
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.
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.
When tablet computers first arrived on the scene, they were slated as something of a saviour for the ailing magazine industry; a medium that offered the utility of digital technology but actually allowed publishers to make money from it. That certainly hasn’t come to pass in New Zealand yet, and there have been a couple of false starts in that space already. But with impressive download figures and an endorsement from Apple in its best of list at the end of 2012, McHugh Media’s Mindfood iPad app could just be a glimpse into the future.
Gareth Morgan’s Cats to Go crusade has led to much gnashing of teeth from the heavy petters, a vast array of feline puns and plenty of conversation, both here and, with the story featuring on Mashable and Huffington Post, around the world. And Mammoth and Sugar & Partners have decided to hitch their ‘Warmth Lovers’ campaign to that wagon by creating a contextual online ad showing that its spokescat, Prince Nikolai Stroganov III, is already pretty happy inside.
Metservice launched its new redesigned website in December, aiming to make Kiwis’ weather needs more easily accessible. The redesign included new opportunities for targeted advertising that allowed brands to advertise next to specific weather types. And interactive manager at Metservice, Craig Delaney described it as being “like Google AdWords, but instead of bidding on words you buy space next to a weather type.” And, following on from a similar contextual campaign last year, Hellers has again teamed up with Christchurch ad agency Simpatico to launch another meaty weather-based campaign on the site.
Auckland tertiary institute builds gamer community to attract students to its new game development degrees. And zombies.
As the tide of digital has washed over this industry in recent years (the Ad Contrarian calls it The Triumph of Disinformation), blowing the trumpet of traditional media has been fairly tough going. But as part of the magazine industry’s renewed zeal to grow advertising market share and convince clients it is an effective advertising medium—and in an effort to inspire some optimism among those selling magazine ads and show how magazines are evolving—the Magazine Publishers Association is putting on a conference featuring big brained magazine supporters such as Y&R’s James Hurman, Fisher & Paykel’s Sonya Aitken, Pacific Magazine’s Peter Zavecz and Contagion’s Richard Thompson.
At 22, Derek Handley became the country’s youngest ever managing director of a listed company. Around ten years later, he sold The Hyperfactory to US marketing behemoth Meredith. And now, in between helping create the ‘future of reading’ with Booktrack, he has announced plans to list his latest venture, mobile media specialist Snakk Media, on New Zealand’s alternative stock exchange. He’s also co-founded an organisation alongside Sir Richard Branson called The B Team that aims to find a new and more sustainable version of capitalism. So what does the future look like to him?
There are those among us who have some serious issues with grammatical errors. And, with a healthy dose of ‘there but for the grace of the flying spaghetti monster go us’, we couldn’t help but notice a slightly ironic ad talking up the BBC World Service in the New Zealand Herald. First Jimmy Savile, now this. The controllers will be aghast.
Quora asks if we need another web blogging platform, then answers its own question with a yes.
As a guest contributor for The Gunn Report, Y&R NZ’s managing director James Hurman looked for the campaigns that had hit the ‘high water mark of human achievement in creative communications’ by winning both Cannes and Effie golds. And just nine campaigns joined this exclusive club in 2012.
Facebook’s new Graph Search hasn’t rolled out to all of the social network’s one billion users yet, but a new meme shows the privacy horrors that awaits us when it does.
The media landscape has been transformed and fragmented by the power of digital, mobile and social technology. And it’s increasingly difficult to work out a plan to get traction for brands in this new, less certain environment. Contagion’s Tom Bates looks at three areas worthy of focus for modern-day marketers.
Anyone trying to find out what different marcomms agencies do is likely to be overwhelmed by a surge of meaningless jargon and general incomprehensibility. In recognition of this, a Tumblr called Agency Wank has compiled “the wankiest slogans and text on ad/marketing agency websites”. Here are a few pearlers.
The new Mother of the Nation returns to primetime, Yellow adds a digi-double, DraftFCB in full production, Air New Zealand’s new people person, Homestyle finds an editor, Allied Press shakes hands with a rival, and Anthony Reardon heads online.
In an effort to attract a “social, lively and stylish urban audience” to a product not usually associated with such phrases, NZ Lotteries and Running with Scissors have just launched a new range of Instant Kiwi tickets. And marketing manager Robert Saunders says it’s the biggest facelift for the tickets since it started selling them back in 1989.
After seven years with DDB Group, and three in the role of experiential creative director, Steve Kane has taken a role as “a senior, multi-faceted creative director” at Whybin\TBWA, where he will work under executive creative director Andy Blood.
When Lumino The Dentists launched its inaugural TV campaign back in 2011, winning Fair Go’s ‘coveted’ worst ad award probably wasn’t on the KPIs. MediaR’s Tony Richards was a good sport when he collected the trophy, and, much like Lily Salter from Big Save furniture the year before, he said ‘New Zealand’s biggest kiss’ had actually worked brilliantly, despite the animosity shown towards it by some in the industry (and the Fair Go voters). But now, to the relief of some, the road-trip pash-fest has been replaced by saying cheese in its latest TV campaign.
Following on from Colenso BBDO’s place atop the agency rankings of the Big Won report—and the individual nods for its staff members Nick Worthington, Levi Slavin, Simon Vicars, James Tucker and Jae Morrison in the creative director, copywriting and art direction categories—a new update to the list has added the world’s most awarded planners, planning directors and suits. And, not surprisingly, Colenso staff again featured prominently, with the agency’s ex planning director and now Y&R NZ managing director James Hurman named as the number one planning director in the world.
Burger joint’s ad promoting new burger using two quite attractive women with BBQ tongs gets rejected by ad authorities. Restaurant Brands CEO says the company will look at other mediums to promote the company.
Lloyd, Sky’s creepy envelope licker, and M&C Saatchi’s continuation of the guilt trip for NZ Fire Service are victorious.
Back in the day, as those with a bit of length to the tooth might tell you, gold dust could be found in advertising in general as it was something of a mystery to those paying the bills. Then marketers went to school and eventually figured it out, which seemed to spell the end of going to lunch at 12 and not coming back. Digital and data are where much of the gold dust seems to be these days, as evidenced by the types of acquisitions international holding companies are making and the types of agencies that are growing rapidly. And in New Zealand, where there’s a bit of a digital skill shortage, expertise in this field is especially sought after, so indie agency Affinity ID is understandably stoked to have secured the services of Greg Doone, a Kiwi who has worked in the digital industry for over 15 years and has returned home from the UK to take up the role of general manager – discovery and development.