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From ads to entertainment: inside the new Oktobor
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Behind Nickelodeon cartoons such as The Penguins of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda: Legend of Awesomeness is a team of animators who just happen to be based out of New Zealand. We look inside Oktobor Animation (formerly Omnilab-owned visual effects house Oktobor) and talk to head of production Rob DiFiglia and managing director Bruce Everett about New Zealand’s blossoming digital creative scene.

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Meet Twitter’s new, more optimistic mascot
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Avid Twitter users will no doubt be familiar with the ‘Fail Whale’, a picture that regularly showed up when the service was over-capacity. That has become increasingly rare, however, and Yiying Lu, who designed the first image, has come up with a new one: the Success Loch Ness.

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New Zealand seventh on D&AD list, just four campaigns in line for Pencils
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D&AD is renowned as one of the world’s toughest awards shows (hence the brouhaha when Clemenger BBDO took a yellow pencil for Ghost Chips the same night it was denied at Axis). And while New Zealand has further cemented its reputation as a creativity hub and been ranked seventh in the world after the first round of judging, just four campaigns are in line to pick up yellow pencils: Silo Theatre Identity by Alt Group (Branding Schemes/Small Business), ‘Donation Glasses’ by Colenso BBDO for Mars NZ, Pedigree Adoption Drive (Direct Response/TV & Cinema Advertising); ‘Call Girl’ by DraftFCB for Prime Television (Radio Advertising over 30 seconds) and ‘Metamorphosis’ by String Theory for Good Books (Writing for Film Advertising).

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Special Group grabs Red Bull by horns
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New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world where Red Bull isn’t the number one energy drink, with Frucor’s V taking that honour. But it’s aiming to rectify that—and make more of its burgeoning content business—by appointing Special Group as its creative agency.

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Special Group walks the advertising talk once again after Media Awards win—UPDATED
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Not content with the attention it receives in the trade media after an award win, Special Group has made a habit of paying to get a bit more of it by placing full-page ads in the Herald, making it one of a rare few ad agencies that actually advertise. And it’s done some more showing off after winning Best in Show at the Media Awards alongside Naked/Open for Unitec’s ‘We make the people who make it’ campaign.

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Y&R raises a special glass to responsible drinking
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There are plenty of creative ways to sell more booze, but not quite as many to convince punters to drink less of it. So, in an attempt to clear up some confusion around what one standard drink means, Y&R and the Tomorrow Project, a social change initiative run by the country’s beer, wine and spirit producers aimed at educating consumers about responsible drinking, have given it its own special glass.

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Monopoly Auckland Edition gets hashjacked, Auckland-centric hilarity ensues
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Monopoly – the game that destroyed a thousand families – is launching a new set based on Auckland. In a fine piece of democratic consultation, the city planners for Monopoly Auckland Edition asked the public for idea suggestions through Facebook and email. As with all things internet, if it can be #hashtag mocked, it will be – as was the case yesterday and today with the #AucklandMonopolyCards hashtag.

Movings & Shakings
Movings/Shakings: 23 April
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Strategy makes a few changes in Christchurch, Mango adds some fresh fruit, Ideas Shop promotes from within, L’Oréal’s cosmetic kismet, Mulligan readies his quill, Snakk Media names new group chief executive, Reachmedia ups it reach, and Blockhead welcomes a few new troops.

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Men: not their own worst beauty critics
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Lynda Brendish wrote a piece about Dove’s Real Beauty campaign celebrating the sentiment of empowerment but criticising the parent company Unilever. Plenty of others have found reasons to criticise, too (for example, featuring traditionally attractive white women and showing women as their own worst enemy rather than the sexist society they live in). But what about the men, you ask? Well, here’s a brilliant parody of the campaign showing how they have a very different problem.

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