There have been plenty of changes at APN NZ of late, with the relaunch of the Herald last year and restructures of both the editorial and sales and marketing teams. And now the Herald on Sunday, the country’s best performing newspaper, is getting its turn with what editor Bryce Johns calls “a complete revamp of the paper’s look and feel, and improved content mix”.
I suck at watching awkward television because I always feel personally responsible for that awkwardness. I can’t get through an episode of American Idol without squirming into the back of my couch, flinching as every one of Simon Cowell’s barbed remarks pointed directly towards me. Their failures are my failures, and that’s why I couldn’t stand the first episode of Seven Sharp, which was more cringe-worthy than watching a chalkboard being scratched for thirty minutes.
The average game of NFL contains only 11 minutes of action, the rest of the three hours is spent on replays, shots of players, and commercials. It’s no wonder then that there’s so much hooplah around Super Bowl ads, because for some it’s the only entertainment amidst the spectacle that is American football.
Warehouse Stationery has put its creative account up for pitch. And it’s pretty close to a must-win for the incumbent M&C Saatchi.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances has reattached its wagon to Colenso BBDO after a head to head pitch with DDB at the end of last year.
TVNZ’s new current affairs programme, Seven Sharp, has scored itself a sponsor with RaboDirect, ahead of its premiere tonight.
M&C Saatchi’s emotionally charged “Installation” campaign for the New Zealand Fire Service launches new ad coinciding with the start of the new school year, grabbing at all new heart strings.
Planking, owling, batting, breading, milking, Tebowing, horsemanning … There’s certainly no shortage of ridiculous participatory memes these days. And, to launch its new Beetle, Volkswagen and DDB have tried to create another one: Beetling.
Sir Paul Holmes passed away today at the age of 62, surrounded by family in Hawke’s Bay. Tributes have already started flowing through for the man who inspired or infuriated New Zealanders, and here we share a few.
Just as you’d change the locks when kicking out an ex, HMV has taught brands today it’s a good idea to change their social media passwords before firing staff.
Context is king, and it’s often lost on Facebook. Click Suite’s Zef Fugaz explains why it’s so important to get to know your customers.
The confluence of data and creativity—and figuring out how to combine the ‘math and magic’ to best effect—seems destined to be one of the marketing world’s biggest challenges in coming years. And Anthony Gardiner has checked both of those boxes with a website called www.25mostplayed.com that, by combining Facebook data and iTunes data, offers a look at what’s tickling the musical fancy of different demographics.
A haul of five Favourite Website Awards last month has left the smug folk at Resn just a little smugger.
Over the past year and a bit, Y&R NZ has been undergoing something of a transformation (as its logo said, ‘re-est. 2012’). And, along with a new brand, new sub-brands and a swanky new office in the Auckland CBD, there have also been a host of changes to the staff roster in recent months.
Admission grows like topsy, Fuse gets a Christmas present, Oddbird takes flight, Firebrand joins the Salt stable, Komli signs up The Economist, Josh Moore, Philip Andrew and Dave King get jury nods, Matt Palmer joins The Feds and Lance Kelleher re-signs with 8com.
Off the cuff comment by Top Gear presenter fuels speculation that the show is coming to New Zealand to film our talented dogs, however the agency behind the campaign says it’s pure speculation.
Big Data has become a big marketing buzzword. But, according to Darryn Melrose, most articles are written on the assumption the reader knows what the term actually means. So he decided to spell it out.
Sponsorship isn’t just about logos on hoardings any more. It’s all about ‘activation’ and ‘integration’. And, with the X Factor hitting TV3’s screens this year, broadcast sponsor Ford and its agency JWT have already got in on the act with The Passengers, a campaign that aims to find “traffic light tunesters and side-street singers” to feature on a remix of Che Fu’s ‘Fade Away’. Plus: Last two X Factor judges named.
Where Kiwi kids may once have had a melting Popsicle dribbling down their chin as they climbed trees, played BYC or harassed geckos over summer, it seems they’re much more likely to be eating a Popsicle and staring at a screen these days. So, to tap into this evolution and add a bit of digi-fun to the brand, Tip Top and Colenso BBDO have tipped their hat to the classic arcade game Asteroids and custom-designed something similar to promote the new Popsicle Blasta.
For all those media minds looking to have their say on the best media thinking of the past year, prospective judges need to have their applications to join the Media Awards panel in by 4pm this Friday.
Bad news for flailing media companies, you’ll soon be competing for subscription dollars with the third largest social network – YouTube.
Igloo boss Chaz Savage has resigned from the fledgling pay TV venture, and is taking up a role with Telstra in Australia, according to a spokesperson for Igloo.
Following on from last year’s Donna Time campaign, which moved the focus from young Maori mates to slightly boganic mums, NZTA and Clemenger BBDO have launched an eye-straining new print campaign that targets families where drink driving is a common behaviour and, like the previous campaigns, encourages someone to speak up about it.
In an effort to “be in the right place with the right inventory”, APN Outdoor has reached an agreement with the sole remaining principle of JAM Billboards, Vanessa Bryce, to acquire its three remaining billboard licenses in Auckland, effective from 1 February.
Watch out Facebook, Google+ is on your behind. Somebody’s using the untrendy service, because it’s now the number two social network in the world, says one study.
If Rule 34 of the internet is “If it exists, there’s porn of it”, then surely Rule 35 is “If it can host porn, it will host porn”, a lesson Twitter’s new video service, Vine, has learned today.
David Kester, ex-UK Design Council head, gives a pep talk on how to invigorate a culture of constant design in New Zealand.
The advertising industry has its fair share of detractors. But research shows its contribution is overwhelmingly positive, writes CAANZ chief executive Paul Head.
