The time has cometh once again, when the upper-lips of men around the country—and the world—are given a temporary hairy embrace as part of Movember celebrations. And Carat has stepped up to the plate and challenged the rest of the marcomms industry to get growing and support the cause.
Auckland indie agency Shine doesn’t really play the show-offy PR game like many of its contemporaries and tends to focus on doing good work for some pretty big clients like Fonterra, Speight’s and Hyundai. And it’s thought it has added another two scalps to that list, taking House of Travel off Saatchi & Saatchi and GE Capital off Y&R.
Yesterday in the Image Centre Group’s boardroom, a company was reborn, with the country’s biggest home services franchise Green Acres launching a new, more contemporary brand.
There are a few things you can expect from a New Zealand summer: torrential rain, sunburnt tops of the feet and sausage and booze-related weight gain. You can also expect a campaign from Tip Top, but this year’s effort is a bit different—and more logistically challenging—than normal, because it’s launched a big new brand platform and is “on a mission to make New Zealand Feel Tip Top this summer, one ice cream at a time”.
Lindauer and DDB’s recent tear jerker created a bit of a stir when it was released, with some seeing it as low hanging fruit and others (particularly the female target market) seeing the hyperbole as spot-on. But the piece de resistance of the over the top campaign was a champagne tower that was filled with salty male tears* during the 30 Days of Fashion and Beauty Style Weekend at the Cloud.
The digital realm offers plenty of opportunities to monetise content. But, as AJ Park’s Matt Adams says, there are a few issues artists need to consider before signing up for services like Kim Dotcom’s new online venture.
Given Genesis Energy is the biggest spender in the electricity sector, clocking in with a very specific $4,408,317 in the year to July according to Nielsen’s AIS data, the news it was up for pitch whipped up a bit of excitement in agency land. From what we’ve heard, pretty much every non-conflicted man and his dog was in the room at the RFP stage, which could either be seen as an indication Genesis was testing the whole market to find the best partner or it didn’t know what kind of agency it actually wanted. But reliable sources have informed us the shortlist has now been decided on, with .99, Y&R, M&C Saatchi and DraftFCB thought to be getting set to fight it out for creative duties and Spark and Naked thought to be in the running for media.
It’s the web app that keeps on winning, and after numerous awards for Colenso BBDO and Mars Pedigree’s ‘Doggelganger’, it’s added another prestigious trophy to the cabinet: The Diamond Award at the Direct Marketing Association’s International Echo Awards.
As far as unintentionally humorous advertising cult heroes go, you don’t get any bigger than the silver fox in the Colorsteel ‘Roof Shout’ ad who looks a little bit like one of the old guys from The Muppets. Well, heeee’s baaaack with his hedge clippers in a cameo for the ‘Roof Shout’ follow up, which celebrates “30 years of being the roof of New Zealand”. And this time there’s a bit of a nod and a wink about his appearance from Coxy.
After a tough few years for the automotive industry, most of the manufacturers are getting back up to speed, with some agressive marketing campaigns and more favourable economic conditions leading to a 14 percent increase in new car sales in September. Ford increased its share by nine percent, and it’s hoping to increase that even further for its Mondeo model with the help of a paid-for reality show called The Test Driver.
It’s been a pretty good year for bcg2 and Mediacom, with a few new accounts and plenty of plaudits at the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards for the work done on Pfizer’s ‘Viagra = Avigra’ campaign. And it’s notched up another win after being awarded the Freedom New Zealand account from incumbents M&C Saatchi Sydney/Auckland and Carat without a pitch.
Along with the main ‘every time you swipe something a little bit good happens’ TVC featuring a bunch of playful animals, the idea of creating little moments of joy has been brought to life in the real world with some nice experiential executions, like swipe-activated bubble gum billboards, bubble blowing Adshels and even a seat and a magazine on the Wellington waterfront. But for its latest trick Fly Buys has got the Wellington City Council on-side and is trying to bring some joy to an eight-year-old boy named Elijah.
We’re fans of ad agencies that back up what they do for their clients by advertising and we think they should do it more often (*cough, StopPress media kit, cough*). DraftFCB leads the pack in that regard and has created a great brand that it can hang its hat on. There’s a pretty big gap back to second, but Special Group has been known to talk itself up from time to time. And to celebrate its packaging pin at the Best Awards for OOB ice cream and drum home its belief that design and advertising need to kiss and make-up, it placed this ad in last week’s Herald.
When the Australian Standards Bureau ruled that user generated content on Carlton United Breweries Facebook page could be classified as advertising and was therefore subject to the same criteria as any other ad, advertisers and advocates smacked their gobs and quivered in their boots because they felt on-the-fly moderation required to deal with comments was commercially impractical and would nullify the immediacy and openness that make social media so powerful. Now the Advertising Standards Authority in New Zealand has released its views on the matter, and while it doesn’t go quite as far as its neighbours, there are some interesting rulings that affect how brands interact with consumers online.
A triple whammy for Saatchi & Saatchi this week, with Big Ben and the Auckland Philharmonia getting in behind.
DDB, Barnes, Catmur & Friends, 2degrees, Clemenger and Colenso all walked away from the Langham last Thursday with varying degrees of Effie-inspired joy in their hearts. You can check out all the winners here. And, thanks to CAANZ and Richard Leonard, those more interested in the humans who attended can check out a few pics below.
