ANZ Bank took over as Black Caps sponsors from National Bank, when it absorbed the brand last year. Even though it’s new to the game of cricket, it’s already producing cringe-worthy TVCs with the best of them. Plus: ASB introduces its bearded wonder.
TVNZ is currently taking a bit of flak over the direction—and the fairly significant decline in ratings—of its new primetime show Seven Sharp. But one of its faithful servants has continued to perform, with the first episode of the fourth season of MasterChef increasing its total audience by almost 100,000 viewers compared to last year.
According to entrepreneur Nick Hindson, New Zealand is ranked second in the world in the number of new businesses that are started up, but more than half don’t last the distance. So, in an effort to teach New Zealanders—be they school children, corporate ballbreakers or budding entrepreneurs—about business sense and financial literacy in a more entertaining way, he has created a new board game called Market $hare, which features 64 real New Zealand businesses. We’ve got a couple of games worth $89.99 to give away and all you have to do is tell us what the next addition to the Monopoly board will be after the cat was chosen recently following a public vote.
Last week BNZ Bank sent members of the media blue cakes in the shape of a brain, prompting us at StopPress to theorise the upcoming launch of a youth orientated product based around zombies. It seems we were half right.
Holden’s twitch-curing cars and McDonald’s fusion of the real and the imagined stoke our advertising coals this week.
Countless articles pronounce the end of advertising, the death of marketing, and a gloomy outlook for all involved. From the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, or pretty much every marketing and advertising conference, the headlines shout that we’re in serious trouble. There’s only one problem, says JWT’s Simon Lendrum. It’s all bollocks.
Samsung has been one of the big movers in the mobile space in recent years, and, with a series of quality ads based around its ‘Next Big Thing’ tagline, has had plenty of success from taking the fight directly to Apple. While the late Steve Jobs rejected the idea of a stylus, Samsung has fully embraced the idea for its Note series and, to demonstrate the kind of artistic trickery the newest model is capable of, Colenso BBDO and Samsung collaborated with the New Zealand Herald’s legendary satirical cartoonist (and one of the oldest fathers in the world), Peter Bromhead, in an effort to go beyond the banner and become part of the content.
TVNZ’s frustrated tech savvy fans of shows like Shortland St for many years by not providing an iOS version for Ondemand, but the wait is almost over with a launch slated for later this month. StopPress takes a quick look at the app which was demoed last night.
The New Zealand Rugby Union is on a mission to prop up the national game with more corporate money. Last year, AIG stuck its name on the All Black jersey. And now Pink Batts has signed up for a three year sponsorship deal that will see New Zealand’s referees stepping out in pink for the Investec Super Rugby, ITM Cup and renamed Pink Batts Heartland Championship. But, unfortunately for some sporting sadists, they won’t be forced to wear actual Pink Batts like the 2008 Snug campaign.
The magazine industry is doing better than its counterparts in newspapers when it comes to retaining readers, with the majority of New Zealand publications showing stable or increasing readership according to Nielsen Consumer and Media Insights.
DDB has cleaned up the last two Newspaper Ad of the Month awards, with YWCA Auckland’s ‘Demand equal pay ad and Volkswagen’s ‘Beetle to win a Beetle’ taking out the December and January rounds respectively. The Judges for both rounds—Leisa Wall, DraftFCB; Paul Hankinson, Hanko; Lisa Fedyszyn, DDB (who abstained) and Kate Humphries, Media Design School—said VW’s ad “enticed people to make the iconic VW beetle shape with their bodies in order to win a VW, is an inspired way to induce beer gut envy, particularly if those beer guts have just enjoyed a good holiday season.”
Wattie’s tomato sauce is a staple of many a pantry, fridge or glove box in New Zealand. And whether it’s the heel of a hand planted on the base of the bottle, some vigorous shaking or an intense windmill action, passionate Kiwi sauce fans employ a range of techniques to get every last drop of that glorious red elixir out of the bottle. Now, to launch its new stuck-sauce solution, the Upside Down Bottle, Heinz Wattie’s and Running with Scissors have launched a new brand campaign that celebrates that ingenuity.
Getting any salty old sea dog to share their secret fishing spots is nigh-on impossible. And this reluctance can sometimes be dangerous, because if they get into trouble no-one knows where they are. So, in an effort to deal with this problem and stop its customers from dying, Hutchwilco, DDB and Rapp Tribal developed a clever and helpful iPhone app that allows fishermen to log their co-ordinates to a secure database and if they don’t come home, a loved one can log on, see where they like to go, and send the details straight to the Coastguard.
The print newspaper industry continues to struggle with retaining readers in a difficult time for the sector, with the latest circulation figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) showing losses almost across the board.
It’s been a while between brand ads for Holden, with the car company favouring Clarke Gayford, a stark warehouse and a bit of glitchy electronica to spruik its various models recently. But, with the help of Ogilvy and Robber’s Dog, it’s taken a slightly more creative, emotional and story-based approach with a nice new spot featuring a twitchy main protagonist who, like the self-harming, car-loving cat in the Toyota Corolla campaign, finds unexpected peace in his vehicle.
SparkPHD NZ is through to the Festival of Media Asia 2013 Awards shortlist with campaigns for Rexona and TRESemmé, the only Kiwi agency to make it to this stage.
Despite social media creating a sticky hive of internet activity, many marketers still discount its effects on B2B buyers. Which is great news – for their competitors. Steve Ballantyne talks about the nitty gritty benefits of using social media in securing B2B relationships.
Worrying figures for TVNZ, whose Seven Sharp show has lost 40 percent of its audience since the start of the week, placing it near competitor Campbell Live.
David Walden stepped down as the CEO of Whybin\TBWA yesterday, after 14 years at the agency’s helm. Although many had predicted his resignation following a massive sell off of shares last year, very few picked former APN chief operating officer Todd McLeay to replace him.
Resigning Whybin’s boss David Walden scotches rumours he’s retiring, predicts tremendous years ahead for agency and self.
How do we instigate change and get others motivated when it comes to sustainability?
Big news in ad land today, with the confirmed resignation of David Walden as head of the agency he helped set up 14 years ago. Toby Talbot steps down as executive creative director.
In the ultimate show of first world problems, one in ten New Zealanders say their offline relationships suffer because of the amount of time they fritter away online, according to a survey by Canstar Blue.
That new ink smell of glossy pages will now be thing of the past for Unlimited magazine because, following in the footsteps of magazines like Newsweek, it’s going fully digital in April.
Local company eBUS, which offers a cloud-based TV ad delivery system, is the latest in a string to be bought up by an overseas firm.
Hyundai’s ode to towing, Pak ‘n’ Save’s Countdown takedown and the next instalment of NZ Fire Service’s powerful campaign get the nod this week.
Rapp Tribal welcomes some new blood, ApolloNation introduces itself, OMD finds a digital director, The Radio Network makes some changes in ChCh and Jetstar names its new NZ head.
Seven Sharp debuted last night to mixed fanfare from viewers, but TVNZ (and principal sponsor RaboDirect) won’t be disappointed with the audience figures released today for the coveted 7-7:30pm slot.
Social media platforms like Twitter are a great way of getting your content out to a large audience. But just because content is available on a publicly accessible network does not mean that it can be used for commercial purposes, says Matt Adams.
Remember the unfortunate guy who unwittingly became a spokesman for a particular brand of lubricant on Facebook last year? Now telly presenter Rachel Smalley is battling Facebook herself in an effort to get a photo of her used in a weight loss advertisement taken off Facebook.