There’s danger in being good at something: you create expectations. Air New Zealand has created some pretty high expectations for its inflight safety videos after releasing a few stunners and most seemed to think they weren’t met with the last animated effort. But it’s trying again and, in line with Tourism New Zealand’s new 100% Pure Middle Earth slogan, it’s a tribute to The Hobbit movies.
In 2011, Good’s cover featuring a handmade pohutukawa wreath was crowned winner of the second edition of The Maggies. And it went on to win the supreme magazine title at this year’s magazine awards. Coincidence? We think not. So get your nominations in for this year’s edition of The Maggies, a national poll to recognise and celebrate the best New Zealand magazine covers of the past year.
M&C Saatchi caused a bit of a stir last year when it used stencil art in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland to tell some extraordinary police stories. That work, created by Otis Frizzell, received some international media attention (and, in Auckland, some attention from taggers). And the latest phase of the campaign builds on that idea, with TVC, radio, online, and ambient/out of home activity that aims to challenge prevailing perceptions of what it takes to become a cop.
The whisk(e)y is being gargled, the leather vests are being shined and powerstances are being perfected. Which can mean only one thing: preparations are underway for The Battle of the Ad Bands. Seven agency bands have put up their hands to rock your world this year. So here are the contenders gunning for rock godhood, along with the classic movie songs they’ve been given to perform.
The profitability of Big Pharma’s brands can collapse suddenly when patents expire and generic ‘knock offs’ flood the market. When this happens, the accepted norm is for up to 90 percent of an originator brand’s volume and share to be lost almost overnight and it’s an issue the industry hasn’t yet been able to resolve, so, typically, blockbuster compounds and their brands are simply written off or retired. But the local Pfizer branch wasn’t going to take the early patent expiry of Viagra in New Zealand lying down, so to speak, so it took the very unusual step of launching its own generic brand called Avigra and trying to migrate consumers to the cheaper, Pfizer-made alternative. And now, after a pun-laden press campaign and a bit of TV masthead activity, it’s stiffened its resolve by creating a new TVC.
Whatever the creatives—and creative agencies—can do, so can the clients, because it seems Westpac’s head of marketing Ian Moody has swapped red for blue and joined BNZ.
If the last two rounds of the ORCAs are anything to go by, making the move from one agency to another bodes well for an ORCA win. Last month Clemenger BBDO’s Jon Pickersgill and Sarah Jackson picked up an ORCA just before they headed across the ditch to Sapient Nitro in Brisbane, and the July round has been won by Matt Williams and Freddie Coltart for a campaign they created just before they left Ogilvy for Draft FCB.
With a customer base of over four million paying subscribers and over 15 million active users, it’s fair to say Spotify’s rise has been nothing short of gigantic. And, as it seeks new ways of monetising its service, it has set it sights on big brands that are equally keen to tap into the service to create unique marketing opportunities. The likes of McDonald’s and Reebok are already on board with their recommended playlists, and it’s even making tracks in political circles, with the creation of the official 2012 Obama campaign playlist. It recently gained some traction locally, too, with ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi teaming up to create what it says is a “New Zealand media-first” branded Facebook app that integrated with the Spotify platform and industry commentators to create an ‘Olympic Moods’ soundtrack to the Olympics.
From ‘it’s not the drinking, it’s how we’re drinking’ to the ‘ghost chips’ legends, our collective love for the bottle has been referenced in advertising far too many times to count. Now a billboard for Radio Hauraki’s ‘Drive’ show that normalises drinking has fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority, but the same ad placed in the New Zealand Herald was deemed acceptable.
Some see it as tax on the stupid. Others see it as a golden ticket. But whatever your opinion, Lotto is part of the Kiwi furniture. And to celebrate its 25th birthday, it’s launched a new campaign centred around the joy of Saturdays.
The latest newspaper readership and circ figures might not be much to boast about, but there’s plenty of life left in The Press according to advertising creative agency Simpatico. And to prove that point, it recently launched its direct marketing campaign ‘smell the numbers’, whereby the offices of 100 North Island media agencies were exposed to a pungent smell in a bid to encourage them to smell the positive readership numbers the newspaper has been generating.
The market for specialty food certainly seems to be growing in New Zealand. Farmers’ markets are cropping up all over the place, there’s websites dedicated to it, supermarket refrigerator sections seem to be hosting an ever-growing selection of it and there’s even entire supermarkets dedicated to it. But in a market where locally produced foods are often competing with the cheaper, mass-produced alternatives produced by the big boys, and increasingly, each other, presentation and marketing is key. And Hunter, which dubs itself the “world’s smallest global creative agency” reckons it got it right when it comes to its packaging design for new boutique ice cream company, Little Paddock.
By pretty much every measure—New Zealand’s medal haul, design and branding, entertaining memes, social media hijinks, overall awesomeness of the host city—the London Olympics were a success. And McCann Worldgroup, the agency chosen in 2009 as the official marketing services provider for the Games, thinks so too, as evidenced by this cheeky print ad proudly announcing that it had lost a client that ran in some of the UK papers.
