Kiwi mobile advertising company Snakk Media has released its first annual revenue figures since listing on the New Zealand Alternative Exchange (NZAX) earlier this year, raking in $3,654,346 between March 2012 and March 2013 – an 83 percent growth year-on-year.
As the AskewOne piece on the wall beside Auckland’s south-western motorway says, ‘better never stops’. And Charlie’s Trading Co. has acknowledged that philosophy by creating a new corporate brand called The Better Drinks Co.
Goodby Silverstein and Partners’ Got Milk? campaign for the California Milk Processor Board was one of the most memorable campaigns of the ’90s and became part of the pop cultural furniture in the US. It helped increased milk consumption in California, it has spawned a host of parodies and it’s still going strong today. So why is the phrase being used by Fonterra to advertise its Anchor brand?
A recent decision in the UK found that Marks & Spencer misled consumers by using a competitor’s name—‘interflora’—as a keyword trigger for advertisements on Google. AJ Park’s Nigel Robb looks at what it might mean for Kiwi marketers.
Niklas Roy, the self-described inventor of useless things, talks to the Semi-Permanent crowd about the colliding worlds of engineering, design and artistry.
Raising money for charities and not-for-profits is a much more difficult job than it used to be, given the number of competing organisations and the economic strain of recent years. But there were plenty of impressive efforts showcased at the Fundraising Excellence awards in Wellington earlier this month.
A weekly wrap of funny things, good things, weird things and other things seen on the intertubes.
There’s a lot of talk these days about modern marketing and advertising offering consumers utility. And that’s mostly what it is: talk. But to promote its range of sun products in Brazil, Nivea has walked that talk with a handy print ad that, with the help of a small solar panel, can charge your phone.
New World has been celebrating its 50th anniversary recently. And Foodstuffs has taken steps to ensure a few more successful years in the grocery biz by appointing Colenso BBDO as its official brand agency.
We kick off this assault of creativity and thinking with a presentation from artist and illustrator Sandra Dieckmann.
‘Perfection erases humanity’. And in the coming years, Contagion’s channel director Richard Thompson says brands will need to master a strategy that helps talk with audiences in a more authentic, real way.
ANZ’s corporate affairs and marketing team has already received plenty of plaudits for last year’s horse management. And it has been acknowledged again after winning the PRINZ supreme award for its ‘New Zealand Simplification Project’.
There have been some massive changes inside Telecom recently, with chief executive Simon Moutter announcing a restructure that plans to axe between 930 to 1280 jobs by the middle of this year a few months back. And as a direct result of the decision to reduce the headcount, it has outsourced a few previously internal functions and appointed Clemenger Group-owned Touch/Cast.
As the smartphone revolution continues, the demand for mobile applications has burgeoned. A bombardment of apps, big and small, jostle for precious screen space, but it is only those that amplify a brand through personal engagement and valuable experiences that will find App Store success.
Facebook has launched a new verification feature (in the form of a small blue checkmark icon) to set apart official brands and celebrity accounts from the faceless masses wanting to impersonate them.
You can do some pretty amazing things with LEDs these days, from entertaining Tron dances in light suits, to the cool controllable lights made by Kiwi company MEA Mobile. And Designworks NZ has also put the technology to good use with the launch of an interactive light installation called Hundreds and Thousands as part of the Vivid Sydney light festival.
Cyber security isn’t always as exciting as watching Angelina Jolie “hack” into a mainframe, a la the 1995 hit movie Hackers. Getting the public interested and aware of online best practice is a difficult task, but one that NetSafe has tackled well with a series of videos tying in with Cyber Security Awareness Week.
New Zealand companies looking for a slice of that sweet, sweet Kiwiana can now show off their Zillund-ness with a .kiwi internet domain name. For instance idealog.kiwi instead of idealog.co.nz. The generic top-level domain (gTLD) has been given approval by the world wide web naming authority ICANN.
The FujiFilm Finepix X100S looks as if it fell through a crack in spacetime leading to the 1960s. This is a camera designed to imitate the beautiful “space age” cameras of the era. But with a $1,800 price tag, it’s a pretty hefty premium to pay for looks. Is the X100S a hipstery fashion accessory or a handy little camera in its own right?
Premium cars have long associated themselves with fashion brands. And BMW has become much more fashionable in New Zealand in recent years, with Kathyrn Wilson named as an ambassador and NZ Fashion Week added to its sponsorship portfolio last year, which saw a fleet of X1s getting a wrapping. BMW-owned Mini has been on that track for a while, having been officially linked with local fashion house Stolen Girlfriends Club for three years. And to celebrate both the launch of the new Mini Paceman and the label’s new range, the “muscular coupe” has become a model itself after being wrapped in the Death Moth print.
JC Penney was recently named as one of ten US brands that might not be with us by next year. It’s certainly had a rough time of late and, to its credit, it came out an apologised in a new ad. But sometimes you just can’t win, and now it’s getting a pasting for a billboard featuring a kettle designed by Michael Graves that looks a little bit like Hitler.
Following news of Dole’s decision to ditch its ‘ethical choice’ label, Kath Dewar offers the company some advice and looks at how consumers might respond to its greenwashing.
Sustainability is an increasingly important issue for the business community. But how do you best show it? Getty Images’ research into visual trends aims to find out.
There’s been plenty of action in the produce section recently, with All Good taking a pot shot at the corporate banana with a recent campaign and Oxfam—and the Commerce Commission—questioning Dole’s use of the ‘Ethical Choice’ label. And it all came to a head yesterday after Oxfam released a report showing Dole’s apparently dubious labour and environmental practices in the Philippines.
The Serious Fraud Office has today laid Crimes Act charges against Glenda Mary Wynyard (48), the former director and owner of The Media Counsel, in the Auckland District Court.
A host of advertising luminaries—and plenty of non-advertising non-luminaries—ventured to AUT’s beautiful new building on Monday night to celebrate the launch of Idealog editor Hazel Phillips’ new book Sell: Tall tales from the legends of New Zealand Advertising. Here she is on how it all came about, what’s changed over the years and, of course, where you can buy it.
Jon Ramage back in the game, DDB goes digital, Thick as Thieves hauls Oates, Super Liquor man moves up the chain, CAANZ believes the children are our future, and Pack & Co adds another impressive establishment to its portfolio.
As they always say, those in typo-ridden online glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones, but we couldn’t help but point out a little faux pas by our national carrier, which is using the 60th anniversary of the ascent of Mt Everest to promote $5 domestic fares on Grabaseat. Pity it—and nzherald.co.nz—spelled Sir Ed’s name wrong.
The cynics say that Coca-Cola has harvested happiness as a marketing concept over the years in an effort to avoid dealing with the unhappiness sugary drinks can bring through obesity (this was brilliantly skewered by ‘The Real Beers’ video). But ever since the famous multi-cultural ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke’ ad, Coca-Cola has claimed that it uses its global reach to try and bring people together. And it’s tried to do just that on the sub-continent with a three-minute clip by Leo Burnett that links up Pakistanis and Indians through a pair of connected vending machines.
