Just over a month after officially lodging a Commerce Commission application to acquire several magazine titles from APN, Bauer Media has confirmed that there will be job cuts as part of a restructuring process.
It’s been a busy end-of-year for DDB NZ, with some big losses and a few big wins. And it’s got some more news to share because executive creative director Andy Fackrell has decided to take up a new role within the DDB Group as regional creative director for Asia Pacific and will move to Sydney in the new year.
With little awareness, a tight budget and a whole range of complexities, MediaWorks TV tapped into the country’s passion for DIY and created a nation of ‘Block-a-holics’.
A complete overhaul of the Heart Foundation’s brand and fundraising initiatives led to increased donations and donor engagement.
In an effort to remind passers-by that no one is perfect, Pro Infirmis, a Swiss organisation that campaigns for the disabled, cast a series of mannequins from moulds based on the bodies of a selection of people with physical disabilities. And although the video was made to draw attention to those who suffer from disabilities, it could just as easily be applied to representations of women in the fashion industry in general.
Some days just don’t go as intended. And, in this brilliant 90-second spot for Verizon by Mcgarrybown and MJZ, Edward Norton unwittingly gets himself into a…
The classic ‘work first, play later’ incentive strategy works. But in this industry, Michael Goldthorpe thinks fun works better.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.
At the 20th instalment of the annual Campaign Asia Pacific Awards, Barnes, Catmur & Friends stole the show by becoming the first Kiwi agency to win the Australia/New Zealand Independent Agency of the Year category. PLUS: media agencies also get acknowledged for their contribution to the industry.
Boy director Taika Waititi has worked some magic of late for Steinlager Pure and the New Zealand Transport Agency. Now his new series for Carlton Dry shows the scary possibilities when you get male flatmates and their beer together.
Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa aims to get Kiwis to put their health first by encouraging them to talk about number twos. The ‘Give a crap’ video campaign, which features TV personality Nigel Latta and various other celebrities, is designed to make New Zealanders feel more comfortable about broaching the awkward subject of bowel movements in the hope that this will lead to early diagnosis of the disease.
Only a few weeks after suffering dual account losses, DDB seems to have turned things around and it looks as though the agency will be ending the year on a high. In addition to recently returning to the driver’s seat by winning the BMW/Mini account, DDB has been announced as New Zealand’s leading creative agency for 2013 at the annual Campaign Asia Agency of the Year Awards. PLUS: there are rumours that the agency will be toasting with a Speight’s in-hand at the end of the year.
In an effort to provide images that resonate more strongly with an increasingly diversified market, Getty Images has launched Curve Visual Trends, a series of insights that takes note of how advertising is stepping out of set moulds to celebrate people irrespective of their ethnicity, body type, age, sexual orientation or gender.
Ricoh New Zealand is looking to steal a march in the local 3D printing market by partnering with major US player Makerbot to bring three of its products here. The global market for 3D printing is tipped to reach $8.4 billion by 2020, growing at a compound rate of 23 percent annually and Asia Pacific has been identified as the fastest growing region.
It seems the days of the sedate product launch, held seated over a light lunch, are over as tech companies get ever more daring with their stunts. Plus: Samsung and Pead part company.
A six-minute summary of all the viral madness that pervaded 2013. If ever there was a reason to fear for the future of humanity, this might be it.
SkyTV, one of New Zealand’s biggest broadcasters, has followed in TVNZ’s footsteps by launching SkyGo, an iOS app that enables Sky subscribers to stream content on compatible laptops, mobiles or tablets. But rather than including an on-demand streaming feature, the new app limits viewers to pre-recorded content and live channels. While this is sure to be hit with sports fans, it will do little to appease those who want an on-demand mobile option.
The bar for call for entries campaigns has risen significantly in recent years, with the likes of DraftFCB’s ‘The real judge of advertising is the consumer’ campaign for the 2011 Effies and TBWA\’s ‘Results Don’t Lie’ effort this year standing out. And there are a couple more good ones bubbling away at the moment for the Axis Awards and the newly rejigged Beacon Awards.
Century 21 has done some seriously clever online marketing lately — there was the supposedly haunted houses for sale during Halloween and for Thanksgiving, the very strange psychadelic slow jam for your turkey feast. Now it’s joined Waterstones in the UK in taking the mickey out of Amazon’s plans for product delivery by drone.
Sometimes the simplest creative ideas are the most powerful, and that’s the premise of searchforacure.co.nz, a new site that capitalises on the ubiquity of Google as a home page for quick search.
When Coca-Cola stuck Santa on its products to inspire more brown beverage consumption in winter (and in so doing largely created the image of the fat, red-faced man we now know), it obviously realised the commercial power of old Saint Nick. But things have come a long way since then. And anyone with such a high-profile deserves a sophisticated brand identity. Thankfully, UK writing shop Quiet Room is here to help and has created this brilliant, jargon-filled festive brandbook for the jolly old chap.
By the time the curtains had been drawn at the end of New Zealand Film Awards, those sitting at the ‘Shopping’ table had seven awards to carry home, making the film, which was released in New Zealand in May, the biggest winner of the night.
Kiwi online hardware store Trade Tested has taken to YouTube with its own version of the cheesy informercial genre. A woodchipper at the company’s warehouse near Auckland International Airport is one of the stars of the videos, modelled on infomercials like the US series Will It Blend, by blender firm Blendtec.
Trade Me has won the October Colmar Brunton Ad Impact Award for its New or Used campaign, which it says highlighted the range of new products available while staying true to the “Kiwi tone” of its brand. And it seems the bike seat, burdened in the TVC by a large naked man, attracted the most curiosity.
There’s nothing new about the dimension of smell in video games, but there is about a crazy looking character that plugs into your phone and emits the delicious scent of hot, buttery popcorn.
With a new co-owner on board and a desire to differentiate, Rush Munro’s ice cream has lifted the lid on a new look from Dow Design that’s pumped up the colour and personality.
New top level domains are a unique opportunity to register an address that aligns perfectly with a brand or company’s personality. But we’ll have to wait and see if the release of the domains will be a land grab or an insurance policy for brand IP, says Anthony Gardiner.
As you sit there staring forlornly at your screen, thinking about all the boring things you need to get done before the end of the year, here’s something that will either make you feel completely inadequate or inspire you to get out there, switch on the GoPro and try something ridiculous.
Hard on the heels of Coke Zero’s website that put the ugly yuletide jersey in the spotlight, beer brand Budweiser is doing the same, but this time it’s for a serious cause. The Knitbot supports and rewards designated drivers using tweet power.
Tristan Marris and Mark Osborne tried a raft of products to manage their digital creative agency 96black since establishing it about three years ago. In true startup style, frustration with what was available drove them to create something that better suited their needs and they want small agencies to give it a try.