After extensive drug testing, Telecom, Quickflix and Pink Batts take this week’s medals.
The Ad Impact Awards are often closely fought and the July round proved no exception, with both Steinlager Pure and V performing above the norms as impactful TV ads. But Taika Waititi’s comedic effort in DDB’s Steinlager Pure ‘When things are this good’ ad was too strong, pipping Colenso BBDO’s V Motion Project.
Word-of-mouth agency Soup launches in New Zealand (and, appropriately enough, starts with a campaign for cat broth), Steve Tindall sleeps with the enemy, two for Tangible as Primary shacks up with PGG Wrightson, Clemenger Group opens up the Young Talent Programme for 2013, greener pastures for Fenella Humphreys, Jessica Mathias joins Pead and Hayden Hare joins Flava.
M&C Saatchi’s chief executive Darryn Melrose has resigned from the agency to pursue opportunities outside of the advertising industry and he will be replaced by his old AIM Proximity buddies Tony Burt and Dave King, who will be joint chief executive officers.
It would seem only those with a heart of stone could fail to be swayed by Telecom’s latest brand campaign starring excitable eight-year-old Tommy and his new turtle friend Boris. We reckon it’s one of the best ads of the year and it sees Telecom heading back to its heartland territory of connectivity and New Zealandness. Here’s what chief marketing officer Jason Paris had to say about the thinking behind the campaign—and the state of the company.
Around this time last year there was a glut of ‘manvertising’. And this year it seems as though cute kids are de rigueur, with Civil Defence, Z and Pink Batts all recently enlisting a few young’uns to tell their stories. Now Telecom can be added to that list, because it’s gone back to what it knows best with a great ode to connection featuring a lovable frontman Tommy and his ‘turtle of few words’ Boris.
Hunger-based angriness, or, as the experts call it, ‘hungangriness’, is a horrible affliction. Some might say the same about Paul Henry. So it’s quite fitting that he has be called upon to run the New Zealand leg of the global ‘You’re Not You When you’re Hungry’ campaign.
There’s been plenty of action at Y&R recently, with Jon Ramage departing and James Hurman cutting short his OE to join executive creative director Josh Moore at the top table alongside non-executive director Ross Goldsack. It also won the the ASX-listed Quickflix business for Australia and New Zealand in March and, with the help of Finch, it’s just launched a campaign starring two aspiring actors/film buffs discussing the merits of the streaming service between takes.
The magazine sector was celebrating a mostly positive swing after the latest readership, circ and, importantly, engagement figures were released last week. And while the numbers aren’t quite as good for the newspaper sector, the sky is still not falling.
…the more people look like they did in the ’80s, if these old Cadbury ads we were sent are any guide.
The ‘compact’ weekday Herald is just around the corner. But APN New Zealand’s digital team will also have a few new toys to play with, with a revamped nzherald.co.nz website, a new social reader for Facebook and updated mobile and tablet apps set to go live on Monday 10 September. And to help keep everyone up to date with “the most significant changes being made to the company’s print and online products for a decade”, it has even launched a new microsite, nzherald.co.nz/themoreyouknow.
A guitar with a body sculpted like a spider web, uber cool packaging for compost, a Mexican restaurant, a fanzine for motorcyclists, a tiny cinema in a stair well, and various pop up shops in Auckland’s Viaduct and the Christchurch Re:START container mall are among the 310 finalists in this year’s Best Design Awards, which are organised by the Designers Institute of New Zealand and recognise the country’s best graphic, interactive, spatial and product designs from the past year.
The last time DDB created a campaign for Pink Batts back in 2008, it came up with a lovable pink sidekick who kept homeowners snug. And it’s back in the hotseat to celebrate the brand’s 50th anniversary this year, launching a campaign on Sunday that features two fairly mischievous kids who have had the game of ‘Hot and Cold’ completely ruined by ‘New Zealand’s favourite insulation’.
It’s a rather interesting period in the history of magazines and, despite the prevailing belief that shiny new digital toys are killing off paper, the latest readership and circulation numbers have once again showed the market is still in fairly good health in New Zealand.
‘And’ is by no means the sexiest or most attention-grabbing word in the dictionary. But Ogilvy Wellington’s clever and repetitious use of the word in a print ad for Open Polytechnic has garnered it the top spot in July’s round of the Glossies.
Last week, the Twitterverse was abuzz after questions were raised about the legitimacy of follower numbers and whether the system was being gamed by some to increase the perception of influence. And we’ve heard from a couple of people since who want to alert brands to what they believe is a social media scam—and a completely over-hyped metric.
Shop revenue is a primary source of fundraising for Hospices round the country. And the second annual ‘Give It Up for Hospice’ campaign, which runs from 13 to 31 August and encourages people to donate pre-loved spring and summer clothing for their local Hospice Shop, has been boosted by the help of a new association with Postie, with its 82 stores around the country collecting clothing donations.