In April this year, international media reported on the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) decision to refuse registration for Apple’s iPad Mini trademark on the grounds it’s simply descriptive. But within days of the story breaking, the USPTO was backtracking on its decision.
Changes to postal services—and NZ Post’s reluctance to budge on price—are pushing direct marketers down the digital path, says Ben Goodale.
It’s been a rough few years for New Zealand Post, with the decline in traditional mail leading to a number of restructures, the sale of assets and plenty of cost cutting. And there’s more change on the horizon, with comms manager John Tulloch saying there’s “a bit of a realignment going on” across various parts of the business at the moment, including the marketing team.
Tabloid newspaper The Truth may shut its doors after more than 125 years of publishing – this in a shocker week for New Zealand media where Fairfax Media axed three of its technology titles and MediaWorks was put into receivership.
60 years ago there were 130 delegates at the first year of the Cannes Lions and no entries from New Zealand). This year it’s estimated there will be 12,000 attendees and, if last year is anything to go by, a few Kiwi winners. And to celebrate the evolution of the world’s pre-eminent marcomms festival, Sapient Nitro created this infographic.
There were a record 35,765 entries from 92 countries for the 60th Cannes Lions. Of course, we’re small-minded and patriotic so we’re focusing on the Kiwi contenders and here are the seven agencies in the running after the first shortlists for Creative Effectiveness, PR, Promo & Activation and Direct were announced.
New Zealand’s second largest free-to-air broadcaster MediaWorks has been placed into receivership this morning – a very strange arrangement that will see the company change owners and shed massive amounts of debt, without losing a single job. Although the tax man might come off worse from this deal.
Sim Ahmed tags along with the Google X team behind Project Loon, documenting through photos the mad (but oddly brilliant) science experiment being conducted by one of the biggest companies in the world, right in the heart of the South Island.
While we at StopPress feel the understated approach to destination marketing, as seen in Flight of the Conchords, is the best fit for New Zealand, connecting the country with a fantastical epic and getting the actors involved to swoon over it also works pretty well, as this behind-the-scenes clip from The Hobbit films shows.
Google’s Project Loon combines ballooning with telecommunications, with the hope of one day inexpensively connecting billions of people around the world to the internet with a global network of balloons. It’s a science experiment so crazy, it might just work.
The kooky minds over at our sister publication Idealog Magazine have a long, illustrious history when it comes to putting a little extra oomph into its cover design. Whether that be hand drawing a complete chalk image or doing an extreme close up of Minister of Everything Steven Joyce’s intimidating face. But their latest creation really takes the cake – or should I say, mud pie.
It’s World Elder Abuse Awareness Day tomorrow. And, to get more people thinking about the issue and donating to the cause, Age Concern New Zealand is taking to TV for the first time with a campaign by First Star called ‘Always Respected, Never Abused’.
Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things and other things from the intertubes.
There’s absolutely nothing better than a dad joke. Nothing. And in honour of (un)hilarious dads everywhere, Heineken and Wieden + Kennedy have decided to crowd-source a few gems for father’s day with a social media-fuelled campaign using the #dadjokes hashtag.
Former Fairfax Media New Zealand executive editor Paul Thompson has been head-hunted by Radio New Zealand, now leading the public broadcaster as its chief executive and editor-in-chief.
The Waterfront Theatre Project, which is a partnership between the university and the Auckland Theatre Company (ATC), will see the construction of the new performance centre in the trendy Wynyard Quarter area – specifically amongst the Innovation Precinct to be built in the area.
The south of France is significantly adding to its wanker quotient at the moment as ad folk from around the globe arrive for the 60th anniversary of Cannes (although a strike by French air traffic controllers has made it difficult). But D&AD got in there first with the announcement of its winners this week. And three of the four campaigns that earned grand prix awards at Axis backed that up with a pencil of the yellow variety. PLUS: why ad awards are now for losers.
New Radio NZ head, PRINZ announces its top brass, new shopping channel announces a familiar face as chief executive, Media Design School makes a couple of upgrades, AWARD School opens its Auckland doors again, Naked Sydney takes EA games PR biz and Ad2One adds another site to its list.
The White Pages in Auckland now has less than five percent of the circulation it had a year ago, thanks to the introduction of a trial opt in system in March. This year instead of sending every Auckland household a copy of the giant white tome by default, the public had to specifically request a copy.
There’s been plenty of spy-related news recently after the Edward Snowden leak. So it’s pretty good timing for the launch of CAANZ and TBWA\’s Effies call for entries campaign, which taps into the shadowy world of blacked out documents, lie-detection. and subterfuge. Perhaps they know more than they’re letting on?
The gaming community was breathing into a paper bag after Sony launched its next generation PlayStation 4 console a few days ago. And Sony and its new agency BBH New York are embracing the fantasy with an epic ad entitled ‘Greatness Awaits’, which features a range of character cameos, exploding sets and, of course, OTT violence.
Judging from the (unusually) complimentary comments on StopPress, the pundits seem to like the new—and quite bizarre—Instant Kiwi campaign. And, to launch NZ Lotteries’ new overarching tagline of ‘Winning Happens’, DDB has also released a series of entertaining radio ads featuring monkeys, kung fu masters and tense reality show music that aim to drum home the fact that there’s a winner every second-and-a-half across the whole portfolio.
Airlines and tourism marketing entities go together like raspberry and Coke, and following some successful recent partnerships, Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand have upped the stakes, agreeing to a one-year, more than $20 million deal to promote travel to New Zealand, an increase of around 80 percent on the previous year. PLUS: Air New Zealand drops the blue in new livery.
I launched my first app on the Apple App Store towards the beginning of May. It’s a Newsstand magazine app called Aucklandia, which shows some of my street photography work and little stories about each photo. I’m taking the opportunity to share with you what I’ve learned in my first month as a bona fide app developer.
I was unimpressed by Microsoft’s Surface RT, which was released in New Zealand earlier this year. I saw the potential in the device, but it was hamstrung by its poor performance and the lack of apps. The Microsoft Surface Pro is that potential finally realised.
It missed out on the big Foodstuffs account recently, but the new executive team at Whybin\TBWA has chalked up a welcome win after being appointed as the new creative and strategic agency for the Bell Tea & Coffee Company’s (BTCC) stable of tea brands.
Come next week, throngs of industry folk will touch down in Cannes to pat backs, sip rosé and try to be inspired. Agencies and their holding companies invest huge sums to take part. But duo Michael Middelkoop and Sharif Elmawla, who are currently working at Saatchi & Saatchi Amsterdam, decided to find out what else the entry money would be able to buy with their website www.insteadofalion.com.
We wrote about Beck’s and Shine’s Edison-inspired beer bottle last week. And now there’s a making-of video created by magazine/media company Vice that shows the whole, very involved process.
Watties’ ‘Food in a Minute’ has been running for 16 years, and it hasn’t changed much in that time. But it’s just launched a national, multi-channel campaign to celebrate its new look and modified focus.
