QR codes have long been talked about as a bridge between the digital and the physical. But the oft-used “let’s chuck a QR Code at the bottom of the ad and hope for the best” approach is rarely successful. So Phantom Billstickers has launched a new and hopefully more enticing approach to the technology that it’s calling the talking poster.
Collectors eagerly await each new release of Absolut limited edition bottles (we even had a desperate plea from a big fan in Germany asking for the Huffer-designed model) and its latest collection, Absolut Unique, is sure to impress.
How to measure PR is an ongoing debate and this question was at the centre of a big review by the CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group last year. And while advertising value equivalent (AVE) has been rejected in many other markets as outdated and insufficient, a survey conducted for Hotwire, the global integrated PR and communications agency, has shown that it’s still prevalent in Australia and New Zealand. So it’s doing its bit to address the issue with the launch of its own meausurement framework.
The shows and stars set to beam out to New Zealand in 2013 on TV3 and Four were announced last week. And now you can marvel at some of the humans who were there at the launch.
The tinsel is going up around the nation’s shops, the Cliff Richard carol CD is being dusted off and the festive retail shouting is already underway. But rather than add to the commercial cacophony, Running with Scissors and The Good Taste Company have tried to create something of a reprieve with a campaign for its new Double-Ups range.
The hairy battle has commenced and Nigel Hooker from Apollo Marketing has been awarded the prestigious mo of the week title.
We’ve had an oversupply of kids and animals in advertising this year. But, in the follow-up to the launch of Westpac and DDB’s Start Asking campaign, the oldies have taken centre stage in an entertaining fish out of water tale that aims to show the bank has ways of helping customers into their own house.
They’re another year older and (definitely) deeper in debt; they’ve been awarded in international student competitions; they’ve won both the NAB and TVNZ national student challenges; they’ve been through the rigours of a retail round robin with several agencies; they recently submitted six weeks of brand new work on various briefs to an industry panel for some tough words and sage advice; and now the Media Design School advertising students are ready to show their wares next Wednesday between 5.30 and 8pm at The Nathan Club, 51 Galway street, Britomart.
Charlie’s has been fighting the good fight against its much larger, some would say much less principled competition since it kicked off in 1999. And, with its newish agency Assignment Group, it’s launched the first campaign for a couple of years in an effort to retell its story and show New Zealanders that the brand is “on a mission from good”.
Kim Hill gets a big international plaudit, Colenso gets greedy, Geoff Devereux goes indie, New Zealand Blood goes digital with Young & Shand, MediaWorks swipes another TVNZer, TVNZ’s new 7pm show gets going, Hayley Holt heads to More FM and Jason Willis lights his Fuse.
The Briscoes lady—AKA Tammy Wells—has been invading New Zealand’s living rooms and mailboxes for almost a quarter of a century and, after thousands of ads about massive savings and red hot sales, the ‘You’ll never by better’ slogan has been well and truly etched into the nation’s consciousness. And this week the Kiwi retailer marked a significant milestone as it celebrated 150 years of business. PLUS: some classic old ads.
Catvertising has gone mainstream in 2012 and Mammoth Insulation’s rather self-satisfied, warmth-loving feline Prince Nikolai Stroganov III, who made the cut for our TVCs of the Week not long ago, added his name to the list when the campaign was launched back in October. Now Sugar & Partners, which is on a bit of a creative roll after recalibrating recently, has followed up the main 45 second brand spot with three more 15 second spots.
Media start-up Snakk Media, which was launched by Kiwi entrepreneur Derek Handley and digital advertising veteran Andrew Jacobs in Australia in 2010 and offers advertisers a network of channels and technology that allows them to target and connect to consumers through smartphones and tablets, has applied to list on the New Zealand Alternative Exchange (NZAX) in the near future.
Running With Scissors’ new campaign for The People’s Wine caught our attention a few weeks back and it’s also found favour with the judges of the October round of the newspaper ad of the month awards, who said “there’s a story here … more of a personal interesting take on a wine ad”, “Kiwi, unpretentious and great to see longer copy” and “beautifully crafted and great use of a newspaper magazine.”
