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.
The constant stream of awards ceremonies continues unabated with the release of the voluminous list of Communicator Awards winners from all over the world. And included within this expansive archive were seven awards for Auckland-based digital agency Gladeye, which won four gold and three silver gongs.
Most print ads just sit there, doing nothing, hoping to be noticed and generally helping no-one but the advertiser. But print ads can sometimes be quite helpful, so here are two recent examples of paper being used to extremely good effect.
A new V Energy campaign launched via YouTube and Facebook by Colenso BBDO is offering consumers the opportunity to get their hands on a grand prize of a $20,000 experience. Hosted within the Vheadtohead Facebook app and promoted on billboards, can branding and through a YouTube pre-roll, the new campaign questions what type of ‘V Head’ consumers are and then encourages them to enter the competition by selecting one of four options: AdventureHead, PetrolHead, TechHead or MusicHead.
Increasingly, the worlds of art and technology—and commerce and technology—are colliding. Digital Art Live, a collaboration between CoLab and The Edge, is bringing that fusion into the real world and its upcoming exhibition Cut and Paste features a collaboration between digital artist Jenna Gavin and the Auckland Writers Festival.
It has been talked about for years—and experimented with from time to time—but, in what could be seen as the opposite of pull my finger, mall wanderers who push a button on a billboard will get to sample the smell of homemade cooking as part of a new campaign by oOh! Media and TVNZ to promote the new season of My Kitchen Rules Australia. PLUS: the numbers for the show’s first week.
Whether it’s online, in the skies, on TV or in real life, quizzes are universally popular. And travel company Adventure World has tapped into that interest with its biggest ever online campaign, Extraordinary World Trivia.
What many traditional retailers fail to see is that the only thing standing between them and getting the upper hand on their virtual online counterparts is technology, and embracing what it can add to a customer’s total retail experience, writes Vaughan Reed.
Although Margaret Hawker has welcomed change in recent months by ending her five-year stint as the head of agency channel and integration at TRN, one thing that remains consistent in her life is an enduring love for her car. Despite its British name, the proportionality, flair and sleek finishing in the design of Hawker’s Triumph GT6 hints at foreign influence, so it comes as little surprise an Italian was involved in the design of the vehicle.
A data-driven marketing approach is becoming an ever more obvious business need. But tackling the challenge in your own organisation can seem daunting. Ubiquity’s Nathalie Morris shows us how to get started.
When Coke comes to you and says “we want to do something with a drone” it better be awesome. Ogilvy & Mather Singapore did not disappoint with a clever little collaboration with a non-profit, the Singapore Kindness Movement recently titled “Happiness from the skies”.
The digital world is moving at lightning speed, so by the time you’ve launched your redesigned website, it’s almost out of date. But that hasn’t stopped the LA Times from unveiling a completely reinvented site that is “as bold and compelling as our journalism and as fast moving as the world you live in”.
The Designers Institute has a fresh website, which puts the spotlight on organisation members. The simplified homepage, with ‘760 Designers’ in large type, links to a member directory, while a pared back menu has information about the institute, its events, sponsors, awards and business resources.
Trickery, bribery and other methods of incentivisation are all important aspects of good parenting (our favourite is the Christmas extortion, often starting around the middle of the year, in which parents threaten a no-show from Santa if they don’t behave). And, like a paper version of ‘Roses by You’, Hallmark and Naked have embraced those principles in Australia to promote its Hallmark Card Matchmaker service by luring a bunch of unsuspecting teens to an American Authors concert and then forcing them to write a heartfelt message to their mothers in order to get in.
It is truly amazing what advertisers can do with outdoor. Voyages-sncf.com recent campaign shows that there is still plenty of life in the world’s oldest advertising medium.
Jordan Belfort is, as The Independent wrote, “among the most infamous crooked businessmen in recent history”. And, as Martin Scorcese’s movie The Wolf of Wall St showed, he was also one of the most debauched. But after serving time following his 2004 conviction for defrauding clients out of more than $200 million, he claims to have seen the error of his ways and has reinvented himself as a motivational speaker specialising in sales techniques. Jenene Crossan dances with the Wolf.
It’s been a big month for the Kiwi comedy scene, with the International Comedy Festival running room 24 April to 18 May and Seven Days recently celebrating its 150th episode. And throughout this period, MediaWorks has gotten behind the talent on its various shows via a series of promotional pushes. Central to TV3’s campaign are a collection of idents that have been released as part of the ‘Your home of comedy’ campaign that is currently running on the channel.
Apple recently filed a patent for a holographic display, leading to much speculation about the technology being included in future models. And Mike Ko, who has created a whole heap of very cool animations for very big companies, has tried to visualise that.
Mass production still rules the world when it comes to making things. But the rise of 3D printing is seen by some as the third industrial revolution and the combination of digital data-collection and personalised printing has allowed some creative businesses and agencies to add some uniqueness to their products. Now, just in time for Mother’s Day, Cadbury and Young & Shand have embraced that shift and dipped their toes in the e-commerce waters with an online gifting platform called ‘Roses by You’.
APN is centralising management of its radio, publishing and digital business interests in New Zealand with the appointment of Jane Hastings in a redefined chief executive officer role. Previously, the Kiwi arm of APN had dual chief executive roles, with Martin Simons being in charge of the publishing and digital side and Hastings holding the reins at TRN. Updated with comments from Hastings.
For many, cardboard is something that belongs in recycling bins. But for ‘cardboard engineer/packaging ninja’ Mat Bogust, it’s something to be messed with, as he did recently as part of Beck’s NZ Music Month sponsorship. Plus: the rise of cardboard casket business Rest in Pets.
Hyundai’s everyman test-driver, Weet-bix’s heart-warming stunt with the All Blacks, Godfey Hirst’s student hijinks, Tourism New Zealand’s mountainous promotion and ANZ’s animated depiction of the typical receive a sword on both shoulders this week.