupe and Omnicom, would merge to create the world’s biggest holding company and knock WPP off its perch. When we spoke to DDB NZ and Australia chair Marty O’Halloran at the time, he said the US$35 billion mega merger (the companies had combined revenue of around US$23 billion in 2012) was unlikely to impact too heavily on this market. And it definitely won’t impact on this market now, because the lovers called the massive deal off late last week. Here’s a rundown of what the two parties and the international media are saying.
DDB NY has teamed up with not-for-profit organisation Water Is Life to produce the drinkable book, a short publication printed on specially designed filter paper capable of removing life-threatening bacteria from unclean water.
Since the 40 Hour Famine kicked off in 1975, World Vision says over one million Kiwis have taken part in it and raised $72 million to help people in over 40 countries. And to promote the 40th year of the initiative, which this year is focused on helping Malawi, Sugar & Partners enlisted the talents of renowned poet Sam Hunt, Exposure’s Brooke Benton and a number of other charitable young Kiwis to show how New Zealand’s largest youth fundraising event has become something of a rite of passage.
The personal portfolios of cinematographers and directors often offer an unfiltered glimpse into the creativity of those working in the industry. And although the videos held within these portfolios rarely have a point beyond exhibiting art for art’s sake, the level of expertise on show often results in a worthwhile expenditure of viewing time. Looking at the work of Wield founder Ryan Kothe (previously a motion animator at MediaWorks), it’s quite evident that he’s a patient man with an almost obsessive-compulsive commitment to his craft, stop-motion animation.
On 9 May, about three weeks after the finalists were first announced, the One Show awards were handed out, and the results were somewhat underwhelming for the Kiwi agencies originally shortlisted. Of the 18 awards that the Kiwi contingent could’ve won, only four resulted in silverware, with Clemenger BBDO, Colenso BBDO/Proximity and Shine picking up gongs.
Some believe there’s not enough truth in advertising. And putting some back in is a rich vein of comedy, as The Onion has showed once again.
In an age where product information is readily available, Andrew Lewis says brand advertising is losing its efficacy in directing consumers’ choices—and it may even be making brands irrelevant.
With the news and publishing industry currently going through one of its more difficult periods, the Canon Media Awards are a welcome dose of positivity and celebration. And The Dominion Post got the biggest dose of the night.
Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement are outsourcing the design of the “unofficial poster” for their upcoming film ‘What we do in the Shadows’ to regular Kiwis by launching a competition that requires entrants to send in their best creative efforts. This winning poster, as decided by the vampires and the public, will be used in cinemas across the country and the designer will win a double pass to the New Zealand premiere in either Auckland or Wellington. The top ten will also be on display at the premiere events.
In a pair of videos unveiled at the Radio Rewired press conference, radio personalities are depicted spoofing various aspects of the industry in a classroom setting.
How do you promote the wonder of hydrogen-fuelled car? Create a water brand that sells its exhaust, of course.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
Moves and shakes at Touchcast, MediaWorks, Pure SEO, Domino’s, Touchtech and OptimalBI.
P&G has been beating its ‘Proud Sponsor of Mums’ drum for a few years now, largely in support of its Olympics sponsorship. And, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day, it’s launched another heart-string tugger that’s already clocked up six million views. But not everybody appreciates the sentiment, with Mia Frazier laying into the patronising, regressive stereotypes in the New Republic.
Genesis Energy, the largest electricity and gas retailer in the country, announced yesterday that it would not be knocking on doors and offering switching sweeteners after a survey showed, lo and behold, that New Zealanders found the practice intrusive and annoying. So it’s launched a campaign via .99 and justONE that asks Kiwis to return the favour and go knocking on Genesis Energy’s door when they begin their search.
After 11 years with Mr Smith, Ron Sneddon has cut the ribbon on his own independent media agency, Super, which has a heavy focus on digital media and branded content. And, after a small experiment involving GoPro cameras and a few Kiwi families showed him that traditional thinking around media consumption wasn’t keeping up with the reality, he says it was time for a different approach.
Although radio usually sits in the background while the in vogue content delivery mediums soak up the limelight, the last few weeks have bucked that trend and brought radio to the centre of a varied range of media discussions. And given that radio is currently attracting so much attention, it’s only fitting that the New Zealand Radio Awards last night celebrated the best talent among those who are often heard and rarely seen (although, this is changing). As was the case last year, MediaWorks again led the charge in terms of numbers by picking up a total of 29 gongs throughout the course of the night, followed by TRN with 15 and Radio New Zealand with nine.
Since launching its over-arching Winning Happens tagline, NZ Lotteries and DDB have been aiming to show punters what it feels like to win. First up was its Instant Kiwi campaign, and next came Powerball and an overly-enthusiastic high-fiver called Craig. And it’s done the job and caught some attention, because that campaign has taken out the February round of Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact Award.
The legacy of Tui largely owes its existence to the fact that its founder Henry Wagstaff was so bad at cheesemaking that he was fired from the cheese shop where he worked. Given that his questionable fermentation tactics didn’t work for dairy products, Wagstaff took the logical step of applying them to hops and barley instead. As it turns out, Wagstaff was something of a not-so-bearded, brewing Da Vinci and by 1889 his skills had earned him enough money to build the brewery in Mangatainoka.
Given Tui’s recent history of covert plumbing activities, dishing out wads of cash at cricket and offending just about everyone in New Zealand with their infamous billboards, there was a sense of expectation that DB Breweries was planning something big for the 125th anniversary of the East India Pale Ale. And after a relatively quiet period, presumably planning the campaign, Tui has kicked off the celebrations with a new TVC via Saatchi & Saatchi NZ.
Yesterday’s announcement that Fairfax Media had proposed 80 redundancies in Australia could result in jobs moving across to New Zealand as the conglomerate continues to incorporate cost-cutting measures.
Fieldays is coming and, over the next 33 days, New Zealand will once again be bombarded with advertising aimed at this nation’s agrarian warriors, many of whom have a fair bit of cash stashed in their gumboots. And Ford has shot into first place with a tribute to what televisual experts all agree is the best programme ever made, A Dog’s Show.