Moa has its fair share of detractors, from threat-making Pakistanis to protective Frenchies to lesbians to those who disagreed with the imagery used in its, shall we say, unique prospectus. So it came as a shock to many when the trickster god of the Kiwi beer family was announced as a sponsor of the New Zealand Olympic team, a sponsorship we felt it did a fantastic job of leveraging online and in person at Kiwi house in London. And as part of its ‘Beer for Olympians’ campaign, it has had one complaint upheld and one not upheld by the ASA.
Humans can’t seem to get enough of screens these days. And they’re increasingly using their devices while watching TV. So locally developed app Pluk is working with advertisers and trying to point them in the right direction, writes Lesley Springall.
Kiwi publishing company Healthy Life Media is aiming to tap into the increasing concern it says Kiwis have for the environment—and give them practical ideas for easy ways to live more sustainably and save money—by launching a new monthly magazine called Green Ideas.
MediaWorks showed off its new season nuggets yesterday, and TVNZ is doing the same next week. So we thought it was high time we took a look at Nielsen’s TAM figures to see what shows tickled the fancies of New Zealanders from the key demographics in 2012.
String Theory’s last brilliant viral effort for the Good Books charity, Metamorphosis, recently took gold and bronze at the London International Awards, and it could have another winner on its hands, as Havana Heat, the next innuendo-heavy, bodice-ripping Mills and Boon-themed instalment has just been released. And, coincidentally, it’s been created by The Mill of London, which won production company of the year at the same awards.
Less talky talky about brand, more worky worky on reputation, says Oliver Haydon.
Air New Zealand’s hairyplane, AA Insurance’s tribute to the wonders of its industry and Speight’s New York knocking get the goodness.
Metro claims to be “the most trusted guide to eating in Auckland”. And the title is playing to its strengths and moving to where its audience is increasingly looking with the launch of Metro Eats, a new mobile app that was developed by Satellite Media and combines content from the magazine’s Top 50 Restaurants, Top 100 Cheap Eats and Top 50 Bars.
Ze Germans have created an extremely valuable country brand based around reliability, precision and quality design and engineering, which has certainly helped the likes of VW, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz conquer the world’s roads. But Sweden is trying to find its niche, and in New Zealand it’s doing it with a ballsy new campaign for the new Volvo V40 hatchback that takes aim at the established German car brands and taps into the desire to be ‘Über Different’.
What do you get when you cross glitter canons, cheerleaders showing their bums, overly dramatic sound tracks, media types eating all the nibbles and Paul Henry? A new season TV launch, of course. And first cab off the rank for 2013 was MediaWorks, which announced some of the goodies it will be showing on TV3 and Four at Sky City, interviewed some of 2012’s stars on the couch and introduced the first X Factor NZ judge, Stan Walker.
MasterCard is launching a new national direct to consumer (cardholder) privileges programme in the New Zealand market, and it’s putting the call out for agencies with a bit of mana in the travel, loyalty, offer generation, experiential and POS space.
Entries for this Thursday night’s Adshel Creative Challenge wind up on Tuesday night at 5pm. And there are still a couple of spots available for agency teams who enjoy eating pizza, drinking booze and developing a campaign for Surf Life Saving New Zealand in just 60 minutes.
It’s that time of year again, when fresh faced young’uns with dreams of creative greatness prostrate themselves in front of adland’s judgemental powerbrokers and show off the year’s handiwork. So get thee to the end of year show for the AUT Ad Creativity course on Friday 9 November at the Film Construction building in Minnie St if you want to see it.
The TV industry, here and around the world, is currently dealing with some major challenges, but all that serious business was mostly forgotten on Saturday night as the stars—from in front of and from behind the camera—of the local industry turned up to accentuate the positive at the 2012 New Zealand Television Awards. And in the annual (mostly) two horse race, it was MediaWorks that wrested the big news prizes off TVNZ, and TVNZ that took home most of the prizes in the drama and reality sections.
As a small airline that can’t afford to buy attention like some of its larger competitors, Air New Zealand has long advocated the benefits of content marketing through effective seeding of its unique—and often polarising—campaigns and safety videos and a world-class YouTube channel. With the help of Weta Workshop, it nailed The Hobbit inflight video. And it’s already a global hit, achieving worldwide media coverage and 6.2 million YouTube views in just four days since launching.