New Zealand goes a bit funny when famous folk come for a visit. It’s that classic Kiwi combo of pride and self-doubt. And it was no different when Eva Longoria popped in recently to spruik some of her perfume, cut the ribbon on The Shopping Channel and answer a few questions at an event put on by Woman’s Day and L’Oreal. The security was almost Obama-level, with pre-event checks and phones handed in at the door, but with a bit of baksheesh we managed to get our hands on collection of glamour shots from the night. So fill your boots. And eyes.
In a world where The Ridges get their own TV show, celebrities get the headlines and fans froth at the mouth over One Direction or Justin Bieber, it’s not surprising there’s a belief that the lowest-common denominator is on the warpath. It certainly makes things tough for some of the more high-brow pursuits, but rather than simply take the government’s funding decision on the chin, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Colenso BBDO have released a charity single called ‘Soundtrack to Auckland’ to help rally support for its cause from Aucklanders.
Teaser campaigns aim to get attention, and given the story about BNZ’s unbranded billboards had five times as many clicks as any other story in September on StopPress, it got plenty of it. After the reveal, there was also plenty of interest in chief marketing officer Craig Herbison’s explanation of the thinking behind the purposefully controversial campaign, with some blasting it and others applauding its boldness. So now the ‘Be Good With Money’ platform is out there, BNZ and Colenso BBDO are on a mission to prove the bank can help New Zealanders do just that. And the first cab off the rank is its TotalMoney offset mortgage.
They say regret is a pointless emotion, but what would ‘they’ know. So to inspire a few more Kiwis to get their ayes into gees and shake up the ‘ahhh, I’ll do it tomorrow’ attitude, AMP, Running With Scissors, DNA and Bloodhound Media have got together to launch the ‘act today, own tomorrow’ campaign.
The Australian version of the Newspaper Awards, the Caxtons, took place over the weekend, and the Kiwis more than held their own, with Special Group repeating last year’s effort and coming out on top with four, and DDB, Colenso and Tourism New Zealand’s Australian arm picking up two apiece.
The trusty Huntaway took the departure of the National Bank brand in his stride, and last night saw the launch of the first brand campaign for the new ANZ since the big announcement was made a few weeks back, with a Kiwi-specific cameo from Aussie actor Simon Baker back in character as The Mentalist’s Patrick Jane. And while we’re impressed with his use of two tea bags, a classic trick used by tea-nerds who like a stronger brew without the ‘nyertch’ factor of tannins, we fear our fictional friend may be stretching the truth a little.
Tower’s last campaign was based around some of the things it had learned about is customers in its almost 150 year existence as an insurance company (like 52.4 percent of its Roadwise call outs are for flat batteries), and along with its new agency .99, which was appointed as Tower’s full-service agency a few months back, it’s found another truth to base its new campaign on: people will always find something to worry about, no matter how trivial.
When Orcon launched its new cat-centric campaign recently, we mentioned the fact that Wired had delved into what it called the online cat-industrial complex, ad agency John St had spoofed the feline fascination brilliantly with the world’s first cat advertising agency, and a recent cat video film festival in the US drew 10,000 people (it was won by Henri 2: paw de deux). So it’s fair to say the cat is a powerful force in these digital times. And Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi have enlisted the services of a self-harming feline called Alloroc (geddit?) who’ll stop at nothing to get into the new 2013 Corolla as part of the ‘Feels Good Inside’ campaign.
Revolution Fibres, an Auckland company that uses nanotechnology to make super strong fibres—in particular, for air filters for household ventilation systems, high strength fishing rods and fabric to enhance skin healing—claimed the supreme prize at the 2012 New Zealand Innovators Awards. And in the categories most relevant to the marketing community, Syrp’s Genie, Kiwibank’s online relationship management, The Gibson Group’s TouchHistory innovation, audio/text fusion Booktrack, virtual world SmallWorlds, paperless receipts company Paperkut and The Nutter’s Club also took home prizes.
In what could be seen as either a blow for rugby purists lamenting the sport’s descent into commercialism or a massive boost for the New Zealand Rugby Union—and the game as a whole—global insurance company American International Group has signed a five and a half year sponsorship agreement that will see its logo take pride of place in the middle of the All Black jersey.
While New Zealand’s international awards hauls have earned it a reputation as a hotbed of advertising creativity, Google’s New Zealand country manager Tony Keusgen believes we’ve got a lot of work to do when it comes to digital marketing and he is on a mision to get Kiwi marketers using data to inform their decisions. So how important is search? How can YouTube being harnessed? And are Kiwi marketers prepared for the brewing mobile storm?
Video hasn’t killed the radio star and, seemingly, neither will digital. In fact, not only has Kiwi radio maintained its share of all advertising, it now has more commercial listeners than at any time in the previous decade. But that doesn’t mean radio’s resting on its analogue laurels, as evidenced by the announcement from the Australian Radio Network (ARN) and subsidiary The Radio Network (TRN), a joint venture between APN News & Media and Clear Channel International, that popular all-in-one digital radio network iHeartRadio is coming down under.
They say honesty is the best policy. And George Weston Foods has taken that advice onboard in a new campaign for Big Ben pies by Assignment Group that aims to dispel a few meat and pastry related myths—and, of course, sell a few more pies. And it’s done it in an entertainingly masculine style that should appeal to the pie-loving community.
After being denied at Axis, Steinlager’s ‘We Believe’ campaign rightly dominated last night with the grand Effie, and, with awards for Yellow Toolbox and more glory for Volkswagen after it won the supreme award at the TVNZ-NZ Marketing Awards, DDB made it a double by taking the crown as the year’s most effective agency.