Samsung has given Lorde’s hit Royals its ad debut in a new TVC for the recently-released Note 3 and Galaxy Gear smartwatch. It’s hard to tell how they’ve interpreted the song, but it seems homeless children have been freed to “live that fantasy” or get the “different kind of buzz” they crave thanks to the company’s tech.
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, and this year it’s themed around the idea of ‘Connecting’. It’s when some of the smartest people in our industry do amazing work to help us better understand mental illness. But when it comes to understanding, the real heavy lifting is usually achieved through conversation. So, as someone who’s lucky enough to be relatively successful in spite of mental illness, Michael Goldthorpe has decided to open up in an attempt to kick-start some chatter.
Social media channels based around images are getting our attention faster than others, a recent research snapshot by Colmar Brunton shows. That’s partly because of channel fragmentation, but also because pictures put us in touch with our feelings, the company reckons.
We wonder if someone who hangs out in gyms too much dreamed up this video for Gillette that puts training moves to music. In any case the experiment for the company’s Clear Gel deodorant created a catchy number.
Kiwis are getting their own version of a 24 hour online event designed to whip shoppers into a frenzy, modelled on a day that kicked off in the US in 2005. The organisers are targetting a Kiwi-sized proportion of the sales results a similiar day achieved on debut in Australia despite that site crashing under the weight of web traffic.
Colenso BBDO has formalised its relationship with Samsung and will be the agency of record for all its various divisions, making it one of the few markets in the world where the Korean behemoth isn’t aligned with a Leo Burnett agency. But it means the agency has had to say goodbye to a long-time client, Haier-owned Fisher & Paykel.
The radio survey results always make for entertaining/confusing reading. There’s certainly no shortage of self-aggrandisement (‘We’re number one* in shemales^ aged 48-49# between 10pm and 10:15pm!’) and MediaWorks Radio was pretty chuffed with its performance in this round. So, to showcase the network’s galaxy of stars and its ability to reach Kiwi audiences, it created an entertaining and very self-deprecating clip showing its DJs swapping stations and attempting to appeal to very different demographics than they’re accustomed to. Mark Leishman reprezent biatches!
Vodafone is carrying on its tradition of releasing apps designed to help more Kiwis use technology – this time it’s one for senior smartphone newbies.
We’ve seen a few companies turn their back on traditional staff recruitment lately, and now Aussie tech firm Big Commerce has done the same thing, in an even geekier way. In its search for engineers, it put posters up in Sydney with tear off strips traditionally reserved for phone numbers, But instead of a phone number there was a complex code candidates had to crack.
Samsung’s Smartwatch is among a raft of new timepiece tech to hit the market of late, but it’s not the only clever watch to be celebrated in popular culture. Samsung is celebrating its place in history with a new video, A Long Time Coming.
GE’s resource maximising machines are the star of a new USS Enterprise Crew – the cast of a BBDO New York campaign for GE.
Kiwi internet users continue to fuel the growth of global heavyweight websites like Google and Facebook and homegrown successes like Trade Me. Horizon Research’s latest numbers show Google is the country’s most used website.
Labour’s broadcasting spokesperson Kris Faafoi and associate ICT spokesperson Clare Curran have labelled the warning given to Sky TV by the Commerce Commission over its contracts with content deliverers as a slap with a wet bus ticket.
Another week of quality Kiwi TV work, with DB Export, Sky, Steinlager, Trade Me and Telecom getting special ribbons to wear on their blazers.
In Movings/Shakings this week, Martins markets Kordia, Burger King serves up new marketing GM James Woodbridge, call Stephen England-Hall loyal, Heard’s the one for Trio, Borgman joins Robber’s Dog pack and Tim McFarlane is on the map at GeoOp.
DraftFCB’s Analy Tigers took the win at Adshel’s Creative Challenge last week. And here’s what pressurised creativity looks like.
60 creatives turned up at Generator in Britomart last week to eat, drink, be merry and spend one hour devising an outdoor campaign for Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) as part of the Adshel Creative Challenge. And it was the team from DraftFCB—Kevin Walker, Ant Bell and Adam Taylor, AKA team ‘Analy Tigers’—that took the win.
Chapel Bar and Bistro is risking more religious ire with two new executions in its Seven Years of Almighty Nights campaign. The series kicked off last year to celebrate the bar’s seventh birthday and showed Jesus and Mary in compromising poses after a hard night.
How do you give a show that’s been running for 25 seasons some extra life? You get a director like Guillermo del Toro on board and set him loose on the couch gag. Plus: some other guest-directed couch gags.
Celebrity news anchor Ron Burgundy, aka actor Will Ferrell, has made his screen comeback in a new series of spots for the Dodge Durango. It’s classic Burgundy as the vehicles features are explained – it comfortably fits two turkey sandwiches, or 70 packs of gum and a glovebox that “goes on for inches”.
Vice has gained a reputation as an arbiter of cool, with its gonzo reporting, its humorous and fiercely sarcastic opinion pieces and its focus on bacchanalian excess. Plenty of brands looking to ride on these youthful, alternative coat-tails are employing their services through native advertising and branded content. And its stories have also inspired a brilliant fake Twitter account @Vice_Is_Hip.
Trade Me kicked off back in 1999 when Sam Morgan saw an unmet need for an online marketplace selling used goods. That’s largely still how consumers see it. But around 40 percent of its listings are new goods, so it is aiming to draw attention to that aspect of its business in the lead up to Christmas with a campaign via Whybin\TBWA featuring naked fat men, well-coiffed dogs and apparent rectal probes.
The DB Export family has benefitted from a bit of extra attention in recent years. First, the story of Morton Coutts was used to establish the ‘let nothing come between a man and a great beer’ brand platform. Then DB Export Dry used wine to sell beer in one of the best campaigns of 2012. DB Export 33 was up next and showed the kind of sacrifice men drinking the low-carb version were making for their better halves. And now DB Export Gold is being given its time in the sun, with another entertaining ad featuring a heroic man and his trusty dog.
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints over a Dove Hair care ad which said 90 percent of Kiwi women recommended Dove Hair Care; and another about a Radio Hauraki billboard that showed drive show host Matt Heath giving passers by the big finger.
It appears no cats were harmed in the making of Vodafone and DraftFCB’s new TVC celebrating the launch of the telco’s new TV service Red Home, pitched as a reason for Kiwis to switch to fibre.
Telecom will launch its 4G network in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on 12 November for prepaid and plan customers. The telco is offering free 4G SIMs until the end of January next year and asking customers to visit its website to pre-register for the upgrade and check whether their phone is compatible.
The relationship between media agencies and media owners is not as strong as it should be and needs to improve, says John Dee.
The latest radio survey results have just been released, so we’ve decided to republish an edited version of Lynda Brendish’s story on New Zealand’s radio scene that originally featured in the July/August edition of NZ Marketing.
The T2 radio survey results are out. And they present a mostly positive picture for radio year-on-year.
DB’s new marketing director, changes at Lion, DraftFCB recognised as one of the country’s best workplaces, Cooney heads for Swaytech, Media Design School grads go fulltime at Sugar & Partners, Marc Ellis swaps More for less and Auckland Airport brings a digital boffin into the fold.